More Spring Flowers

I just can’t help myself, I had to share some more beautiful Spring blooms with you!  So I took a walk around the yard to document the most beautiful blooms of May (so far)! 

Everyday when I come to the front door I am greeted by these sunshiny happy yellow violas that I planted back in March.  They have come out in a flourish these past weeks and are jumping up to see the sun!  Aren’t they cute?

And I couldn’t let these magnificent pink flowers fade without featuring my huge bleeding heart plant.  I just love this beautiful bloom! 

Nearby the azaleas are finally putting on their Spring show… they were a little later this year, but that’s fine with me!  Spring can last forever as far as I’m concerned! :)

The red rhododendron in front is getting into the act, too, with a few blooms popping out.  Riley is also popping out (of the guest room window). hehe

I discovered a couple of new nurseries around the area and I have been putting in my annuals for the season.. along the walk we have alternating dark and light pink petunias.  These have giant blooms and they drew me right in, so I opted for petunias instead of impatiens this year… we’ll see how they like it here in the “part sun”.

The mailbox bed is showing off with yellow irises.  And my pink knockout rose is just about to bloom, too!

And while I was out flower shopping I designed a new combination of plants for my hanging baskets.  All shade dwellers (instead of sun things like I have done in the past) which I’m hoping will last a bit longer in the baskets. 

It’s a chartreuse and pink color scheme featuring magenta and lime coleus, (I think this one is called “Kong Rose”) hot pink and light pink New Guinea impatiens and golden sweet potato vine.  I can’t wait to see these things take off and spill out of the baskets! :)

I also planted some more annuals just today, so I’ll be back to show you those soon!  Hope you are enjoying these wonderful Spring days, I know I am!

Festive Summer Retirement Party

Last night we hosted a retirement party for my boss and here I am to share all the details with you!  My coworkers were responsible for all the food and beverages, and they put me in charge of the invitations and decorations!  Whoo!  I wasted no time getting started on party crafts!

The theme of the party was colorful summer flowers.  The invitation featured a floral design with bright mums in aqua, red, and coral. 

Since I was reusing tablecloths from our past parties, I looked to the colorful patterns as a jumping off point for the rest of the theme.  So off I went to Walmart to buy a rainbow of tissue paper and to Michael’s for a colorful selection of scrapbook paper.  I made an array of tissue pom poms to hang over the buffet tables and a myriad of colorful flowers to serve as centerpieces.  The scrapbook paper became a banner to decorate the window and I crafted colorful paper garlands with the leftover paper.  The look really came together… see for yourself!

The back room was set up with two buffet tables.  Pom poms hung over the tables and the paper garland was strung along the front. 

All of the pom poms were two-toned!  I love them… I kept them to reuse at our next party and they are currently hanging in the garage so they won’t get crushed! :)

The mantel and the rest of the tables were decorated with tiny tissue paper flowers that I stuck on stems.  They were displayed in a variety of bud vases.  So cute!

The mantel has another paper garland and an array of crystal vases filled with more tissue flowers.

The coffee table and the bookshelves by the bar were strewn with more flowers and votive candles.  This one is my favorite:

The two buffet tables were filled with a variety of yummy appetizers and dressed with a rainbow of monochromatic arrangements made with silk flowers from the dollar store! 

There was even a table filled with an assortment of tiny cheescakes!  Delicious!

All the food was labeled with these cute dimensional cards that I made.  The mum image is carried over from the invitation and also mimics the tissue paper flower shape. 

And in the library we had two bar tables with wine, beer and soda. 

In the main room under the mantel was our beautiful tutu cake!  My coworker and I made the cake ourselves and decorated it to look like a tutu from the ballet Paquita.  (We work in a dance costume shop and this is my boss’ favorite tutu design!)  The cake turned out amazing and it was the highlight of the party.

It was decorated with four layers of “frills” and a “plate” complete with copper colored ruffles and tiny gold edible pearls.  And to top it off, a tiny replica tiara to match the ballerina’s.  Isn’t it lovely?

The paper banner was opposite the mantel.  Happy Retirement Carolyn!

It was a great party and so much fun to decorate.  I hope you are inspired for your next soiree! 

Hello Rhododendron

When we said goodbye to our garden swing last weekend we were left with a couple of gaping holes and a wall falling away into the woods.  We didn’t waste any time whipping this area back into shape!

We filled up the holes and leveled the patio (again).  Then Mama and I used the posts leftover from the swing and rebuilt a section of the retaining wall that had caved off next to the old swing.  We backfilled that with some more dirt and covered everything over with mulch.  Then came time for planting!

We decided to get two rhododendrons since they do well in shade as well as a few more azaleas since they were on sale! :)  Here’s what the swing side looks like now:

You can see the new wall behind the pink rhododendrons.  Eventually they will get really tall and fill in the gap between the garden and the woods.  They’ll also screen some of the mess back there, too. :)

We also added another pink azalea by the stairs and two more on the swing side along the edge.

Here’s a look at the rest of the garden in its prime blooming season:

We are still trying to decide what to put on the actual brick patio… maybe a little bistro set? Firepit?  Or another garden bench?  I’ll keep you posted!  We’re also going to continue the liriope border around behind the patio and fill in with some more hostas, too!

Last and best… the before and after comparison!

Goodbye swing, hello rhododendron!

Goodbye Garden Swing

This past weekend I had my father and brother down to help me with a couple of projects in the yard.  The first project was our garden swing in the English garden. 

The swing has been conspicuously absent in photos for a while… that’s because I was going to repaint it since the paint was peeling.  :(  But then I thought I would replace it with kid swings since my nieces would love that!  But we had noticed that the standards of the swing frame were leaning towards the woods and also the whole thing rocked when you swung on it.  Not good.  So, we decided to tear down the “swing set” and replace it.  Papa and John came to do the demo work since it was too big for me to deal with.  (Thanks guys!)

I did the prep work before they arrived and dug out around the posts so we could see what we were dealing with.

They were rotted almost in two.  There wasn’t a lot of wood left  in the ground to hold up the swing.  :(  When the boys (I mean men) arrived they made swift work of dismantling the swing set.  And they saved every piece of lumber and every fastener.  Thrifty.

This is all that remained of the first post when it broke off at the base.

And the second one shredded, too.  Good bye rickety old swing set.

Once it was down, I noticed how open everything looked.  So, in an effort to save time and money rebuilding a swing set that we hardly used, we decided to do away with the swing and not replace it.  No more swing.  Sorry nieces! 

I am really enjoying the new view.  And we didn’t stop there!  Once the swing was gone there was a whole new garden space that needed filling.  So we spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up the brick patio and planting some new shrubs…  I’ll be back later this week to fill you in on those details! :) 

Meanwhile, can we discuss how lovely my grass is?  Just lovely.  I am reseeding the area in front of the steps and when that comes in I will do a full reveal on the backyard grass project. :)  Yay Spring!

I have several more Spring projects under my sleeve that I will be posting about soon including an update on the paver patio, backyard flower bed progress, and a follow-up in the English garden!   Stay tuned!