Garden v.2013

May 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Hands down, spring is my favorite season.  It means flip flops, open windows, flowers, and iced coffee.  Best of all, spring means it’s garden time!  That’s right, bust out your gardening gloves and seeds because it’s time to grow some food.  This year, we decided that since I’m growing a human being, which will be due somewhere around the time our garden is usually growing out of control, we would try to keep things simple.  And with the face lift our raised beds recently received with a new fence, it made planting the garden even more fun this year -

 

In one bed we have corn, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and lettuce -

And in the other bed we have pole beans, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, cauliflower, cucumber, and banana peppers.

This year, we’re trying a new set up for the pole beans.  Last year we made a wigwam, which ended up being home to about 10,000 mosquitoes in the center.  Hopefully the new set up will allow a little more space for each vine.

Another lesson learned from last year was that we needed to protect our corn from squirrels.  Every time the corn was almost ready to pick they’d swoop in and eat it.  This year we covered the area with netting to ward off our little friends.

We’re also trying a couple new veggies this spring.  Brian really wanted a banana pepper so we threw in one of those guys.  And brussel sprouts have become a new favorite in our kitchen so we thought we’d try our hand at growing some.

And while we wait patiently for everything to grow, we’ve already been able to munch on some lettuce -

Outside of our raised beds, our blueberry bushes are loaded with berries.  We’ve learned to cover these too as birds picked off about 90% of the berries last year -

And on our patio we’ve got a mini container garden, including herbs (cilantro, basil, and dill), peppers (red, green, jalapeno, serrano), strawberries, and a citronella plant to help keep the mosquitoes away.

Yeah, so much for downsizing.

Filed Under: Garden

Building a Backyard

May 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Just when you thought we were done building barricades in our yard, we’re back for more!  Our backyard is going to be like Fort Knox when we’re done. First we put up lattice work under our porch, then we built a fence around our garden (here and here), but there was still more to barricade.  The last step was to build a removable fence to block off the area next to our shed where we have a compost bin and store scrap wood from all of our projects.

First he sunk two PVC pipes in the ground to make the sleeves -

Then he used 2×2′s to to create a removable barrier that can be slipped in and out of the sleeves whenever we need it.

And with that, our backyard is officially (we think) dog and child proof.  Well, minus potted plants Olivia likes to dig through, the bushes Riley likes to sit in, and the any other undiscovered mess that they can get into.  But hey, you can’t win them all.

Looking back, our backyard has come a long way since we moved in.  One of the first things we did was build a couple raised garden beds and put up a clothes line behind the shed -

Then we had our porch redone and installed a poured concrete patio -

Then adding a rock border around the patio (here and here) -

And I’ve already mentioned our lattice work and garden fence -

 

And here’s where we’re at now!

Filed Under: Outdoor Projects

Open and Shut Case

May 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A fence is only as good as it’s gate, which made our new fence around the garden pretty lousy -

AKA – it didn’t have a gate.  Not exactly effective at keeping unwanted pests out of the garden (Riley and Juice to name a few).  But that’s past tense because we finally hung our new gate to finish up the project -

Building a gate is pretty simple, but there are some pretty important details to think about, like which way you want it to swing, what latch to use, how you’re going to attach it to the fence, and actually making sure it’s functional.  That last one sounds obvious, but if you’re not careful with your measurements and how it attaches to the fence, you could end up wasting materials, making lots of return trips to the store, and adding lots of time to your project.  With our gate, we wanted it to blend in with the rest of the fence.  We put horizontal beams on the outside of the fence posts and the wire mesh on the inside so we did the same with the gate.  We used 2×4′s for the top two beams, but used a 2×2 for the bottom beam so it would leave more space for the gate to swing over the grass.

 

After we built the frame, we hung it using gate hinges on all three horizontal beams.  Last, we attached the latch.  We bought be the same one we used on the baby gate we made, but this one’s high enough that we don’t have to worry about Juice opening it.

 

And with that the fence is done!

Riley still seems thoroughly confused when she can’t chase birds and squirrels on the power lines all the way across the yard anymore, but at least she’s stopped running into the fence.

