Grandma & Papa come to visit

Chad and I were excited to welcome my Mama, Daddy, Grandma & Papa down a week ago for an extended weekend.  It had been a couple of years since my grandparents made the journey from PA to my house and I was so looking forward to seeing them.  My grandparents are amazing.  My Papa, who is 92, drove my Grandma from Pennsylvania to Virginia (my parent's house) and then all four of them made the 6 hour (or 7 hour if my dad drives) journey to Charleston. 

We had a great Kiawah day with lunch at Jasmine Porch on Saturday.  We were treated to a few amazing desserts with the lemon cream cake being our favorite:

I snapped a few great shots of them out by the pool of one of the homes we manage.  Don't they look cute?

My enjoyed the pool table room.  She looks like a pro, doesn't she?

And the three of us have to always snap a three generation picture.  That's a must!!

Dad and I took a quick walk to the beach where it was ridiculously windy.  (This was the same weekend the storms ripped apart NC.  Luckily it spared SC)

On the way home from Kiawah we swung Grandma & Papa by Angel Oak.  That tree just absolutely amazes me. 

Sunday we had a great carriage tour of downtown Charleston.  The carriage tour is a lottery system because of all of the carriage companies.  So the city manages the routes and you literally don't know what tour you'll go on until you pull up to the city official to pull a lottery ball.  We scored the Battery tour which is the most sought after tour.  Woot Woot!

I love my family.  Just wish they weren't so darn far away.......

Sweat your Gr-ass off Saturday

Picture this-a hot, humid, sunny Saturday afternoon in Chucktown.  A perfect day to say put your boat in the water or head down to the beach and stay cool.  Or what about spending four hours digging up a walk way, tilling the ground, lifting 12 bags of soil and planting 10 sweetgrass plants.  What would you pick?   Planting sweetgrass?  Well you should have joined us!!

We lined our sidewalk today leading to the palm trees and it turned out great.  I can't wait to see these puppies bloom purple in the fall.  Can't freakin' wait...We still need to add some landscape lights, but eventually this lil project will be done.



They look little now but they grow fast.

 Here's a look at how they look lining the sidewalk at Kiawah when they bloom:

Palm Tuesday

Aren't I just too funny with my blog title...Palm Tuesday...ha ha

We finally got our palm trees on Tuesday-yeah!  We've been wanting them for a while and finally got around to calling Tim to install them.  If you need palm trees, you have to call  Cold Hardy Palms.  Tim will take care of you. 

Before shots of our house without the palm trees

This is a super old picture of the house, but the only one I had of the side yard

Enter the palm trees:

We liked how this one "broke up" the barren side of the house

Is this project "done" you ask.  Heck no.  Now I want to line the sidewalk with sweet grass or boxwoods.  And we still need to add pine straw around the trees.  It is a work in progress. 

Happy Palm Tuesday!

Never ending patio project

Last year after we built our patio, we ran out of money steam to continue the little walkway to the fence/front yard.  We decided we'd wait a month or two and then dig it out, shovel gravel, and finish off the project.

Yeah, so a year and two months later we decided, "Uh, maybe we should really do something with that walk way."  May or may not have been because my grandparents are coming this weekend and I wanted everything to be perfect...

So after a grueling boot camp class Friday morning, a body attack class early Saturday morning, I thought, "Why the hell not dig out the walk way and shovel almost a ton of rock and dirt?"  You know-my arms didn't feel like wet noodles and my quads like concrete already...

I soon found out that digging in the clay is not really the easiest thing to do, so Chad took over the digging and I took over disposing the grass/dirt in the wheelbarrow.  Not so sure that was easier..After about two or three hours we were done.  Both literally and figuratively. 

The walkway monkey digging out

Yes he's stubborn and won't put on tennis shoes, even though I tell him he should.  He's a flip flop kind of guy

Look at that dead sod!

My job-the wheelbarrow monkey

All dug out and just screaming for some plantation mix

Plantation mix just begging to be shoveled!

Finally-done. 

So my plans are to perhaps line the red stones with some sweet grass or even some type of low shrubs.  We'll see-maybe next month or next year!!!

Next week we are getting palm trees on the front of the house.  I can't WAIT.  It's going to look great and I'll be sure to blog on it.  I have lots of plans for the front of the house.  We are accepting donations.  :)

ELLLL-LLLLOOOOW

Ell-Low.  Just checking in on you to see how your weekend was.  Ha ha..Isn't that little guy funny.  I don't know why, but he makes me talk with an accent.  Noticed him as I was walking down my hallway.  He was a little voyeour looking in our windows!

Weekend was good.  Chad and I had Saturday off.  Basically just ran a bunch of errands and then Sunday afternoon after working on the 'Wah, we did yard work.  I finally got around to getting new ferns on my front porch.  Yeah, those dead things weren't really doing anything for the look of the house.  Got to thank my hubby for hooking up an amazing watering feature for my hanging baskets so now I can be totally lazy and never have to water them.  Those suckers are on a T-I-M-E-R.  WWWWHHHAAATTT?? 

With the um-dead-ferns:

All spruced up:

I went searching for a new wreath of some sorts for the front door to the house and came across door art at Kirklands.  I saw this and fell in love.  It is so different but so colorful.  Just want I "see" when I think "Spring!"

I did see on another blog (that I can't find now) where a girl took a huge letter for her last name and covered in moss.  I might try that for a summer wreath.  We'll see if I feel all "Martha Stewart"  Maybe I can convince Dirt Diva to try one for her door first and see how hard it really is.  :)

Hope you had a fabulous weekend too.  Really hard to believe it is April already....