Springfield's Spring

This week, oh, this glorious week!

I am sorry it is cold in Utah, but we have had such beautiful weather I want to sing.

(Don't worry, I won't sing, but I may hum.)

The squirrels have awakened  and are scurrying all across the streets and our lawn again. They are so skinny,compared to the fat rodents that dropped nuts on the roof of our house and scared the tar out of me last fall!

I'm going to make a squirrel bait in the yard, hopefully to keep them out of my garden.

 I figure if I can at least get the zucchini to produce this year, it's a start. We're also planting watermelon, sugar pumpkins and a lot of climbing plants. I'm hoping they take and we can start to have a little bit of privacy from our well- intended, but often grouchy neighbor, Jacobv.

Our yard stresses him out.

  I can't say I blame him, it stresses me out too when I go into the corner of doom.

 Between Sandy and the former owner, it's bad.

What you see, is a giant stump, a bunch of twigs and leaves.

What you do not see are tons of boulders bigger than basketballs and chunks of concrete and asphalt that were dumped there and buried under a light layer of yard debris.

What you also don't see is the thick layer of vines that weave their way through everything, making it impossible to just hack and rake and move on with life.

I don't want to deal with it, and honestly- right now-  I just don't think I can.

In Utah I loved my irises. 

We didn't do squat with the rest of the yard, but I kept my roses alive and I fussed over my irises.

They made me feel loved and they are my favorite flower.

There is a huge Iris garden just about 45 minutes from here and I'm going to go when they bloom.

We planted a lot, but I think they are duds. 

One of my NJ native friends assured me that they will bloom- they just do it late in the summer here. 

Time will tell, but they look pretty scrawny right now.

I think I planted a miniature version, though.

I will buy bulbs when I go to the iris garden this summer. In Utah we had white, purple, yellow, red and orange blooms. 

We are going to try and get sunflowers to grow in the front and I'm also going to try and get some poppies & violets to grow. So far, my starters are still just little containers of dirt.

My tulips are so close to blooming! I am relieved to find that the squirrels really didn't dig up as many as I thought they had and I am soon going to have a pretty row or tulips along my walkway.

I don't remember planting daffodils, but here they are!

They were not here when we came out to NJ last year to find a home.

Can you believe it has been a full year since we learned we were moving and we put an offer on this house? It has it's challenges, but it's a great house and a great location for us. I love Springfield.

The trees are starting to have blossoms, the sound of chirping birds fills the sky and I love that there is so much nature here in the big "Back East." There is a mockingbird that is building a nest in a tree nearby and you can whistle and if you are lucky, you will hear your song sung back to you.  There is also a woodpecker just having a party in the trees. 

There are so many wonderful, new spring sounds here.

Thank you, Heavenly Father for the Spring.

 Thank you for this sunshine and for the pretty blooms that I see when I walk up to my house. Thank you for bringing yesterday's rainstorm to us at night, so I could soak in the sunshine again today and most importantly- thank you for helping me feel that You are there, wherever we may go.

 Thank you for being in New Jersey, too, Father in Heaven.

Is it spring yet? Is it spring yet? Is it spring yet?

Have I mentioned that I am SICK OF WINTER?

Only 100 times?

Well, I am.

It SNOWED on Saturday and Sunday. 

What kind of witchcraft is that?

Come on Spring...you are so close!

Those evil squirrels totally missed more bulbs than I thought they did. 

We have the promise of about half the tulips I planted, but way more than I thought survived.

It's going to be so pretty.

We found out that we have at least a dozen giant rocks in the back yard when that tree blew over. Now we just need to get them in the front and side yard where I can get my curb appeal on. I never quite figured that out in Utah, but we have an itty bitty front yard here and I'm not so intimidated by it.

I don't remember what we planted here, but it grew in a big cluster. 

Maybe Romy or the squirrels put a bunch of bulbs there.

Any guesses, Blog Readers?

Remember these unfinished chairs I picked up that the thrift store last week?

Well, yesterday I was running errands and the crazy DIY voice in my brain kept nagging me to go back and see what was new at the thrift store. The cool thing about a big thrift store is that the inventory changes every day. Oh sure, there will be some stuff that is there forever, but there is always something new, too. 

There was the cutest bench and I came thisclose to buying it. It was only 25 dollars, and I even have a place for it. I didn't buy it. 

I didn't buy it because it would need to be sanded primed and painted and it would look great, but it would be a real project and I am trying to finish what I start these days and I have this vision for a casual fun dining room arrangement so we can play games with our friends.

As I walked away from the bench, simultaneously trying to talk myself into and out of buying it, 

 I saw two more clean and unfinished wood chairs.

They are a different design, but I had no intention of having the chair match in the first place, I just wanted cohesive. These are the perfect chairs to go with the other two. At 8 dollars each, they were coming home with me and I left the cute bench.

 Now I have four chairs, just waiting for me to love them:

And love them, I am.

The sun came out this morning and as soon as the kids were dropped at school, I threw on my paint shirt and got to work:

I may have also painted the grass blue.

Oops.

That's right folks, Chris Olson is breaking up with tan and black as her signature color scheme. 

Okay, they will go in a  room that is primarily tan and black, but I'm working on it.

 I went so crazy with color in the first real house I owned and realized that there is a big difference between a pop of color and a house that looks like a circus threw up in it. I learned my lesson while painting over my neon orange and green Nickelodeon inspired kid's bathroom when I put the house on the market.

Eight coats of Kilz, folks.

Rainbow chairs are a safer choice.

The total cost for them is less than 50 bucks including the paint. I have some weathering to do on them and then a coat of clear gloss, but with the sun peeking out of the clouds and the tulips peeking out of the Earth, I am excited to have some color peeking out of my dark and boring dining room.

I am already in love with them.

Tomorrow is 25% off day at the thrift store.

 I am sure it will be gone, but I might just pop in and see if the bench is still there....

Homey

I know you were hoping for a third post about apples, but I finished making enough applesauce to feed an army and I'm all appled out.

 

I'm sick of them to the core.

Nyuk nyuk...

Oh, count your blessings, I have at least 5 more really stupid apple jokes I could post.

 

Speaking of counting blessings...

 

 

This little house with the deli on the corner is starting to feel more like 'us' every day.

 

I've been going through some hard things, struggling with a shadow that was resting on my heart and it's starting to lift. 

 

Getting out our little box of Halloween decorations helped.

 Seeing our old and familiar stuff in the new place helped.

The walls are in different places and the sounds are all new, but it's still home.

 

 

We never use this door, but it's an awfully cute space.

 I'm sure the mailman is enjoying it- that is, if he bothers to come.

 

 

 Four times since we started living here, he just didn't show. The next day we had a ton of mail. The neighbors said that sometimes he runs out of time so he just skips our street. Weird.

Even weirder is that sometimes, he comes twice. I thought maybe it was just on days we had packages, but he has delivered letters and bills twice in the same day, too.

New Jersey is weird. 

Anyway...

 

Isn't this pretty?

 

 

My friend Lee made it for me last year in a little craft swap we did.

It's so gorgeous. The modge podge birdhouses I made in exchange were pretty  lame in comparison.

Lee is an old friend, though, so I wasn't worried about comparisons. I just got to feel loved by her generosity and admire her talent.

 

That giant skull in the corner? Matt saw it at the store and HAD to have it. He's not one who HAS to have many things, let alone decorative things, so when Matt HAS to have something, we get it.

The eyes have red LED lights in them.

Very spooky.

 

 Now, who wants to come Trick-or-Treating at the Olson house?

I promise, we're giving out candy and not apples.