Filed Under: DIY, Outdoor Projects

Porta-Iron

May 8, 2013 By 2 Comments

With all the recent room shuffling we’ve been doing to prepare for the arrival of Baby Hawkins #2, one very important issue has emerged.  Where are we going to put the ironing board?  Okay, so not a super serious problem, but something that you have to deal with almost every day.  For the past three years we’ve been spoiled and have just kept the ironing board permanently up in a spare room.  It currently resides in the spare room off the upstairs loft, but that room is under construction too and soon it won’t have enough space to keep the ironing board up all the time.  So what are our wrinkly clothes suppose to do?  Enter the YoungHouseLove Pinterest Challenge!  This go around, I’m tackling the quick, but much needed project of creating a small, portable ironing board.  Here’s my inspiration -

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With a smaller, portable board, it won’t matter how many times we rearrange our house.  We’ll be able to iron anywhere our little hearts desire.  And of all my previous Pinterest Challenge projects (here, here, here, and here), this one proved to be the easiest and the cheapest!  First I gathered my supplies, which included plywood, batting, fabric, and a staple gun.

I was lucky and we had all the items around the house to this project cost me a big fat $0!  I had Brian cut the plywood to 14″x 36″ and I cut the batting and fabric scraps so they would be a bit larger than that.  First I stapled the batting to the board, followed by the fabric -

  

And that was it, our new portable ironing board was done!

 Now we just need to teach Olivia how to iron…

Filed Under: DIY

Yes Please: Mint

May 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment

I love mint.  If I could bathe our house in mint I would.  Greenish mint, blueish mint…I love them all.  And it’s everywhere right now so it’s really easy to incorporate into your house, toys, or wardrobe -

    

   

Filed Under: Products, Uncategorized

Keep Out

April 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Until recently, this is how we kept unwanted guests out of our garden -

While you’re probably thinking to yourself, “wow, that’s a beautiful fence and it looks completely impenetrable”, you’d be surprised at how easily a dog and an almost 2 year old can get around it.  Tired of Riley jumping in the garden while chasing birds, and having to chase after Juice as she tries to pull out all of the plants, we decided to build a real fence around the garden.  We wanted something functional, but that didn’t totally cut off the garden from the rest of the yard.  We opted to go with a 4ft fence (Riley can really jump) and use wire fencing for the barrier.  We started by intalling 4×4′s for the posts, taking our time to make sure all the posts were level and straight.

Next we attached the wire fencing to the yard side of the posts using a staple gun -

Then we used 2×4′s for the fence railing, covering the top, bottom, and middle seem of the wire mesh.  When we stapled the wire fencing to the posts, we only stapled where the 2×4′s would cover so if you were standing in the yard, you wouldn’t see any staples.

We’re not finished yet (pretty sure a gate is vital to the whole project…), but so far we love it!  I was really nervous that the fence would look homemade or stick out like a sore thumb, but I think it blends pretty well with the rest of the yard.

And Riley’s only run into the fence once so far!

Filed Under: DIY, Garden, Outdoor Projects

What’s Down Below

April 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The running joke with my parents is that every time they come to visit, we put them to work on some project around our house.  A couple weeks ago they almost escaped their entire trip with no manual labor, but we sucked my dad in on the last day of their trip.  Up this time?  Lattice work around the bottom of our deck.  We had our deck redone and a stamped concrete patio installed about a year and a half ago, but always felt like there was something missing.

We weren’t too fond of Riley crawling around under the porch and who knew what else was lurking around down there.  And I just keep waiting for the day Juice finds her way under there and refuses to come out.  Not good.   So while my mom and I spent the morning shopping, Brian and my dad cooked up a game plan and headed off to buy supplies.  The first order of business was trying to figure out how to secure the lattice work; the top was simple but there was nothing at the bottom to attach it to.  At first we thought we’d just nail it in at the top, but of course I kept thinking worse case scenario with Juice and the future bambino kicking balls against it, yanking on it, trying to crawl underneath it…yeah, it had to be secured at the bottom.  So with two expert contractors overseeing the job -

They built a bottom frame using 2×2′s that ran across the ground and anchored it using spikes.

With that done, they were able to quickly cut the lattice and nail it in place.  Knowing the OCD in me, they did an awesome job matching the pattern all the way around.

