Beginning of Yard Revamp - Part I

Since starting this blog, I've started a few projects around the house. However, most aren't fully completed nor did I post anything about them.

So, I thought I would start with one of my current projects and then catch up on the others as time goes along.

I've wanted to work on the backyard from the moment I moved into the house nearly 9 years ago or is it 10. I always forget the year unless I actually stop to look it up.

Anyway, the side of the subdivision that I live in backs up to a wooded area. Said natural area took up a good portion of my back yard and was encroaching more and more into the back yard with each passing year.

Every year, I meant to get to it but every year there was more important projects.

But this past year, right before Christmas, I walked out my back door to an even bigger mess when the other half a dead tree came down.

You can tell in the second and third picture how much of my backyard was taken up by this simply by looking at far the forest comes up on my neighbor's fence.

And so, major project for 2014 was dictated to me. Financially, I knew I wouldn't able to be able to do everything this year, so the main goals were to get the forest cleared out and to install a fence. Hey, I need a clean slate before I can even begin to thin about things like landscape and the little four-legged one, seen in the second picture could use a place to run without me always having to go out with her or having to tie her up.

Pictures of the completed Phase 1, as I've termed this phase of the project, will be posted in my next post. I promise I'll get those posted quickly.

Spring is in the Air + Another Wreath

Spring has finally arrived hear in the Carolinas.

Spring is my favorite time of the years. These days though it often brings a mixed bag of emotions since it also represents the time when my father died.

That being said the renewing of life with birds chirping and flowers blooming always brings a smile to my face.

There's always something about the gentile nature of Bradford Pair trees in bloom. I don't have one myself (one of these days) but whenever I'm in my front yard , I get to see my neighbors.

And even though yellow is not a color I typically decorate with but during the spring months, I seem to have to have it and it all starts with the Forsythias in bloom. Forsythias are some of the first flowers of the season and you see them every where in these parts. There's small one's like my own (pictured below) and there are ones that are about 3 times or more this size.

Of course all this blooming also makes me realize there is yard work that needs to be done like sprucing up the mulch in the planter area.

Spring also triggers that creativity and crafting gene, too, which means time to make another wreath. This one was inspired by a wreath I say in the January / February 2014 issue of HGTV Magazine. This was a super easy and I had it put together in less than 2 hours. It was actually probably less than an hour but since I didn't check the time when I started making it, I erred on the high side with saying 2 hours.

This was my first time of making felt flowers. I was always intimated to try to make these or similar flowers but they were easy peasy, which means I'm sure they will be showing up in other projects in the future.