We had a great barbecue last night for the fourth.  Some of our neighbors came and we also had some old friends from Pierre join us.


Good friends, good food, what more could a girl ask for?  Well, maybe a new flower bed?  Voila!


I love these new day lilies that are grape colored!  I knew when I saw them that they were exactly what I wanted: a splash of color but a hardy plant.  And of course a few hostas to fill everything out.  This took us a LOT longer than the flower bed we did in the front yard, but T was so patient and worked so hard to help me put everything in.  I love my hubby.

So yes, a girl could ask for a new flower bed.  How about an old dresser turned credenza?  Say no more:


Here's the before photo:


All our DVDs, video games, controllers etc, used to go in the black boxes.  Now they fit perfectly in the new credenza.  We even drilled holes in the back of the new drawers and the back of the dresser so all the cords would hang out the back instead of our components cluttering up the top of the credenza.


Yay!

Picnics, of course!


Last month T and I worked on a little picnic basket that we made from an old suitcase.  Well, we finally took it out for a test drive.


We went to the Japanese Gardens at Terrace Park.  Oh how I love Japanese gardens.  This one is no exception.  It's on a lake and it has all sorts of beautiful landscaping, architecture, and walkways.


The perfect way to spend a summer evening with my hubby.  Awwww.

Last year T and I were gifted some day lilies.  We planted them in front of our house and they had maybe 2 blooms all summer.  I thought I had managed to kill some of the hardiest plants around.  This year though, they came back in full force!



I get so tired of weeding the bed so T and I bought some black landscaping fabric at a garage sale and some gardening stakes.  We laid the landscaping fabric down over the lilies and cut x's where the plants were.  (In retrospect, we should have laid this fabric in April before they sprouted.  I'm a little concerned that they got squashed, but we'll have to wait and see if they survived the trauma.)  Anyway, we got the black plastic laid and staked, and it looked like this:


Yeah, it's lumpy, but we plan on getting some rock from craigslist to cover it eventually.  Anyway, then the fun began!  These blocks were on sale at our hardware store so after a long debate on how we should lay them, we got to work.  I dug the trench and T pounded them into place:


(Ted is actually working on the other side of the house where a hydrangea bush lives.)  It was a glorious day outside today, perfect for manual labor!!  I dug up so many rusty nails, worms, and this giant piece of styrofoam.  So weird!


Anybody know what the heck that came from?  I sure don't.  Anyway, we LOVE the finished product!


These little blocks weren't intended to be set up on their side like this.  I think they're meant for a retaining wall, but they would have been too tall if we had put 2 layers on, and 1 would have just looked silly.  I think it worked out really well!


After we put the last of the bricks in, I had to fill in the rest of the trench with a little extra dirt.


See my cute little gardening gloves?  T bought them for me.  And my little yellow kneeler.  I have the best husband ever.

More pics to come when we get some rock in!  Have you been working on your garden lately?  Tell me what you've been up to!

I absolutely loved this inspiration project when I found it on fun.kyti.me:  an old suitcase turned into a picnic basket!  I've seen it re-posted everywhere and I had to try it.


I already had these fabulous hula plates from a garage sale last year ($2?) and the cups I got on clearance at Target last year, intending to use them for outdoor dining.  The plastic flatware I got at World Market on clearance ($3 for 4 place settings).  I love it!  We had the napkins too.


My friend Meg taught me how to make these fun fabric flowers.  She had them as pins on her purse, but I decided to dress up the front of the suitcase.  They're so easy to make!

A big thanks to T on this one as he put up with my hot glue fits and stubborn perfectionist tendencies.  ;)

P.S. The fabric under my place setting is a sneak peek from my next project.  So excited to show you!