So this month I’m participating in #photoadayjuly. You are given a word or a phrase for each day and the you interpret it into your own photo. It has given me the opportunity to look for some new things, be a little more creative, and to use some photos I had in my camera that wouldn’t otherwise have seen the light of day. So here’s days 1-15 with some random instagram shots stuck in between. Enjoy! (If you want to follow me on instagram I’m stin2000)
The label on this should say day 4, thought I’d fixed that hmph
This is what my bathroom floor looks like at any given time lately. I let Ella put a variety of crap in and out of that toiletry bag. It buys me some time and a tiny bit of space.
Spent a beautiful day with friends on this beach earlier this month. It was dreamy.
(All from my garden….I wish )
What church looks like in the 3rd hour with a 15 month old:
Ice cream on the beach. It’s never a tidy option.
Two of Ella’s admirers, sporting fresh injuries from when a vigorous game of rock paper scissors (to hash out who Ella loved more) went terribly wrong.
The corn as high as an elephant’s eye, right after the 4th of July:
Family bathroom at the mall. Finny ponders the situation he finds himself in.
I have this thing for cute tissue boxes. I never buy them, but I do so love them.
Gabe “jamming in the A.M” with our awesome neighbours. On the sidewalk. No big.
Feeding oneself takes intense focus. FIRST: you need to open your mouth. NEXT: you must insert the food.
The skyline as we drove into Cleveland yesterday. Benj had a beach soccer tournament. So we drove a total of 5 hours for about 1 hour of play.
(Fortunately there was some fun in the lake for the spectating sibs to compensate for it):
“I have this little finger, and this little nostril and they fit together so very well, especially when I am feeling shy.”
Ella during one of her delicious 3.5 hour naps. (LONG MAY THEY LIVE! KNOCK WOOD!!)
A Sunday afternoon walk
Progress for the impatiens
What my mom is missing this month on instagram
May Days: Part 1: The Planting of The Impatiens
Every year we plant impatiens in our front flower bed. They grow to amazing heights every year using this magical formula. (This has been a very popular Works for Me Wednesday feature in the past)
This year I imagine they will be extra spectacular given the fact that Ella was so intimately involved in the process.
Watch this space for the results
The Brown-Thumb's Guide To Growing Ridiculously Gorgeous Flowers
This WFMW was originally posted last May, but due to some desperate queries regarding it lately, I feel it warrants a re-post. This method really does grow 'em as high as a pre-schooler's eye! Every time. Read on, soon to be master gardener..
When we moved into our house about 4 years ago we were most taken with the curb appeal of the front flower bed. It was October and it was just stuffed with beautiful, brightly coloured amazingly tall and lush impatiens.
We decided that despite our somewhat dodgy past adventures in gardening, this was something that we wanted to keep happening in our front yard, so we consulted with The Lady of the House (ex owner)who is an avid gardener and she talked us through the process.
To our great wonder and amazement by following her instructions to the T, the flowers sprang up just as vibrantly for us as they had for her and the front bed continues to be somewhat of a legend in these parts, because nobody has ever seen impatiens grow to the size that they do. It has become a family tradition to devote an afternoon each May to plant our Impatiens together (and this year, the irony of the flowers name was strong as my kids were anxious to get to the pool for the first time this season).
We have kept our mad scientist methods a closely guarded secret up until now but in a rare flush of generosity and the desire to make the world a more beautiful place, I decided to share.
Ok so this is what you do.
1. First you buy Impatiens which are designed to grow bigger then the average type. The type we buy are the Blitz variety. The darker colours seem to do better then the lighter ones but we always throw some white into the mix because it makes the other colours pop.
2.Procure the magic serum from your local nursery. If they don't have it, tell them to order some.
3. We mix it up according to the instructions in old milk jugs and pour an inch or two in these old cake pans. Be prepared to devote the rest of their lives solely to this cause.
4. We take the plants out of the flats and let them soak in this solution for about 10 minutes while we dig the holes.
5. We pour a little bit of the solution into each hole before we place the plant in there.
Pull the roots apart a little before you put them in their holes
6. Pat down the soil. Stand back and watch them grow. Small children and animals may get lost in the foilage.
7. We give them a little shot of Miracle Grow about once or twice a month for maintenance. We water them daily (unless it rains or is exceptionally humid).
They grow from just after the last frost in May til well into October. Our kids have fun stomping down the huge stalks on Hallowe-en night when they start to look tragic.
Hermione, Malfoy and Potter pose in front of their herbology project
Go to, and plant!
Tiptoeing through the tulips
Perhaps the main attraction is that they signal that Spring has indeed arrived, against all odds.
They remind me of my wedding day, I begged the grounds-people at the Salt Lake Temple to allow them to stand just one more week and I like to think they did, just because I asked. I was so delighted to be surrounded by tulips in my wedding pictures. Since then, my husband has shown his devotion to me by way of the tulip.
Tulips signify hope and love and everything good. But it is not just their message that makes me so enamoured of them..
The colours! Oh the colours! So incredibly vibrant. Have you noticed that when you see a bed of fresh red tulips, they have this amazingly vivid shimmer to them that makes them almost resemble a mirage? Sometimes when they are grouped together like that they look like a photo that has been too enthusiastically photoshopped, you can't even see the detail for the colour. It's surreal...but stunning.
