2014 year in review

Man alive, that was a fast year. Looking back, it was one that was hugely successful in the overall feeling of my home. The living room is done, the dining room is done, the sun room is done. Done is ever changing (see: blog years 2010 to current) but this time done felt D.O.N.E.  With things feeling so right, the blog took a back seat. I didn't decorate for any holidays, since who wants to mess with and clutter up D.O.N.E? There were a lot of link ups and traffic that i missed out on. I'm not sure what 2015 will bring with the blog, but beyond here, there will certainly be vacations taken and cats adored.  And if that's all that's done, well that's alright with me.

The done dining room.
 

The (almost) done living room.


Paris, France.


The DIY patio and yard makeover.


The sun room update.


Alaska cruise portion. The not to be missed land portion.


The only way you knew it was fall.


The (fully) done living room.


What makes it all good.


Thank you for reading in 2014. See you next year....
B





end of year wrap ups at domestically speaking, southern hospitality, beyond the picket fence, Currently @ Dearest Love, Random Wednesday @ Because Shanna Said So, sharing is caring: , thrifty treasures @ southern hospitality, travel photo mondays @ travel photo discovery,   , Monthly projects @ Evolution of Style Make it Pretty Mon @ Dedicated House  inspire me mondays t @ domestically speaking,   Before and After @ Thrifty Decor Chick,    Mod Vintage Life, Motivate Me Mon @Keeping it Simple, persia lou,  home stories a-z, nifty thrifty @ Coastal Charm, be inspired @ elizabeth and co, the scoop @ stone gable,  inspire me tues, lil luna, you're gonna love it @ kimsixfix, get your craft on, sugar bee crafts. your designs this time, inspire me weds @ 733, wow us weds @ savvy southern style,  twirl and take a bow @ house on the way, work it weds @ the blissful bee, outdoor weds @ a southern daydreamer, whimsy wednesday, wicked awesome weds @ handy man, crafty woman, look what i made,  whatever goes weds @ someday crafts, think and make @ houseologie, charm of home, link party palooza @ tatertots and jello, Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring, open house @ no minimalist here, creativity unleashed @ shaken together,inspiration gallery @ Craftberry Bush, Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest, my romantic home, jennifer rizzo, Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity now,  furniture fridays @ mustard seed, Feathered Nest @ French Country Cottage, design it fridays @ finding fabulous, best diy @ 36th ave, overflowing w/ creativity @ it's overflowing, nifty thrifty sundays, under the table and dreaming. inspire me please @ liz marie blog,sunday best @ the girl creative  shaken together, 

The front is fall-ified

This is always the time of year where i wish i had a big ol' porch to decorate. Or even a little ol' porch to decorate. But i make do with my stairs. My steps. My stoop. Whatever you can call it, it's officially fall-ified. I really love the all white fall set ups, with the white pumpkins, but apparently something happens to me at the store and i go straight for the tried and true orange pumpkins. I guess it's just not fall without it. 

Have you seen these striped pumpkins before?  They're my way of working in the whites while still being colorful.  Speaking of color, this weekend i went to a flower show/sale/hipster flea market with a friend, and we totally differ on plant basics.

I love greens, greens in pots, greens in the ground...i think that's rather obvious.  But she was vehemently against them, saying that is for the desert.

And she wants color color color. Interesting, i thought, and of course to each his own.

This giant kale was 5 dollars! 5 dollars!  Best. deal. ever. 

It's seriously giant. I had to pull from the pot reserves and use this cheapy plastic one b/c it was too giant for anything else.

I can't help it, i love my greens.

What about you?

Colors for your plants?? 

Or greens??

Traditional fall colors for your pumpkins??

Or whites??

Welcome Fall. Happy Fall. And to my Jewish friends, L'Shanah Tovah.

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Black and white backyard makeover

Well, i have to give the boyfriend some credit.  He was totally right about the patio, and i was wrong in my need for immediate gratification.  I didn't want to put the extra time and money into leveling the yard around it by adding dirt to perfectly fine and green grass, and then putting sod over said dirt.  I was fine with the step down into the grass because it meant it was done.  And you know how projects go.  Done is good, in fact, done is better than good.  But done done wrong is never good.  You follow?

