Flowers In Planters

Summer has started early this year! Man, it was a hot one this past weekend. We picked up a bunch of flowers at Lowe's on Saturday, and since we were home all day Sunday, I decided I would plant them all in my pots. 

As soon as I started planting - in the sun, in black cut-off leggings and a t-shirt - I realized it was much hotter than I expected! I went in and changed to shorts and a tank top, which was much more appropriate for the heat. We even had to pick up our new living room air conditioner this weekend (the old one bit the dust last year), because it was about 85 degrees yesterday, and is supposed to be even hotter today. That hot weather came up pretty quickly!

But despite the heat, I got all of my flowers transplanted into pots. This year, I planted a total of 14 pots to put outside around the house. All of the pots I used were leftover from previous years, and I even have more I didn't use!

I also didn't have to buy any new soil, fertilizer, or flower food. I was able to use all of the soil leftover inside the pots, which was nice. So all I had to do was plant the flowers!

This year I planted Petunias and Dusty Miller. Those two always do really well for me, so I'm sticking to them! I did also end up getting a few Celosia (not pictured) for one of the planters, but the flowers look very "stemmy"- I'm hoping they spread out a little more. Usually the celosia I get is shorter, so I'm waiting to see what they do.

I stuck with the same flowers as last year for these big planters by the garage. These planters were leftover from the wedding, and we just kept them to plant flowers in every year by the house.

I realize now looking at the below picture of the planter from an "above angle", that I could have spaced out those petunias a little more in the front. Oh well! These guys usually spread out pretty well. :)

I'll have to share more pictures of the pots on the front porch and around the house, especially once they start growing and taking over their assigned pots. They are usually over-flowing by July!

We are hoping to get the vegetable garden all planted this week. We didn't have time over the weekend, but have gotten all of our veggie plants for it. Will share those pictures once we get our veggies in the ground - and a rabbit control system in place! Last year was a doozy. ;)

Our House, Fall 2016

I snapped a couple of photos of the front of our house the other day. Even though it's fall, the leaves on the trees by our house haven't quite turned yet.

It was a pretty windy day, so the corn stalks on our porch blew over! We've fixed them since, but it's kind of comical to see them all wind-blown in these photos. Plus, look at the flag - it's blowing like crazy!

The above photo is actually a panorama. Makes things look a little distorted, but it shows the whole front yard and all the leaves that have fallen so far.

It's not perfect, and there is still a ton of work left to do on this house, but it's our little house, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Fall Front Porch 2016

Hello all, and welcome to our newly decorated fall porch! I added the final touches this weekend. I think this is one of my favorite things about fall - decorating the porch.

 

Nothing is more welcoming, right? This year I included a lot of the same items from years' past. Scaredy the scarecrow gets to make an appearance every fall. The last couple of years we've also had corn stalks flanking the stairs of the porch. They came from the garden out back. 

I picked up these beautiful mums on the Scenic drive again this year. I love the deep red ones - though the others are starting to bloom like crazy, too. I also found a new "Welcome" sign on the Scenic drive - hung right by the door. It's kind of cute and rustic looking.

My DIY welcome pumpkin has been a staple on my fall porch for a few years now. And the real pumpkins came from my grandma's pumpkin patch. There are some small pumpkins and gourds throughout - some real, some fake...along with a few pots of Dusty miller that are still going strong from the summer.

Finally, something else new this year - I found a couple of Cinderella pumpkins at the Little Red Barn in Knoxville. They are darker and flatter than regular pumpkins, and they're great for stacking on top of each other. Kind of a different look, but I'm digging them!

So that's our fall porch this year! I'm hoping the weather continues to be on the warmer side into late October, because it's been so nice lately. Best enjoy it while we can!

Do you have your porch all decorated for fall?

Until next time :)

Linked up at: Best of the Blogosphere, Inspiration Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Welcome Home Wednesdays, Wow Me Wednesday, Create Link Inspire, The Pin Junkie, Artsy Fartsy Mama, The Inspiration Gallery, Home Matters, Link Party Palooza

Porch Flowers Are Planted

Last Saturday we went to town, and I think we stopped at about 3 different garden centers! I don't remember exactly what we were looking for, but somewhere along the way I picked up some flowers to plant in my pots around the yard. 

I planted them as soon as we got home that day, and 4 bags of soil and 11 pots later, I had all of my flowers planted! It helped that I had some soil leftover in my pots from last year that I was able to salvage. I also made sure to add some garden fertilizer and plant food to each pot to help them along.

The majority of the flowers I picked up were petunias, because they always do really well for me. They are great in part-sun, part-shade, and are so colorful, too. I also picked up some Dusty Miller again this year. I grew them last year to use in the wedding, and they spread like crazy. They are super low-maintenance plants, and I like the subtle green hue.

I actually found some really pretty yellow petunias I thought were kind of unique, so I planted a couple of pots of those. They really add a nice little pop of color to the porch.

We have a few big planters we got for the wedding last summer, and so far I've only filled one. I decided to plant some celosia in it. They always seemed to do well, and I'm hoping these spread and grow nice and full. I have two more of these big planters over by the garage that I'll have to round up some soil and plants for, too.

My little chalkboard planters are back again in full force this year! I love those things. I still remember when I picked them up last spring, and they were perfect for my Dusty Miller, so that's what I planted in them again this year.

