capture2011 :: no. 171 :: 8.31.11:: annabelle, stella, becky, and ruby

i apologize if you are getting sick of my landscaping posts, but truly, i am so determined to get the front of our house looking good and checked off my list. i installed the edging on monday (just the basic black stuff). after laying down the landscape fabric this morning, i put 28 plants and one tree in the ground. my fingers are aching but i am a very happy woman. oh yes——and the names in the title are from some of the plant tags: annabelle, stella, becky, and ruby. i think we will be be great friends.

mulch next!

haulin' dirt

yes, that is what we did yesterday——we put the black dirt in our front landscaping beds! yippee! so my last three pictures from the week were taken by hands that had a lot of dirt underneath the fingernails. :)

capture2011 :: no. 168 :: 8.27.2011 :: the modern-day farm boy

armed and ready with smartphone in hand.

capture2011 :: no. 169 :: 8.27.2011 :: a yard of dirt

we borrowed a truck from ben's uncle, drove to ben's parents' house, used the skid steer to fill 'er up with black dirt (ben even gave me a ride in the bucket), and then drove up to our house to unload. three trips back and forth gave us enough dirt, and a little left over.

capture2011 :: no. 170 :: 8.27.2011 :: self-portrait

because sometimes i get bored in the car. and sometimes i run out of ideas.

we finished just in time to shower and hustle up to lake calhoun, where our church small group met for a little potluck picnic. it was a perfect, perfect late summer evening——cool and clear.


hope you are enjoying this weekend——the last of august!

capture2011 :: no. 167 :: 8.26.11 :: circles

friday night pizza night is one of our favorite traditions, but it has changed a bit without gluten and dairy. ben gives these crusts two thumbs up.

capture2011 :: no. 166 :: 8.21.11 :: first birthday

my niece hannah is one. for reals, how much fun is a first birthday party? SO much fun!!!

cabin week 2011!

hello friends!

yes, there has been silence on my end for the past week. we just returned from a family vacation at a cabin up north. we vacation with another family, and this year there were 15 adults and two babies——our (almost) one-year-old niece, hannah, and our friends' eight-month-old son, miles. it was a relaxing and wonderful week, and we loved every minute of it. my immediate family has had this vacation tradition for almost 25 years, and i am so thankful that we all make it a priority to keep going, even though life gets so busy. grateful.

i didn't take many pictures. okay, that is a lie——i didn't take many pictures of things other than hannah. :) but here are my five for the week, plus a few extra at the end because i'm a sucker for my niece's eyelashes.

capture2011 :: no. 161 :: 8.14.11 :: baby swing

 
hannah spent a good amount of time in it!

capture2011 :: no. 162 :: 8.17.11 :: the week's reading

most of us are big readers, so it was fun to see what everyone had brought along as vacation reading.

ben and i listened to an abridged audiobook version of this guy a few summers ago, but i wanted to read the entire thing. so much to like, so much to cringe over. i'm still only a third of the way through.

capture2011 :: no. 163 :: 8.17.11 :: a three-hour tour

pontoon ride at dusk. love the warmth of the sky, the sun sparkles, and my dad's smile.

capture2011 :: no. 164 :: 8.18.11 :: lunches at the beach

we had really lovely weather. not too hot. beautiful.

capture2011 :: no. 165 :: 8.18.11 :: sand toys

the babies spent water time at the kiddie pool, but when the time comes, there are plenty of toys at the resort for building sand castles!

and here are a few of my favorites of hannah. she's getting so big. i bet she'll be walking soon.

i hope you all had a great week!

capture2011 :: no. 160 :: 8.12.11:: centerpiece

the floors were not the only cool thing at the wedding. there was a beautiful ice sculpture. and snazzy lighting. and the tremendous bellagala big band.

one lovely element that i could capture with my phone was the centerpiece. each table's was different, but i liked ours the best (and this is just part of it). tons of fresh purple flowers, fun fuzzy green things, and pretty candles. really cool.

capture2011 :: no. 159 :: 8.12.11:: chevron floors

of all the things to notice at a beautiful wedding at the calhoun beach club, i noticed the floor. i'm storing this pattern in my someday file. i like.

capture2011 :: no. 158 :: 8.10.11 :: abstract art

i've learned a baking lesson (more flour!), and this is the photography lesson for the week: bring the tripod! clearly, this is a boat slowly passing on lake minnetonka at 9pm. clearly.

