Outdoor Inspiration Part II

Some more pics, this time from another late-great magazine, Cottage Living. The name may imply a certain leaning towards doilies and teddy bears, but the content was anything but. I've kept my back issues for future perusing...
Another gorgeous, albeit relatively low-maintenance garden, this time right in my own backyard. (Well, it's just a few blocks away.) Such amazing use of organic and geometric, order and chaos. Divine! The cover photo is a Bradford Pear Tree alee in the back yard. The lantern is a whimsical touch and I love that the twinkling lights alternate between round and candelabra. I just bought some japanese boxwoods to line our sidewalk.

These pics are from the same Cottage Living issue. A Tucson garden that is anything but desert!

Outdoor Inspiration

The weather is just gorgeous and, if it weren't for all that yucky yellow stuff, just perfect. Our outdoor areas are taking shape... I've been having fun finding images for landscaping/hardscaping inspiration. I am a fair-weather gardener and groundskeeper, so I've been searching for plants and materials that withstand some neglect. (Thus the large amount of low-mainenance, drought-resistant pea gravel we recently installed.)
The first pics are from the website of an eco-concious landscape/building design co. in LA, Dry Design. The rest are from back issue of the late-great Domino magazine. I love the combination of soft and hard materials, the designation of areas by function, and the clean lines of the space.

Backyard Bliss!

My biggest "project" for the last couple months has been the transformation of our backyard space. Our house backs up to an alley, which definitely has its advantages, but the existing chain link fence divided the space in half... grass on this side... "No Man's Land" on the other. (Well, we did park our cars back there, and our trashcans, and a shed.. so it wasn't a complete waste, just not very aesthetically pleasing...)

We went through several design possibilities until we landed on this drawing:

Carport, horizontal privacy fence, gravel play yard, water feature, concrete block planter wall, and, most importantly, better use of the space. After a weeks of contacting contractors, getting bids, and coordinating the timing of the project work finally began. And now we open our doors to this(!!!):

We've still got landscaping to do, and a water feature to install, but we couldn't be happier with the transformation of our backyard!

(Un)Inviting Exterior Decor

Gotta get ready for the trick-or-treaters! (Actually, we only get, like, three or four trick-or-treaters each year... so the decor is really more for us and our guests!)

This year I caved and bought some of those fake pumpkins. The sad thing is, they were cheaper than the real ones, and our Texas "Fall" isn't too kind to decorative gourds. Don't worry, pumpkin farmers! We're still gonna buy some real pumpkins to carve!

I custom painted the owl door hanger (from Michael's.) It was black and didn't really show up on the door. The white "branches" are just cut from white cardstock. Just use painter's tape to adhere to the door.

The giant spiders are from Target (last year.) They held up pretty well to the elements. And to the staple gun I use to hang them. Tough critters!

The crow is from Dollar Tree... but my mom may have bought them all!

It's getting creepy around here...