things that make me smile, vol. 10

Wow. This is my TENTH "things that make me smile" post!

1. New 'Do's. I go as long as I possibly can between hair cuts, often resorting to trimming my own bangs and sometimes even giving myself all around cuts. It's a dangerous game to play with no training. I went for over a year without getting a "real" hair cut then caved in January... and just got another in May. Having a nice, fresh cut that I actually like never fails to make me smile. (I also kinda like that weird feeling that hair is missing when I run my fingers through it...)

lupin

yes, more purple... wisteria

My mom brought me this "volunteer" wisteria that started off of one of her plants. It's a nice sized wisteria, but I wasn't a fan of the pot it was in--plus the roots were coming out of the bottom and it was looking all crazy!

the Hill Garden: PLANTS!

The Hill Garden is still a work in progress. It has come a long way... but still has a very long way to go! I finally made some more progress on it--I PLANTED things! In the GROUND! This is huge.

The waaay before...



Then after the stairs were finished...

pots o' purple

I had been trying to figure out how/where to plant the dahlia bulbs The Boy gave me on our third date. I don't have garden areas prepped that get enough sun... so I figured putting them in pots would be the way to go!

never enough time... or hands

I'm not bad at multi-tasking, but with everything I want to do--I wish I could be better. I wish there could be a way that I could knit, read, work on my retaining wall, spend time with awesome people, watch a movie and listen to music all at the same time... might as well throw in cooking, cleaning, taking more photos, walking my dog, mowing the lawn, refinishing furniture, building stuff and a few other odds and ends as well.

I mostly jokingly wondered if I could convince someone to come read to me while I knit and listen to music.

Until I figure out how to make that work... here's a few snapshots of my in-progress projects that I hope to finish up before winter.

year two of homeowner-ness: the changes

As of August 27, I have two full years of being a homeowner under my belt. Last year I wrote a post documenting some of the projects I completed in my first year... so I figured I should do the same for year-two! (I also wrote about the lessons learned during my first year, most of which still apply to year-two.)

Without further ado... here's (most of) what went down this past year in my lil' home:

I made a simple piece of tea inspired art for my kitchen.

hoping for lemons

Remember the variegated pink lemon tree I picked up last fall? And the itty-bitty lemon (yes, singular) it had, but never ripened?

Well, I have higher hopes for it this year. They might be slightly unfounded... but a girl has got to have hope for her lemons, right?

The tree had been hanging out in my kitchen all winter and most of the spring, but it is outside now... and actually looking pretty good!

There are some itty bitty flower buds...

The Hill Garden

This is what I refer to as my "hill garden." It's the little slope/hill/bank area that separates my upper lawn next to the dog kennel from the smaller, lower lawn.

final show

My tulips have fully bloomed.

dig a little deeper

I have this great desire to buy lots of plants and do lots of gardening... even though I don't have places prepared to actually plant things. Still.

Tearing up plastic on my "hill" and beating the hard-pan earth below it to make it workable just isn't appealing to me.

Until I get enough motivation to tackle that little item on my to-do list I make do with the tiny area around my front stoop.

alien tulips

Aren't tulips supposed to have one bloom per bulb/stem?

Most of mine do...

But this one:

hyacinth love

I love my hyacinths.

why i love the rain

It makes the calla lilies into something more special.

clear creek finds

Clear Creek Nursery was having a sale over the weekend... so of course I had to stop by to see if anything had to come home with me.

Sara and I met up after going to the Kitsap Antique Show, Costco, and Goodwill with our good friend Crystal (more on what I found at those places later!). I love going places with Sara because we have such similar tastes and ideas that we can bounce things off of one another. Sometimes that means we talk each other out of silly purchases and other times that means we end up getting more than we had originally planned, but either way it all works out better than if we go alone (plus she's just a great friend I love any excuse to hang out!).

This time our outing to Clear Creek ended with two new outdoor pots for me (the dark blue one is a bit bigger than the rustic greenish-blue one)...

fence for da bulbs

I have a small "garden" area around my front stoop. There's not much to it... a lavender plant I inherited from the previous homeowner, the bulbs I planted last fall that have somehow survived despite my lack of garden skillz, and a potted hydrangea that was a gift from a friend when I moved in.

prune and mulch

I've been meaning to prune and mulch my blueberries ever since Sara and I took the organic gardening class back in January... and I finally got it done! Or at least started.

I didn't get a "before" photo, but this is how they look after some minimal pruning (they are super tall... my guess is around 7-8 feet):

even flowers rejoice in the sun

Most days my crocuses are closed up as though protecting their warmth from the frigid air. Finally there was enough sun for them to open up... a sign that surely Spring can't be too far off.

peeking crocuses

A part of me had doubts about whether or not the bulbs I planted in the fall would actually do anything. Not that it takes a ton of skill to plant bulbs... but if I expected nothing and got anything I'd consider myself successful.

I mentioned that my crocuses were starting to come up, which got me super excited. I check them regularly to see if there are any blooms yet--and finally there are!

a bit greener

I want to have a garden. I don't know what extra time I will be able to put towards my dream of growing my own veggies... but I have to start somewhere.

And that starting point was an Organic Gardening class I took with Sara! The class was part of a four-part series through the Washington State University Kitsap County extension program. We took the second class in the series (because you don't have to take the whole series) that covered garden planning, small fruits and berries, and bee pollinators.

We learned so much I am still have trouble digesting it all! Thankfully they gave us a pile of resources that we can refer to along with seed catalogs that will help us plan our dream gardens.