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Fun With Rubber Mulch & Petunias

March 8, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 8 Comments

We’ve been having some crazy glorious weather in Dallas lately – I am loving it!! The spring-like temps got my hubby all inspired to freshen up our landscaping with new mulch.

I didn’t get a proper “before” photo so you could see how truly hideous our flower beds looked but just take my word for it – they were looking really beat.

We both hate working in the yard with a passion – and re-mulching every year just to have it look sad and faded after a few months is pretty depressing. So this year we opted to bite the bullet and try out rubber mulch – it’s more expensive but it will supposedly last for up to 12 years without fading or decomposing! If that’s the case then we will have recouped our investment after the first two years, saving ourselves money and lots of labor in the long run. This is the brand of rubber mulch that we went with.

Have any of you tried rubber mulch? What’s your take on it? (And please ignore our straggly bushes.)

Once Jason finished spreading all the mulch our flower beds were looking pretty snazzy!! I love the way dark brown mulch looks – it just does it for me in a way that reddish or light mulch doesn’t. Anybody else?

And check out that contrast between the mulched and non-mulched areas – the mulch makes such a difference!!

Jason didn’t spread any mulch in the areas right by the sidewalk and front porch because . . . I promised I would plant some flowers. What was I thinking?

We picked up 40 purple petunias from Home Depot and I got to planting. First I had to fill up an entire garbage sack with all of the nasty weeds and dead flowers that I pulled out of the beds. Good times for a chick that’s 31 weeks pregnant! (And yes, that’s the same T-shirt from the nursery-painting extravaganza. It now has pink paint on it which makes me feel somewhat sentimental – weird, right?)

Pulling out all of the dead stuff wound up turning over the soil pretty well so it was easy to plant those suckers once I’d laid them all out in their future homes.

You may have noticed that every tree within a 5 mile radius decided to shed its leaves about 3 seconds after Jason finished mulching – so please excuse all the leaves everywhere.

Anyway, after a few hours of work our flower beds were looking cute and colorful!

I’m ready for our little Japanese maple to get its leaves, and for the knockout roses to really start blooming. Bring on the color!

I still have plans to add two planters to the front porch, but knowing me that will probably never happen. :) What about you – have you been fiddling around in your garden lately?

New Wing Chairs In Our Den!

February 28, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 15 Comments

I know I’ve already gushed about them here and here, but I haven’t shown you the full enchilada – our new wing chairs in their new home in our den!!

I seriously could not be more THRILLED with them!! I feel like the bold splash of peacock blue (not really teal like I called them before) really pulls the whole den/kitchen/breakfast nook together. Which is actually a pretty impressive feat for two wing chairs.

That side of the room really needed some height, so the taller backs of the wing chairs paired with the leaning mirror (formerly in our bedroom) adds some verticality that draws your eye towards our vaulted ceiling.

You may have noticed a few other new additions – like the tripod table between the wing chairs and an aluminum table by the couch (you’ll see it in other photos). Before we got these tables the only surface we had for drinks, etc. in the den was the coffee table – and then we moved the coffee table in front of the other couch (because it looks better layout-wise) so Jason and I didn’t have anywhere to put our food/drinks/feet while we were watching TV, which just wouldn’t do. :) The new tables have been fab!

And, of course, change begets change and now I’m itching for new pillows in the den. :) Isn’t it funny how that happens?

I definitely dig the new view from the kitchen.

And the peacock blue wing chairs balance out the blue from the DIY squiggle art on the other side of the den.

Oh! How could I forget our new pouf and basket?? I’m officially obsessed with the basket – before we got it there were piles of junk all over the coffee table, but now I can just cram everything into the basket and nobody is the wiser. Tricky.

And if I’m really being honest, this is how the room looks most of the time – I have stolen the aluminum side table and claimed it as my computer/drink receptacle, and Jason is a huge fan of the pouf for foot-propping purposes.

What do you guys think?!? Have you made any changes to your home lately that have made you as happy as the new wing chairs have made me? And what about that domino-effect where you make one improvement to the room and suddenly there are a hundred other things you want to change – am I alone on that one?

By the way, I may have made a few other changes in addition to the wing chairs, new layout, basket, pouf, leaning mirror and new side tables. Somebody stop me!

P.S. Happy birthday to my awesome hubby today!!!!