I love the shape. The tulip is so classic but never stuffy. They are cheerful and happy but never unruly. When a tulip is in its classic half closed state it could not be more adorable. On their long elegant stems though they are somehow stately at the same time. Adorable and stately, it's a tough combo to pull off but the tulip can do it.
When they open their petals to bask joyfully in the sun, we are allowed a peek of their gorgeous faces. Streaked with colours they look like a painting of a sunset, impeccable stamens, liberally dotted with fluffy yellow pollen. They are the perfect specimen of floral beauty.
The only thing I don't like about tulips? They don't last very long! I spent some time yesterday afternoon photographing some of my precious babies from very angle. Click on the collage to enjoy their beauty with me. Do you love the tulip the way I do?
Project: Space to be a kid
We inherited a very lovely, well landscaped backyard when we bought this house. It was our favourite thing about the house in fact. I grew up with an avid gardener as a mother and I hated yards that were nothing but lawns, I wanted magical little spaces for my children to play in as I had and so this was my dream come true. As our kids grew and had the unusual penchant for running around we realized it was not working out for us quite as well as I had hoped it would, and I started to fantasize about yards with nothing but big expanses of green running space. My first idea of moving was shot down by Aaron (kill-joy) so I had to move onto Plan B. Our property is not exactly large but I figured we could create at least a little more running space without sacrificing too much charm, and so we embarked upon this sweaty project.
We had several commitments this week so as I mentioned before, much of this work was done in the dark. I will now document the before and after of this undertaking in painstaking detail especially for my mother and anyone else who had to listen to all the obsessing regarding my poor tragic grass deprived children prior to the event.
The BEFORE view from our deck. In the foreground on the right is a big bed of weeds that we used to use as a vegetable patch. Believe it or not it was completely cleared of weeds just the week before and all that grew in while we waited for the sod to arrive. Stuff grows well in this swamp. (We moved the veges to the side of the house which wasn't being used for anything this season and they are doing quite well.)
Here was what the lawn comprised of before. As you can can tell there was very little space for the kids to play.
So we decided to incorporate the lilac bush, the bed to the right of the lilac bush and the previous vegetable garden into the lawn. Which involved cutting down the lilac bush (which actually had not been performing well in the last few years so it was not toooo painful. That branch right there is much heavier then it looks btw.
Gracie clears the sticks and branches away. She is so tough. Little hiked up skirt not withstanding.
Finny sort of helped too.
So here is the area sans lilac bush. You can get a better view of how little the lawn was. Really no space to play other then on the swingset.
Back in that area between the slide and the gazebo, we cleared out part of the flower beds so that the grass could expand into that area too. I transplanted some of those plants along the edge of the gazebo to cover an ugly exposed bit of the foundation. This pleased me. Once we had cleared out many big rocks, a brick border, all the random toys we found under the foilage and all manner of weeds, we transplanted some plants and "leveled" the area.
Then we laid grass over allllllll of that (and let me tell you, when I say "we laid grass" I mean Aaron laid grass as I stood by slapping mosquitoes and telling him that he missed a spot. "Laying grass is not nearly as straight forward as it sounds in this case as you can tell he was working with some rather curvy, uneven terrain. In short it was rather an ordeal. He also replaced some of the patches under the swingset that had been destroyed by little swinging feet. The replacement parts currently look a bit like a bad toupe, or a furry green animal pelt.
Then in a stroke of genius. Ie: D'uh why did we not do this from the beginning? We moved the swing-set to be along the back of the yard.
This was the back corner of the yard. I believe this shot was actually taken after some massive clearing out had already occurred. It was just a big mess of ornamental grasses, weeds, with some nice flowers. It was a jungle
After quite a bit more clearing
We split up that ornamental grass bush that was just sitting right in the middle of everything and put it against the fence which provides nice coverage there. Then we laid grass in the cleared jungle area. Here is Gracie testing it out. This is where the slide part of the swing-set would end up being.
This all created lots more space for this ( love their faces in this shot so you should click on this photo). Really, you should. Can't you just hear the soundtrack as they run in slow motion: BooooooRRRRRN FREEEEEEE. As free as the wind blows...as free as the GRAAAAASSSS grows......
And this. Of course.
On the other side of the garden, we cut a cute little grass path into the big flower bed in an area that was very prone to weeds, transplanted some of the plants there along the path and into other more needy areas and made that part of the bed into cute little shaded grassy area for reading or having a picnic. I may consider putting a sandbox here. But the grass is so lush and nice it would be sad to kill it right away. Here is one side of the area previously inhabited by another jungly type combination.
Here's the other side of the little alcove. Which used to look like this. And required lots doing what they are doing:
And after: Ahhhhh...Doesn't that look like a nice quiet place to chill? Sooo much nicer then having to pick through plants to weed that back patch. This whole area is sort of hidden away. I believe in having hidey holes for kids in gardens, I think they are so magical. I am thrilled that now we have a nice combination of some running space and some cloistered spots.
I am so excited. It was so satisfying to see what I had imagined in my head come to fruition. Our next challenge is to find a way to eradicate the swarms of mosquitoes which also find the new set-up tres attractive. I swear I felt my feet leave the ground today as they descended upon me. I fear that I am going to need a blood transfusion pretty soon.
