Visit from Family

I'm sitting down after a crazy long day and a wonderful week of time with my family. They left this morning and then my day turned crazy as we had a security system installed and then the appraiser that is doing our house for our mortgage called and asked if he could come today! We are still getting things in order after the move and getting things fixed and I certainly wasn't ready for the entire house to be photographed and appraised! I raced around like a crazy person, even asking the nice guy installing our security system to fix a recessed light for me and let me borrow his ladder to touch up a spot on the ceiling where there was once a leak. Well the appraiser just left and I am completely exhausted.

We did have a wonderful week with my family here though. They were such a big help in getting many of our projects done. My dad cut the grass for me which I appreciated so much, but ended up being even more of a blessing when our last minute appraisal happened! He also worked with Phil to fix the island top. You may remember the island was leaning pretty bad on the edge and was far from level. Now it is sturdy and secure and looks a million times better!

My mom and I worked from dawn to dusk in the yard every day getting the flowers in the right place. We did decide to move the blue nikko hydrangeas to the back yard and they are so happy now! They haven't wilted at all despite being transplanted AGAIN. I think it was a good move!

Then this morning before my family left, my mom and I looked through some magazines she brought and found this article from last month's Southern Living. I LOVE this backyard! I could only find one photo from the article online, but if you can get your hands on a copy of this issue, look at the whole article. It is beautiful. This is my new inspiration for the backyard :)

Look closely at the house. It is painted brick, but the sills and accents of the brick are left natural and that helps tie in the brick patio. I think I have decided that is what I want to do. We went back and forth about having the brick carport painted white when the rest of the house was painted and ended up waiting. Here is a shot from farther away...don't you think it would look more cohesive if the brick was painted white too? You can't really see it in this photo, but the carport on the right is a pinky brick. Hmmm...sounds like another project.

Back to the yard though, mom is so good with flowers. Here are a few of the things we planted:

She brought the old wheel barrow and we filled it with all kinds of pretty things! Love it! I feel like it is very Southern to have an old wheel barrow of flowers in your yard...only one though...we don't want it to look junky :)

We replaced the blue nikkos in this bed with three limelight hydrangeas as they seem to be able to better withstand a few hours of afternoon sun.

We chose this pretty much completely shaded spot a little farther out in the yard for these blushing bride hydrangeas as they were very sensitive to the afternoon sun too.

She worked on my side bed and I love how it turned out!

We've had to move the herbs around a few times too...one spot there was too little sun and another too much...they seem happy here.

We went to a great nursery in Macon, Miss., the Busy Bee, and found several great deals. Some beautiful concrete planters that already had moss on them (below on the table on the porch) and this gorgeous hydrangea that I just had to keep on the porch in a pot for now.

Mom found these 2 rustic handmade benches from a friend for the yard. The other is in the back yard with the nikko blue hydrangeas.

We all had a great time picking blueberries! We made two blueberry pound cakes and this is only the first of the berries. They are so good!

I am waiting to post photos of the living room until my sofas come in - should be next week. Sneek peak though...Ali made this adorable slipcover for my stool. I LOVE it and have it sitting on the fireplace. The plant is one that mom brought from Southern Homes and Gardens in Montgomery...it is a new hybrid and I love the color! Notice them in the photos of the kitchen too...I love having plants indoors!

My family loves Tripp and he loves them!


Look how sad he has been since they left! I feel the same way Trippers!

Come back soon!