Blog — "outdoors"

Each April, we spend a weekend afternoon driving from the city out to the Maryland countryside to get flowers for our small urban outdoor space. We fell in love with Snell's Greenhouses several years ago after happening upon it by chance during a trip out to Mt. Airy, Maryland. We had driven out to Mt. Airy to visit our little Lilah Bean at the breeder's farm when she was only six weeks old. While there, we had hoped to find the perfect greenhouse with a large selection and a smaller price tag than that of our few choices in Baltimore. Snell's has now become our place to go. It has about ten different greenhouses filled with flowers of all sorts.


We always get our typical favorites-- petunias, impatiens, and pansies. But the fun comes in searching for some new and exciting flowers that we have yet to plant. This year we chose dahlias and black-eyes Susans for something new. I'll be sure to share photos of our urban oasis once flowers are in full bloom!

Do you plant flowers each year? What do you do to help spruce up your outdoor space?

This weekend was completely relaxing. Nothing crazy that needed to be done and minimal work on the fence. Andrew finished up what needed to be done last weekend, so he spent some time making a tree planter box and a storage box out of left over cedar. The tree box will go in the front of the house and we hope to get a magnolia or cherry blossom to plant in it. The search for the tree will begin next weekend.

With some cooler, less humid weather on Friday and Saturday we were able to spend time outside in the evening. We enjoyed grilled squash, sweet potato, and sausage on Friday night and ate on the deck with our fun little lanterns.


And it wouldn't be summer in Baltimore without enjoying a good ol' Natty Boh. And by that, I mean, nearly a whole case of these somehow ended up in our fridge after someone was a little overzealous with buying beer for their softball game. And just to hint, that someone wasn't me. Not my first beer of choice ever, but if you live in Baltimore it's just one of those things you learn to like no matter how watery it may be. :)


So the weekend is over, but for me the relaxation continues because of summer break. It is an especially relaxing morning as I am without this little guy who was dropped off at the vet this morning for his little snip-snip surgery. So Lilah is asleep instead of the two rough-housing this morning.


So instead of me chasing animals around this morning, I have been given the opportunity to get some work done earlier in the morning and enjoy my coffee just a little bit longer.

What weekend activities did you enjoy? Hopefully it was just as relaxing as mine!

Finally I feel as though I have something good to write about when it comes to the fence. Remember way back when? A jackhammer had arrived and then there were fence posts put up. Then a whole lot didn't seem to happen because it happened so slowly. I grew up in a house that always had projects going on. My dad is a woodworker and he spent a lot of time building houses as well. So when I thought of a DYI backyard project, I imagined a few weekends and we'd be good to go-- that's what always happened when my dad was building things. Give him an afternoon and he'd have an entire room trimmed out arts and crafts style.

That's a craftsman. I guess I didn't consider how architects approach things. No offense (and I don't think any will be taken because all architects I know openly admit to this), but architects are too nerdy about the design for their own good. When I suggested to Andrew that we use an old door instead of building a fence gate, I was immediately shot down. The second time I suggested it, I was shot down. And the third time? You guessed it.

I told my dad, now I finally know why he used to always complain about the architect when he was in construction. And now I finally know why contractors and architects are seemingly always at each others' throats. My dad, joking about the door situation, said something like, "You know what your problem is? You didn't put in a change order with the architect."

The next day, I told Andrew, "That's it-- I'm putting in a change order. The gate needs to be redrawn as a door in your blueprints." And I got my way.


Maybe my dad was right after all.

In other news, despite the slow, thoughtful process of the architect in constructing our backyard, things are finally going in the right direction and we're nearly done! Here are some other photos to enjoy--

Progress on the fence is now noticeable, and noticeable progress is the kind that I like to see. Andrew's parents were in town for the weekend with the intention of getting the ball rolling a bit more. While it was expected that more would get done than did, there was a bit of a road block. Two steel posts needed to be removed and apparently they were installed very well with about 3 feet of concrete going down. So the jackhammer arrived once more. Steel post removal and new cedar post installation ended up eating an entire day's worth of work.

Sunday was spent beginning to install the back wall of the fence-- I stayed out of the laborious portion for fear that I may not do something right (which is often the case in the other half's mind) and let Andrew's parents pitch in. It wasn't a job that required four people anyway, so I just enjoyed catching some rays of sun and documented the progress. As for today, the project came to a standstill with 100 degree weather keeping us inside to enjoy a cool air-conditioned house. The fun will continue next weekend.

Here's the progress:



 
 

While we've been enjoying some amazing weather the past few weeks (finally!) it seems that we have still experienced cooler weather than what is to be expected for Baltimore in May. With all of the work we've done lately with out back yard-soon-to-be-garden-slash-patio, I'm longing for those balmy summer nights. I've picked up a few things here and there to add to out outdoor space, yet I've not been able to actually use them since our patio is nowhere near completed. So for now I just daydream of the fun atmospheric additions I could make once we have reached the finished stages-- which may not be for another few weeks.
There is nothing I love more than having a few friends over for some good food and drinks on a beautiful summer evening. And here are some of the fun things I've found that would be perfect for a summer fiesta. 

via Pigeon Toe Ceramics

via West Elm

via My Fathers House

via Aedriel Originals

via West Elm

via West Elm