Bulb Garden

Last week I shared that we Hasani dug up the rose bush because it wasn't us and planned to grow a bulb garden. I bought three bags of bulbs from Home Depot; Dutch Iris, Muscari Blue Blend and Crocus 'Firefly' & 'Romance'. In total 260 bulbs! I also planned on buying some Daffodil bulbs but only super small packs were left, so I skipped them this year For a nice full look  I wanted the triangle as I refer to the spot, to have a little greenery year round so I bought a ornamental bush. I thought about buying more than one, but figured the main show will be the flowers early Spring to Fall. 




I got some bulb planting tips from Martha Stewart, instead of planting the bulbs in the same grouping of flower type. I mixed all the bulbs together. 


Next I gently threw the bulbs in the dirt and planted where the landed. Its supposed to give the flowers a more natural look as they grow in. also planted a few in our front flowers beds. I picked flowers that would bloom from early Spring to late Summer. My tween helped my with planting it look about an hour and a half to plant the 260 bulbs. 







I'm hoping the new bulbs that were planted look pretty and brighten up this once plain corner in our front yard were the rose bush once stood. Since its my first time planting bulbs, I'm super excited to see if the bulbs actually grow. I guess now comes the waiting period, will they grow or not?


Have you planted any bulbs this year? If so what type did you plant?

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Garden Design: CLH Featured

I have some exciting news to share with you all, I was asked by Garden Design magazine to participate in their online Fall series 'What Makes a House a Home' It's a wonderful series featuring bloggers from around the country { including Grace Bonney of Design *Sponge, Jennifer Reese of Tipsy Baker to name a few}  all talking about what makes their home meaningful to them. I've enjoyed reading their personal stories about design and their home and finding new blogs :) Below is the screen shot of the post I wrote for Garden Design Magazine.



I hope you all enjoy reading my personal thoughts about 'What Make's a House a Home' please click here to read the entire post.

Please let me know what you think about the post, I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Now its your turn, What do you think Makes a House a Home? What specials elements in your home do you love?

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Cutie Pies

Nope, this post isn't about my kiddos which are cutie pies! :) It's about baking. A few weeks back my mom was over my house and we were watching Martha Stewart together, on her show she had a guest named Dani Cone who shared her cute mini desserts. She wrote a book called Cutie Pies { I'm not getting paid for this, I love sharing! :) } Anyways my mom and I thought the her mini pies where darling and a must to try. When I was growing up my mom made almost everything from scratch and its an excellent cook, but she was always busy so we never got a chance to bake together. So I bought this book a few days ago via Amazon for my mom and I to bake together, mom and daughter bonding time! My mom was super happy about my surprise and loves the book and recipes 



What makes these pies so darling is that Dani bakes some of the mini pies in wide mouth mini mason jars. Talk about darling! We plan on making a few of her recipes in the book for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm so excited to start this new tradition with my mom for our family. I just adore the little pie in a jar, and I never knew you could bake in mason jars!


{ via here }

We are hoping to find 4oz jelly jars in stores ( Wal-Mart, Target and CVS) since canning is making a come back they should be easier to find. I also found some on Amazon! :) Around 11 bucks for 12 jars not bad at all. 

We can't wait to make these mini key lime pies, made using mini muffin tins. Don't those look good! 


{ via High 5 Pie }

I'll share how our pies turn out, most likely we'll do a test run before Thanksgiving! :) 

Are you stating any new baking traditions with your family this year?

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Rose Bush Confession

A few years ago ago before we replaced our weed filled front yard with sod, we installed a sprinkler system in the front yard and a decision to make keep the rose bush in the corner or remove it. I wasn't a huge fan of the rose bush placement in the front corner of our yard, but the purple-ish pink roses were pretty so we left it. Even in the picture below you can see its odd placement, in a big triangle at the edge our yard, just strange. 


This is my confession, I'm not a huge fan of rose bushes. I think roses are pretty, even better when they are cut roses in a vase ( hello present!). I love the look of roses growing on a trellis or up the side of the house. To me that is so pretty! I love how these climbing roses look on this home. But a rose bush all alone is kind of sad. 

{ via here }

Back to our rose bush, not only did I not like the placement, it was hard to care for because it was big { the past two years I missed the cut back date time } and the thorns would poke me. So weeds would just grow around the bush, like tall weeds, we'd keep the rest of our lawn looking good, but that triangle was a sore blah spot in our yard. Since I'm not a huge fan of rose bushes by themselves and not growing up a trellis or building, we dug up the rose bush and got rid of it. Before we dug it up, we checked with a few neighbors to make sure they didn't  want, no one did. I'm so glad I was brave enough to say good bye rose bush. Plus, I think the rose bush was dying from my lack of learning to care for it. See the biggish hole? That's where the rose bush once stood with a weeds all around, plus it was too close to our lawn and not centered in the triangle.


Now I have nice size empty flower bed to work with, Hasani dug up all the weeds and left me with fresh soil. Here are my plans, I'm going to plant a flower bulb garden VERY soon since the cold weather is right around the corner in Northern California. I want to plant a few types of bulbs that bloom from early spring until late summer, I'm also going to plant two small ornamental grass-like shrubs too, for year round greenery. I love how pretty bulbs look, and they come back year after year :) easy maintenance :) I think, I know very little about gardening, I'm learning as I go.

{ via here }
{ via here }

I think the bulb garden will add the perfect amount of color to our front yard, and look so pretty! The boys and I went shopping early last Saturday morning in search of the best bulb deals at Home Depot and Lowes.


I love this picture of my tween, I'm not sure why he posed like this but I find it darling. He's my little math wizard and helped me pick the most bulb for my buck.


I have a ton of bulbs to plant, I'm so excited since its my first time planting bulbs. I might plant some bulbs in our flower beds in the front of our house, just not sure yet. I'm going to keep a two of three out and force them to grow indoors for pretty winter flowers, I hope I can make it work. Pinterest and Martha Stewart are making it look so easy. To easy. I'll share the bulbs I bought, and how I planted ours in a couple of days, once Halloween is out the way.

Is there a plant around your home you don't love and are tempted to remove it? Or you did more it ? Any flowers you think are a tad overrated? Have you had experience planting bulbs? Did your bulbs come back year after year? Or are you a first time bulb planter this year like I am?
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