making the most of a washed out weekend

The weather did not cooperate with all my flower planting I had anticipated for Memorial Day weekend. We did have Monday and it was hot and sunny so I crammed in 3 days worth of planting like a mad woman. Added some new plants this season too like electric glo echeveria (picture #2) and ribbon bush (picture #5). Both just annuals here in zone 5. I am about half way done planting my summer flowers. I will wait to buy the rest when my favorite garden centers start having their big sales.

Oh and I have tiny sun sugar tomatoes already!! Well, little green ones for now but it won't be long until I have lots of ripe and sweet orange ones. I cannot wait!!

Flora Grubb

Illustration by Elisabeth Moch

Flora Grubb is amazing. If I could move to SF and work for Flora, I would. The article about her at ReadyMade.com is completely inspirational. I'm in the process of making a huge career change and hearing a success story like hers is exactly what I needed.

read it here: How Did You Get That F*&%ing Awesome Job?: Plant Prowess

five for friday: my proven winners

1. Purslane
2. Mezoo
3. Supertunia
4. Cerveza 'n Lime
5. Superbells

Hello fellow Zone 5-ers! These are a few of my favorite NO FUSS annuals. They're not the most exciting flowers however they are the ones I buy every year because I know exactly what to expect. White Supertunias? Really?? Yes! If you dress them up in a potted arrangement with sedum and some grass...they can work. Not in an incredibly interesting way but you will get a LOT of flowers. I also buy a lot of Purslane. White, orange, sometimes even hot pink. It's always available at Home Depot and Lowes and for a bargain price. I usually have to hit a nicer garden center to get my Cerveza n' Lime and Mezoo although Lowes had Mezoo one year. And Superbells...a small petunia hybrid...will give you a whole summer's worth of blooms and is my choice for hanging baskets.

I hope you all have a great holiday weekend - go plant some flowers!!

basement: doors and floor

Mark has been waiting months to bulid this shelf-door and it is amazing! It's the door to our furnace and hot water heater. We won't be able to diplay anything too fragile since it is a functioning door. And this space is sort of a man cave so there's no need for me to girl it up with my vintage pottery...that's what the upstairs is for! We found some carpet tiles for $2 bucks each. Not in our original plan but they are going to work out perfectly for a portion of the basement. We also picked up the correct size pocket doors this week so now all we have to do is the trim work, finish up the floor, and install some cabinets. YAY!

take a photo: something alive

1. Paula
2. BB
3. ModFruGal
4. Mish
5. Mark
6. Beth


Thanks to everyone that participated!!

happy Friday!

No five for friday. Nope. My brain is clogged up with too many things this week, none of which are ideas or inspirations for a five for friday post. Plus I'm getting a visit from my big sister this weekend and I want to get all that drywall dust vacuumed up before she arrives! Time to clean!!

yep, 1974... love those pants I'm wearing!

bend seating

I love these chairs from Bend Seating! They first caught my eye back in January and I saw them again today in the new issue of Dwell. A bit steep for me in the $400 - $450 price range but I'd jump at the chance to get some if I had that kind of cash.

lilacs

This year our lilacs bloomed a few weeks later than last year. The 2011 bunch reached their full glory right around May 13th. Last year I witnessed a group of migrating red admiral butterflies make a pit stop at our bush on May 1st, when the flowers were already starting to turn brown. It seemed like a really special moment to look up and see all those butterflies. I had been sitting out in the yard next to the tree we had planted for our friend John. We were about to head over to John's mom's house to spread his ashes. The timing of those butterflies seemed perfect, like some sort of sign that there was still so much life to embrace.

basement: paint

The basement is painted! We chose the combo of Benjamin Moore's Wickham Gray and ACE brand's Linen. I still need to do some touch ups here and there and I'll get some better photos once things are cleaned up. Mark put in all the ceiling speakers and most of the can lights. A completely bored Lottie watched from the couch.

We messed up and bought the wrong size doors for the laundry room and tool room. Ugh. We should have the correct size doors in place by this weekend.

hello Tuesday

Just a couple of reminders...
I'll be posting everyone's photos of something alive on Sunday the 22nd instead of the 21st so you have an extra day to get out and a take a photo. I know how busy we all are but I hope you'll find the time to participate. Email your photo to me by Saturday night.

My old blog, myhousepetlottie.blogspot, will be going away forever soon so please update your blogrolls, google readers, etc. to house-pet.blogspot.com Thanks!!

surprise!

I went to water my flowers and found a little mouse in my watering can. Surprise! Way better than the ginormous spider that was in there a few days earlier.

iris germanica orange harvest

On Sunday when I was buying my sun sugar tomato plants, I saw this awesome orange iris at the garden center. I couldn't stop thinking about it so I woke up early on Thursday morning and drove back to get it. I had iris obsession!

five for friday

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