Baby Shower

So, my friend Gwen had a baby!  And, a few weeks ago I threw her a shower.  It was so much fun and I got to make a ton of different shower decorations. Wanna take a gander?  Okay!

First up, I made this little “Baby Warren” sign.  I just cut the letters out of some pretty patterned paper, and clothes pinned them to this chicken wire frame.  FYI, the babies name is not Warren.  Gwen wanted to wait until she saw him to decide on his name.  Their last name is Warren.I, also, used the same floral patterned paper to make a couple bunting banners.   I just cut some triangles out of the patterned paper, popped two hole punches in the top two corners and strung some string through them.  Voila!  Bunting banner made from paper.I thought a mimosa bar would also be fun for us non-prego people.  And, of course, Gwen still got to enjoy the juices and fruits to garnish…I made some ham and turkey pinwheels for brunch…And, some dips and snacks of course…For activities at this shindig, I didn’t want to do the typical baby shower games.  So, I thought onesie painting would be fun!  I had seen this idea around Pinterest, and thought it was simple enough to recreate.  I purchased some plain white onesies (in assorted sizes) and bibs from amazon.  I, then, hung them with burlap twine and clothespins from the posts in my back patio.  This way everyone could just grab the onesie or bib they would like to paint.While pondering this activity, I figured the paint would seep through the onesies if I didn’t put some kind of barrier in between.  So, I cut up some pieces of cardboard for the girls to put inside of the onesies, so the paint wouldn’t bleed through.  I, also, thought that not everyone may be comfortable coming up with a design to paint off the top of their heads.  So, I made some stencils.  I just printed some outlines of objects on cardstock and cut them out.  Boom!  I had me some stencils.

This was a really fun activity, that I think everyone enjoyed.  The stencils were very helpful. Everyone got to be creative, without having to be super artistic.  As for paint, I always pick up acrylic craft paints while at Michael’s, so I had a ton on hand.  I didn’t want to have to buy a bunch of fabric paint that I probably wouldn’t be using again.  So, I found a bottle of this Delta Creative Textile Medium at Michael’s…All I had to do was add the Textile Medium to each paint color that I wanted to use.  It was a 1:3 ratio of the medium to the paint.  And, I had myself an assortment of fabric paint colors ready to go.  Everyone did such a great job, and thankfully Gwen loved how they turned out!Here are a few of the finished products…Pretty good, huh?

I didn’t want to get too crazy with the baby shower games, but I did put together one pretty common game.  It was the one where you guess what’s in the diaper.  I just melted 5 different candy bars and plopped each one into a diaper. All the girls had to do was inspect each diaper and write down what they thought was inside.  I think you get the gist of it.  It was quick and fun, and I had three prizes for the three girls that got the most correct answers in the fastest time. For the prizes, I just put together a few fun themed baskets…The first basket was a movie night theme.  It included: the movie Knocked Up (I thought it was appropriate), Junior Mints, Swedish Fish, and a box of Crunch n’ Munch popcorn.  The second basket was baking themed.  It included: a brownie baking pan, two different brownie mixes, a measuring cup, a spatula and a whisk. The last basket was gardening themed.  It included: two flower pots, a bag of soil, four packets of flower seeds, gardening gloves, a shovel and a little garden gnome.For desert I just made some cupcakes and had some assorted candy.          And, lastly, Gwen opened her presents!  We even Face-timed with her parents so they could get in on all the action. She got some really great stuff!

And, for favors, Gwen and I made some lavender sugar scrub for all of the girls to take home with them.Oh, and by the way, this is Owen…Isn’t he amazing?

Burlap Bag to Doorstop

Remember when my friend Christina gave me this awesome gift basket full of antiques for my bridal shower?

Well, I have been pondering about what I should do with that snazzy feed sack, and I finally figured it out.  Doorstops!  I have been thinking a lot about how we needed doorstops for our back french doors that lead out to our patio.  And, we needed them A.S.A.P., since the weather is about to get cool enough to turn off the AC and leave the doors open! Woo to the hoo!

