I am very happy to say that we have a venue for the fiancé and I to say I do. Backyard wedding, here we come! When it came down to hammering out plans, we’ve been all over the place. Not to mention the date. Sheeeeeesh. I’ll hold off on disclosing the date in the event that we change our wishy-washy minds yet again, but I will tell you that we plan on getting hitched exactly 284 days from now. One thing we both agreed upon right away was the venue. There is nothing we love more than to work around the house (by we here, I mean me) and cookout in the backyard (by we here, I mean Michael), so naturally an at-home backyard wedding
Whew! Between escapades to foreign beaches and getting engaged to the most handsome boyfriend in all the land, there is no doubt that I’ve left my blog buddies hanging, but never fear my friends. I’m back in action. Between our in-the-works patio project and a few landscaping ideas we have up our sleeve, Live The Home Life adventures will be heading outside for a while. Could there be a very small, yet tear-jerkingly precious springtime, backyard wedding in the works? We shall see. Today I want to share with you one of my gardening successes. I’m the first to admit that as well as I know my my around a toolbox, any activity pertaining to dirt and chlorophyll is a completely different ballgame. I might
People out there always like to say that there is no such thing as perfect. What a bunch of sad, silly little fools. I’m not talking the sort of scenarios found in movies or romance novels here, but there is definitely an overwhelming amount of perfection in this world. Like jetting off to somewhere tropical… And laying around all day sipping fruity coconut drinks while listening to waves crash… And having this shoved in front of your tear-filled eyes… And having a camera with a ten-second delay to capture the day-later-recreation of the most wonderful moment of your life since no one was around to hide in the bushes and take a picture of your mascara smudged happy tears at the moment
This is where I am jetting off to spend my week… …and that is exactly what I will be doing. Absolutely nothing. Adios, friends
By the end of May, we are moving full speed ahead towards summer. Summers filled with cold drinks, fireflies—or lightening bugs as I prefer to call them—and tons of time spent outdoors. Before the temps get too steamy, the boyfriend and I have big plans to whip our backyard space into shape with a full scale patio DIY ahead of us in the coming weeks. Naturally, I’ve been scouring all edges of the internet for outdoor inspiration. Along the way, I encountered some killer before & after projects. Let’s visit a few of my favorites. First up, get a load of this patio/raised flower bed/outdoor fireplace slice of heaven. Hubba, hubba. DIY raised flowerbeds are a part of the master plan for my soon-to-be-transformed backyard,
Last year I tricked a few people into inviting me out to a day of boot stompin’ fun at P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm. I drooled over the most perfect farm house in all the land. I had the chance to hang with some of my favorite local bloggers. I held a chicken. Life was fabulous. (click here for the recap.) Tomorrow I’m heading back for another invite-only romp around the farm. Man, these guys are suckers. Be sure to follow my Facebook & Twitter updates all day tomorrow to see what kind of trouble I can get into. https://www.facebook.com/livethehomelife https://twitter.com/carawilkerson Saddest update of all time: A stomach bug had other plans for my big day on the farm, so I’m sitting this one
From the moment I moved into my little construction site, there were two sad areas that received very little LTHL love: the laundry room & back patio. Now that my laundry room is no longer the enormous elephant in the room (click here for the pat-me-on-the-back before & after pics), it’s high time to rid myself of deep rooted patio shame. Let’s visit the rarely seen on Live The Home Life patio pics. One two words sum up this patio. Teeny tiny. With barely enough room to cookout without setting yourself ablaze, expansion is on the horizon. Not to mention, just outside the back door is an enormous oak tree begging to shade a new outdoor hangout spot. And as luck has it, a (relatively)
Ever since Michael and I started shacking up last fall, I’ve managed to successfully rope him into my project schemes. This is no secret to him, me or you. He’s been a complete DIY trooper when it comes to my big plans. With such an agreeable attitude, one would think that when his turn rolled around to pick a project (READ: the scary backyard that hasn’t been thought about let alone properly cared for in the past 20 years) I was not so game. Pruning. (Sweating.) Mowing. (Itching.) Planting. (Scratching)… I should be happily heading to the workshop to fetch a rake and hand shovel, but unfortunately when I hear “outdoor project” I think less weed-eater & garden hose and more along the lines of
While making the actual shutters was easy breezy, hanging them on brick was a different story, so I just did what I usually do when stumped with a DIY project. Google. Call Mom/Dad. Ask a friendly face at the home improvement store…which lead me to this. A 1/8” masonry drill bit and a pack of 2” masonry screws. $10 later, shopping was a wrap and I was back home in the full shutter-hanging swing of things. Somewhere online I was warned not to use a masonry drill bit on wood. So I pre-drilled my holes in the shutters using a regular 1/8” drill bit that I already had. Then, I lined up my predrilled shutters with the brick (aiming for the mortar since it is
Want to know what I have a ton of? Just a complete, overflowing abundance of? Ugly, brown, dated doors. Everywhere I look. Ugly, brown, dated doors. Ugly, brown, dated doors complete with ugly, mismatched, dated doorknobs. Two sure signs of a future project. Bring on the paintbrush.  
Well over a year ago a hot tip on a stack of old fence wood hanging out on the side of the road came my way and ever since, that same pile of old fence wood has been getting even older in a pile in my backyard. I knew I’d find some use for it…but nothing struck me. No ideas for this shabby pile of sticks. This past weekend, while we were on a backyard cleaning frenzy, I was just about to give up and throw the old boards back to the curb, when I stumbled across this picture from Sweet Pickins Furniture… I too have an awkwardly narrow wall in my kitchen that would be perfect for such shabby chic letters! A DIY ah-ha
Last I left you, shutters were hot on my to-do list. See lonely windows begging for accessories below… After a very short debate with myself over whether or not I wanted to paint my future shutters or not, I decided with bug fat not for a couple of very simple reasons: 1. I already have a lot of painted wood going on with the columns & trim and 2. I was feeling lazy and that was just one more step. As a result, I opted to splurge on cedar shutters. Even though cedar is more expensive, it would hold up to the elements and provide the woodsy look I was aiming for. A quick run to the hardware store and I was back in no