Fairy Garden Fail

I'm not a big fantasy creature fan but I saw a ton of adorable fairy garden ideas floating around the web this year and was inspired to try my own.

I had a big planter that a friend had gifted me before their out-of-state move. I usually just put some annuals in it every year but knew it would be a good start for my fairy garden.
I had ideas. I sketched them out. But like so many of my projects, it didn't turn out nearly as cute as I had imagined it would.

I found a few pieces at various craft stores (the fairy door - JoAnn's; the arch and yellow chair - A.C. Moore; the plants and mini hedgehog at a local nursery).

I broke a terra cotta pot to make a tiered space with a little beach pebble path up to my fairy house. So... the fairy house was a little craft project to fill in until I can afford to buy something. I hot glued shells all over a small, plastic flower pot (turned upside down) and it's tray (set on top of the inverted pot). It looks like a 1st grader did it. Sad. But it was all stuff I had on hand. :)

 

I need to get a fairy house and a little pond (or seal up the bottom of that mini plant pot), and I'll plan my plants better next year and give it another try. But for now, here's my fairy garden fail.

Fall Means Change

I made some changes in the living room. There wasn't anything wrong with the art that we had but the mirror was feeling very heavy and dark over the fireplace, and the art I had on the opposite wall above the piano never really coordinated.

2012's fall mantel

The previous piano arrangement

So the art went into storage, the mirror shifted to above the piano, and we found a cheap window frame at our local Habitat ReStore (on sale, too!)

Bass did some heavy lifting and moving and hung the mirror above the piano. The window frame needs special hardware so for now it's just propped against the wall. After some putty and paint, here's how it looks for fall.

This little pumpkin got a coat of a very light yellow-green spray paint because bright orange plastic just wasn't working.

By the front door

The side table

The dining room buffet

I saw this pretty porch on Pinterest and loved her idea to use hydrangeas with the pumpkins. I have a whole row of Limelight Hydrangeas in the backyard so for a few dollars for our pumpkins and a few minutes with the garden clippers, I have my own version. The hydrangeas are slowly drying to a pretty brown color.

 

Happy Fall!

Everything is coming up roses and daisies and dianthus and...

 

The gardens are in bloom and really filling in this year. After the driveway and sidewalk were replaced, Bass edged all the gardens and we put down a thick layer of mulch. The mulch was hurting since we skipped doing it last year. All sorts of things that I don't remember planting are coming up and growing like crazy. 

 

The front gardens are a little more formal and symmetrical. My daylilies are doing great, and the crepe myrtle that I was really wondering about seems like it has finally gotten established.

 

The new lamp and post look good in the front garden. I still need to add a few perennials in this bed though.

  

I pulled the fading pansies out of the pots and put in white impatiens and pink geraniums.

The side garden is a little different this year because of the driveway redo. We moved the birdbath up towards the garage and added some (clearance rack) dianthus at it's base.

 

The rest of the side garden is really filling in. Daisies, hosta, and bee balm...

 Hydrangea...

 Another potted geranium on my garden hook...

 

And my absolute favorite, the row of 'Limelight' hydrangeas we bought on clearance last fall are filling in and actually starting to bloom. They were sickly looking things but they were so inexpensive that we figured if they didn't make it, it wasn't too much of an investment. The only one struggling is the one that is directly under the bird feeder. The birds apparently are not genteel eaters. I'm excited to see how these keep filling in along the back of the house.

So what's blooming in your neck of the woods?

The Latest Project at the Homestead -- A Brand New... Driveway!

So it's not nearly as exciting as the announcer on the Price is Right saying 'A Brand New Car' but we desperately needed a new driveway. The old driveway was original to the house (50+ years) and hadn't been sealed in forever so it was sinking and crumbling and growing things and sending all the rainwater from the street straight down our sidewalk to the house's foundation.


Bass spent hours researching contractors and getting bids and figuring out what would need to be in place for this to happen. He finally found a driveway/paving company to do the driveway and got in touch with a concrete contractor (a great guy from our church) to do the sidewalk.

The sidewalk went in first, they fixed the curve to make it more natural as well as widened the sidewalk. It's about 8" higher than the previous one (also to help keep the rainwater away from the house.) They also ran some conduit underneath for the electric cable that goes from the house to the outdoor lamp post.

Bass edged all of the beds for me this spring too.

After the sidewalk was in, the driveway guys removed the old driveway and dug it down a bit. Then they added a thick base coat and finished with a super thick top coat. They also graded it so that it slopes slightly away from the house towards the side yard.

We changed the shape of the garden at the corner of the garage, pulling it way back because it made parking awkward.

Mulch stays in the garden bed now because the driveway was raised up.

Once the construction stuff was done,  Bass got to work adding top soil and seeding the lawn around the sidewalk, front garden, and down the side yard by the driveway.

The new grass is the non-weedy stuff. :)

We were also blessed by my folks who were cleaning out their basement and found a brand-new outdoor light pole. We used a gift card (from Bass's folks) to buy a lantern style outdoor light. So thanks to our parents, we now have a super-bright, dusk to dawn light fixture. Our street is pretty dark and our porch lights a little far from the driveway so I'm liking the security of our new light.
Here's the before and after of the outdoor light.

I'm not quite sure what happened here but suffice it to say, the light didn't work.

And the 'after'. Look at all the new grass along the driveway too. So pretty!

And now the best part, the official before and after!
Before:

After:

 

Well, the best part is actually not worrying if we'll get water in the basement every time it rains! :)

Dressing Up the Front Step

Our little house has a little front stoop, and up until now, it was totally bare. The house is looking much better since we painted everything last fall and added/fixed the landscaping beds. We just needed a little something to make it more welcoming.
I saw a project on another blog for a decorative post made from scrap wood and knew immediately it would be the perfect way to reuse our Narnia lamp from the dining room.
Here's what the porch looked like before:

And here's what the Narnia lamp looked like before:

Yeah... we had a post on a half wall with an outdoor light fixture sitting on top. I don't get it. It was definitely a conversation piece but it totally had to go. As we started tackling the updated to-do list, Bass was able to disassemble that whole area of trim to get the lamp out (and safely pull out the unneeded electrical.) The light went to his brother because they needed an outdoor light... for the outdoors... where outdoor lights should be.

After a lot of sanding (lots done by Tenor), piecing wood scraps, and a bit of painting (done by me), our new porch post and decor looks like this:

Cute, right? Bass and Tenor made the post for me for a Mother's Day/Birthday gift. The aqua jar was from Christmas Tree Shops and holds a few seashells from our trip to the shore. At the shore, we also found that black hook for $0.99 (which Bass cut down because it was too tall) and the weathered looking welcome sign. The terra cotta pots and plants were from my sister's wedding. The larger pots came from Kmart and Home Depot (both around $6) and the plant stand came from Lowe's (about $10, I think). Tenor made me a little planter with pink impatiens for Mother's Day so we did a little transplant to fill in the tan pot. I added a few $1 seed geraniums and another $1 pack of pink impatiens. A little work and a little color add up to a big difference on our front step.

Doesn't it just make you want to come right in? It makes me smile whenever I pull in the driveway.
BTW---Tenor took these photos for me. Not bad for a 10 year old, eh?

Linking up to these great blog parties:

Sunday: Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming; Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife;
Tuesday: One Project at a Time at A Bowl Full of Lemons; Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z;
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; It's Overflowing at Overflowing with Creativity; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts;
Home Decor and Organizing at Organize and Decorate Everything;
Thursday: Delightfully Inspiring Thursday at Delightful Order; Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage;
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;