So, I grabbed my feed sack and did some more pondering about how I can make this work.  I had previously made a pretty nifty doorstop for our bedroom, so I figured I would do something pretty similar this time around.

First, let me show you this feed sack…One thing that I love about it is that it has something printed on both the front and the back.

The front says Hoffman’s Farm Seeds.  I dig it.And the back….Funk’s Hybrid?  I mean, come on, you had me at Funk’s!

My first step was to cut the bag so that it laid flat.  This way, I had one long piece of fabric.  I did this by cutting across one side and along the bottom. Voila!!!

Then, I gave the whole thing a good ironing.  From there, it was time to do some cutting.  I wanted the doorstops to be a bit taller this time around, because there is actually a step up into the house making the doors a bit higher.  Since they needed to be taller, I cut the fabric longer vertically. This worked out well, since the printing on the bag is more vertical.

I also made sure to cut both pieces the same size.  I did this by cutting one piece to the size I wanted, then laying that piece directly onto the center of the uncut piece.  I cut the uncut fabric directly around the edge of the top pre-cut fabric, basically tracing the exact size.   Hope that makes sense!  Probably not, but that’s as good as it gets for my explanation.

Anywho, those two pieces were to be the front of my new doorstops.  That means I needed two more pieces that are the exact same size.  I just so happened to have some tan fabric that matched pretty well with the fabric from the feed sack.  So, I cut two more pieces of that fabric the same way.I needed two more pieces, because I was making two doorstops.  Which both have a front and a back, just in case you’re not following where I am going with this.  Now, that I had all of the pieces cut to the same size, it was time to get sewing.

I took the tan fabric, “good” side facing up, and laid it down first.  I, then, placed my feed sack piece, “good” side facing down, on top of the tan fabric, making a fabric sandwich. This way both “good” sides are facing inward.  And when I say “good” side, I mean the side that I want to be seen when I am done sewing, so for the feed sack it would be the side with the printing.  Here is a peek at the inside of my fabric sandwich…Get it?

Then, I just sewed up all sides of each, leaving only a small opening on one side. The opening was about 3 inches wide. I left an opening, so I was able to turn the soon-to-be doorstop inside out. Once, I had turned each doorstop inside out I was left with this…I didn’t sew those openings up just yet.  I first used them to fill the doorstops with rice. I just poured the rice right in, totally expecting to make a mess, but it was pretty easy and mess-free.  However, if you have a funnel, you might want to break it out for this step.It took about 7 lbs. of dry rice to fill each doorstop. I didn’t want them to be so stuffed they looked like they were going to burst, but I did wanted them to be heavy enough to prop each door open.  So, 7 lbs. seemed like a happy medium.Once, they were both full, I sewed up the opening and then took them for a test run.        Check out that door propping action! Wanna get closer? Okay!…Closer still? Fine!…I totally dig them, and they serve their purpose!  Just in time for some nice fall weather. And, when they are not keeping those pesky doors open, they hang out here…Right next to the fireplace.I think I did a bang up job.  Don’t you?

Living Plants, they’re really alive!

I know, you’re shocked.  I have managed to keep some plants alive! Even with this black thumb thing I have going on.

Now, let me tell you about these easy/almost no maintenance plants. When summer came around (yes summer, this post has waiting to be written for too long) I thought it would be nice to bring some color to our back yard.  I thought about getting some flowers and putting them in the gardens in the back, but Justin was currently working on those gardens.  So, I thought my best bet would be to get some pots and fill them with flowers instead.

Once I was set on potted plants, I picked up two large pots at Lowes.  Also, I picked up some potting soil. Once I got home, I just plopped the soil right into the pots. Like so…

While at Lowes, I also grabbed some flowers…

Aren’t they pretty?  From there, I figured out an arrangement for the flowers that I liked.  It wasn’t too complicated, considering both pots got the same exact flowers.

