Category: curb appeal

Lush and lovely landscapes and the home lawn and garden ornaments that adorn them possess a unique beauty all their own.

Louisiana springs and summers pack a powerful knockout punch when it comes to heat and humidity, but as oppressive as the days and evenings can be, the trade off lies within the lush and lovely lawns and thriving gardens of the region.

A quick glance out the dining room window at the freshly mowed lawn and manicured flower beds enticed me to pick up the camera and conduct an impromptu home, lawn and garden tour.

I finally indulged a love of hydrangeas and purchased a five gallon blue hydrangea as an early Mother’s Day gift for my Mother.

As I was walking the front and side yard in search of the perfect spot to plant it, I couldn’t help but notice how green and good things were looking on the lush and lovely front.

I grabbed the camera and snapped a few lawn and garden shots to share with you all.

Late last week one of our neighbors surprised us with a gift basket blooming in LSU colors.

I have no earthly idea what the formal name of this plant is.

We have affectionately assigned the name Mama Bea to it, after the lady who for over thirty years was nanny, housekeeper, confident, life adviser, bull s*!t recognizer, self-appointed horticulturist, best friend and highly revered adopted family member.

Mama Bea’s yard was full of this plant. My mother, who is famous for needing just a taste of, bite of, bit of, and a little of most everything she comes into contact with, decided she had to have a little clipping of this plant.

Mama Bea obliged the request, and Mama D  got to clipping.

She brought the clipping home and promptly stuck it in the ground, water it and basically forgot about it.

This stuff is like Kudzu- it spreads everywhere!

It is super low maintenance, covers a multitude of landscaping sins and makes great flower arrangement filler.

Mama Bea has been gone for twenty-one years, but she lives on in our memories and, well, you know.

My family is big into horse racing.

When Dave the Builder and I first starting dating, we would occasionally ride up to Shreveport to Louisiana Downs or down to New Orleans to the Fair Grounds to take in the races for the weekend.

The finely manicured grounds and jockey statues known to racetracks have long piqued my interest.

Dave retained this piece of info and surprised me one Christmas with this jockey statue.

Ever since our son was a toddler he has shook the jockey’s extended hand and said, howdy do.

The name stuck, and howdy do has been greeting guests to our home for years.

Copper with a hint of verdigris is a natural process in progress.

Where some see it as an eyesore, others see it as an eye catcher.

Learning to see the beauty in items marked by age, patina and perfect imperfections is a plus in the hunt and find of antiques.

I can only win that argument so many times before I must wave the white flag of surrender.

Believe me, after this picture was snapped, uploaded and viewed, I am now “paintfully” aware a trip to Sherwin-Williams for a gallon of Tricorn Black is in my sooner than later future.

The ironwork on the courtyard wall is showing signs of chippy neglect and the shutters have dulled.

On the subject of shutters, I gave these the once-over and concluded I still like the look of this faux shutter treatment.

Behind the shutters is one of the original dining room windows.

When we knocked down the wall between the dining room and kitchen, the two single windows had to go in order to make way for the new cabinets.

Dave boarded up the windows and fastened shutters to newly constructed frames.

We dressed up the look with dummy scroll shutter dogs for no other reason other than I really like the look of shutter dogs.

The decision has been made to take down the lantern and put it through a series of re- rewire, repaint and repair.

Dave the Builder, my dad, our son and our neighbor all have something in common.

All four of these men have experienced painful forehead to lantern contact.

Notice the broken glass panel?

That was the result of our son’s run-in with the lantern.

The other two missing glass panels met an untimely demise compliments of my dad and Dave the Builder.

Curb appeal shouldn’t have to be painful, so down it comes.

New panes.

New paint.

New home.

Updated Look:

We decided to go with a LED recessed ceiling light fixture, and we could not be more pleased with the performance of and look created by the Halo 4 in. White Integrated LED Recessed Ceiling Light Fixture.

We are going to be busy bees around here over the next few weeks.

Speaking of bees, stay tuned for the next post.

You’ll see what I mean.