Spring Cleaning

I have been dying to get our closet and pantry all cleaned up and over the past few weeks I have purged, sorted, and donated to get a closet and a pantry I don't have to be embarrassed of anymore.  After a couple of trips to The Container Store I had what I needed to clean everything up.  We took one Highlander full of clothes that we haven't worn since college and in some cases high school to Goodwill.  The problem with having large closets is that you never have to throw anything out because there is always so much room.  I decided I would have it no more and got rid of everything I knew I would never wear again (which was a considerable amount!).

My side of the closet - Before

My side of the closet - After

Derek's end of the closet - Before

Derek's end of the closet - After 1

Derek's end of the closet - After 2

On to the pantry!  Glad I can finally find the things I need!

Pantry Before

Pantry After

Adventures in Landscaping

From the day we moved into our house I have wanted to re-landscape our front yard.  The builder planted some really big, bushy shrubs on one side and thin, twiggy shrubs on the other.  I couldn't stand how off balanced it looked and just had to wait until Derek and I could get the chance to do something about it.  We finally got our chance!

We were extremely nervous about doing this ourselves because we both know very little about plants and absolutely nothing about landscaping but we thought we could figure it out.  We ventured to a local garden center and got a lot of help with what kind of plants would work on our east facing house.  Last weekend we pulled up the bushes I hated the most and replaced them with some pretty new flowers and shrubs.  This weekend we finished it off with new mulch.  I am much happier with our new plants!  Here are some before and after photos.

Our terrible weed infested tree beds

Nothing a little weed killer and mulch can't fix!

Shrub Jungle.  I trimmed the big ones in the back
and then pulled up what I call the Spider Plants and
the boring ground cover.

So much better than the spider plants

There are bushes in the middle but they are so
twiggy they are almost non-existent.

Some plants I can actually see!

Before

Finally done!