I then popped them all out of the containers they came in, and planted them right into my new bigger pots, adding more soil as I went.

I love them, we needed some color out back and I think this is a start.

While I was doing my planting flowers thing, Justin was hard at work making new gardens and re-mulching.  He’s such an overachiever.

Before I explain this new garden bed, I figured I should show you what this part of the yard used to look like.  The photo below is last year, right after we had irrigation installed and our yard re-sodded.

Even after the irrigation was installed, we still have some water hanging out in this corner from time to time.  Justin figured we should just add a garden bed, that way we don’t have to deal with this muddy corner.

As you can see, the grass was still coming back to life at this point, also Justin had just aerated the yard.

He planted 6 podocarpus plants…

And two small bottle brush trees…

While he was at it, he decided to re-mulch all of the garden beds in the back to match the new brown mulch we had used in the front.  Here is what our gardens were looking like post winter…

Not looking so hot (once again, please don’t judge our poor grass, it was having a rough time coming back after winter).

Here are things after Justin mulched…

See how the grass is coming back now?  Woot woot!

And here is where my new planters live…

Oh ya, while I was at it I planted these little succulents.  They hang out in the patio.These guys are so easy to take care of, they require very little water and lots of light.  I think even I can manage to keep them alive, fingers crossed.

And just because Justin likes to make me look bad, he also planted a new garden in the front on the side of the house…

 

I’ll leave you with what our front is looking like nowadays…

Thanks for checking out this super late post!

When in doubt… paint it.

I guess that’s how I think anyway. When we first moved in back in March our patio looked like this…

The ground was just cement that had been painted gray, but was chipping and stained in some areas. Since Justin had since screened and tiled the entire patio we only had little slivers of this old gray cement peaking through. Like here…

here…

and here…

We have left the gray cement as is for a while now and I am sure most people wouldn’t even notice it. But it bothers me, so it was time to paint it. I fortunately had some left over paint from when I painted all of the beams and outdoor walls in our patio…

Before painting I swept all of the areas that needed paint and cleaned them with a rag.

Once I started painting, the difference between the old gray and the new tan was quite a contrast…

The hardest part was getting the small sliver of cement behind the large plants that we had planted next to the screen…

And speaking of these plants look how big they have gotten…

I really can’t get over how large they have become. Anyway back to painting. I had to use a small artist paint brush to paint this area…

I survived and made my way around the patio painting any cement I could see. And of course I have before and afters(if you click the photos they get bigger)…

It may not be a huge change, but I like it.

Since it is finally cool enough to open up the doors we are loving our outdoor area even more!

Landscaping Phase #3

Last I showed you our backyard was looking pretty good…

Look at all that pretty green grass.

Anywho, there were a few more things Justin wanted to accomplish out here since the new drainage and landscaping were finished.  A few of the solar lights we had previously installed were broken.  So, Justin purchased some new outdoor lights for the garden beds back here.  He decided to go with regular electric lights.  He moved the remaining solar lights that were still trucking along to the front yard.  He purchased the new lights from lowes.  Once he got home he started installing them…

Since the sod was freshly laid, Justin was able to run the cords from one garden to another right under the top layer….

While he was burying the new cords he came across this little guy…

He was just sleeping under the mulch and Justin dug up his bedding!  So he buried the cord and then buried him under the mulch again.  We saw him later the same night once the sun went down, we’re all friends now.  Once Justin had finished installing all the lighting he added new mulch to all of the garden beds…

Charlie also helped…

This guy showed up too…

Isn’t he handsome?  Love these little lizards.

After hanging out with the lizard I got some photos of the freshly finished backyard…

And you know I can’t help but give you some before, middle and after photos…

Check out how much the plants by the patio have grown!

I don’t have a before photo from this angle, but here is the mid way point and after…

We also got to see the new lights in action that night…

Aren’t they pretty?

Char man also hung out to check out the lighting…

It was already past Zack’s bed time.

