Just a few pics of the back shed. There was previously no frame to attach doors to the shed, so Ian built this frame (which again, I had no idea he knew how to do) and then we found these old wooden doors:Once we finish the outside of the shed this summer, I am planning to paint these a funky colour...maybe lime green or purple to match the patio set:
There they are attached to the shed, and the latch being attached:
This is one of our cherry trees. I took a picture b/c this is the first year it has flowered:
And a tree rescued from the garbage by our friendly scavenger friend. It had no soil around the roots, but here it is starting to show signs of green again.
More back yard pics to follow, as we are building a fence today if the rain holds off. HAhahah, if the rain holds off. Yeah right.

After several "lively discussions" we finally came to an agreement on our patio set. We found this vintage dining set and have begun to refinish it:I love the chairs. They remind me of the Jetsons!
The fabric had to go and the last owner apparently really didn't want to see the fabric removed, b/c it was triple stapled to the chair:
Here are the chairs, all sanded and ready for refinishing:
First coat of purple paint:
And the giant table which is now turquoise:
If anyone is wondering, Ian chose both colours. No joke. Now I am searching Etsy for fabric to sew chair pads. All suggestions welcome. I mean, we already have purple chairs and a turquoise table, so how much worse can it get???!

A flashback to last spring. The old mudroom being torn down:

And now...a whole new porch!

Planter boxes filled with pink gerbs, chairs salvaged from the garbage and repainted twice (previously blue, which is NOT my colour at all but was the only "2nd" paint at the store, and now grey. I call this shade "beluga" or "baleen"), and garage sale lime green cushions. Jodie gets credit for bargaining hard for these cushions, and while she was amazing I quickly became known as the garage sale-ing liability. Evidently I have no ability to say NO to church ladies selling out of date table linens.

A sunny gerb:

gardening season has begun...and we are very far behind compared to last year!

i had about 20 bulbs of organic garlic to plant in the fall-didn't do it. when i took them out of the box they had all turned to dust...literally.

we also didn't plant any fall bulbs in 2010, so we cheated and bought some bulbs that have already bloomed. i guess it's not cheating really, since they just grow back stronger and fuller next year.

we've not had much sun, so nothing has exploded quite yet:

cute path built by ian:

me building planter boxes:

completed planter boxes with hot pink gerbs (hoping it's not too early for these chickies):

another shot of the planter boxes:

by the by, a neighbour yelled across the street that we should market these boxes and make a fortune. i am forced to wonder if we all have different definitions of what constitutes a fortune :)

A final note: I took these pics at 8pm on a cloudy day-come the sunny days I will post some that are not quite as dark. BUT I have had pressuring e-mails by 3 people asking why I have not updated the blog, so I did what I could with what I had!