The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I told you that the month of May was going to be a killer for us... well we just barely made it through. And all though I have not really been posting, its because we've either been completely gone getting someone married, walking for charity, hauling random sectional couches home or doing something pre-wedding related (including my new guest blogger gig on The Budget Savvy Bride), we were working on our yard. Not lying. We were busy little bees. And tired ones at that. Can a girl get a nap up in here?!

So what have we been doing you might ask? Well I would like to answer with what haven't we been doing? The yard is definitely all in different stages right now. Some of its completely amazing (the good), some of it is in progress (the bad) and some of its just a non-hot mess (the ugly). Let's do a walk through of it all starting with the best first.

The Good


We split all the hosta in the front yard until they were left with tiny plants. I'm not taking chances this summer that they will be cute. They are vicious and massive. I put the remains of them up on Craigslist for free. Within thirty minutes of the post going up, a couple came and took the entire lot. They even said themselves there were enough for three houses. Thanks for sharing with the other two houses friends... Greedy people. Oh well, they are out of my hair now.

I planted some more bushes bulbs to fill in the front area. They haven't come up yet (here's to hoping they still do). Also do you like the mismatched mulch? When we went back to Menards to get more cypress, they were out of the same dark brand we used before. So much for Salt Lake City, FL apparently...

Anyways it looks a 100 times better and when you drive up to the house, it actually looks like people who care live there.

I brought our little 1950s Mr. & Mrs. back out and gave them some shade loving plants to hold. I still need to wire them with a stick for wind prevention but they are looking mighty fine. I finally got smart with the shade flowers since last year's bunch were just bought because they were pretty and never really grew.

A new addition to the front door, I bought this green planter off of Overstock.com. It's made of a hard resin plastic with a really cool glaze over it. You can't tell the difference it isn't ceramic. I had purchased a LivingSocial deal earlier this year for $10 get $20 of merchandise. So using that and qualifying for free shipping with the purchase. I paid a total of $18.99.

Since this summer I'm all about the easy and simple lawn projects with all our wedding planning, this seemed like a no brainer. I found these pre-made container blends at Menards (also saw similar ones at Lowe's too, if you shop there as well...) on sale for $6.99.

To kill two birds with one stone, or many stones for that matter, I some of the rest of those stones we dug up from the lawn regrading and put the rest of them (the others went into the raised bed planters)  in the bottom of the planter.

The other side the front of the house also got space hosta and some light mulch... get it, light mulch... haha ok I'll stop.

The Bad


Ok, its not bad, but definitely in progress.

Here I'm trying to make our little faux fence more of a little feature. I planted a few of my many hosta, some of the Craigslist traded plants and I added a hanging basket. It looks like a hot mess right now. Dirty piles all over. Still sod that needs to come up. Hot.

At least the basket looks nice.

I did unearth that giant rock in our front yard. The green hosta had to go. The white ones came in though to fill in. I'm pretty sure they'll come back stronger. The brownness will go away very soon with some rain. A little mulch will help them out quite a bit. Eventually (probably next summer), I'll add some more plants to help our solo artists out. Rock on little fellas.

The prickly bush on the corner, which we found out is a rose bush now that it bloomed, also got a little attention. I added some of plant trade ferns to this shade lovers paradise. I mulched, only the fern side of the bush... Don't make fun of me. I do plan to put some flowers on the other side to feature the corner a little bit.

The flowers I planted on side of the house are coming up nicely. I can't wait to see them bloom later this summer.

The last of my half finished projects, is another bush. More hosta and I added some grasses around this bad boy. Some mulching needs to be done.

The Ugly


This used to be a tons of day lilies, but after giving them all away Craigslist style its a gapping lifeless area. Well not totally, there are some weeds next to the back steps.

Horray weeds.

On the other side of the back steps, this area last year was my tomato plant and green pepper planted area. They didn't take super well so I'm putting them this year in the raised bed. I'm going to try sinking my herbs like I saw on Pinterest.

This weekend's project... Finally planting said vegetables.

Last year's garden, has different plans this year. The more we have been living in this house, the more we have had a chance to see how we like it and its functionality. We have decided this area should be bricked in and part of our future patio space.  It is awkward, out of the way and things do not grow well here other than weeds.

I'm leery about using lots of chemicals on things but this was one of those things that had to be done. We used UltraStop Lawn Weed Killer. Supposed to kill everything but grass. So far its working well. I think we need another application though. It mixes with water and sprays easily with our garden hose.

With the addition of our new sectional sofa, we liberated the lawn furniture finally outside for its intended purpose. That means we can finally entertain, sort of. We have had our close friends over for a cookout already. Luckily, they don't judge. Thanks guys!

I transported some of the day lilies early in the spring to this super dead area, remember all the junk we were storing here? They definitely have taken off. I'm already starting to hate them again. UGH!

As we work our way around the last side of the house, you can definitely see we need two things, a lot more mulch and a weed whacker. Our irises and peonies that were replanted in March are doing fine, you just can't find them.

The Silver Lining


The peonies Max didn't mow over finally bloomed! They are my favorite flower so I was overjoyed to see what color they came were. Hot pink!

Here is an update of our lawn, the grass is slowly filling in. There are a few patches and we finally got to mow over the area. Max applied the weed killer to the entire lawn but this area to try and fight our mini jungle. We are waiting until the grass takes better until we apply it to this area.

What do you think a little better than before?

I think its quite an improvement! Not 100% but I at least feel that I'm not a hobo now driving up with our completely messed up lawn.

This was a month long progress so I apologize for how long this post was. What under done projects do you have going?

