Front yard transformation

Hello, friends.  I am so sorry for my cyber absence lately.  We had our year end recital at the dance studio where I teach on Friday, and you can't imagine the amount of work and time that went into making this weekend a success.  I am so pleased to say that it really was such a success.  I am so proud of all of my students, and how much they have grown as dancers and individuals this year.  I felt like a proud momma bear when I watched them each take the stage on Friday.  I feel so blessed to have found the best kept secret of the county where I live. 

On top of preparing for that recital, my sweets and I have been hard at work over the past few weeks in our yard.  The home where we live is our first, and we built it so we have been cursed so fortunate to landscape it all ourselves.  I never really grasped how much work is involved in creating and maintaining a nice yard, especially for the DIY'ers like ourselves with small pocket books and big dreams.  OY!

Last summer, we successfully installed a rock wall, did all of our trenching and sprinkler installation, laid sod, poured the rest of our driveway and RV pad, had curbing laid, planted trees, shrubs, flowers, etc. etc etc.  We made huge progress last summer, but there were lots of finishing touches that still needed to be made.  Also, several of our trees and shrubs died this winter, so we had to replace almost all of them.  I can happily now say that we transformed the front yard from this:

to this:

The finishing touches we've been working hard on lately of adding flowers, colored mulch, shrubs, and beautiful trees have really made the yard pop over the past few weeks.

 My goal as of lately has been to beautify our front porch area.  I used some chalk paint to spice up a plain Jane Terra cotta planter, and a few hits of my fave cream spray paints on a $5 planter I found at the DI to add some color with pretty flowers to the front steps. 

 I think they turned out pretty cute.  They share the steps with my gorgeous arrangement of begonias that my sweets gave me for Mothers Day (from Costco).

I am working on repairs to a free bench I picked up last summer that will adorn the front porch with some darling outdoor canvas pillows I just sewed together.  Here's a sneak peak...

 

Do you get as excited and overwhelmed as we do about yard work?  Does it ever get to the point where you feel like you can truly say it is "finished" and you get to just sit back and relax in your yard?  If not, please, pretty please, just lie to me.

We are currently preparing to trench, lay sprinkling and sod for the back yard of our 1/2 acre lot.  If you don't hear from me for a year, hopefully you'll know why :)

xoxo

sharing this transformation here: