Roman Holiday

Lands of the Roman Empire

  At the beginning of the spring, I posted about getting the yard ready for the summer... and then a little later I posted about some floral progress that had been made...  Well, I guess it's time to show you the fruits of our labor!  Actually, the flowers and vegetable garden you'll see are my pride and joy and sweat collectively.  The beautiful grass and the architectural details are all Andy's doing.  Yes, I am going to be showing off our yard in this post, but only because I am so proud of my husband and all the hard work and dedication put into his vision, his dream, for this house.  Bless him!  No wonder his back hurts so much at night!

Now, mind you, these photos were taken this evening during that time between when the sun has just gone down below the horizon but it's not yet dark outside.  I turned off the flash, and it actually made it seem like it was much lighter outside than it really was, but under the low light conditions, this camera just couldn't take a good clear picture.  Clicking on the photos to make them bigger helps a little.  But this is how our yard looks on a summer evening.  Now you'll understand why I am such a homebody!

Here's the front of the yard, and the impatiens I posted about earlier:

The impatiens are those little bits of pink, red, and white along the lower front garden and above the fish pond.  Here's a view of it from the other direction:

This little garden fairy lives next to the garage door alongside our sidewalk.  Doesn't she make a lovely little guardian for our flowers?

And this is Andy's Great Wall of Michigan...since we've never travelled to China! This is what he has been working to finish up most recently.  Other than the steps needing their surfaces installed, it's done.  I think he did a fabulous job!

And here is the vegetable garden I keep posting about.  It's not very big, but it could feed our entire county, that's for sure.  It sure is a bumper crop producing little patch!

This dahlia and these zinnias were planted as seeds this spring.  Despite the heat and full searing sun, they are doing very well, and I love how they really add some pretty color to the deck.

And I'll leave you with the two views I start and end my day with...all thanks to my wonderful husband and his landscaping abilities.  Thanks honey!  Without you, we'd have gravel for our lawn!

Peonies Have Finally Bloomed!

The garden is considered a corner of our home here, as we spend so much time in it!  These finally bloomed and I couldn't wait to get them into a vase to enjoy them...  Peonies are my favorite flower as they smell so heavenly!  These are especially fragrant, and we are enjoying the addition to the kitchen table immensely...

Small Corner of our Home

This is a really little corner, but I love it.  It had been a long time since my last post of a corner here at the Roman Empire, but this one is dear to me and I wanted to put it out here.  I'm in a nostalgic and sentimental kind of mood today... you'll see why in my post tomorrow!

Anyway, this is a photo of a grouping of Demdaco Willow Tree figures on top of my mantle.  This is our family, at least as I see them, in the form of someone's artwork.  I love these figurines but I have limited myself to just these 4.  It's hard not to buy them all up, every single one of them, but I don't like dusting knick-knacks!  My parents bought us the nativity set for Christmas two years ago, and I put that out for the holidays, but these are the only ones I have that stay out year round.  They were given to me by my family...  I love them!

Progress in the Yard

I've planted a few things...  Some salvia and impatiens went into the "flower bed" out by our street.  I also managed to get some impatiens planted in the flower bed above the fish pond:

As you can see here, the tulip has bloomed!  And I've cleaned out this flower bed and prepped it although nothing has been planted yet.  And what do you think of this???  May flowers in April? 

 

I case you were wondering, although I did want the tulip and the May flowers removed from the garden, I didn't just toss them in the compost spinner...  I decided to enjoy their loveliness in my kitchen.  Don't they add a bit of cheerfulness to doing the dishes?

So, that is what I did during naptime on Monday.  Of course, now today it's cold and yucky out, just because I got a couple things planted!   Never fails...

Spring Cleaning in the Yard

Spring is here in the form of 81 deg days and barefeet!  I love it when the weather finally makes it's permanent turn to WARM.  I am also thrilled because these guys who have been living in my basement all winter:

will finally quit stinking up my house and will move out to their summer home:

.

You know, we've lived in this house for almost 5 years now, and we still don't have our yard done!  But then again, we have four kids (the first one starting cooking on our honeymoon, and the last bun came out of the oven just 6 months ago, so it's been a crazy half decade!) ages 4 and under so we haven't exactly had the leisure time to get outside and get it done.  Someday I'll have to post some pictures from when we started this endeavor, and show a few photos of work in progress.  But for now, I'll just show you what it looks like at the moment.

Here is the front porch area.  The stones were all hand laid, one by one, by Andy the first year we lived here.  He spent hours on this.  The wall goes all the way around the interior of our front yard because it is dug out to allow the trees to survive! 

Hey Autum, notice anything hanging just inside the front door?  :)

We haven't prepared the flower beds yet or anything, but that's on my higher priority list of things to do.  At least my peony is making it's grand entrance, and next to it are a couple rogue tulips that I have no idea how they got there....  hmmm...  is there a bulb bandit in the neighborhood?

