My fleurs

I decided it'd be a good idea to document my flower boxes and back yard over the seasons. When we first moved in, the back yard was a repository for garbage. It was a divine mixture of gravel, discarded windows, broken fences, weeds and junk. We have lived here now almost 10 years and I'm happy to say, it is now a lovely little secret garden! No one knows it even exists since we have a large fence around it and it cannot be seen at all from the street!

Over time it has been transformed mostly into a butterfly garden! Best part? The huge butterfly bushes that are out there were a $10 buy from the grocery store about 6 years ago! Deal of the century! One of them now towers about 15 feet high and has just hundreds and hundreds of blooms which coincide with the Monarch butterfly migration. In the fall, it is incredible to go out there in the morning and find a dozen or more Monarchs and other gorgeous butterflies flitting about, feeding on the blooms!

These are some photos from a few years back. The yard has evolved much more now - plants are all bigger - particularly the hydrangeas and butterfly bushes.






Here is what it looks like now. Hold on to your socks! It ain't pretty! Welcome to December in Massachusetts. Not that I love snow, but at least when it's white back there it doesn't look so dreary and color-less.






I actually have one lonely hydrangea bloom that is trying to flower for me! Thank you, hydrangea! : )



And here are the flower boxes right now. I haven't switched them out to evergreens and berries because I think they still look pretty good!




The plants that you see hanging downward and then curving up? Those are mini-licorice plants. Amazing little plants. They start at about 4-6 inches tall and about as wide, and then the do this! I planted these about mid-April this year, and started with the ponytail grasses, the zebra grass, some nemesia, nasturtium and lantana. The latter three have been taken out after they were past their prime. I added some mums for the fall which are still in there.

So that's it for today. Lots of photos for you to peruse.

Have a good weekend!

Oy Vay!

I'm so sorry I didn't post yesterday. It turned into one of those crazy days where one thing lead into the next and before you knew it, I was ironing our clothes about 45 minutes before we were supposed to be walking out the door! It was my husband's office party, so I had to get myself gussied up and also get clothes ready for my hubby who had to work a little bit later than expected.

On top of that, it was 70 degrees here yesterday! And it's December and I live in Massachusetts! It was unbelieveable. Gorgeous! So, much time was spent outside - walked the dogs for an hour, then came back, hydrated and went on a 45 minute power walk! Everyone was outside soaking it up. I even ate lunch outside on my front porch!

I FINALLY took some pictures. Emmaleena, I do apologize! Here are just a couple of the recent jobs I've done:

This is our neighbor's front entryway. Very pretty, no?



Here is a closeup of the wreath:



Next is her planter:



This is our planter I did with some leftover greens and birch branches:



And, last photos for today are some flower boxes I did for a client:



Close up:



I will continue taking photographs and showing the recent work I've done - early next week looks best. This weekend is a big home tour thingy where many of the historic homes in an area of the city are opened up to the public. I'm helping out, so it will be a busy weekend.

New Computer

I'm sitting in my kitchen on my brand new iMac. I cannot get used to this tiny keyboard and am making a zillion mistakes as I type this! So, that's why I was slacking today and got no photos taken of all the jobs I've done in the last few days. Finished a gorgeous garland today for my neighbor. Also did a wreath for our front door, and a planter for the back door.

Another reason for my slackiness is that I feel wretched today. This will probably fall under the category of TMI, but Aunt Flo is visiting, if you get my drift, and she's just being terribly mean this month. Ugh. I know menopause isn't supposed to be all that fun, but this? Not so fun every single month, either. So I apologize for the lack of photos. I promise to get out there and take some tomorrow.

I will leave you with another older photo to contemplate. Winter is coming, so this ought to get you excited for shoveling! Looks might chilly out there.

Wreaths galore

Did up two more wreaths yesterday. It was a miserable rainy day, so I have not been able to install any of them.

Today I will install two wreaths, two garlands and will do up a planter with evergreens. Garlands are quite a bit of work, as you really have to put them up first and THEN decorate them, which requires a step ladder, patience, odd angles and an assortment of four letter words!

I'm afraid the result of working on a boat with a predominantly male crew for almost 20 years has its downside. Largely, one is left with a terrible potty-mouth! The F word used to just fly off my tongue. Luckily I can now catch myself before blurting it out!

So, later on I will photograph my handiwork after it is all done and I have washed the sap off my hands! Working with pine can be messy to say the least!

I will leave you for now with an image of a planter I did last season. As you will notice, I'm big on using floopy (word stolen from Phoebe on "Friends") elements in my arrangements! I like branches like curly willow or natural birch, and this stuff called ting that looks all twirly and whimsical! Floopy really describes it best!

Oops

In the last two days, I've done up two wreaths. Did I take before and after pictures? No. Ugh. My best friend told me photos are the way to go for a successful blog, but I have the memory of a flea. No joke. It's really sad. If it weren't for my friend, (who we will call June because that's her name on her awesome blog, Bye, Bye, Pie) I would seriously have no memory of my childhood before the age of 10. She remembers EV.ERY.THING. It's really incredible. Oh, how I could go on about June. I just adore her!

I digress (not unusual). Yesterday I was rush rush rushing to finish a wreath because I was heading near the location where it was going to be delivered, as we were on our way to have dinner with my husband's side of the family in an adjacent town. So, after shopping for oodles of evergreens, berries, two pine garlands, 6 wreaths for clients and one for us, birch and curly willow branches, wired ribbon and paddle wire, I raced home to put together yesterday's wreath. Whew.

It was pretty, I tell ya. I started with a balsam pine base, added accents of white pine, incense cedar, blue berried juniper, oregonia, variegated boxwood and a long silvery/white bow.

Today I did a gigantic wreath for the front of my husband's building. He's a real estate dude and his office is in the most beautiful brick building with a huge, huge window out front. For their wreath, I did up a 48 inch balsam wreath with tons of accents, including a million evergreens, a preserved, flat leaf eucalyptus, pepperberries and curly willow branches. I also made a big green bow with gold edging. It might be the most favorite wreath I've made to date! Since it is enormous, I couldn't get a proper photo of it in my laundry room where I do up the wreaths for folks. Here are a couple I took.



Here is some detail:



I'll take photos once I install it to get the full effect!

Here's our other dog, who is quite likely the best dog on the entire planet. He's funny, smart, adorable and just an amazing doggie.



Tomorrow, I'll be doing a wreath, garland and planter for a neighbor!