Since all the main furniture is neutral-the table and chairs, the swing, the gazebo-it allowed for a bold pop of pattern with the rug and the pillows. 



And you can see how there's no step down from the patio into the grass, it just floooowwws.

I have wanted to put out these thrifted plant stands for years, and they look great now that there's a patio for them to stand on.  Imagine that garage stuccoed.

Love how the bold black and white stripe works with the bold square planters on the garage wall herb garden.

These pillows are double sided, and were a steal at 2.99 from Ikea.  Got 'em in case the ones on the swing get ruined, but since none of them are technically outdoor pillows, they'll only be put out when we're entertaining.

Remember how i felt bad about covering the herringbone pattern?  I think we still get a good sense of it around the outside of the rug.  The patio itself is 12x14, the canopy is 10x12, and the rug is just shy of 8x11.  Shout out to Dawn at Inspired Living for giving me the heads up on this Frontgate rug.  It is exactly what i had in mind for this space.

The Hampton Bay dining set is 7 years old from Home Depot and has held up fabulously.  The viney backs were never my cup of tea, but in the past i let things being on clearance count for way too much.  I'm trying to get away from that mentality.  I actually think the bold rug balances the more traditional table nicely, and think this space does reflect my style now.

The swing is about 5 years old, and it looks much more updated with bold pillows.  Such a relaxing spot. Swinging should not just be done by children. 

Trifecta of backyard gorgeousness.  Listen to your partners sometimes.  Sometimes they might be right.  Sometimes. 

The netting, you can see, is just collected at each pole and fastened until we need it, like if we're eating a meal and we want to be bug free.

Obviously this is before the rug, but we were testing out the lighting.  So cute, right?




These are just strings of globe lights attached with electrical tape to the hard structure.  This, too, has held up for a few years.  Hopefully i'm not jinxing anything with talk like this!


Bold, graphic, colorful, lush.  Finished.  Never thought these words would describe my backyard.
 
Ready for summer and outdoor living, right here. 

sharing is caring:  living savvy outdoor extravaganza, thrifty treasures @ southern hospitality, travel photo mondays @ travel photo discovery, places i've been @ the tablescaper,  travel photo thursdays@ budget travelers sandbox , Monthly projects @ Evolution of Style , inspire me mondays and power of paint @ domestically speaking, Places I've Been @ The Tablescaper,  Before and After @ Thrifty Decor Chick,   Sundays @ Suburbs Mama  Mod Vintage Life, Motivate Me Mon @Keeping it Simple,   home stories a-z, show and sharev@ Coastal Charm, be inspired & garden party @ elizabeth and co, the scoop @ stone gable, the makers @ persia lou,  inspire me tues, get your craft on, sugar bee crafts. inspire me weds @ 733, wow us weds @ savvy southern style,  work it weds @ the blissful bee, outdoor weds @ a southern daydreamer, whimsy wednesday, wicked awesome weds @ handy man, crafty woman,  whatever goes weds @ someday crafts,  charm of home, link party palooza @ tatertots and jello, Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring, open house @ no minimalist here, creativity unleashed @ shaken together,creative connection @ making home base,  inspiration gallery @ Craftberry Bush, Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest, my romantic home, jennifer rizzo, Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity now,  furniture fridays @ mustard seed, Feathered Nest @ French Country Cottage, design it fridays @ finding fabulous, best diy @ 36th ave, overflowing w/ creativity @ it's overflowing, nifty thrifty sundays, under the table and dreaming. inspire me please @ liz marie blog,sunday best @ the girl creative  shaken together, seasonal sundays @ the tablescaper,  lump it or link it @ delineate your dwelling,pinterest party @ just us four, diyers @ homecoming.

Go Big or Go Home garage wall

Usually the thought of how much flowers actually cost every year aggravates me. And so usually i get the cheapies, and then impatiently wait for them to grow in, and get mad at myself for having gone the cheap route.  This year, i told the boyfriend it was Go Big or Go Home for the pots on the wall, and i loooove the instant gratification of these zinnias all colorful and large, like they've been growing there for some time. 

