Very First Flower Bed

When we bought our home we had grass (ahem, weeds) going from the sidewalk to the house. It did not appear that there had ever been a flowerbed & I was OK with that because we are not what you would call outdoorsy :)

However, in April, with the encouragement of some green thumbed friends, I decided to dig up the yard & make myself a flower bed! Mistake #1 was thinking I could do this with a hand trowel. This is all I accomplished day 1...

I then borrowed a shovel from Hubby's mom & productivity picked up!

Everything planted!

There are some gaps I have since filled, which you will see in pictures to come, but here are my first plants! Lambs Ear, Mexican Bird of Paradise, Kaleidoscope, Black & Blue Salvia, Purple Sage, Day Lily, & on the very end Prostrate Rosemary

2 bags of woodchips was not enough, but it is a start :) & I added a tiny Lantana behind the Mexican Bird of Paradise.

I was saving the very center of my flower bed for a White Rose of Sharon. Hubby's mom has one & it is beautiful! They were very popular this year, everyone was out of them! Finally, a friend called to tell me she found them over the Memorial Day holiday!  I couldn't wait until I had beautiful white blooms!

Also, newly planted front & center is Moss Rose donated to our church's Women's Retreat from The Greenery! All my original Plants also came from The Greenery, for this newbie they were a blessing! They showed me what plants would work for my yard (full sun) & how to care for them!

Beautiful blooms!

Beautiful flowers on the Mexican Bird of Paradise!

The Rose of Sharon bloomed!!! I was told not to expect blooms because it was planted so late in the year, so this was a wonderful surprise!

And here are pictures from this morning. It is fun to see how everything is filling in & full of color! I don't think the Kaleidoscopes are doing well, but other than those I was blessed with a ton of growth!

The Mexican Bird of Paradise has gotten so tall!!

The Black & Blue Salvia have really filled in & I've seen several blooms from the Rose of Sharon! The Moss Roses have gotten much bigger & have had lots of blooms, but this morning they were being shy ;)

This Prostrate Rosemary is actually 2 plants, but they are creeping together & growing nicely. I need to start cooking with it! Let me tell you, rosemary smells amazing when you water in the morning!

I have been very fortunate that this has been our wettest summer ever! This process has been hot & tiring, but I absolutely love going out & seeing new growth, new buds, & new blooms!

New Fence!

I've been meaning to share this with you since it was completed right after Thanksgiving!

 Getting a new fence has been on our to do list since we bought our home.

 Ghost making his own personal exit in the fence, moved it to the top of the to do list!

 We really needed it though, there weren't many more things Hubby could have done to keep this one standing.

 We got some quotes, looked at some pics, & chose our guy :)

 And I stood in the window taking pics of them tearing out the fence :)

That's not creepy, right?!

 Now we have a beautiful new fence!

 Thank you to Hubby's Mom & Dad for our Christmas gift of helping pay for it! We had to have a fence, but ya'll helped us get a nice beautiful fence!!

Once the weather drys up (this summer) we have to get it stained, then it will show it's awesome cedar color even more!

We got a double wide gate, the small portion is what we use regularly, but the larger side can be opened up to have a 10' opening!

The gate from the outside. Ghost isn't getting out of this fence! :)

Yea for home improvements!!

With More Time

I don't scrap enough.

This weeks photo challenge was With More Time, and as soon as I read the challenge theme I knew I wanted to take a pic of my lonely craft room.

So here's my desk. One of these days, after the house is more put together, I will scrap more. But until then, I am super happy to have a wonderful house & a wonderful space I can call my craft room :)

What about you? What would you do with more time?

The Kitchen

It has been awhile since I shared our home renovating projects with you! That's not because there haven't been any!
Since this weeks theme for the photo challenge is In The Kitchen, I thought I would share what we have  done in the kitchen.

We started out with very old brown cabinets.  One thing about digital that I haven't quite figured out yet is how to organize my pics so I can find them later down the road : / but I did post more before & during pics awhile back, so feel free to go see them. One of these days I will catch up with this computer age ;)

So we had been using the cabinets for awhile without doors. It was very nice when it came to putting away dishes! But we needed doors to look like a complete kitchen.

So I finally broke down & painted all the doors & drawers :)

and Hubby hung all the doors with the new hardware we picked out.

I just love our new handles!

The cabinets in front of the laundry room did not get doors because I love the look of all my home canned goods :) Maybe one of these days we will get some glass fronted doors to put there.

And some of my favorite things... My beautiful bamboo plants, Hubby's Bonsai that he got for his birthday, as well as my beautiful mortar & pestal Hubby's mom bought me, there in the back. These are the lovely things I get to look at when doing my least favorite chore...the dreaded dishes. Looking at pretty things makes it easier :) This is the picture I chose for the photo challenge this week.

