Patriotic Landscaping

Since summer is in full swing, I wanted to share another update on our front yard landscaping.  You may already be tired of hearing about the paver walkway and retaining wall we installed earlier this year.  But don't expect me to stop talking about it yet, we're still not done the landscaping as I'm still in search of the perfect perennials!  But in the meanwhile I wanted to share how we're looking so far.

In May, our retaining wall was looking like this:

Since then, the petunias have been growing like crazy but some of the other flowers didn't fare as well. I moved all of the impatiens to the backyard as the petunias were overshadowing them.  I also moved the peony to the backyard and added a hydrangea in its place.

I added a few cute accents, like this smiling snail whose chipped paint only makes him more charming in my opinion.



And what's a garden without a gnome?



To celebrate Independence Day, I also added some patriotic updates (you can read about how I decorated for the 4th of July indoors here).



I added a few small flags...



..and a few of the confetti looking stars and stripes.



I love coming home and seeing all of the blooming flowers!  Do you have any landscaping favorites for full-sun areas?

Fourth of July Fun

Happy July 4th!  Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed some Independence Day fun.  We enjoyed the 3 F’s: food, fireworks, and family!

Today we hosted an impromptu barbecue for our family.  I sprinkled some Fourth of July décor touches throughout the house.

In the living room, my usual summer centerpiece, got a spray of 4th of July flair:



The dining room had a Fourth of July table setting as well. 



I added two red candles and a flag on my usual centerpiece to add a festive touch.



The kitchen got the star spangled treatment with festive American flag inspired placemats.



My mother-in-law brought over some beautiful Rose of Sharon flowers from her garden which I placed on an Independence Day inspired tray.



My sister gave me this lovely tray with a sketching of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, which I particularly like since we live near Philly.



We spent the evening grilling, relaxing, and playing the Michael Jackson Experience on Wii!  How was your fourth of July?

Hiding TV Cables

Some DIY projects require complicated fixes.  Some DIY projects only need easy fixes.  Some DIY projects require complicated fixes, but I do an easy fix anyway.  This is such a time.

You might remember that we have a honking big TV hanging over our fireplace.  I know that having a TV over the fireplace isn’t the most design friendly element, but I can’t watch the Real Housewives of New Jersey in a beautiful painting or pretty mirror, so TV wins every time.  But with so much focus on the TV, I was tired of my cables and cords being visible.  I tried disguising them behind vases and other decorative items on the mantle to make them less visible, but we all know they’re still there.



I would have tried to run the TV cables into the wall myself, but I was afraid it would get too tricky being that it was over my fireplace.  I also didn’t want to shell out the dough to have a professional do it for me.  So that left me with a harebrained idea to try to cover up the cords.



First, I taped the cables to the side to hide them under my curtains.



Then I took some paper (the thick paper you get at places like HomeGoods when they wrap up your breakables at checkout), and painted it with some leftover wall paint.



Once it was dry (I used a blow-dryer to speed up the process since I can get a bit impatient), I cut the paper into strips that were wide enough and long enough to cover the TV cables.  Then I taped the paper on top of the cords, hiding the painter’s tape behind the TV and curtains.  I also used a tiny bit of glue to secure the paper to the wall along the entire strip.



nd guess what?  Since the paper color matches the walls exactly, everything blends in together and you can’t even see the TV cords or even the paper strips anymore!




If you really examine it up close you’ll see that I have something going on there, but from the couch no one will be the wiser!  Sure, this might not be the correct way to hide flat screen TV cables, but it’s free, it’s better than having the TV cables exposed, and it works for me!