An angled brick edging adds a nice cottage charm to the planting beds, but also serves a purpose. As you can see in the 'before' picture below, the soil and mulch of the circular garden I just finished re-doing, (you can read that 'Before and After Circular Garden' post here) easily spilled over the edge onto the sidewalk before I put in a brick edging. Without edging, dirt and mulch spill over edge. Fortunately, we had about a pallet of leftover bricks from a backyard project, for this brick edging project (but I've used bricks from demolished ... Keep Reading...
Before & After: Circular Garden
Looking at the 'before' it's hard to believe how cute the 'after' of this 'before and after circular garden' could be! I've added shopping links for you in the post as well as all grouped together at the end of the post. A few weeks ago I shared how antsy I was getting to be able to get out and start the landscaping around our home. (At that time I was researching garden design ideas for inspiration. Here's that post with some pretty ideas.) We bought this late mid-century house about a 1 1/2 years ago and have been crazy busy renovating it top to ... Keep Reading...
Transplanting Stella D’Oro Daylilies
To transplant Stella D'Oro daylilies is super simple, in this post I'll show you just how easy it is. A few weeks ago I shared that now as the whole house renovation dust has settled, I had time and energy to focus on the gardens and landscaping... (you can read that post here) then it snowed LOL! That was a momentary set-back... Spring has finally sprung and the garden planning has begun! YAY!! My goal on this house is to keep it as maintenance friendly as possible without compromising beauty. That's a tricky combo for me. Tackling one garden ... Keep Reading...
Kitschy Aquarium
This is a totally fun, kitschy aquarium DIY project that you have to have just the right spot for. I just happened to have that exact spot in the lower level hallway wall by the kid's playroom/family room. Here's a little background to this project... if you want to just skip ahead to the actual project, roll on past this paragraph. :) We used to have a cottage in Maine. (click here to see more decorating on that fun place) We sold that cottage and our last home, a 100 year old house, the same year, (click to see the full renovation on that 3 story house) ... Keep Reading...
Shutters (do’s & don’ts)
Thinking of sprucing up the exterior of your home with some shutters? (get ready... here comes a 2 minute rant!!) Please, please, please read these shutter do's and don'ts before you start! Hopefully then you can avoid the same mistakes so commonly found with shutters in the Midwest!! I've traveled across the USA, coast-to-coast, East-to-West and North-to-South... Pretty much every other place 'gets' how to size and mount exterior shutters. EXCEPT for the Midwest... I'm convinced it is especially bad in WISCONSIN! (I can pick on Wisconsin, that's ... Keep Reading...
Sew a Dog Kennel (Bunny Hutch) Fabric Cover
Have a dog kennel that needs a little dressing up? Maybe this dog kennel (bunny hutch) fabric cover will work for you too! One of our granddaughters has a very sweet, indoor, pet bunny. (By the way, bunnies can be litter trained and this one is...) When our granddaughter comes to visit us, she'd love to bring her bunny. We finally figured out a way for that to happen. We pulled the large collapsible dog crate out of the shed and set it up for the indoor bunny hutch. Large dog kennel turned 'bunny hutch'. Bunny wasn't too thrilled with the open-ness ... Keep Reading...
Vintage Wicker Planter Spring Arrangement
Here's a quick half hour project... Making a vintage wicker planter spring arrangement for the front porch! The vintage wicker planter is a little distressed. It was that way when I bought it, and I kind of love the vintage-ey feel of that distressing. I actually bought it from a friend, back when we lived in our last house, a 100 year old house, (here's the page with all the renovations on that old house). Anyway, the wicker planter fit in on the front porch there great... now at this house, our late mid-century we're renovating into a Colonial Revival ... Keep Reading...
Garden & Landscape Inspiration
We've had a wickedly long and fierce winter this last year... but the snow has finally melted and the hope of spring garden and landscape work is just around the corner. I've done no gardening since we bought this house and I'm looking forward to it! I have some ideas of what the design could be, but I'm still searching for garden and landscape inspiration. The concentration on our new house has been on renovating the house inside and out. We started in the fall of 2017... and it's been a whirlwind of activity since!! This is the first chance we've ... Keep Reading...
Before & After Living Room
Here is the before and after living room renovation post! Finally, I'm able to be posting the before and after posts of our whole house renovation. A few months ago I started with the front hall and the closet transformed into a library, (here is that hallway/library post). Then, a couple weeks ago was the front entry before & after post, (you can see that front entry post here if you missed it). Today, I'm showing you the next room from there, which is the living room. BTW: for all the posts relating to this whole house renovation, check out this ... Keep Reading...
12 Tips to get Mustard Yellow into Your Home
Are you a fan of the ever growing in popularity mustard yellow? Me? Well, I am, and I'm not! I've gone through the color mustard yellow a few times in different formats in my house, same with the color red... I'll think I love it, fully embrace it, but then if I made too big of a commitment with it, it seems to wear me down and I don't like it anymore. In this post I'm going to give you 12 tips to get mustard yellow into your home... in big ways and in little ways. 1: MUSTARD YELLOW WALLS In our old, old house, (the house wasn't old, but it was 2 homes ... Keep Reading...