I love my kitchen! I am so happy to be sharing it with you :) What is your favorite room in your home?

Lines

This weeks theme for the photo challenge is Lines.
I took this pic in our beautiful shower of the glass tiles :)
If you haven't seen the pics of the shower, it is beautiful! You should check it out: http://just-me-writing-to-you.blogspot.com/2012/07/living-in-our-home.html?m=1
Now that you have seen the bathroom, let me take a poll... What color should we paint the walls? Originally I was thinking gray to keep it a completely black & white bathroom, but now we are discussing the possibility of color... What do you think?

New Roof

Yesterday we got a pretty new roof :) About a week after we got the keys (and had our roof repaired for a leak that was in the water heater/ac closet) We had a huge hail storm : / So we finally called the insurance & got a new roof!

Here is a pic of the old roof

 and the new roof!

 We up graded to architectural shingles instead of the 3-tab that were originally there. They are supposed to stand up better to high winds :)

We also had them add a roof vent to keep the attic cooler which will save on the AC bill :)

Our home is coming together a little at a time. It's very exciting to see things being marked off the ever growing list ;)

Bye Bye Tree

When we bought our home, we knew the only tree on the property had to go.

It was way to close to our foundation!

So we had A. Matt Tree Service out yesterday to take care of it.

The theme for this weeks Photo Challenge is Focus.

So before he got there to cut down the tree I took this pic. I love the focus of the bark while the rest of the tree is blurry. I'm pretty proud of this picture :)

We were gone most of the day, but I was able to get this shot shortly after they started. It went down without a fight.

Our home sans tree

Now it's just saw dust.

They did a great job! One more thing we can mark off our to do list :)

Unpacking

I finally got my orbs unpacked for the second time... I had unpacked them once before, but hadn't found the right place to display them. They went back in the box to make room for Christmas decorations :) So now they are out & displayed!
This weeks theme for the photo challenge is blue, so I took my pic focusing on the blue orb. I really like how it turned out :)
Then I used the Peacock filter from the Flickr app to really make the blue pop!
I also took a pic of all my orbs, so you can see how I displayed them. What do you think?!

2012 Christmas Letter

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!!!

2012 has been the year for change in our home!

In May we went to Disney World! It was an amazing trip! We went with Jamie & Craig, & Jim & Cathy (my adopted parents J). We also went to Universal Studios to see Hogwarts! It was an experience we will never forget!

In June we bought our first home! 7131 Cloverglen Dr, Dallas, TX 75249 J It is taking a lot of work, but we are putting our own touches into everything! We have also had some amazing help! Thank you everyone who helped us move & helped us renovate!!! We love having our own home! But we miss seeing Conner & Elias everyday! They change so much from day to day that now when we see them we feel like they are different people! We would like to thank The Burns’ for the time ya’ll allowed us to live in your home! It was a blessing & we love ya’ll!

Then we changed churches. It was a very difficult decision, but we felt God calling us elsewhere. In June we started attending Waxahachie Bible Church. In August we attended our last youth service at Abundant, which was the most difficult part of leaving. We are really enjoying Waxahachie Bible! In the short time we have been there it already feels like home. We have met some great people & started attending a Sunday school class where everyone is like family.

Then Krystle became a Pet Granny! She started working for The Pet Granny as a pet sitter part time. It is a family owned & run business (Patrick’s Aunt’s) & they were getting busy so asked if she wanted to work with them. She is really enjoying it! She is also still creating for ScrappinArt, though not as much now that we have a home to put in order.

Patrick has been working at Promotional Arts for 8 ½ years! He is also continuing to grow his computer repair business in his free time.

I would like to leave you with a little Christmas nugget that came to me the other day. When we give gifts, we should do it out of love; not expecting a gift in return. When Jesus came to earth giving us the most precious gift, He knew we could never repay Him! But He did it anyway! And if you could not buy gifts this year, then lovingly accept the gifts others have gotten you, knowing they love you and wanted to give to you.

We love you! We hope you make this Christmas a wonderful time with friends, family, & love! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Patrick & Krystle

Living in Our Home!

For 2 weeks Hubby & I have been living and SHOWERING in our own home!!! Thanks to my other parents Jim & Cathy Kenny, we have a beautiful master shower! It still has a few minor things to be done, but the important thing is we can use it, & I can show off pics of it! :)

This is the shower before. Yes that is a hole in the shower wall!

They came in and tore out all the old tile and the shower pan, then had to have plumbing work done because the last people to work on the shower shouldn't have.

The new shower pan and cement board (to keep it water proof)

Then the beautiful tile!

 I love this shower!

 And I love living in our first home!

Thank you again Jim & Cathy! Ya'll are crazy! And we love you!!!