Mother's Day, 2010 Announcements :)

2010 is sure to be a year we'll remember.

Today, even more so.  Today is Mother's day- we got to spend the morning with Z's family, I had lunch with mine, and then tonight I'm up for some relaxing.  It's been one of those years so far.

So, I suppose, it's time to spill the beans.  2010 will be a year to remember for us, because, well, we're expecting!  Yep.  Baby W is expected to make his or her glorious arrival sometime in October.  :)

And, if that wasn't enough, we also have our wedding planning going on!  Yep, July is our wedding TOO.

Here's a peak at my dress:

So, that's why it's been so busy around these parts!

I promise to start posting some of our ideas for both the baby and the wedding.  I'm not diving into planning baby stuff until we know the sex (which is still 3 weeks away!)

So, happy Mother's Day, 2010 to all of you mothers and soon to be mothers out there!

Backyard Inspiration: small spaces

I know you couldn't tell the scale from my backyard sketch on yesterday's post, but we have a small backyard.

From the back of the house, to the back fence is only 18.5'.  Our neighborhood is designed that way on purpose since we have acres and acres of greenbelts, play structures, 3 pools and a dog park here.  For me, I'm ok with the small backyard.  It's the perfect size canvas!

Now that the backyard demo has started, I've been scouring online photos to find elements I could add to our yard, based on our shape, our needs (we want grass finally!) and the size.

Here we have the inspirational photos I found so you can see my vision!
Enjoy the tour:

This curvy walkway, grass, and small planters at the grass line are a for sure MUST HAVE for our space.  The walkway to both side yards will run right along the house- we don't want to have to water plants right next to the house- you know, avoid as much wetting down of the siding as possible.  Maybe some container planting though?

No pool for us, but here are some more plants and grass features.  Plus, there are some great colors here, and the height variations are great.

This space is great because our patio set is this length, plus if you notice the built in BBQ to the left, that's in my plans as well.  Plus, in the paver patio, they've done another built in plant area.  Oh, and grass of course!

This photo has more pavers than we're looking at, but I like the small retaining wall for a height variation, and added seating for those BBQs.  I'm hoping to do some raised paver walls, if only in one area.

This photo I love because of the foliage at the fence line.  We plan to put a border of plants around the fence line, and this one really captured my attention!

Even though this is a digital plan, I love the small bench with the rock at foot near the upper left corner.  We'll add a bench at one of the fence lines, in direct site of the grass and the entire backyard!

We have sliding doors for our access to outside, but I'd love to eventually add french doors instead.  Either way, I love the rounded steps down to the main level, and the dark paver/brick look.

So I'm hoping to take my ideas from above, with my sketch I showed you yesterday, and create a backyard we ALL want to use, share, and enjoy :)

If you noticed, these photo inspirations aren't over the top!  They're real life, and they're really do-able, without breaking the bank (I think at least!)  My desire for our plans is to have the current patios demolished, and the cement removed.  Sprinklers can be laid by us, and then I'd have the canvas to create our backyard!

So, have any of you undertaken your backyard (or frontyard for that matter!) recently?  Anything you'd do differently, or suggest someone should CERTAINLY make sure they do?

I'm glad I've got some energy back now, because planning stuff like our backyard is what I live for!  (I even spied a great teak bench for the backyard at HomeGoods today for $129!  We CAN do this!)

A backyard transformation, part 1

Our backyard looked like this a week ago:

And, it has looked like that since we moved in July 2008.  While not pretty, it has been tucked away, and allowed us to focus on the interior of the house, and the front yard. 

So, what happened last week, to cause this?

 

Well, this:

Dry, lifting boards

wet boards that developed a hole over night...

Z spent 1 whole day, like 12 hours at least ripping the entire thing out by himself.  Tools?  Saw, mallet, wheelbarrow and protective gear of course.  Oh, that and his brute strength!

Look at the condition of this wood.  Thank god we removed it and got it away from the house!

Could there have been more nails?

Even the cement foundation pillars were removed.  Luckily, we were able to have one guy haul away the pieces of the deck for a nomimal fee, in just a few hours.

So, now, this unexpected project leads me to another awesome area to design- the FLAT backyard!

After taking the necessary measurements this morning (I've gone through this exersize before, but lost all my drawings in a mold incident after attempting the popcorn removal in one bedroom.  woops.) I drew out a scale picture of the back of our house, and the backyard, and side yard portions.

Here's the outline (cause I can't find graph paper either?  What's wrong with my brain?).