We are thrilled with our backyard now.  We may have some other ideas for the the fence and possibly another little garden. For now we are just happy to sit on the porch and enjoy the unflooded yard!  It’s a far cry from this…

Don’t you think?  PS the drainage works.   Here is a photo I took immediately after a down pour…

BOOM! Do you see a drainage issue?  I think not!

Landscaping Phase #2

Last I showed you our backyard was lookin like this…

I had told you about the installation of the new drainage and the removal of the hedges.  We were left with a yard o’ dirt.  Then I came home the other day and I walked outside to this…

Ahhh! New magnolias and sod!  I can’t explain our excitement.  Let me show you around…

Take it all in people!

This grass is soft, like the grass we had in NY.  It is awesome to have something that is pleasant to walk on barefoot!

As I mentioned before we used Horizon Landscaping and they did an amazing job!

They were actually still working when I got home around 7pm.  They did such an amazing job, and they even stuck around to tell me how we should be taking care of the new trees and sod.  They were such polite guys and we are really impressed with their work!

We love that we still have lots of space in the yard with the new trees, yet they still block the neighbors in the back.  We will soon have some other updates back here, stay tuned!

Oh and of course some before and afters…

Backyard Issues

As I have previously mentioned we have some problems with flooding in our backyard when it rains heavily.  Justin has done a few things to try to fix the issue already, but we just aren’t winning the battle at this point.  Shall we take a look at what happens when it rains? Okay then!

Here was one time it flooded pretty bad.  Our whole patio floods about 2-3 inches when it rains pretty heavily.  Here is the other side of the patio…

Yup, those are floating dog toys! Good times!

Poor little plants, they drown in the lake our backyard becomes.

Here is the actual yard.  Char man loves it(he’s a big fan of water).

So, as you can see we are having quite the time here when it rains.  We are basically sitting inside crossing our fingers that the water doesn’t get one inch higher because it may actually seep under the patio doors.

So far we have had the gutters replaced/added to the back of the house, which has helped keep the water from pouring into our patio, but we still have major flooding issues.  From there Justin installed french drains, which helped slightly but they were still not quite doing the trick. These photos were taken after the french drains and gutters were installed, looking good right?

At this point we have had enough, sometimes there is a point when you just have to throw in the towel and call the professionals in.  We figured we were there, so Justin called a few landscaping companies and had them come out to our house to get some estimates.  We were looking for someone who can level the yard a bit, re-sod with a more durable grass(Charlie is tearing up the grass like mad), remove the hedges in the back and side of the yard, install a drainage system that drains to the street and plant new trees/hedges for privacy against the back fence.  It’s a tall order huh?  We would like to remove the holly bushes because they drop so many berries in the backyard and they are poisonous to the dogs, safety first people!  After receiving a few estimates we decided to go with  Horizon Landscaping.  They were not the least expensive, but they were fairly priced and they gave a proposal where they were going to complete everything the best way, not necessarily the cheapest way.  We figure if we are going to have this done we want it done right! Plus, Brian(the owner) is a pretty down to earth guy and he seems to know his stuff. If you need a landscaper in Jax check them out. I know what you’re thinking, get to the point Vanessa.  Well we headed to a nursery this weekend with Brian to pick out some new privacy solutions for the back fence.  Once we remove those back hedges we will be looking directly into the neighbors yard, not something I am looking forward to.  The nursery we went to was Williams Plant Nursery. Let me tell you, I fell in love with this place.  I guess I can just show you…

Look at all that green, so beautiful.

It had tons of huge, probably 200 year old oak trees all over the property.  They were gorgeous.

I would love to have a property with trees like this, maybe one day…

I love that ferns grow all over the huge branches.

Anyhow, we were there to check out some of our options, which I would like to share with you. Brian showed us a few choices, but everything seemed a little to small, we really wanted to have something that was already taller than our fence.  We looked at some bottle brush trees and Japanese blueberry trees, but ended up settling on a few 15-20 foot tall Chloe Magnolia trees.