I never liked the wrought iron scrolls that were on either side of the window, (remember when we de-scrolled the railings?) but needed something that took up a lot of space and helped with the whole "i'm staring at a cinder block wall of ugliness" since the boyfriend refuses to paint it and yet we do nothing about stucco except lament the cost.  These herb planters were a clearance find at the end of last summer, take up a lot of visual space, and modernize the wall as only geometrics can.

 And i'm excited about my basil.  Yeah, i got a lot of basil.  I got confused-i couldn't find lettuce, which i wanted for the window box, and i was in a rush.  So i got 2 different kinds of basil. Times two.  I am leaving the top 2 boxes empty because i can't reach to water them, so they're for decorative purposes only.  #shortgirlproblems.

I'm never sure what colors to go with for my annuals-do they all need to be the same color? Does that look too monochromatic or nicely cohesive? Is that boring or pleasing? My neurotic nature of second guessing loved the colorful blooms all in one plant.  Since i knew i was using the big black wall squares, i repainted the terracotta pots from lively spring green to the darkest free sample i could find, which is Valspar's English Tea Party. 

Here's the ol' cape from the font.  Nothing is in bloom yet, so right now it's lush and green.

 Except this.  What is this, and how did it get here?  Is it hydrangea?  Lilac?

It's pretty, but we'll have to move it to a less crowded spot.

We started work on the patio, since we have tons of free brick and figure we should put them to good use.  I don't really want more brick, but i'd rather not have to move the table and chairs to mow the lawn like we've been doing for years.  Plus, i can finally get a pretty outdoor rug.  The only problem is my neighbor's fence.  It's wonky. 

Perhaps this helps you understand.  For us to make the patio straight, it creates a weird triangle that is not ours, but is not being claimed by then.  We have looked at the property lines and have no idea why they made their fence like this. You can see the white stakes, marking the straight line.

You can sorta make out the string line which marks where the patio will go, and you can see how the fence narrows where our trash cans are.  This stressed my perfectionist darling out and he had a tough time figuring out how to make the patio look right for us and work somehow with the fence.

It took him 1.5 hours to dig out that grass on his own, but when i "helped" last night we got the rest of that half done in a half hour.  Which is interesting, as my "help" was handing him different shovels and loading the lighter pieces of sod into the wheelbarrow, but it clearly made a difference.

Mostly, though, i just took pictures.

What are you all planting this year?  Do you do a color scheme?  Did you know you were reading the blog of a neurotic person?  I think you actually might have known that already.

sharing is caring:  living savvy outdoor extravaganza, thrifty treasures @ southern hospitality, travel photo mondays @ travel photo discovery, places i've been @ the tablescaper,  travel photo thursdays@ budget travelers sandbox , Monthly projects @ Evolution of Style Make it Pretty Mon @ Dedicated House Throwback Thursday @ Sweet Pea, inspire me mondays and power of paint @ domestically speaking, Places I've Been @ The Tablescaper,  Before and After @ Thrifty Decor Chick,   Sundays @ Suburbs Mama  Mod Vintage Life, Motivate Me Mon @Keeping it Simple,  give me the goods @ rain on a tin roof, home stories a-z, nifty thrifty @ Coastal Charm, be inspired @ elizabeth and co, the scoop @ stone gable,  inspire me tues, lil luna, get your craft on, sugar bee crafts. inspire me weds @ 733, wow us weds @ savvy southern style,  work it weds @ the blissful bee, outdoor weds @ a southern daydreamer, whimsy wednesday, wicked awesome weds @ handy man, crafty woman,  whatever goes weds @ someday crafts,  charm of home, link party palooza @ tatertots and jello, Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring, open house @ no minimalist here, creativity unleashed @ shaken together,creative connection @ making home base,  inspiration gallery @ Craftberry Bush, Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest, my romantic home, jennifer rizzo, Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity now,  furniture fridays @ mustard seed, Feathered Nest @ French Country Cottage, design it fridays @ finding fabulous, best diy @ 36th ave, overflowing w/ creativity @ it's overflowing, nifty thrifty sundays, under the table and dreaming. inspire me please @ liz marie blog,sunday best @ the girl creative  shaken together, seasonal sundays @ the tablescaper,   sunday soiree @ craftomaniac