I'm in the mood for....

via Snippet & Ink

100+ Ways to Welcome Spring Celebrate the season with these tips, tricks, and inspirations. Breathe New Life into Your Decor 11 Steps to Brilliant Spring Cleaning Freshen Up Rooms for Less Smart Garden Shopping
via Better Homes and Gardens

LEMON DROP WREATH

via Matthew Mead

Dime store candy makes a stunning springtime wreath to reinvigorate a door, mantle or dreary wall.
What you will need:
7 inch wreath form in green Styrofoam
   ( the green is formulated to accept hot glue)
Ribbon to wrap around form
   (several yards depending on the size wreath you choose)
Hot glue gun
Ribbon to make final bow (about one yard for hanging.)
Candy of choice (we used lemon sours)
Wrapping the wreath form with a coordinating color will give your candy a nice background instead of the green Styrofoam. Hot glue the candies onto the ribbon covered form. Create a pattern by organizing in rows or randomly. Hang from twine and tie on satin ribbon bow. Place a single hyacinth blossom just under the bow.

 Wallpaper Tree

 via Country Living

Any blank surface becomes an enchanted forest with this patterned mural made from wallpaper scraps. Using this photo for reference, sketch a basic tree trunk on the back side of a sheet of wallpaper (you may want to practice first on butcher paper). Once you have your desired shape and height, cut out. On the back of another piece of the same wallpaper, again using this photo as a guide, draw branches of various sizes and shapes--including a group of three attached limbs for the treetop. Cut out the branches. Apply the paper trunk, then the branches, to your wall with ready-made paste. While the tree dries, trim remnants of other brightly patterned wallpapers into leaf shapes--you'll need about 60. Paste these to the wall so they appear to be sprouting from the branches.

70 Ways to Get Ready for Gardening This Season Get your hands dirty with these  tips, tricks, and inspiration from Better Homes and Gardens. 19 Tips for Designing the Perfect Garden 20 Dream Decks You'll Love Perennials That Can Take the Heat Best New Veggies to Grow This Season

via Better Homes and Gardens

 

Rock my World

Ella and Addie totally "rock my world".

Look at these beautiful rocks they painted for me to put in the garden!

They went on a fun camping trip with their daddy and Meema, Papa and Chloe. Meema is always doing fun crafts with them. She helped the girls paint these pretty rocks. Thanks for thinking of me Diane! I love them. You are always so thoughtful♥.

Home Tour

When Marci & Mike first moved to Houston they lived in some apartments closer to the city. When we visited they took us to these amazing neighborhoods in the River Oaks area to see the beautiful homes and landscaping. At Christmas time we always go on drives and look at lights. This is one of our favorite spots.

Every Spring The River Oaks Garden Club hosts a home and garden tour.

River Oaks Garden Club Azalea Trails I've always thought that would be so fun. Last Friday I finally got to go. I went with 3 girlfriends, Heather, Amy and my mom and of course, Taylor Jane. It was everything I dreamed it would be~ We were only supposed to take pictures of the gardens but we had snapped a few before we knew the rule.

We fell in LOVE with this arrangement.

This house was beautiful! Don't you love that lemon topiary!

This backyard was charming.

Cute Potting Shed

We saw lots of topiaries and trained vines. We loved this fence! Interesting door and light fixture.
" Honey, I'm Home.""I'm out here ... dear."

Oh, sorry, I think I was day dreaming again♥.


The gardens were beautiful!

Plan Your Garden Now

I'm still trying to learn "the how to's"of Houston Gardening.

I've always loved home grown tomatoes.

This year I'm going to try to grow tomatoes and a variety of peppers. Wish me luck!

Here's a little help I found from HGTV.

Gardening Resources:

Gardening Tips and Ideas

Growing Vegtables

Vegetable Gardening

The Helpful Gardener

e-how Gardening

Photos Courtesy of Apartment Therapy/Martha Stewart Living

More Resources:

Southern Living Salsa Gardening

A Way to Garden

Martha Stewarts Vegetable Garden Slide Show

i Village

Sunset

A Tomato Prayer

We are still trying to figure out the whole "gardening in Texas" thing. Jacksonville was supposedly tough but I managed to do quite well. We had gorgeous tomatoes that we ended up sharing with all of our neighbors and friends. Over the years we've had some pretty amazing gardens, if I do say so myself. Syracuse, New York was awesome but the Chicago garden definitely topped it. As Marci has posted, we are feeling "garden challenged" in Texas. She did a post about her Texas garden expressing her frustration. I was jealous, at least she had a tomato. I, on the other hand, have been growing beautiful stems! FINALLY we started seeing little yellow flowers. Was there hope for a tomato......Yeah we have some baby tomatoes, not just 1 but 2~ whooohoooooo

My goal ......... could we just have enough tomatoes for a dinner salad for the fam??????

Take a look at the buff (as Scott would say) stems though....... they're out growing the Lagustrum!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Should I mention, my dream, is to have enough tomatoes to make my own tomato sauce. I know, stick with the dinner salad for a family meal. Okay then, I'll hope for that!

Hydrangea Heaven

One of my favorite things about summer is the Hydrangeas. I have a spot in the back yard that they just love.
I read an article in Southern Living Magazine a few summers ago when we were living in Florida about how to use "Rooting Powder" to propagate Hydrangeas.

It really works!

Take a cutting from the tip end of a branch that did not flower this year (5-6 inches long). Make sure the branch has stopped growing, but isn't yet brown. Remove the lower leaves to expose the leaf nodes. Cut the largest of the remaining leaves in half. Insert the stem (dipped in rooting hormone) into a pot of moist, well-drained potting soil. Cover them with plastic, using stakes to keep the plastic from touching the leaves. Keep them in full light, but out of direct sun. Use caution with your south-facing window as the light could be too strong.

I tried putting the stems in water and that worked on some of them. I also read if you want blue Hydrangeas, pour pickle juice at the base. They love the acid. I like the green and pink hydrangeas, so I haven't tried that yet.