The Impulse Buy

After our first wedding this month, my cousin Brandon and his new wife Stacey (congrats again you two!), we were in Madison. They had a gorgeous rooftop bar wedding at Sundance Cinema (yes, I'm talking Robert Redford's Sundance). So very cool. They got this super awesome custom movie poster made for them. As a movie admirer, I'm crazy jealous. Sadly my flash cut off a part of it...

The day after, we had brunch with the fam, bummed around the State Capitol with my parents and lightly visited the farmers' market. Around noon we decided to part ways and head back to Milwaukee do continue our never ending yard work. As we headed down E. Washington Ave. we saw a Salvation Army and decided to check it out.  To our surprise, the business above them, Furniture Steals and Deals, was at the end of a mandated close-out liquidation. Everything must go sort of a deal.

Max and I have had our little hearts set on buying a semi-modern sectional couch for quite some time now. Most of our searching up until now has only been passive and a little bit of Craigslist searching. Nothing major. We figured it was something we really could not afford at this time with everything else on our plate with home upgrades and now our wedding.

So we started walking around the close-out sale. A few things caught our eye. A sales woman told us that the sale was at its second to last day and if we saw anything we liked, make an offer even if its not on the sticker price. We thanked her and continued looking.

And then we saw it. A two-piece sectional, with beige attached cushions and notably great craftsmanship. Max and I looked at each other and we both knew. This was the couch we had been searching for all this time. We checked out the tag. Original price $1479 and now $927. And then we thought, she did say make an offer. So we chatted and asked ourselves, what could we really afford. We looked at our finances and figured $600 is about all we could afford otherwise we would have to walk away.

We waited until the sales lady was free and Max put in an offer of $550 to show we were serious. She busted out a calculator and counter offered with $595. We both said "SOLD". With taxes it came to $629. Not bad for a brand new two-piece sectional! Sometimes it pays to haggle a little bit!

We then came up with another problem, how to get it home. Max's first instinct was to rely on Mom and Dad's trailer (all those college moving days), but I instantly thought with the fuel cost and time we would have to spend moving it, it would probably easier and cheaper to rent a truck. On the spot, we started calling around comparing prices of small vehicles and one way trip costs. U-Haul had the best deal a one-way cargo van for $123 with taxes and everything. It was awesome because they said they just started doing these as a trial run from the Madison to Chicago area. The awesome thing about the van. It was brand new. Only had four miles on it! 

The couch fit perfectly. Max drove the van and I drove our CR-V and we were off.

After checking out the company of the sofa we just purchased (hoping we didn't get screwed), Newport Upolstery is a newer U.S. company started in 2010. With the purpose of creating jobs here in the U.S. with quality sustainable furniture (so their website says). I just know that it was very comfortable, made of real wood, you could tell the fabric and stitching was done very well and the sofa seemed very durable. The fact they are creating local jobs and using less materials to make a quality product. We were in love.

Keep a look out for their products!

Here is our sofa's new home, in our former "sitting area". Adding a sectional created a ripple effect with our furniture, so stay tuned for another update how our entire house got moved around.

The beige color has a red and blue thread undertone so its easy to add to pretty much any decor or wall color we chose. All the cushions are attached to the sofa and after more research of Newport's website, I found out why the couch is so comfy. They have a specially engineered cushion called the "Pocketed Coil System". I'm impressed. I definitely felt the uniform seat. Compared to our leather blend couch from Ashley Furniture, its a 100% more uniform and comfortable. Look out guests, you are in for a treat.*

We moved the TV in here but we are now planning to wall mount it on the other wall sometime soon to free up more floor space and keep it from jutting over in the walkway.

Isn't she pretty! Turk loves it too because now he can sit on the chaise hangover and look out he window all day. He also has already learned its an awesome nap spot.

See how the TV juts out a little bit now. We will have to get on that one soon.

Final cost with moving (truck and fuel) expenses: $787.

It might not have been your average impulse buy of a pack of gum or a magazine talking about Brangelina's wedding watch, but definitely crazily changes our house. We really couldn't be happier!

*image by Newport Upholstery

Fun With Fabric

May has already been kicking my butt. I haven't been this busy since my sorority days in college. Four Weddings and A Funeral? Well I have two weddings, two Brewers baseball games, one Incubus concert, one charity walk, one family reunion, possible tooth removal and our engagement photos...all while we are still trying to fix up the house, oh and did I mention we are still planning our wedding?!

I have been squirreling away frames I see from Goodwill, Salvation Army and the Dollar Tree to finally start getting things on the walls. They did not need to match though. Little paint can fix just about anything.

I first used my trusty Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover Primer and primed each surface of the frames.

I made sure to get into every crevice of the surfaces to ensure proper paint adhesion.

I then went back with Rust-Oleum white paint in a satin finish. Using a couple of coats for proper coverage.

Ten newly ready frames for my artistic creativity and photos to be added!

So back to the title of this post "Fun With Fabric". Many of the frames I bought were new and many came with white matching pre-cut mats.

Using one of the pre-matted frames, I used a bold printed piece of fabric I picked up at JoAnn Fabrics for about $3 and (after ironing the fabric first) cut the fabric to size. I used those awkward  family print that comes with the frame as my guide. 

Since it came with the mat, I just framed the printed fabric.

And since you all know by now I have a dirty love affair with striped prints, I did the same with a navy and cream using a little Dollar Tree pre-matted frame. Total cost of these projects with frames was about $11.

After working so crazily hard on making our walls smooth and hole free, I had a hard time putting nails back in them. I headed over to Lowe's and picked up a bunch of 3M Command hangers to prevent my possible indecisiveness from later having to re-repair the walls, again.

I hung them with my homemade fabric artwork from here above our couch in the living room. I apologize for the photo, I best lighting doesn't always give the greatest non-reflective glare of our front lawn.

So what do you think!? Not to shabby huh? I might add a few more things when I finally get some nice end tables in here. All in do time though.