Before and After!

Well awhile ago I mentioned some exciting news and I hate to disappoint those who thought that meant a baby- but it actually means a backyard!

Let me just say that we had a charming backyard before but the upkeep wasn’t something we were doing and it made our backyard pretty small.  The shed was cute (in my opinion) but needed a lot of work in order to stay so we opted for everything to come out and thanks to Rocky’s guy (his company) it all came out in a matter of hours versus months. ;)  Thank y’all tremendously!  And we got new grass in all those empty areas!

Before:

After:

(There’s also a hammock swing which is hard to see in these pictures!)

Lola and myself painted the swing red and then added lots of seating, cushions/pillows, and flowers!  We have so loved it and I am super excited over the furniture we decided on.  It was a hard choice for me!  I debated forever!  I didn’t want to spend a lot and didn’t want to spend so little that we were left throwing it away at the end of the summer and I decided upon the black iron because it always looks clean and after Lola eats up there I can just spray it down and clean again.  Glass tops are impossible to keep clean and I knew I would sit there and eat if it felt dirty. We are outside almost every day- all of us!  We really enjoy it.  And thanks to the bushes, shed, and large flower bed being gone Lola has tons of room now.  It’s much better for us! Can’t wait to get her little playhouse out there too!  And a small basketball goal!

Still need some work with this area:

I tried to cut down the shutters so I could hang them but they have metal in them and my jigsaw wouldn’t cut through it… hmmm? Any suggestions?

Am hoping to find a plain but large outdoor clock on clearance at the end of the summer and cute umbrella for the table.  Oh and a side wooden table for storage and to hold a music player! Oh the list is too long… doesn’t help that Clay has gotten so excited over it too!

The chairs and table are from different places.  Those chairs are around $40 most places and I found them at Sam’s Club for $25!  So I bought a 5th one for more seating when we have sibling night.  

We keep adding things which is addicting just because we love being back there so much!  I added more flowers and Clay bought a strawberry plant and tomato plant!  Just in love.  It was all pretty expensive  but thanks to the patio furniture being reasonable and not having to buy a rug (thanks to my mom putting one in my garage sale which I stole from a lady who was trying to buy it before I realized it was in my garage sale! Haha) we had enough to divide among patio furniture and then flowers and accessories.  It was nice for it not to all go to furniture. I’ll add more pics soon because I am still changing some things up and I have this beautiful Jasmine plant I want to show off.  It smells so good and from far away you can smell it!

The front looks pretty good too! Waiting on the grass to green up which it already is more than this picture!

Fun pics outside:

Was trying to get Lola to sit by the flowers and the ground is wet and she didn’t like having a wet booty!  Best I got.  But she looks so big there.

Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw gave us these chairs that they were selling in their garage sale and I love these plastic Adirondack chairs!  I have my old green ones in the front yard under a big tree since Lola and I go out there too to wait on Daddy!

Here’s the hammock swing that Lola likes to play with but refuses to sit in!

Our large tree that Lola always wants to climb!  Clay and Nick want to build a tree house in!  I say “Go for it!” Although I think I want a little ivy on it again :( I may plant some there and around the fence as long as it doesn’t venture onto our grass where we play!

Lola love swinging in the red swing though and she loved painting it too!

Lola will drag Clay’s old dingy radio player outside so she can dance!  Cracks me up!

This is our Jasmine plant and it’s doing really well!  I can’t keep my hanging fern looking good and the guy at the store told me it was the easiest thing to care for?? Who knows what I am doing wrong?

These ferns looked terrible so I cut them all down to nothing and within a month they have grown this much and look great! Good thing I was right- I was scared I ruined them!

Clay thought he didn’t throw these baskets away but we couldn’t find them so then we were both upset he did and I refused to buy more- and good thing!  I found them in the oddest place in our garage! Hmmm…

I love these and snuck some ivy back in!

Our sweet neighbors gave Lola this awhile back and she has loved it.  She is the 3rd generation to use it and it’s still going strong!  I took her expensive tricycle back after having it for 1/2 year with hardly any use and it always tipped over. Thank goodness for old school toys! 

Big recommendation to people- clean your windows!  I need to do the rest of mine, but I did this one and removed the screen for good.  The window has odd layers of glass so it wasn’t an easy task but one that was well worth it and didn’t take too long!  And now our bedroom gets way more light too which was well needed!

Another post to come- sorry for the overload… but it’s my journal too so don’t want to skip over too much!