Courtyard make over

 BEFORE! As you can see this planter near the table was an over-grown jungle!

AFTER !!  We removed a few of the "ugly" and snail infested shrubs, pruned the two trees and purchased 3 shade loving shrubs, including my favorite flower, hydrangea.

This sweet angel statue used to be in my parents yard in the house I grew up in up in Atascadero. I think it looks so good here.

hydrangea....my favorite flower

k

The shrub/tree you see to the left is usually covered in bright pink flowers and attracts humming birds. They are flying around out here drinking the nectar from the flowers constantly. I thought it would be fun to hang a bird house here and see if just maybe a humming bird will make a nest in there!

This plant was here when we moved in. We hung up the little wall mounted fountain that was my 30th birthday gift from Kevin. This is right outside my kitchen window so now I can hear the water flowing in the fountain all day and I love it.

      BEFORE!
 Notice the brick planter that runs along the front of the house underneath our bedroom window? It was filled with this overgrown white/silver, dusty shrub. Also TOTALLY infested with snails....and hiding landscape lighting!

Here is another shot of it to the left of the picture. An overgrown, unsightly mess.

I woke up yesterday morning and decided to tear out all of the white/silver shrubs and plant flowers. It was a HUGE job and I was quite grossed out by all of the snails I encountered...but the results are completely and totally rewarding and Kevin LOVED it! I surprised him with it when he got home from work yesterday. 

I chose three kinds of bedding flowers to transform this planter area. Can you believe these beautiful landscape lights were just buried underneath overgrown shrubs? 

I also adorned the area with the other angel statue that was given to us by my parents. This angel used to be in there yard in Atascadero.

 One thing we were sure to do was to put down some snail bait around all of the new shrubs and flowers we planted. Both the front and back yards have a snail issue and we are just doing are best to get rid of them.

Dreams Come True

ll
This past week I decided to decorate the hall way in our new house with a few family pics. Instead of just hanging them the way I always have I thought it would be fun to use some small ledge shelves. 

I bought these little shelves at Target for $10 a piece. They come with directions for hanging them and I was proud of myself for getting out Kevin's battery operated drill and hanging wall anchors, using a level and doing this whole project on my own. (trust me he was happy too!) These are the kind of projects I would usually enlist his help in, but I decided to try it on my own and the results are so rewarding!

 

 

I was also proud of myself for coming up with a solution to the "thermostat in the middle of the wall" problem. I knew that hanging a bunch of family pics around the thermostat would look ridiculous. Therefore I found this "Dream Come True" picture that is basically a print on a canvas. I found it at Marshalls for $12.

 

The thermostat sticks out 2 inches from the wall and the canvas has a 1 1/2 inch "hollow center". Therefore it worked perfectly for just propping the picture on the shelf and resting it at an angle against the wall. The picture completely encloses the thermostat AND gives the collage of family photos a title which is DREAMS COME TRUE. I love this title because if you look at the photos around it there are images of dreams coming true for our family. Kate with her long wanted dog Lily... Kevin and the kids at the beach (which reminds us that we live at the beach now which has been a dream of Kevin's and mine for many years.) When I need to turn on the heater, I simply remove the art piece, adjust the thermostat and put it back.

In addition to the Dreams Come True canvas I also added a few pieces of interest by propping up 2 different shells and a bird figurine. 

Since I already owned the frames, shells and bird figurine, I just developed several recent family pics, purchased the ledge shelving and the Dreams Come True picture. Total cost for this project was under $60. If you wanted to re create a project like this, you can buy black, wood frames at Walmart for under $4! Additionally the Dreams Come True canvas art is only ONE of several canvas art pieces I've seen out there. Check out Marshalls, Ross, TJ Max, Home Goods, Tuesday Morning or Big Lots  for your best deal. I've also seen them at Pier One and World Market...but you'll pay twice the price there. I've seen all kinds of sayings, quotes, "family rules" and pictures of birds, butterflies, etc etc. This kind of art is perfect if you have something sticking out on your wall you want to cover such as a thermostat.