So..the porch is now kind of ready for summer, but I think I'm going to switch out some of the brown planters for my colorful ones that I have yet to fill, and take the brown pots out to the back patio once I can get to town and get some more flowers.

Oh, and my hanging pot this year was pre-planted with begonias. I don't know that I've ever had begonias before, so we'll see how they do!

Now, the next thing to do is clean up the flower beds and re-mulch in some spots! Time for the summer weeding to begin..

Fall Front Porch

I hope you all are enjoying the fall season. It's taken me a little while, but I'm starting to come around. Must be the pumpkin coffee and the fact that it's now sweater and boot season. :)

I'm sharing my fall porch today. Fall decor is the best. Mums and pumpkins galore! Here are a few shots of our porch this year. 

I've incorporated some elements from falls past, along with some new items. There are also plenty of DIY projects in the mix. I made my new burlap wreath this past weekend. You'd be surprised how easy that project was!

The new welcome mat is from Joss and Main, and so is my new burlap garden flag. Cute, right? I love the big white mums! They're from Walnut Grove Farm in Knoxville - A Scenic Drive find.

Ol' Scaredy the scarecrow is back again for another year.

My welcome pumpkin is also back again! I painted a craft pumpkin a couple of years ago - see this post for more info. The basket it's sitting in was made by Trent's aunt and was a wedding gift. There are landscaping bricks inside to fill space, along with a fall leaf garland. Those glass votives on top of the wooden crate were old fruit jars that I just painted yellow at the bottom.

I threw in a chalkboard this year - one that I DIY'ed from a picture frame last summer. The apple and hydrangea arrangement was a Scenic Drive find from years' past. So was the old green shutter. This shutter was used in our wedding. :)

Our door, and the porch floor, are both eyesores at the moment - so I guess the fall decor is my way of making it look a little easier on the eyes, until we can fix up the rest of it!

It's not much, but it makes things feel a little more festive around here. The leaves are slowly changing too! They create the perfect fall backdrop, that's for sure.

Have you decorated your porch for fall yet? I'd love to see it!


Linked to: Grace at Home, The Winthrop Chronicles, The Pin Junkie, Home Matters Link Party, Tatertots & Jello, Weekend Retreat Party, Blooming Homestead, Natasha in Oz

DIY Burlap Wreath

Today I have a fun little craft to share. I've been wanting to make one of these for a while, so over the weekend I finally did it. I made my very own burlap wreath. It's perfect for fall, and was so easy to make. Here's the finished product:

Here are my supplies I used to make it:

• 18-inch wire wreath frame
• 4 rolls of burlap (each roll was 15 inches long)
• Some wire
• Scissors
• Some embellishments - faux flowers, letter "K".
• Glue gun (not pictured)

Note that I ended up needing 4 rolls of burlap instead of just the 2 pictured. I also used a glue gun to glue on the "K." 

I was surprised at how fast and easy it was to make the wreath, despite running out of burlap half way through and having to get two more rolls!

You just pull the burlap through each section of your wreath frame, one at a time so that you form "loops" or "bubbles" with the burlap. You can make them as big or as full as you want. Once you're done with one row of 3 loops, you move down to the next one.

Here's how far I got on two 15" burlap rolls. It took me about a half-hour to complete this much of the wreath. I ended up attaching the flowers to the already-finished section with some wire.

Once I was able to go back to the store and get a couple more rolls of burlap, I just started again where I left off, then glued on the "K" with a glue gun. Then I attached a wire loop to the back of the wreath to hang it.

  

And my fall wreath is now complete! I added a couple little faux hydrangea blooms I already had, too, for a little color.  I just wish we had a pretty door to hang it on. Our door has seen a few years, that's for sure...maybe we'll get a new door someday. :)

I'll be sharing my fall porch on the blog tomorrow...stay tuned!

Linked up at: Tip Me Tuesday, Tweak It Tuesday, The DIY Dreamer, Wow Me Wednesday, Grace at Home, The Winthrop Chronicles, The Pin Junkie, Home Matters Link Party, Tatertots & Jello, Weekend Retreat Party, Blooming Homestead, Natasha in Oz

More Blooms!

I have more blooms! My zinnias are blooming like crazy! We had a really busy weekend, and I haven't been able to go out and check on them in a few days. Tonight I went out there, and there are so many new blooms since last time.

I'm getting some pink ones, some red ones, and some yellow. Most of them are the mini zinnias, but the Giant State Fair ones are getting close. They're just much taller!

Here's some of the taller ones getting blooms:

I love this pink one! These would look gorgeous at the wedding. I hope we have more!

Look how mighty these guys are. We've been getting so much rain lately, and these babies just shot up from seeds!

The flowers in my pots are still doing well, too. I really want to use some of my Dusty Miller for the wedding. They're still growing right along!

A lot of my pots are actually overflowing. If we continue to get this much rain this summer, I may have to invest in some larger pots...

But I'd rather have them overflowing than dying, so it's a good problem to have, I suppose.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with the wedding garden so far. A lot of the spaces filled up with weeds, but that's ok. There are still plenty of Zinnias, and there are some Dahlias blooming, too. I'll probably also get some flowers from the florist to help fill up my vases.

The wedding is definitely getting closer! Less than two months away! This coming weekend is my first alterations fitting, then my bridal shower. And tomorrow night we're meeting with the officiant. Also, cannot wait to share what we have in store for our ceremony backdrop! We picked up a few things this weekend. Hope to post about that soon. :)