Halloween @Work!

Next up is out potluck lunch and awards in the following categories: Scariest, Funniest, Most Unique

Happy Birthday!

Today is BB's Birthday and she celebrated with friends on her new adventure in the Dominican Republic!

So glad she's enjoying the warm weather and having fun!

House Hunting

Not sure if I should really call this house hunting since we aren't technically looking very seriously.... We know we want to move within the next couple years and it took us 7 months to find our current place and we were looking at houses almost every weekend of that time. Now that we know the area, the schools, the roads, this house hunt is defined in a way the last one wasn't. Also, we've learned a few lessons with this house (some hard, some funny) and so we have a list of things our next house absolutely must have, and a list of what would be awesome. It's evolving over time, but to give you an idea here is what it currently looks like:

Must Have	Would Like to Have
4 bedrooms, 3 ½ bathrooms	5 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half baths
2 car garage	3 car garage
mudroom off garage entrance	back deck off back to yard
1st open floor plan: eat-in kitchen, breakfast area, large family room	butler’s pantry between kitchen and formal dining room
separate formal dining and office	formal dining, formal living and office
separate laundry room	1st floor laundry room
heating and cooling systems	Geo-thermal and solar
walk-out daylight basement w/high ceilings	finished basement
walk-up attic space	finished attic space
good sized yard - mostly level	private yard - ie end of a cul-de-sac or rd
room to expand - either within the house or add on if needed.	mature trees/ landscaping
wood burning fireplace(s)
hardwood first floor, tile in baths	heated tile in baths
double sink in master bath, sep shower/tub

Here are some pictures of houses we've looked at lately:

Which one do you like best?

Fall Walks with Reese

Reese and I love to go exploring in the fall, the weather has cooled, less people and less bugs makes for more fun!

  

Can't wait to go back again (or maybe try another adventure elsewhere!)

Fall in the Yard

I think being out in the yard in the fall is one of my all-time favorite things! The grass has slowed growing, most of the bugs are dead or dying, it's cooler so lugging around plants, dirt, mulch isn't as much work and the leaves are putting on a beautiful show! :-)

I came to the conclusion that the last 'lilac bush' wasn't really a bush at all this summer. It was a junk tree. I put off pulling it up thinking it would attract the japanese beetles that killed off my smallest dogwood tree this summer. I abhor those stupid things!

So I finally pulled it out and planted 2 containers of bulbs and 3 small bushes that were given to me as a few friends were cleaning out. Thus, the side garden against the garage went from looking like this:

to this:

 The new bush in a mini rhododendron

and this is where the 4 buckets of bulbs went. 

I might break down next spring a buy a more established lilac.

And the back raised garden bed - the last little one went from looking like this:

to this:

 whew! what a difference a few months make!

 I moved the 3rd NY Astor and planted another hydrangea.

It doesn't look so good right now, but there are green buds on it, so I'm going to give it some love, fertilizer and time and see if I can get it growing again :-)

Pictures I took this morning..... I love my backyard!

Mantle for Fall

We've had The Great Pumpkin hanging over the mantle for most of September at Matt's request :-)

But over the last week or so, I pulled out some fall favorites and added a few new pieces this year to help round it out. I still need to add some taller pieces so it looks a bit more balanced...

The twigs and berries around the candles are new. I got them at JoAnn's for 50% off which made them fun and reasonably priced :-) I pick up new little pumpkins and gourds at the grocery store each year to add to my favorite glass blown pumpkin, twig pumpkin and this year the new bigger (carve-able) pumpkin also from JoAnn's. He's plain for now but I may do something fun with him later this month.

And THIS guy is my new find for Halloween that I love so much I can't figure out where to put him!

The goal this year with fall is to re-use, recycle and re-imagine the stuff we already have (it also helps that we aren't hosting any events at the house this year during the fall season) so I can spend a bit on Christmas this year and pick up a few new pieces!