It's been a while since I've posted anything on the blog. I will hopefully, be posting a little more regularly in the future =) Here is a brief update of things that have been happening around here. The garden guest bedroom is now a pretty shade of Lilac.

 I did try to paint it green first, since the hubby wasn't a fan of the lilac color.

 But the room just kept telling me it wanted to be lilac =) Does that happen to you?

 We've already had several guests stay in this room, picking it over the blue room, so I must have done something right.

 I shopped the house for the pictures on the walls, picked up the owl print at goodwill, painted the little owl on the dresser at a paint it yourself pottery shop. The chair came from a consignment store near my sister in Utah. I still need to recover the seat, but haven't found fabric I love yet.

 I collected the bedding, lamps and purple pillow at TJ Maxx, and made the coffee sack pillow. The comforter at the bottom of the bed came from Costco. The best part about this room is that it looks out onto the back courtyard.

 I love to bring a cup of something warm out here in the mornings and watch the squirrels and birds.

 Listen to the birds chirping and the water fountain. We extended this patio this summer, we added about 10 feet in length and took out a huge bed of plants and weeds. The hubby has been rebuilding the fireplace, he has a bit more to do to it before we can have smores.

 We brought in all new gravel to create this dining area under the tree, just so I could hang my candelabra from the branches.

 Added new gravel, extended the walkway and rebuilt flower beds.

 We had the house stained and all the trim painted. We had College Painters do the work, they were wonderful!

 We added all new gravel down this path also, we gave away our chickens and turned the chicken coop into a garden shed, for now.

 We fenced in the garden, built new raised beds and added hazelnut shells to keep the deer out.

 I bought the cute gated arbor at a store near my sister in Utah.

 We added blocks and pavers around the backside of the driveway and took out 2 trailers full of brush and bamboo.

 I can't even tell you how many trips to the yard waste dump we have taken, probably close to 10? maybe 12.

 All the trim was painted, along with the shutters.

 We cut quite a bit of the wisteria down, including all of it near the kitchen door. Moved a few bushes, and took a few completely out.

We also cut down a total of 5 trees! Whew! Oh, and I have 150 tulip and daffodil bulbs planted in the front and back of the house. It should be beautiful come spring! It feels good to be back! Have a wonderful evening!

Finding inspiration for the Garden guest bedroom has been a little difficult. I really wanted to go with a lavender/lilac color. I call the room the Garden guest bedroom because it has french doors that open to the garden/hottub/fireplace/patio. I decided to take a walk through the yard for some inspiration =)

 These hydrangeas are gorgeous and one of my favorite flowers! I already painted the other guest bedroom blue and the guest bathroom is a seaglass blue, so I don't really want another blue room. Love the hint of lilac/lavender.

 Not sure what these are, but I like the purple/pinky color.

 Delphiniums are new to my yard this year, love their color too, the pale purple and the medium purple.

 I love the pale purple color of these flowers on this hosta... but I love the colors on the leaves even more.

 I love the colors of this grass too!

 Love the color of this plant too, I think it is called Jacob's coat? Or something similar?

 This Hydrangea is a pale yellow with hints of pink. The pink is out of the question for the bedroom for sure, but the yellow is a good contender.

 I am not sure what this plant is, but I love the yellow and green colors.

So we have pale lilac, pale green, yellow and a medium green... hmm, I know the trim will be white, and the ceiling will be white (currently is is the same color as the walls, ugh! Not a fan of painting ceilings but it's got to be done). The hubby is still not liking the idea of the lilac room. So I think I'll go with... 

You'll see soon!

 A walk through the yard June 10, 2012.

 The garden is almost done! Above is the little herb box near the house. It contains parsley, chives, cilantro, peppermint and spearmint.

 I bought this on Saturday at the Farmers Market, yes I probably could have made one... but it was only $15.00 and for the price of the boot(s) and the strawberries, I figured it was worth the money =) Yes, those are strawberries!

 I am going to try growing some dahlias, fell in love with the color of this one, it's called Red Flame.

 I will plant them in the new garden box near the front of the garden with the transplanted climbing rose.

 I had some rusted metal chicken waterers in the chicken coop, I thought they would make fun planters. (I use plastic buckets in the chicken coop for them to drink from). I put 2 kinds of lavender and a pretty pale yellow chrysanthemum in each one. I placed one near the garden herb garden.

 The garden herb garden, so far, contains rosemary, basil, lavender, a transplanted herb that smells like lemons... any ideas? And lastly transplanted chives.

 The other chicken waterer with an old camp pot and an old copper container that the previous owners of the house left behind. The copper container contains a cherry tomato and more transplanted chives, the old camp pot contains more chrysanthemum and a succulent.

 This bed contains broccoli, cauliflower, bush beans and peas.

 This bed contains cucumber, corn and pumpkins.

 This bed contains tomatoes, jalapenos and eggplant.

 And finally the zucchini! The only thing I have left to do in the garden is to put down hazelnut shells in between the raised beds, I ordered them at the Farmers Market on Saturday and will pick them up next Saturday at the Farmers Market. The hubs still needs to build the gate too ;)
 I had planned on planting potatoes, which need to be weeded, again

 the asparagus...

 and the artichokes into the fenced garden area next spring, but I guess I don't have room! Ha! Oh well, they seem to be pretty happy where they are =)

 This is my next project area... meet my soon to be rose garden =) but I gotta finish a few other projects first! We are still working on laying new gravel on all the walks, laying river rock along the driveway and cleaning around the main pond.

We have apples on all three trees!

And plums on the plum tree I gave the hubby last year for his birthday!