Saturday was my birthday! It was an amazing weekend and I'm sad it is over. My husband, who is a grad student, student-teaches Monday - Friday, has class two evenings a week and works 40 hours running a resturaunt Friday - Monday. We don't see him enough.... and when we do he has homework to do and lessons to plan! Only two months until he graduates and he will be teaching in the fall. (Fingers crossed on finding a local job, although we are applying everywhere.) The best birthday present I could have gotten, he took the entire weekend off work!! Friday evening we went out for drinks and Thai food. I tried some sushi... it was the cooked kind, I don't think I'm brave enough to try the raw kind! I'll admit.... it wasn't bad.
On Saturday I opened some very thoughtful gifts...
These hardback books are amazing! Not only are they classics (that I actually have never read) but they are so pretty!
Chris bought me Sense and Sensibility, Little Women, Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. He also bought me the movies to watch after I read the books! Love it!
I also got this cool wine rack from my mother-in-law. She remembered I was admiring the one my
sister-in-law has so she bought me one too! Doesn't it look great? Ok, ignore the cheap wine, I just bought a couple super cheap-o bottles to quickly have something to put on the wine rack... I need to spend some time picking out some better wine!
I was a little worried about hanging it, since I'm not very good at anchoring things. I bought some anchors and screws from Lowes and it was super easy to get this up and anchored securely.
So if I go on a blog hiatus... it's because I'm relaxing, reading these wonderful books and drinking some cheap wine!
However, I am not planning on a hiatus. On the contrary.... I also received this gift...
Guess what is inside...
That's right, hubby bought me a power tool for my birthday.... a sander! I can't wait to try it out!! I have projects lined up for this. I haven't tried it out yet because it was a gorgeous weekend. We relaxed, did some porch sitting, with a cold beer and my lovely book....
Even Chloe was enjoying reading outside...
On Saturday we grilled steaks and then enjoyed some birthday cake! Sunday felt very relaxed, even though we got a ton of yard work done and took a long walk to
Ritas to get some itallian ice and custard! I love walking around our neighborhood!
I did some some rearranging in the garden because I got some lovely shrubbery for my birthday from my MIL. Awesome presents, thank you! I didn't want a tree or anything tall that would give us shade.... I love the sunny afternoons.
We went to a local nursery and although I wanted almost everything, I decided on some
nandinas and
kerrias... which will give the garden some year round color. I also bought myself a butterfly bush!
Ignore the hose... just pretend I took the time to put it away (which I did AFTER I took this picture)! I do plan on getting a better hose and a hose stand very soon! We bought this garden soaker hose over the weekend and I hate it. It's going back (can I return a used hose?) Last year we bought a coil hose and I hated that too. Anyway, back to what I was saying... I moved around a lot of stuff in the garden too. I moved my hydrangea bushes, one on each side of the steps! I can't wait for them to start blooming... they are turning green though, it's just a matter of time! This is the front of our house last summer.... before bush removal...
after bush removal... and some flowers
and now, this year, cleaned up to the right of the steps, added shrubbery on the left and some new annuals all over.... but keep in mind this is also before the perennials are back in bloom... so this isn't an after picture but a right now (in progress) picture...
Notice how the only thing that still looks the same is the dog looking out the door?! I still plan on removing the ugly bricks, adding a lot more mulch and putting down some turf builder and grass seed in the yard area. Also, the porch could use some charming flowers. I'm starting to realize that being a home owner
everything is always a work in progress.
I had an amazing weekend. It wasn't the presents, the weather or the food... but spending a weekend with my family that made it so special!
Cheers, hope your weekend was as awesome as mine. How did you spend it?
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I of course sealed it with Johnson Paste Finishing Wax!
