{impromptu} exploring

One week left until school starts for the little guy, so we’re still soaking up summer.

Today we took a trip to the Oregon Heritage Farm…it’s one of our favorite places to go during late summer and early fall.

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There is nothing like apples fresh from the tree…especially honey crisps, which just came in yesterday!

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I bought a beautiful bunch of fresh dahlias for $3. YES. $3!

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We drove on to a park that I promised the kids we would visit. After playing on the playground, we explored a bit…

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…and found a beautiful garden of dahlias.

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We explored a bit more and found more gardens…

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…and more bees.

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I even got a few good photos of the kids…

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home is…exploring.

{our home} under foot

Last Friday we had new floors installed on our entire first floor. They turned out beautiful, but I am now on the hunt for a good area rug for our family room…

…something we can snuggle up on next to the fireplace…

…something that adds color and whimsy to a mainly beige room.

I tend to gravitate towards organic patterns like flowers and paisleys…

rugs on pinterest

you can see my favorites on the  Pinterest board I created.

Which one do you like the best? Let me know after you go check them out!

home is…something new under foot.

{in our garden} may flowers

As you may recall, we had a big landscape project done on our front and back yard last fall. We also added a “treehouse” for the kids which you can read about here and here.

In April we enjoyed the daffodils and tulips that we planted last fall and decided that we definitely need to plant more tulips this fall for next spring.

Anyway, we have planted the rest of our flowers and veggies. Here’s a tour…

All of these beauties are along the border between the rock wall and the driveway or front sidewalk. Soon, the day lillies will be blooming, too.

On the right, as you walk up the path through the yard there is our veggie garden…

herbs…

chard, baby leaf lettuce, and spinach…

and, we’re going to try pickling cucumbers and mini pumpkins growing on the arbor this year.

We’ve also got tomato (heirloom brandywine, cherry, and roma), peppers (cherry, banana, and jalapeño), corn, carrots, asparagus, and artichokes.

Four different varieties of strawberries…

Hydrangea are on their way, and the rhododendron is blooming!

The last of the camellia are blooming as you walk around the side of the house to the back gate…

with our “beware of dog” sign.

This year I planted all of our hanging baskets myself…I’m hoping that they grow!

We planted “stepables” between the stones in the walkways in the back…where there is not stone, there is gravel.

Our landscaper moved the plants that were in our front yard to our back yard to add some green and softness near the fence line. We may make some changes, but for now it feels much better!

The gravel path leads down to the dog runs and the backside of the playhouse…

I added solar lights from IKEA and they glow right after the sun goes down for a couple of hours each night. I love looking at them from our bedroom window.

Ryan came up with the great idea to make our dogs houses from wine barrels shortly after we moved to Oregon! Aren’t they awesome?!

And, I have planted more flowers in extra hanging water buckets on the dog run.

Our original landscape plan had an extended deck and a hot tub in this area, but we opted for some gravel and a fire pit for now…and I am glad we did. It is now my favorite part of the yard since I added these bright red chairs from Target!

I saw this project all over Pinterest and decided to give it a try! It definitely adds interest to what was an uninteresting and un used corner.

We have a freestanding firepit that I built the rocks up around. The rocks were scattered around the lower portion of our yard when we moved in to the house. You can also see our compost bin between the fire pit area and the dog runs…we used a full bin of compost on our front garden before we planted this spring!

Ryan has the grass fenced off after we planted over 5 lbs. of seed in April. I am hoping we can take the fence down in June and start using the entire yard.

For now, the kids can still use the playhouse and the rest of the yard and we do just fine.

I have some more projects I would like to finish up in the next few weeks and then I hope to just sit and enjoy.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

home is…extending your home outdoors.

Thrifty Decor Chick

may flowers

I love flowers.

Maybe it comes from growing up with the beautiful gardens that my mom tended to.

Maybe it was the daisy wallpaper in my room (and the many other flower motifs throughout the years of redesigning my room as a child…my mom was always up for a change).

If you were to tour my home you would find flowers in each of the rooms except for my husbands office and the little guys room.

Not necessarily fresh flowers, but some kind of flower.

And with the exception of baby girls room, which is all-flower-all-the-time, it is just a hint here and there.

I was thrilled when Emily at jones design company said she was going to share some of her flower making tutorials this past week. She is one of my favorite creative blogging mommas and she lives here in the Pacific Northwest!

flower-week

Have you visited her website?! If not, you should.

I plan on trying all the tutorials over the next few weeks…some of you may even receive some gifts with my handiwork on them!

Speaking of handiwork…

I got my craft on a few weeks ago on a Friday night. I used a wreath that I made last fall (the ruffle wreath tutorial from jones design company) and added…you guessed it…flowers.

I made the flowers the same way I made them for the hair clips I made for a baby shower gift for a little girl that was recently born.

On another flower note…

The neighbors dogwood is blooming.

There is a stand of trees that I drive by on a multiple times a day basis. It has dogwoods throughout underneath towering douglas firs. It’s like a little enchanted forest. I love it.

I always think I am going to stop and take some photos before the dogwoods lose the flowers, but every year I forget. Maybe this will be the year I stop and take some photos.

home is…stopping to smell, create, photograph, and love the flowers.