Pretty huh?

They bloom beautiful flowers that are bigger than my head…

So that’s where were at with this backyard reno.  I will share more as we go, but we have plenty of time since the changes wont start until the end of this month.  Here’s one more oak tree before you go…

Can’t wait to see the results and have less of this…

and more of this…

Just kidding we don’t have room for all of this, were just hoping for some pretty grass and less flooding. Wish us luck!

Putting Finishing Touches on the Patio

I know that all of our to dos were crossed off on our last patio post, but there were a couple things that still needed finishing.  Since laying the tile, there was still a gap that needs finishing between the tile and the back wall of the house.  You could still see some of the grout and the tiles are also not perfectly flush with the house.

See how the tile is not even and you can still see the unfinished floor below?  Well, that’s what we needed to fix.  So Justin went to Lowe’s and picked up a pack of bullnose tile in the same color of the tile he laid on the floor.  Bullnoses tile are short wide tiles with a finished top edge that are used for trim when tiling.

Basically he started laying the tile against the wall using the same method as he did when tiling the floor.

He then used small pieces of wood as wedges to be sure all of the tiles were level so they create a straight line on the wall.

Next he grouted the in between the bullnose tile and also along the seem on the floor next to the new tile trim.

Here he is again hard at work…

Once the grout was all finished and cleaned up it looked something like this…

and a close up…

Lastly Justin caulked the seem between the bullnose tile and the wall.

Here it is all caulked and cleaned…

The caulk really makes it look finished.

Here is the area underneath the doors that also needed some work…

The issue with this area is that we couldn’t use the bullnose tile, it didn’t fit in between the door and the flooring.  Justin decided to get a piece of wood and paint it white and place it under the door.  It was a pretty deep crevice that needed to be filled so wood seemed to be the best choice.

Here it is installed.

Justin isn’t sold on it just yet, but I think it looks perfectly fine.

The last thing we needed to finish up in the patio was the window.

When we moved in there was siding on the back of the house and the window had a siding type trim around it. Now since we removed the siding the window is bare.

It just needed some kind of trim to finish it off.  The trim around the doors are average size, so we needed some kind of trim that wasn’t to thick, something that would look comparable to the existing trim.  Justin picked up some thin trim that is made specifically for an outdoor area so it doesn’t rot.

He then cut it to length and installed it around the window, apparently cutting those 45 degree angles isn’t very fun. Here’s a close up.

Here it is finished…

So let’s back it up and show you the end results of everything…

Oh snap, I think we have a finished patio!

Once again thanks for checking out our progress! Hope you enjoy.

Solar Lights

We thought it might look nice if we added some lighting around our patio and also in the front gardens.  We settled on solar lights because they seem to be the easiest solution.  So we got a bunch from Lowe’s…

Justin picked this kind, they are Portfolio brand.  We got 8 for $68.  We figured we would see how they work and then possibly get more down the road.  Justin literally just popped them in the ground around the patio and then we just let them soak up the sun all day.  Then we waited.

Once the sun went down they lit right up like magic! I think they are perfect, I even like the circular shadows they make on the ground.

They continue around the patio to the other side of the house.  We put four in the backyard and the remaining four in the front…

We need to get a few more to add to the garden on the other side of the front door.  There is only one lone guy on that side.

So far we are enjoying them, we are hoping they last for a while.  We have heard that solar lights have a tendency to die out pretty fast.  Fingers crossed they last a while!

Patio Paver Add On

The patio pavers Justin added look like this…

They make it just to the window and just past the dog door.  Justin thought it would be better if the pavers went the whole length of the patio.  So he added a couple more rows and now we have this…

Some of the pavers weren’t level and were still letting water slope down onto the corners of the patio, so he actually dug all of the pavers out and re-leveled them.  Fingers crossed that we will no longer have water issues with rain.

I think it looks better now that the pavers continue the full length of the patio.  Also gives a little more room to move the grill around.

There you have it, we now have a few more pavers in our lives.