Last week, I started working full time on a new production. Woo!!, but full time in the movie business means 8-16+ hour days. I've been averaging 13 hours a day, 5 days a week which leaves little to talk about and even less time to post. Most of my activities happen on weekends, so I'll try to put in extra effort to get something on here. 

I spend most of my free time on weekends trying to get my yard into shape.  It has already come a long way from when I moved in two years ago.

In the image above, the top picture is from when I moved in.  The paver stone area consisted of a line of pebbles, which were cute, but really not functional. The bushes and knock-out roses were overgrown, and that horrible monkey grass lined the walkway. 

The bottom image shows how much it has been cleaned up.. I removed the pebble path and added a layer of paver stones and trimmed the bushes and rose bush. 

Speaking of paver stones, I realized that one layer wasn't exactly cutting it.  The pine straw mulch spilled out over the pavers. Recently, I worked on a small flower bed near my garage and added a second layer of paver stones.

I continued the paver path down the front of the house, but ran out.  you can see the gaps towards the end of the row in the picture on the right. I'll post a full picture once the project is completed. 

Friday Photo

After living here for two years (TWO years!!!), this is the first time I've seen this dogwood bloom. :)

Mum Madness!!

The other night I received the Lowe's ad via email which had 4/$10 Mums.  A great deal, right?  So, I planned to go the next day and pick up two.  Before picking out my sale mums in the front of the store, I went over to the clearance section in the back of the garden department only to find mums on sale!

I ended up getting 2 orange, 3 red, 3 white, and 3 little yellow mums.  That's 11 mums for $9.28!

Publish Post

Trash =/= Treasure

This is the loot I found while cutting back some of the bushes around my house.  One of the Holly Bushes was so leggy, the tallest leg was probably around 20+ inches tall.

We have: one angel statue, one plate, one plastic pot, one cat stuffed animal, an old bottle of pepto complete with some left over (and yes, it's still pink!), random plastic pieces, a little black thermos, a cup, and some plastic bags.

Mailbox Update

I finally painted my mailbox changing it from a rusty, green color to beautiful black. I cannot believe how much of a difference it makes!  I should have done this a lot earlier.

First I protected my mailbox flag by encasing it in aluminum foil.  Next, I covered the flowers below by tearing up the giant sized Kohls bags and covering the flowers surrounding the mailbox.  Then, I used Black Rustoleum spray paint to paint the mailbox.

Huge improvement!  Now I just need to paint the numbers back on and add some sort of protective coating.

Dear Deer,

I bought this house a little while ago and I'm trying to clean up the neglect from the previous owners and make the exterior stand out.  Please stop eating my newly planted plants.  I left these out (way too long, I might add) for 2 weeks in their containers. Not one nibble.

The second I plant them, they get devoured in the night.

RIP Hibiscus.  You will be remembered and replaced with something deer resistant.

(who thought a hibiscus would be so appetizing?)

I'll make updates as they happen with my new house.