Insane August Weather at the Jersey Shore

I am quite unexpectedly home early from work today and able to write a post.  The roof of our office caught fire when lightning struck it this morning.  After being evacuated into torrential rains and strong winds I think we were all happy to leave our lunch bags at the office and go home for the day.  Luckily everyone made it out safely!  When I left the office about 2 hours ago they were still working on getting the fire out.

The weather this summer has been so unusual, with heat waves throughout the month of July and very mild August temperatures so far.  The forecast for tomorrow calls for low humidity and a breezy 70 degrees - unheard of for this time of year!  After Hurricane Sandy we are pretty much prepared for anything around here, and happy when we don't have flooding, wind and property damage.  Today I'm taking the weather as a sign that I should take a nice long nap this afternoon and look forward to a cool day tomorrow.

A Yard Full of Surprises

This is the house just before we moved in.  We are slowly but surely adding our own personality to it and boosting its curb appeal.  We are working on a project just in front of this split rail fence at the moment..

Part of what attracted us to our perfect little home was that it sits on a large corner lot.  I'm pretty sure we have the biggest yard (back and front) on our street.  The front and side are mainly grass with some bushes around the perimeter and one bed in front and one on the side.  The back yard is about 75% rock, which I wasn't crazy about, but there is a decent sized grassy area for kids to play on and the dog loves to roll around there, and there are nice, curvy landscaped beds all around the perimeter of the yard.  I thought I could live with it for a while.

This is a view of our backyard when we moved into our home this past March.


Unbeknownst to me, there were many surprises waiting just under the dirt getting ready to reveal themselves to my  great delight!  First, the bushes all around the perimeter of the front and side yard turned out to be forsythia, and there was yellow everywhere shortly after we moved in.  I have always loved forsythia. For me it's  the quintessential sign that spring has sprung.  The usual early spring bulbs were soon to follow, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and a sweet patch of grape hyacinths in the backyard wildflower bed which I absolutely must get a picture of next year!

Next up came some lovely pink climbing roses against the fence.

You can see my daughter moving in for a sniff.


The weeping willow in the back yard got its leaves and is great for giving shade to people, hostas and hydrangeas.

The back beds began turning green and giving their own show - mature white and pink azealas followed by irises, tons and tons of sublime violet colored irises and a few unusual yellow ones too.  I think I just may keep the rock back there because with the  landscaping the way it is, I haven't even missed grass.  It was also a cinch to build our raised bed vegetable garden right on top of the rock, and maintenance is a breeze.

 Does anyone know what these low lying bushes are?  They border the beds and are around the perimeter of just about our entire back yard.  They really help soften the look of the stone.

Then there's this guy, whom my friend Michelle and I have affectionately named "Devil Baby".  He is actually a mythical creature who is half boy/ half rabbit.  He's got rabbit feet and a cotton tail and is holding a baby bunny.  There was a bunch of  "garden decor" left by the previous owners which I immediately put out to the curb, but Devil Baby seems like he belongs here so I let him stay. (Plus I'm kinda scared of him)




The show has been ongoing since April.  I am looking forward to seeing if there are any Fall blooming beauties around here.  I leave you with a few pictures of my favorite place in the yard, which is the wildly beautiful cottage garden that blows my mind still every day.  Each time I walk out the door I can't help but be happy.

Spray Paint Love Affair

There is no easier way to transform the look of any object than to spray paint it.  I have been on a spray painting bender these past few months. I have painted chairs,  lamps, a chandelier, an entire set of bedroom furniture and other odds and ends around the house.  My relationship with spray paint has changed the way I look at objects while shopping.  At times it's almost as if I seek out things that need to be revived rather than buying things that already look nice. When we moved into our house my eight year old daughter wanted to update her white little girl furniture, so I bought several cans of Krylon spray paint in Ocean Breeze, aka best color ever.  The whole set looks amazing in its new color and her room is a super fun, bright and suits her personality.

I also spruced up some old oak armchairs that I found in my Grandma's basement.  They were forest green when I took them, then they were painted a chocolate brown which didn't work with the coastal look I was going for here. I picked up some Rustoleum 2X spray paint+primer in Apple Green and completely transformed those dull old chairs and made them happy!  They add a great pop of color to my living room which has neutral furniture and soft grey/blue walls.

Our house came complete with an ugly 4 light ceiling fan in the center of the dining area, which HAD to go right away.  I scoured around for an inexpensive light fixture and I found one at my FAVORITE place, Green Acres, which I will soon be dedicating an entire post to.  It was your typical brass, colonial style chandy but it had eight lights in a two tier set up, which I liked.  It was hanging in the store wearing ugly shades on every bulb. I offered to leave those shades there in exchange for a couple dollars off the ticket price, which was just $12. I brought that sucker home for $10! Once again Rustoleum to the rescue - a couple coats of spray gloss enamel in Maui Blue and some new sleeves and frosted bulbs breathed new life into this old relic.

I've been busy lately with work and other projects around the house and garden but I still love you, spray paint.  We will definitely be getting together again soon to make more magic...

Purple Pallet Picket Fence

This is my favorite project we've done so far in our new home. We got all the pallets for free on craigslist so for about $20 we were able to build this adorable little garden fence. We had already built all the raised beds and wanted to make our veggie garden its own little world. Hubby took the pallets apart the old fashioned (and HARD) way with a sledgehammer. We recommend investing in a reciprocating saw if you're planning on working with pallet wood! The pallet wood was the perfect size for our pickets.

 We started out nailing each picket to two firring strips, using wooden spacers we cut to keep them uniformly spaced. Once we had all our pickets on each section we trimmed the bottom to make it straight, and we cut the corners off the tops and sanded them to get the cute dog ear shape.

 After the section was finished I painted it this perfect lilac color which looks so cute and whimsical in the yard.  Some of the pickets were more receptive to the paint than others which contributed to the quaint, imperfect, rustic look.

We used 2x4s as posts and put it together right around the garden and, not to waste anything, we made a little potting bench from the left over pallet wood.

   The garden is now rewarding us with cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, green and yellow bell peppers, serrano, habanero and jalapeno peppers, strawberries, eggplant and watermelons. In the galvanized buckets at the entrance are lavender, mint, rosemary, sage, boxwood basil, oregano, parsley and thyme. What's growing in your garden?

A Day in the Sun

As much as I wanted to stay home today and create my first ever blog post,  I went to the lake with my family and had a great afternoon.  It's days like this that bring me joy and gratitude and inspire all that I do,  so all was not lost.

  I also scored this awesome piece of driftwood for my collection...and hubby fixed me a gin and tonic with cucumber to cool off with when we got home. I hope to be spending time writing,  creating and sharing over the next few days.