Exterior Design

In the past few wks, it has become very clear to me that I'm a lot more comfortable with interior design than "exterior".

I had a $50 coupon for Franz Witte nursery, and I was so clueless as to what I wanted. You would think that my love for graphic and interior design would come in handy for landscaping as well, but not so much. Unfortunately, you have to take all of these different factors into account - climate zones, sun exposure, seasonal changes, etc. It was a little overwhelming for me. I just wanted to say hostas and hydrangeas and be done with it, but, unfortunately, I'm working with evening sun so it's not that easy. The one thing I knew going in was that I didn't want roses. And what did I end up getting?? Roses. The darn lady talked me into it. Don't get me wrong, roses are lovely, but the plants themselves are thorny and unnattractive to me. Plus, they're too common. I wanted to do something different and charming. In the end, the lady convinced me to try carpet rose b/c she said they're almost impossible to kill and they can withstand the harsh sun. Plus, I brought a photo of our yard, and she thought they would fit perfectly between our boxwoods. I do like the year-long purply, red leaves in contrast to the green. Eventually, I would love to make our front yard into a sweet little secret garden, but for now, we'll start with predictable roses.

Our yard before.



And after. I'm excited to see what the roses look like in full bloom this summer.



My succulents and a new little patio set. I thought I was being clever by buying this table off of Craigslist for only $30. The problem is that it's a wooden/indoor table. I tried spraying it w/polyurathane to protect it, but it's only been about a month, and it's already looking more shabby than chic.



Spoiled

I admit it. We're spoiled. Last week my sister, Amanda, suprised us with a trunk full of groceries as a house warming gift. The only thing better than food is free food! And her timing was perfect. Normally, Eric and I reserve Friday night as our date night, but Amanda's gift allowed us to eat in - with style. I was pretty proud of this dinner. Too bad Eric chose this night of all nights to come home from work a couple hours late. :(
	Then, on Saturday we got spoiled some more when Tyler and Tiffany came over and helped us with some of our home projects. Top left: The guest room headboard! Bottom left: Ty helped me file a larger hole in my desk for this handy organizational desk grommet (no more chords!) Right: And, finally, they helped us hang this large heavy mirror in our master bedroom.