Patio Upgrade

A couple weeks ago, Hunkyness and I took on the project of upgrading our patio. For a while now we've wanted to build something that would create a bit of a barrier between passers-by and the direct view into our kitchen and dining area. We've felt so exposed! So, with Amy's bachelorette party on the way, I decided it was a perfect opportunity and deadline to finally make it happen. We built benches, bought plants and fertilizer, pots and trellises, and in two weeks we had a very charming patio wall. It will, of course, take another year or two for all those flowers to fill in and actually create some privacy, but that's ok. I love to watch stuff like that grow. Here are the pics!

That's Hunkyness, getting started on staining all the wood that would become benches that will eventually hold the plants.

My MIL and FIL came down for a day to help us stain ... it was a huge help!!

Hunkyness putting the benches together.

BIL Andrew helped out quite a bit too.

I spent an evening potting all the bouganvilla plants ... six total across two benches.

And voila! Here is our "wall." Isn't it pretty!?! I think it already looks so nice, and just wait until all those plants fill in!

I also bought smaller plants to put on the benches between the larger bouganvilla plants. Fills it out a bit, and adds some color. I also put two long window box-type pots underneath each bench, filled with leafy plants that don't need much sun. Lucy has already gotten into one of those and ripped out one of the plants ... but otherwise they're in tact and looking great!

Amy bought me that little duck a year ago, and now it has a nice outdoor patio to sit on!

Amy's bachelorette party ... we finished just in time! (See that beautiful bouganvilla behind her? That's what I'm hoping the rest will one day be.)

carpets and bocce ball

Last Sunday our dog ate an entire box of chocolate ... and then proceeded to throw it up all over the house. Consequently, we had several large brown stains slowly setting in our rugs and carpet that needed a desperate deep clean. So this Saturday we rented a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner from Lowe's and deep cleaned our carpets. They look pretty good and I'm actually quite impressed with us. Some of that chocolate will never fully come out, but at least they're now blending in with the rest of the stains on that decades-old white carpet. (I still don't understand the decision to put in white carpet.)

Amy's Birthday

We celebrated my sister's birthday on Sunday with lunch and a couple rousing matches of bocce ball at the park. She turns 26 on Wednesday, and Rachel and I are taking her to the spa for the day. But the birthday celebrations began early (as birthday celebrations always should).

Grandpa found a nice seat on a tree.

Grandpa, me, Amy, Dad, Rachel, David, Hans, Caleb

Some calls were almost too close to make.



Amy's cake, adorned with pictures of her when she was young and one from a couple years ago.

Sunday morning progress report

Its 8:47 a.m. On Sunday. Normally, I would still be asleep at this hour on a Sunday morning. But a neighbor was kind enough to play their music just loud enough for the constant beat of the bass to slowly but rhythmically pull me out of my happy sleep ... and then force me from the bedroom so I wouldn't have to listen anymore. Caleb has already been up for a couple hours, so we convened on the couch, him to his video game and me to my breakfast (and inspecting my latest crochet project, wondering if the border holes are big enough for the ribbon I bought). Anyway, since I'm here, I figured I'd see how far I've gotten on my weekend goals.

1. Clean out the downstairs closet. Check.
2. Thoroughly purge closets of unused clothing items, purses, shoes, socks, books, etc. Check.
2a. Collect all these items in boxes and bags and take to Salvation Army. Check (although some went to my sister, and the rest went to the Good Will).
3. Reorganize upstairs closet. Check (even got a few more boxes for Caleb's tools).
4. Finish all the laundry. Mostly done.
5. Take a long walk (continued preparation for our upcoming backpacking trips). Check. And now today I'm a little sore.
6. Work on unfinished knitting and crochet projects. Check (and almost finished with my current crochet project).
7. On that note, reorganize the yarn/patterns/hooks & needles mess. This is the one thing I have not yet tackled.
8. Take a break from the cleaning and organizing to shower and go out to eat with my husband. We didn't go out, but we did finally shower and get clean.
9. Take in the Angels game. Check (They won 5-3!)
10. Vacuum. Half Check (still need to do the downstairs)
11. Send European vacation photos to Winkflash to get printed so I can start working on the photo album. Half Check (we transferred them into jpg's and got them onto my computer ... now I need to sort them and send them off to Winkflash)

Wow, I'm impressed with myself. And on top of all this I got our bedroom clean and bathroom and kitchen scrubbed. It was quite the productive day ... and yet relaxing, oddly enough.