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Getting our landscaping groove on!

First of all, Happy Easter!  I know it’s a couple days late…..but I hope your Easter weekend was beautiful!  I also hope your weather is warming up because ours is making us insanely happy here in Oklahoma—–and I hope more and more of you are enjoying some sunshine!  We’ve been outside a lot lately (because spring is perfect here….but summer is HOOOOOT) and I mentioned last week that I have been gathering ideas for improving the exterior of our home and I put together 20 Cheap Ways To Improve Curb Appeal.  As I was getting all hyped to do some of those ideas, we decided to first tear out most of the front landscaping and put in a different layout and design.

And you know how it goes when you get an idea in your head and you have a timeline in your head of how long said project will take…….but it ALWAYS TAKES LONGER?!?!?  Ugghh——I’m the worst at that!  In fact, my husband Steve always teases that when I say I only need X amount of time to finish something, he knows he should double that number.  Like I’ll say, “oh, just give me 20 minutes to finished sewing this dress”…..and he’ll say, “Okay, see you in 40!”  And dang it, he’s usually right! ;)

Since Steve had the day off last Friday, we started buying top soil and pavers and all sorts of supplies to begin re-designing the front yard.  By Friday evening, we started raking and bagging up all the old mulch and digging up dead plants and weeds.  Then we spent ALL day Saturday digging up parts of the lawn and placing a border of pavers around the garden areas.  And let me tell you……these kids were out there with us most of the day!  Connor (7) and Elli (9) are actually old enough to be helpful and were usually scooping dirt and moving things around with us.  (And yes, Connor is wearing snow boots because I couldn’t find rain boots for boys in his size….and this red mud is WICKED on regular shoes!)  But I was actually really impressed by them and how much they were able to help us! :) And Oliver……well, he was completely content using any tool he could get his hands on! ;)

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Oh, and while Chloe could finish some smaller tasks, she usually kept busy in other ways! ;)

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But holy smokes, getting that first layer of pavers takes some time, especially when you have a sloped lawn. Leveling, laying rock dirt, adding a layer of sand, leveling, trying again……wow.  Lots of work!  But once we got our groove, things really sped up and we may have joked a time or two about starting our own landscape business (totally joking though)! ;)

Sunday we ignored the mess in the front yard and just enjoyed Easter but then last night (Monday) right after dinner, we decided to head back outside…

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And our underpaid employees got right to work!

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But we’re going to have to hold an employee meeting about supply wasting because for some reason our sand supplies are way below their projected mark.  (Haha….I kept catching this kid with fistfuls of sand and throwing it wherever he felt was best!)

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And lest you think our employees are overworked, they have plenty of breaks!  And even though this has been taking up a lot of time to complete other things (such as editing some pictures for some projects I’ve been wanting to share here with you guys)……we have been having some great family time outside!

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Steve and I also realized that we are able to work twice as fast after we put the kids to bed last night and used up the last dregs of daylight working solo……and then worked another hour or two using the outdoor house lights!

Ahhhhh — but that’s what it took to finally finish the garden beds around the curve of the sidewalk.  The slope and curve of that was tricky and yes, I’m headed back to the store for more pavers (because we kept stealing them from the bigger bed)…….but I can hardly wait to start planting bushes and flowers and all things GREEN! :)

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Oh, and I have been pinning all sorts of landscaping ideas and inspiration…..so if you need some ideas, check out my Landscaping Board on Pinterest, because it’s jam packed with all the ideas running through my head these days! :)

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Anyway, I’ll be back to my normally scheduled projects and tutorials soon…..because there are quite a few things sitting on my craft table, ready to share! :)

-Ashley

 

Ashley Johnston

Administrator at Make It & Love It
Ashley Johnston is a professional DIY costume maker, sewist, crafter, and owner of Make It & Love It. She is a mom of 5 and a wife to a very patient (with the craft clutter) husband. In case you’re wondering, she always chooses crafting/sewing/designing over mopping/dusting/wiping base boards……but bathrooms/laundry/full bellies are always attended to. Whew!

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Hi, I'm Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley—the DIY-enthusiast behind this crazy blog!

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