Here's a "side" view of Andy's steps -- I can't help it.  I just really like them a lot.  They are unique, I think!  And you get an idea of the wall we have and all the hard work it really was....

But we took advantage of the warm weather and got started on the task of making the yard look beautiful for the season.  Daddy had lots of help!  Mary Poppins supervised while her sidekick, Cheryl Swopes played a little one-on-none!

I couldn't get the kids to come in at all.  Not even to eat.  They absolutely love being outside, and in the summer it's impossible to deal with them at bedtime!  It could be worse -- they could be Nintendo addicts...  Here they are each enjoying the day in their own way:

So that was how we spent our Friday.  Celebrating the fact that the Roman children's warm season had officially begun!  Now today I have to get my bottom end out of this chair and away from the computer, put it in the truck and drive it down to Lowe's to get the stuff I need to prep my flower beds!!!!  Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

A New Corner Post

It's been a while since I posted the kitchen as a corner entry, so I thought I throw another one out here.  Since this is the cleanest room in the house at the moment, and also the prettiest, I'll give you a glimpse into Attie's room...

All of the bedrooms in our house are odd because there is this little built in desk area in each of them (except the master bedroom).  When we bought the house, it was one thing I already knew I wanted to change, but we haven't yet.  They came in handy as built in changing tables for babies!!!

Originally I had planned to decorate her room in a Dick Jane & Sally theme, and even framed some prints to hang in her room.  They ended up in this little alcove, athough, because I fell in love with something else for a decor. 

   

The Dick and Jane idea was really cute, but then I spotted this set one day when out shopping and knew that I was going to end up going with the pretty, floral, feminine look she could grow up with:

   

You gotta love Rachel Ashwell!  (Especially when it's affordable for a change!)  I had an old book case that was falling apart and rebuilt it/updated it to give the room a little girl's feel.  That way the floral wouldn't feel too much  like an old lady's room!

I lined the back inner panel with a dainty floral fabric and then gave the whole thing a coat of fresh white paint. 

   

Then I took craft paints and put little designs on the top and a tree swing scene on the side.  It took all of a half hour when I did it.  (Minus the time for the coats of paint to dry!)

 

Now, I just have to do something with our bedroom!  The girls' rooms are all done for the most part -- Annika's and Aelin's room needs some wall decor, and the nursery is done until Andrew is big enough to be out of the John Lennon stage.  Our bedroom is the only one we haven't done anything with.  We don't even have matching furniture, so I may never ever ever put it out here!

The Kitchen Project...

Well, I've decided I'm happy with the results of my little project!  A week ago, I decided to line all of my cabinets and drawers in the kitchen with shelf paper.  I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but now every time I open a door or a drawer, I'm even more in love with it!  Isn't it funny how the little things can make the mundane become beautiful?  My kitchen has stayed spotless this week because I'm thoroughly enjoying being in there, more so than usual.  The underlying bonus of the shelf lining adventure is that my cabinets were given a thorough cleaning and now they are organized again.  Don't they look inviting with everything in it's place? 

In fact, I even got out my copy of "Tiffany's Table Manners for Teenagers" and put it back on the shelf over the sink.  Such a pretty kitchen needs a touch of elegance!  I need to order the newer edition, as it has the trademark Tiffany blue cover.  My edition is older, and has the original cover to it.  That makes it more valuable to book collectors, but I'm into the Tiffany blue boxes!  I've saved every single one that I've received over the years, no matter what was in it. One large box held our champagne glasses that were a wedding gift from my parents, and one of my smaller boxes held a beautiful cross that Andy gave me for a birthday gift the first year we were married.  No matter what was in any of them, I treasure the trinkets for who gave them to me and because I just LOVE Tiffany's!!!

And since the new wonderful thing to do is share the corners of our homes with each other, I'll just start with my kitchen for this week's glimpse at a corner of our home.  To top off all of the scrumptious frills recently added, I popped a flower into a cute little lemonade bottle and put it on my enamelware tray that holds our coffee, tea, and toast complimentaries to brighten our morning beverage time.  And our oldest daughter Attie really wanted some flowers when she went to the store with Dad last night, in order to properly prepare for her wedding that she is elaborately planning every moment of the day!  I had to convince her that they needed to be in water to live to see the big moment--oh to be 3 again!  So we popped them into a cute little green vase and set them on my flower tea tray that I use to carry my teapot and teacup to wherever I may be taking my cup of relaxation.  And of course, laid out on the kitchen island for wearing as soon as we start our day?  All of the girls aprons, of course!  One for me, and one for each of my girls.  Aren't they sweet?  Mine is from April Cornell, but the girls' aprons are from cath kidston.  Just perfect for them!