mother earth

Anders and I love Earth Day, but, to be honest, I wasn't that excited about it falling on a rainy, cold and miserable Tuesday when Anders and I both had to work. However, despite the weather reports, the sun did grace us with her presence for the afternoon, so Anders surprised me by getting off work an hour early! We were able to have a small (albeit cold) celebration. We planted a few flowers and vegetables that we had bought and cleaned up a few more beds for planting. It was a small work party, but it felt good to be outside and celebrate Mother Earth who really is so beautiful and wonderful. 

shrubbery

In which Anders cuts our laurel in the rain while I take pictures instead of help and he doesn't get mad. 

I love him!

ahhhhhhh.....

After owning this beautiful hammock a long time (it was a gift at our wedding! and handmade in Brazil!), we finally got around to hanging her up. To be honest, our yard hasn't been worthy of a nice hammock until recently. But after all the hard work we have done (here, here, here and here), I think it's time she finds a home in our yard. I'm pretty excited to have all major yard projects done. Other than still needing to plant a few flowers, I plan to spend the rest of my summer riiiiiight here. 

(although who ordered the rain the day after we hung it up? I tried to get Anders to lay in it for a picture and it was drenched! Fail.)

(oh, we also added marbles to our fence for quick and easy garden art. Such a cool idea. Unfortunately, my pictures didn't come out)

how we spent earth day

(thanks, sister, for the fun pin!)

birds welcome

We have been working on our yard all summer. We are getting close to being finished, but we had this one blank fence wall that needed a little something. I had this vision of adding a bunch of colorful  birdhouses to it, so I went to Michaels and found some plain birdhouses and some paint, and we went to town. I even got Anders to paint a few of them! He said it was relaxing.

My friend, Mollie, works in a nursing home and she told me we would fit right in because her Seniors painted birdhouses last weekend too. Clearly it's the new must-do project.

They're cute, but I think I need more. I want a birdhouse city like this.

more from the yard

Before:

 An old crummy bench...

A plain pallet from the fish market...

After:

We've had that old bench for awhile now. We finally decided to breathe some life back into it, so we sanded it down and painted it with stain in "weathered blue." As for the pallet, we followed these instructions, and planted it with strawberries and a few perennials. I really love turning crummy things into pretty things! The strawberries in the pallet still need to fill in a little bit, but overall I'm happy with how it came out! 

The little evergreens are the trees we gave away as party favors at our wedding three years ago. We've managed to keep them alive this long! I finally transplanted them to their own pots, so hopefully they will take off! Our yard is really coming together. Time to start having parties, I think!

earth day

Some people love the Christmas holiday...others love dressing up for Halloween. But me? I look forward to Earth Day every year. It might be a lesser known holiday, but Anders and I knowledge it every year and celebrate by planting something into the Earth. It makes me feel like I'm giving back and, whether there is any truth to it or not, I always feel like it officially marks the end of the cold weather. 

This year we planted apple trees, blueberries, strawberries and flowers in our newly landscaped backyard. Anders and I are SO happy with how it came out and can't wait until our produce starts producing.

Hope you all had a happy Earth Day too!

in the yard

Anders and I are those strange kind of people who actually love yard work. We love to put on music, make fun drinks and get our hands dirty. We are tackling a rather large landscaping project this year, so, last Sunday, we finally got started. The first order of business was to create a border along our fence. We are planning a edible garden theme for our backyard and have plans to put columnar apple trees, blueberries and herbs in this border. There will be many before and after pictures to come, but here are a few shots of our work party.