Font Yard Declutter

Over the summer I decided to take some action with the rose bed in front of our house. I got all the dead and gangely rose bushes out of there and brought in some loropetalum, japanese boxwood, and knock-out roses. Then all was well in the bed.

But as the summer wore on and the plants grew, the bed started to look like this.

I didn't really factor in how fast the loropetalum would grow—it began to completely cover the japanese boxwood and the roses. At first I thought I might just keep trimming back the loropetalum but, honestly, I try to stay low maintenance on the yard work and constant trimming just didn't sound like fun. So I decided to move the loropetalum to other parts of the yard and move the row of japanese boxwood up a bit.

So things are definitely looking less cluttery in the bed. Although the loropetalum that I transplanted elsewhere aren't doing as well as they were in their original home—like the ones I put in the planter in front of the carport.

 Maybe more love—and water—will bring them back up to snuff...

Renningers Extravaganza!

If you're a Floridian and you love anything in the way of vintage or antique, you probably know about Renningers. It's a huge indoor/outdoor antique mall where you can find anything from antique lab equipment to Heywood-Wakefield furniture.

 I've found some great pottery and art there over the years. Their triannual antiques extravaganza was this past weekend, so me and some friends drove up to check it out. I was in the market for some syroco-like ornate mirrors to hang above my dining room buffet and some vintage planters.

We saw some interesting stuff but nothing that was on my list (well, nothing that was quite at the right price). I'm pretty selective when it comes to purchasing accessories, actually--I either have to know exactly where it's going to go in the house or love it so much that I have to make a place for it. And I try not to deviate from my lists, which keeps down impulsive buys and the pile up of not-so-loved-items that end up in the garage sale pile. Actually, we all walked away without buying anything (except for Patty, who bought a small charm). But it was fun to look.

*Patty, Gregg, and Nick lookin' at some jewelery.

Pots and Plants

Adding plants to rooms can make a big (yet weirdly subtle) difference. They add color, can purify the air, and make a space feel less stark. This weekend I invested in some greenery to put into great pots that I bought from Etsy and Ikea.

I had my eye on this turquoise pot on Etsy for a while (you can actually see it on my Pinterest). The price was originally a bit steep but the seller eventually put it on sale and I scooped it up.

I just put some potting soil in it and planted some little succulents I found at Home Depot. I've become a big fan of succulents over the past few years—they're really interesting to look at and don't require much attention or water.

 

Then I gave the same treatment to an Ikea KARDEMUMMA plant pot I had in the guest room.

So now I'm just gonna let 'em go and watch 'em grow.

Chevron On!

That chevron fabric is finally on my danish chair! I can't take the credit though—I have a mom who's a very talented sewer and she offered to do the cushions up all nice and fancy for me.

We had quite a bit of fabric left over, so I cut a place mat for Henry's bowls.

Now he can eat in style (and maybe save some of that kitty water from getting on the floor).

Kitchen Complete!

Yes, friends, the kitchen is finally done! I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

kitchen before

kitchen after

 

Robert cut and stained the windowsill himself!

Source list

Cabinets, sink, and appliances: Ikea

Faucet: Home Depot

Counter tops: Lowe's

Backsplash: tiles from Floor and Decor (installed by Robert and Jonathan, grouted by Robert and Jen)

Pendants: Amazon

Rock My Socks

We have a little project ADD going on over at the Schubach house. Along with finishing touch-ups on the kitchen, we're also trying to get the office in order. And I'm determined to finish my friends and family wall sometime in the near future. Things are happening, they're just happening a little...slowly. Well, to make things interesting, I'm throwing another project on the pile. It's actually something I've been wanting to do for over a year--a succulent rock garden on one of the back sides of the house. Now that fall has fallen on Florida (it's way too brutal to try to do projects like this in the summer) I'm determined to get this thing going.

I already planned out where the garden would go quite a while ago (its this nondescript patch of weeds/grass that sits under the back windows of the office and our bedroom). This past weekend I started the process of killing off the weeds/grass by putting tarp and newspaper over the area. You can also use weed killer, but we try not to use pesticidy kind of stuff in our yard. The tarp and newspaper should suffocate the weedies over the next couple of weeks and then I can more easily dig them out.

Then I'm going to put a combination of small pebble rocks and large landscaping rocks throughout the area with some drought-friendly plants in between. Maybe something like this:

Or this:

(but without the water element)

 The small pebble rocks and plants are no problem to purchase, but I'm having a hard time finding some good, large, boulder-y rocks for the garden. Rocks like that just don't occur naturally in central Florida and I haven't seen anything like them at local home improvement places. So I've been scouring Craigslist to see if anyone has some large rocks they want to unload. Anyone know where to score some good rocks?

Rock pictures from here and here.

Friends and Family Wall

I've been wanting to do a friends and family photo wall on one of our blank hall walls for a while. Now that we're done painting everything (woohoo!) I can finally put my plan into action. So without further adieu, some inspiration from the world wide web:

As you can probably tell, I'm drawn to neutral walls with eclectically colored frames. I'm thinking I'll look for a few vintage frames and then use Ikea's RIBBA frame as filler.

Love the RIBBA frames--they're inexpensive ($4.99) but the mat that comes with makes them look polished. And you can spray paint them whatever color you want (they come in black and white).

Well, I'm thinking this and finishing up the office will be the next projects in the queue after we're done with kitchen touch-ups...

Frame photos from here, here, here, here, and here.