Putting Down Roots

Lets start with an olllld pic of the house.  Before the new house color, barnyard red door and painted porch.  Even before the mailbox area was fixed up.

Do you see what I see?
Well besides a beautiful day in the VA, and the depressing house color...
It's a front yard completely bare of any trees.  On one hand, yay to not having to rake a pile of leaves.  But on the other hand, it seems so... well bare. 

We didn't do anything drastic, but it's definitely a step towards a more welcoming exterior!

*Thanks to our awesome neighbors who donated a Japanese Maple they were getting rid of, which sparked this project!

The hubs was out there for hours prepping for the tree...  

Seriously, that was a lot of digging.
He finished up with new soil, fertilizer and mulch.  Oh, and lots and lots and lots of watering. 

And now we have a little summin' summin' in the yard and still not a ridiculous amount of leaves to rake up!

It's starting to change colors with the season now.

And because Mattchew got me a new camera for my birfusday, here's a random close up.

We love the new addition!  The hubs was so afraid it wasn't going to make it through the replanting process.  But it's been in for a good 3 weeks now and it looks great!  We need to do some trimming, but I guess that can wait a bit longer.  Although, I have been tempted to go out there and do it now, I can't.  Matt just may drop kick me.  I have no patience, but I'm trying!

Leafy Love Art

Ok, I know I was all about fall a week ago, but the 50 degree morning we just had made me regret it already.  I was not a happy camper as I walked the puppies this morning while it was freezing and drizzling. 

Anyhoo, a few months ago we found this neat print at Ben Franklin.  Normally, it was priced at $24.99, but it was on clearance for $4.99 so we picked it up! 

As you can tell, Hemi loves them...

I've been keeping my eye out for some 12"x12" frames that weren't $20+ each and it took me this long to find something that would work.  I found these 13" x 13" pictures at Garden Ridge at $7.99/each and scooped them up.

They actually weren't being sold as picture frames, they're really just framed art.  But at that price, I tore through the back to remove the art that came with it, and remade it for my leafy love prints.

Because they were bigger than I needed, I used a sheet of posterboard and cut to size for the mat to frame each picture.

I also used these photo sticker squares to keep them in place once framed and hung.

 Here's another one of the art pieces before I removed the slightly cheesy leaf art that came with the frame.

And here are the final pieces after finally finding the right frames, throwing a bit of a tantrum because taking out the staples in the back were a bit of a b*, cutting out the new mat, reframing and hanging them. 

Oh, I forgot to mention resweeping the kitchen after I shot staples all over the floor as I yanked them out with pliers.

Even with my tantrum about those stupid staples it was SO WORTH IT. 

For less than $30 I have 3 pretty good size art pieces that go perfect in our entry hallway.

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Oh, and right after I finished them, I found these at walmart that were probably half the size  for $17.76 per set of 2.  So if you, theoretically, could buy 3 it would come out to be $26.64.  

So comparing my project to these at walmart: 
Almost exactly the same amount of money spent, mine are twice as big and shall I be so bold as to say cuter?... Yes, yes I will. 

Love when that happens!

PS randomness: If you haven't seen Bridesmaids yet:  Do it.