It was a pretty quick project, but I think it makes a huge difference.  Here’s a shot of the entire deck/patio project -

And a before and after shot of the lattice work -

 

And on our shopping trip my mom and I scored a couple pots from Home Goods for either side of the stairs -

Now it’s time to accessorize the rest of the backyard!

Filed Under: House, Outdoor Projects

His and Hers

April 22, 2013 By 1 Comment

Pssst…

come close…

I have a secret to tell you…

That’s right, baby Hawkins #2 is arriving this fall!  And apparently a flexible one too!  Brian and I have been holding tight to this secret for a while but we’re so excited to finally share the news.  And what was one of the first things that I started working on when we found out bambino #2 was one the way?  The nursery of course!  I’ve been secretly bookmarking and pinning ideas for months (thank you Pinterest for the new secret board option!) and now it’s time to start wrangling ideas and get to work.  And time’s a ticking because not only do we need to get the new nursery ready, but finish Juice’s big girl room – check out the mood board I made for her room here.

Since I’m pretty sure this baby thing can only turn out one of two ways, boy or girl, I put together two mood boards.  Up first, girl nursery -

Those who know me might be a little surprised to see this one from me.  I pretty much swore off pink the first go around and went the more gender neutral route.  I’m still a big fan of that, but I just loved this rug so much I wanted to plan a room around it.

Next up, boy nursery -

For this one I went back to a more neutral look.  It’e pretty hard to find bedding for a boy that doesn’t include trucks, animals, or sports, so for this room I’d probably turn to Etsy to find a cute blanket for the crib, maybe navy or orange.

So which room are we going with?  That one we’re keeping to ourselves for a little while longer!

Filed Under: Decor

K-ing

April 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

It’s official, we’re k’d.  10 k’d.  Last weekend, Brian and I participated in a Richmond tradition, the Monument 10k.  It only started in 2000, but it’s currently the 4th largest 10k in the country.  And a mighty fine party I might add.  But as a firm believer that running is one of the most painful things a human can do, I had to do some convincing to get Brian to walk with me instead of running, but he finally agreed.  20 minute miles, here we come!

 

Once our heat started, and everyone whizzed past us, the two hour extravaganza began.  With over 38,000 taking part in the race this year, there was plenty of good people watching to do.  The route was lined with tailgaters, house parties, bands, and of course, the monuments that gave Monument Avenue it’s name.

   

My favorite were the people in the race who dressed up, like Mr. banana -

 And this group who walked the entire 6.2 miles in their “car” -

 

I made Brian take pictures at all the mile markers to prove I actually walked the entire thing -

While he opted to visit the table that was giving away cups of beer instead of water -

We ended the day eating our way through a massive brunch, complete with a bathtub salad bar -

 

After which I proceeded to take a nap.  It’s a rough life, but someone’s gotta do it.

Filed Under: Life

Man Nook

April 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Poor Brian.  Over the last couple years his man space has been moved from room to room, getting smaller with each move.  When we first moved into our house, it had way more bedrooms than we needed and he got his very own man room complete with this sign hanging from the door -

 

But when Juice joined the family, our spare room was turned into her nursery, our bedroom went from the loft to downstairs, and his man room was turned into our office.  The loft served as our guest room, but was pretty much Brian’s unofficial man space.  Well things are changing again which means Brian’s being pushed out of yet another room.  Our “office” is being turned into Juice’s big girl room, the loft is now going to be a family room/play room, and the small room off the loft will be the new office.  Follow me yet?

 

To make up for it, we created a dedicated, permanent, Brian-only nook in the new office.  It’s not much, but I’ve promised him it’s his to keep until eternity (or until we buy a new house).  So what’s in this wonderful little nook of his?  Guitars of course -

We put his guitar stand in the corner and hung his electric on the wall.  His amp get’s to stay out now instead of being banished to the closet, and the picture is actually of a friend of ours who played at our wedding.

I even gave Brian an entire drawer in the new desk we’re building (more on that to come!) so his massive stash of strings is always close by.  Seriously, why does someone need so many strings?

 

And the sugar on top is the new stool we just bought from World Market.  It’s main home will be at the desk, but it’s perfect for him to use while he’s playing.

It may just be a nook, but it’s all Brian’s.

Filed Under: House
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