Around Here | The Backyard in Bloom

I am in love with plants.  They really are taking over my life.  And you know the best part?  Jordan loves them, too.  I'm totally loving how much energy he's putting into getting our back yard into shape.  When we moved in to our house in 2010, the house had been vacant for at least 2.5 years, which was more than enough time for all the flowerbeds and garden areas to become way overgrown.  We tried really hard to get control of them, but there was just too much.  So, in the fall after we moved in, Jordan took a bobcat to the back yard and ripped out a bunch of the overgrowth.  The momentum kind of stopped after that.

Last summer our main focus was to get the front yard in good shape.  We didn't do much at all with the backyard last year as all our efforts were funneled to the front yard   Now that we've got it under control, we're really happy with how the front yard looks.  Naturally, now we want to get the back yard into shape.  I've spend at least 3 full days out in the back yard just weeding, defining lines and working the dirt.  It's been a lot of work but these blooms are definitely rewarding.  They make the hard work feel totally worth it.

App Love | A Beautiful Mess

Have you ever read this blog?  Elsie and Emma are pretty fantastic.  They just came out with their very own app, too.  It's a photo app, and it's so much fun!  I have always loved the idea behind merging photos and words.  If you didn't already know, photos + words are the basis behind my love of paper and glue.  Telling stories around the images and photographs of my life just makes me happy.  As you can tell, any app that would aid me in this merger of words and photos has me sold.

You can use the app on all sorts of images.  I just chose to use them on my yellow-sweater-and-fedora-hate-loving-outfit-selfies from the other day.  Moral of the story: photos and words are awesome and I like to wear yellow with fedora hats.  Throw in a little doodling to that mix and you've got yourself an excellent time-waster, the best kind out there!  Go here to read more about the app.  Go here to buy it and start playing.

Refashioning Part 1 | Dress to Skirt

About six months ago I bought this dress from Target.  I fell in love with the colors in the print and was thrilled that it was on clearance. The only problem was I didn't try on the dress before I bought it. When I brought it home I found it was too short for me to wear. I was bummed. So bummed that I couldn't bare return it to the store. So in my closet it hung for months until just last week when I decided to turn the dress that was too short into a skirt that was plenty long enough for me to wear.

Greenhouse Adventures

Once upon a time I took a trip to Hansen's Greenhouse in Payson, UT with my dear neighbor.  It turned out to be quite the adventure, filled with picking out tomato plants to plotting and carrying out the creation of a few planters for my front porch.  This little Saturday afternoon adventure was pretty awesome.

You can see from the photos that we picked up some plants for me to get my planters ready for my front porch.  I'm new to this venture of gardening and all things green, so suffice it to say I didn't think it through to do the planting outside, where I didn't have to sweep up the spilling dirt.  Lesson learned: next time, don't plant the flowers in the kitchen. Do it outside!  

It's still a little early to be letting my planters stay out at night, so I've been bringing them in so they don't freeze.  I'm thinking that next week they'll be safe to be out on the porch all the time. 

Go & Do | May

1.  First on the list of goals: make some serious effort when it comes to getting our back yard into shape.  We've got loads to do!  None of it will get done if I don't hit the ground running, so that is my main focus for this month.  I have plans to get the landscape fabric and mulch down in one stretch of our backyard flower bed over the weekend.  Jordan and I have been working hard to get the dandelions under control in both the front and back yard which has been quite the task.  Dandelions are everywhere!  They are trying to take over, but Jordan and I are not giving up without a fight!  I'm excited to get to do up a few more planters to disperse through the flowerbeds in both the front and the back.  That should help add some beautiful color to the yard, which is my absolute favorite!!  I best be getting my gardening gloves on and get busy.

2.  Punctuality is going to be my second goal for this month.  I'm not sure if it's that I'm just plain tired or lazy, but whatever the case, I need some improvement and attention in this area.  So, no matter what time I go to bed, I need to be up and have myself completely ready for the day (i.e. dressed, hair done, make-up on) before 6:45 a.m. so that I can get the kids ready to go and out the door.  I guess I can say goodbye to my snooze button.  I'm not going to have much room for hitting that button and squeezing in a few more z's.

3.  This last goal is not really a goal, but more of a desire.  See, my sweet husband gave me an iPad for Mother's Day.  He's pretty amazing.  He worked his tail off for the last month working on side jobs to enable himself to get it for me.  That right there is a whole lot of selflessness.  He's so awesome.  Anyway, now that I have this new toy, I want to get my phone, iPad, and laptop all synced so that I can feel organized in the digital realm.  That includes photo management and backup, document storage and organization, and all else that has anything to do with syncing three digital devices.  I don't know about you, but I have found myself feeling the same way about a dirty house as I do about my digital information organization: it drives me absolutely crazy!  It shouldn't be that big of a deal, but it is to me.  I like to feel organized; I like having things in their place.  With the constant generation of photos and documents, things can get out of whack pretty fast, which is why I need a consistent system or protocol for handing all my digital stuff.