W for window, and there's a sliding glass door on the back too, which is labeled.  Those small squares with circles are mature trees that are staying due to hanging over each neighbors' yards too.

I played around with a pencil and drew this (knowing that our current no living thing backyard needs much life (grass & plants) since its all rock, stone, brick, and formerly wood from the deck) plan out:

Using these tools, I'm stoked to continue planning!  I'll post some inspiration photos soon too.

For now, I wanted to show you one big thing that's been goin on in our Casa.

Toodles!

Stepping back in, slowly

Happy May Day, everyone!

I'm glad to say, I'm slowly stepping back into blogging.  I'll tell you soon what's been going on in the last few months here at our homefront.  There's so much in store.

But, in order to not overwhelm myself, I'm slowly stepping back in.  Like that song: She waded in the water but she didn't get it wet, yet..."  You know the one.  Tell me you know the one.  I'm not crazy am I? :)

Anywho, this is my official, I'm back note to you all.  I hope wherever you are in the world right now that you're enjoying your space, your family/friends, and life.

Thanks for sticking with me, and to my awesome followers that I gained over the last 2 months, even without a post, YOU rock.  :)

Take care all, and soon...

Soon

Happy Early Easter Everyone-

So, now that it's been almost a month since I've last posted, I'm nearing the time I'll be back to regular posting.

I've said before there's "so much going on" but now, it's really true.  Life changing even.  Maybe you can guess what my two big announcements will be sometime next week.  :)

For now though, Happy April, and Happy Easter.  I hope you and your families spend quality time together.  Enjoy!

Been Missing...

Sorry Guys, I'm totally aware I've been missing this March!  There's so much stuff going on, and I can't wait to share it all.  In due time, in due time!

Anyway, I will be back soon, I promise. 

I'm not MIA permanently.  :)

That's it.  Oh, and I miss you all.  What's been goin on?  Anything good?  Any links or projects to inspire me?

VOTW #10, Laundry List of To-Dos

Howdy, Folks!  Yep, it's Friday again, Friday evening even here in CA.  Sorry I've been slow to get this up- busy family night last night!

So, welcome, to another edition of VOTW: Victory of the week!

As I said last week, and the 8 other times before (can you believe this is week 10 of 2010 already?!  ALREADY?) to goal of VOTW is to to remember the small (or large!) Victories that we all have each week.  It's good for morale, stress, and our attitude to remember that sometimes, it's the small things in life that matter.  So, whether you're proud of a recipe, a project, your kids, or whatever, link up and let the world (well, at least the blog world!) know.

I know I've built these grand to-do lists before, but for some reason this weekend I seem to be extra motivated.  Go figure, huh?  Maybe it's all the extra sleep I've been getting.  :)

Anyway, my victory won't really be counted until about 9:00 on Sunday night, but for now, I'm working off of the lofty goal of doing the following things this weekend (some starting RIGHT NOW- well, after I post this...)

1. See if my buffet is still available (and offer $50 for it)
2. Find a basket for off season sheets for the linen closet (and fill that awkward space)
3. Paint ceilings that are above where the flooring will be installed and popcorn was removed (I've resigned to doing the other spaces later)
4. Get my Spring wardrobe weeded out, and go shopping (if necessary :)  )
5. Browse HomeGoods, clearance section first of course.  New linens for the bed are calling my name.
6. Check out lease options on some of the cars from this post
7. Fix the car seat protector (for the dogs) 
8. Read, sort, and recycle magazines

What am I doing tonight?  Sitting down with these magazines:

 

That's 2 Verandas, 2 Everyday, 2 Good Housekeeping, 3 catalogs, 1 Better Homes & Gardens

Oh, and for that awkward storage shelf I was talking about?  Yea, it had popcorn on it too!  The door was never re-attached after a few weekends ago, but either way, it doesn't go all the way to the ceiling.  Totally weird.  That's the space I need a basket for.  :)

  

 It's like the smallest linen closet ever.  sigh.  But, that's why I'm reorganizing, and using wasted space!

Sorry for the bad photography- used the iPhone tonight.  Another symptom of being lazy.  I promise to do better this weekend :)

So, what's your victory this week?!  Link up you fabulous friends!  We had 29 links last week- are we gonna beat that?!  

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

PS:  Did you see that we're almost up to 300 followers of D-A... (295 this minute!) Holy Moley!  And yes, I have totally slacked on getting our 200th follower up.  Now, it feels like it's going to be a let down that I'm scared to post.  :(  But, I promised, and I'll get that going soon.  :)