capture2011 :: no. 157 :: 8.9.11 :: unicookie

oops. in my defense, this was my first attempt at a gluten-free, dairy-free cookie recipe. but who am i kidding—i always end up with flat cookies. not enough flour? despite the melted appearance, i cut them into squares and they still tasted pretty good. :)

capture2011 :: no. 156 :: 8.8.11 :: recovery

ben's sister, maggie, had her baby yesterday afternoon. his name is isaac and he is beautiful. i didn't get many good pictures of him, but others did and they are all over facebook if you know maggie and want to investigate.

when we stepped into the hospital room, i was overcome. i often cry when we visit a new baby, but i cried more than usual this time. wes and maggie are already amazing parents and i am so thrilled to be aunt to this little gift. we are praising and thanking God for the safe delivery of this precious baby boy. we pray he will grow up to treasure Christ and enjoy Him forever.

oh, and p.s. after we watched maggie eat her delicious-looking food we went home and made pancakes and bacon. :)

the yard bug

i think i have been officially bitten. i never thought i would really like working on the yard. i imagined i would just do as little as possible to make our landscaping look decent and then move on. but after spending some time outside getting my hands in the dirt, i'm realizing that it can be a lot of fun.

one of my goals for the second half of the summer is to get the beds in the front of the house in order. that means two things: tearing out what is there and then putting good stuff back in.

since we bought the house, we've replaced the siding, windows, roof, and front door. 

and to rip out the brick, our contractors cut off the bushes at the root, leaving the stumps. the front beds also have rock in them. so we've been working on getting out the rock and the stumps. our house is extremely long with a side-loading garage, so there is a lot of rock. it has been a slow, slow process to dig it out, and i took beki's advice and hired someone from craigslist to come do the last bit for us. it is the last 20 feet or so, and he's coming on wednesday. can't wait!

as you can see, we replaced the white masonite with gray vinyl siding. but, the contractors left in a few rows of the old brick at the very bottom to meet code. you might think i'm crazy, but that brick really bothers me. it is like a remnant of the old that i just can't stand. so i've been painting it. i think the beds will probably be high enough to cover it, but just in case they don't, i'm priming and painting it to match the siding.

i'm not sure what to do with the built-in planter. we didn't rip it out because we didn't know what was beneath it and it might look worse with it gone. i think i will paint it for now and maybe reface it later. who knows.

even though i like painting, the really fun part has been researching plants. i've spent a lot of time at cobblestone gardens looking and talking with one of their landscape designers. i'm trying my best to do this alone, in part because i like it and in part to save money. i have been graciously offered so many great perennials from friends and family, so i think we'll be able to do this on a low budget. we'll be putting in simple, hardy plants because the house faces full west and gets scorching in the afternoon. so no hosta here! :)

don't worry, our mailbox is okay. i just blurred the house numbers.

things are definitely getting better.

capture2011 :: no. 155 :: 8.6.11 :: the bird

is this an egret? whatever the type, it was very comfortable being near humans with cameras. and p.s. i love that its legs bend backward. don't tell anyone, but mine do too. just a little.

capture2011 :: no. 154 :: 8.6.11 :: billow

my dad and i saw this cloud billowing when we looked closely. a little rain happened not too long after.

capture2011 :: no. 153 :: 8.5.11 :: date night

we saw captain america. and it was pretty darn good.

capture2011 :: no. 152 :: 8.4.11 :: i don't do this very often

but my plants always seem happy when i do.

capture2011 :: no. 151 :: 8.1.11 :: shashlyk

when my mom and i traveled to ukraine a while back, we were treated to shashlyk (russian for shish-kabob) and it was amazing. somebody also gave me a cat while we were there but that is a different story. anyway, would you believe this is the first time i've ever made shish-kabobs? we had chicken wrapped in bacon, too. next time i'd cook the bacon first, but it turned out pretty well. shashlyk is a winner!

weekend pictures

catching up from last week. it's summer. i'm okay with not being at the computer all the time. :) and happy august all! enjoy it!

capture 2011 :: no. 148 :: 7.29.11 :: on the road

we devoured these goodies as we drove up to the cabin on friday night. i'm not really a fruit candy person (chocolate is my weakness), but sometimes a box of sour patch kids just tastes so good.


capture 2011 :: no. 149 :: 7.30.11 :: sticky summer treat

man, our nephew caleb is growing up so fast. 

capture 2011 :: no. 150 :: 7.30.11 :: the day's entertainment

ben likes to make us laugh by riding in the most absurd ways possible.