Well, it’s December and suddenly weekends are full of checking items off a far-too-long to-do list. The main item on mine is doing all the outdoor decorations on Saturday. It’s going to be in the mid-30s all weekend, but it’s going to rain most of Sunday, so Saturday is the day for outdoor work. I hope I can power through ...
Another sign that I’m getting a little older is that I think getting a vintage gift would be lovely. When you’re a kid you want shiny and new (ew … it’s used?). But the idea of someone hunting for a perfect, unique gift is a lovely sentiment to me now. So I bring you my vintage gift guide. Of course, ...
One of my favorite projects to do this time of year is decorate outside with winter containers. In the past I’ve used a combination of found and purchased materials. I always cut my own red twig dogwood because the even though the dogwood you can buy is brighter, straighter and, by all accounts, prettier, it’s also incredibly expensive. I also ...
I’ve never done the Black Friday shopping thing, but I’m not opposed to picking up a good deal online. Sad as it is, I tend to pick up a lot of things for myself on Black Friday and Cyber Monday because the deals are so good that it’s a great time to stock up on staples. So here’s a roundup ...
Well it had to come eventually. The frost that miraculously held off until after mid-November finally came, more than a month after our first frost last year. I knew it was coming, but somehow in my gardener’s brain I had blocked out how dramatically a hard frost changes the garden overnight. I woke up Saturday morning to brown foliage hanging ...
So, I’m not entirely sure what happened, but apparently Thanksgiving is next week. I am rather shocked. So I guess that means I better spend some time this weekend figuring out what kind of pie (or pies) I’m going to make. That’s my contribution to the meal. One year I made the turkey. It was terrible. Now I stick with ...
I held off as long as I could on holiday posts but I think it’s time to get the show on the road. I’m planning to do a handful of gift guides (I’m sort of obsessed with them) this year and I thought I’d kick it off with one that you really have to get going on soon. Everything featured ...
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This week I find myself in one of those places where I have a lot of things have finished but nothing really to show for it. And that’s how you end up with blog post about everything and nothing at the same time. My parents are currently soaking up a bit of sunshine in Florida […]
I am basking in the glow of a finished hallway, folks. After a weekend of painting and a few finishing touches, the hallway is looking so much better. It was a weekend of many projects (I hope to show you the others soon), but I felt like I was running from one thing to the […]
Boy, do I have gardening on the brain lately. March is such a cruel month because everything tells us it should be spring but for so many of us it is still very much winter. The garden design series I did a couple weeks ago was fun so why not continue the theme with some […]
If you’ve been following the progress of removing the wall texture in our small hallway, you’ve probably figure out by now that the remaining texture in the house (in the downstairs bathroom and the den) will be professionally removed. This was a messy and time-intensive project. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that texture is
The world outside my door appears to be frozen. Certainly nothing is growing, but I didn’t expect things to be shrinking. Sadly, there are a lot of things shrinking in my yard. The deer are starving. This winter has been so snowy and so cold with almost no relent (we’re hoping for above-freezing temperatures this […]
First off, thanks for all the thoughtful comments on the ugly bathroom post. You guys all had great ideas for further improvements in there on the cheap and I’ll definitely be putting some of them to good use. OK, time to fess up. Who has ever “fixed” something with the secret hope that you actually […]
It never ceases to amaze me how one image can spur me in a direction I never realized I wanted to go in. A couple years ago it happened with a photo of a door painted black. Although I had never really given it much thought before, four hours later I was painting our back […]
Now that I’ve run through some of the many styles of gardens, the natural question is, “What kind of garden do I have?” I think for me it’s safe to say that, strictly speaking, I have none the types of gardens I’ve talked about. And I bet that’s true for most of you. I think most […]
Last week we looked at three kinds of gardens: modern, formal and cottage. Of course there are many other kinds, but I’m going to try to cover them in one fell swoop, rather than individually. N A T I V E G A R D E N S Contemporary Landscape by San Leandro Landscape Architects & Designers Urban Botanics […]
OK, we’re back with another look at a garden style, and I suspect this one is a bit more relatable to most people: the good ol’ cottage garden. We’ve already looked at modern gardens and formal gardens, but now it’s time to loosen things up a little. C O T T A G E G A R D E N […]
Yesterday in a little break-from-winter look at garden styles we took a look at modern gardens. Now we’re going in what you would think is the opposite direction, to formal gardens, but really these two styles share more in common than you might think. F O R M A L G A R D E N S Even if you’re [&helli
Damn this weather. Let’s talk gardening, shall we? I love studying garden design (that is, if you count looking at countless photos of gardens to be studying). I think it would be great to have a garden in every style if such a thing was possible to pull off (I think would require multiple properties […]
I wanted to lay around and do pretty much nothing this weekend. The gravitational pull of the couch was particularly strong, so it’s a good thing I published that to-do list last week. There’s nothing like having to have something to write about on a blog to keep you honest. Maybe I’m a glutton for […]
I have to apologize, you guys. My disorganized method of managing photos has struck again. I kick myself for this. I work with professional photographers at work every day and I know that they all have a method for cataloging every photo they download, so why I never started doing the same thing is a […]
