There is something rather momentous going on in my garden right now: Lavender is blooming. For those of you who successfully grow lavender, this probably doesn’t seem like something worth dedicating a blog post to. With lavender, it seems, you either have it, or you don’t. I’ve struggled with growing lavender for years, which is why my path is lined ...
So I painted another door. By now, this should come as absolutely no surprise to you. When I get an itch, I paint something and 99% of the time it’s a door. What can I say? They are easy and you get a lot of bang for your buck. BEFORE (Wythe Blue door) AFTER (New York State of Mind door) ...
One of the weekends I was gone in mid-July also happened to be the weekend that every garden tour in southeastern Wisconsin was held (or so it seemed), and I missed them all. What a bummer. Fortunately, last night I toured two fabulous gardens as part of our annual master gardener garden crawl. I’m now full of ideas for how ...
This spring I grew more flowers from seed than I ever have before. The process was incredibly rewarding and I feel like my garden looks better than it ever has, in part due to all the plants I produced from seed. Among those flowers were sweet peas, which have a reputation for being a bit particular about their conditions. I ...
And just like that, it’s August. It’s almost impossible to fathom that we’re at the beginning of what I once considered the last month of summer. The weather, though, is changing from what it was like in my childhood, and since I’m not personally tied to school schedules, more and more, my idea of summer continues right through September. We ...
Earlier this year I told you about the Troy-Bilt Horse XP Tractor, and now I’m showing you a little more about it. Get ready for a video full of the inner workings of a lawn mower, mowing to music, creative and possibly dangerous camera angles, dive-bombing dragonflies (we had a huge dragonfly hatch around here when we were making the ...
We’ve been enjoying the most amazing stretch of gorgeous summer weather here in southeastern Wisconsin. Save for the fact that we could really use some rain, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. We’ve been savoring every possible moment of it (I seriously try to soak it in and save it for a few months from now), taking walks on ...
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How about a little before and after to start the week? I bought this lamp at Target about five years ago or so and honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking with that shade. It sat in the guest room which really always was a decorating disaster. I think I was trying to go […]
It’s funny that I seem to refer to this photo a lot for different posts. This was taken in September on the day we started the renovation so it looks a little bit like we might be loading up the Joads’ truck or something. Anyway, you can see the area along the front of the […]
That’s right folks. Look past the almost three feet of snow still covering most of the yard (in my part of the world) and you will indeed see signs that spring is on the way. I donned my new Target wellies the other day (with this much snow it’s going to be a very wet […]
Don’t you think every house should have bougainvillea growing over the garage? I can’t think of a house in the world that wouldn’t look better with a blooming fuchsia bougainvillea adorning the front of it. That’s just a little snapshot I grabbed with my phone while on a mini vacation. Between the natural wood garage [&helli
Anyone who lives in a small space knows that you have to find storage space anywhere you can. Even people who live in large homes tend to need more storage than they have. But that’s the thing about storage: stuff tends to just fill the storage void. How many of you know someone with an […]
Like a lot of projects, painting the stairs is one of those that has gotten a lot worse before it can get better. Let these pictures serve as a lesson. Any time you feel like skipping some prep steps in a painting project remember this: Not exactly inviting you upstairs are they? At some point […]
Who wouldn’t want to be standing on that bridge overlooking this amazing garden? Now that we spent last week dreaming about gardening (you were dreaming, right?) you can continue the dream by going to a flower show or gardening seminar, which have a tendency to pop up all over the place starting next month or […]
I’ve mentioned Houzz enough here that you’re probably all familiar with it, but if you’re not, you really should check it out. It’s been incredibly helpful during our renovation and I still reference my “ideabooks” there regularly. The way I use Houzz is to search a particular category and just save the photos I
For many of us gardening is welcome escape from the excess of technology that has because a necessary evil in our daily life. Gardening at home is as simple as it comes. Use basic tools. Dig in the dirt. Put a plant in the ground and water it. It’s nature at its finest. And I […]
Since most of the country is buried under a pile of snow, gardening seems like it’s so far off we could cry. So this week is Gardening Week at The Impatient Gardener. I’ll be posting only Gardening-related posts, but if you want to know the latest on house stuff check out the Facebook page because […]
Few things are bound to get certain types of people (and by that I mean men, but I don’t want to be totally stereotypical about it) as wound up as messing with their electronics. And few things are bound to get certain other types of people (and by that I mean women) more irritated than […]
Gallery walls are all over the place these days, and I’ll admit that I’ve succumbed to the gallery wall hype. I’m actually working on a mini gallery wall in the upstairs hallway. I’m going to attempt to use both color and black and white photos and possibly multiple color frames. I hope I’ll be able […]
So let’s be clear on my position on Christmas decorations: There is a time for them. And when that time is over, they need to be gone. Personally, I like to see them gone on about January 1, but I understand that a lot of people follow the 12 days of Christmas thing, so decorations […]
Companies who pride themselves on customer service that is. Let me just fill you in on a little bit of the background that I, um, glossed over in yesterday’s post. I mentioned that the first countertop company I talked to sort of left me hanging when they told me my project was too small for […]
