What is it?

My yard continues to throw surprises my way. I've discovered crocuses, stemless tulips (they're old and tired), hyacinths, Easter lilies, hostas and mums. Plus some other flowers that I don't know the name of.

The most recent surprise is a small tree right outside the kitchen window. When we moved in last year it was full of oval shaped green leaves, nothing out of the ordinary. Then a few days ago something changed... it now has LOTS and LOTS of clumps of white flowers. They smell like a Lilac, look similar to one but according to my Dad who's the Master Gardener, they're not one.

Well, then, what is it? I must know! Any ideas?

Mailbox

Winters here in Michigan can be harsh, especially on your mailbox. Our mailbox post had been beaten by the snow and snowplows over the years and had a big split down the middle. The former owners screwed the split back together and the mailbox itself was attached by 2 wimpy nails.

Now that the snow has melted and Spring is here we decided it was time to put in a new mailbox post.

With a little bit of elbow grease and creativity Ben removed the old post and easily installed the new one.

Now what to do with the old post...hmmm....

Garage

There are positives and negatives to having a large garage.

Positive, an excellent storage place for yard toys, tools and other items needed for sprucing up the house.

Negative, due to the spacious nature of the garage it's a magnet for what my Mom describes as "plutsy stuff." The things you don't want to throw out but don't know where to store or when you'll ever use again.

In order for me to get in my car I had to dodge 2 obnoxiously large "recycling centers" (that story is for another post), a trailer hitch, 2 snow shovels, a rake, shoes, a broken metal cot, several flower pots and wood scraps. Seriously, that was all crammed in one 2 foot wide walkway next to my car. After living in a teeny apartment we've become experts at fitting lots of stuff into a small space.

Ben and I put on our work gloves, backed out the cars and tackled the "plutsy stuffed" garage. Within about an hour we had the garage mostly clean.

I'm actually looking forward to getting in my car now!

This is the garage before.

My car is parked

next to the walkway

on the right.

The garage after cleaning...

Spring Surprise!

Being this is the first Spring in our house I'm discovering plants that I never knew existed in my yard. We moved in late June so all of the Spring plants had died by then.

As I walked through the yard today I encountered 3 surprises...

The first surprise, crocuses, crocuses everywhere and not where I wanted them. They're in my lawn, my bushes, cracks and crevices of the front yard planter. They're a beautiful dark and light purple but they're in all the wrong places! ugh...I attempted to dig up a few but my attempts were futile. Their bulbs are teeny... and a huge pain to replant. Now what do I do?

The second surprise was a little better. As I began the arduous task of weeding the front yard planter I found about 10 hyacinths. They were scattered all over the planter so I dug them up and relocated them to a spot next to the garage. I sure hope they live!

The third surprise, tulips!

Now I just have to remember where all these bulbs are after the plants die so I can dig them up and relocate them...

Atmospheric

Just before Christmas we finally decided on a color for our living room. We were getting tired of looking at the grungy, splotchy white walls. After spending a few days of taping paint samples to the wall we decided on a colored called "atmospheric." It's a dark blue-gray color that looks nothing like its name. It turned out great though, it makes the room feel warmer and a lot cozier. Here's a few before and after pictures.

This is what the room looked like when we moved in...

and then what the room looks like now...

Spontaneity

About a month ago Ben and I decided it was time to start looking for a new couch. We had been using his parent's couches, which were nice but their life span was dwindling. These couches had been to the Virgin Islands and back, twice! Plus they were huge and weighed a ton and anyone who had moved the couches once wasn't to keen on helping us move them again.

Shortly before Christmas we were out doing some errands and decided to stop in a furniture store just for kicks. We were in the store for no more than 5 minutes when a couch caught our eye. We figured it was way out of our price range. Well, we found out it was on sale and a salesman told us that it had a pricing error as well. So, as we sat on it for awhile pondering what we should do, we were told there were 15 left in stock. It was a big decision and we weren't even sure it would fit in our living room. Soon people figured out just how much this couch was on sale and they started selling them faster and faster.

After 15 minutes of sitting on this couch we got up to leave and go home to ponder our potential purchase some more. The salesman stopped us on the way out and said "just so you know, we only have 5 couches left TOTAL." Total meaning all the stores they had in the West Michigan area.

We couldn't leave now. So, we turned around, sat on the couch one last time and a few moments later we were proud owners of a new couch.

Then we went home and measured the living room and were happy to find out that the couch would fit perfectly!

Here's a picture of the couches we used for years.

and the couch we have now...

Christmas

Well, our first Christmas in our new house has come and gone in a flash. December was full of a flurry of activity! We enjoyed a week long vacation with my family and had Ben's family over to our house on Christmas day for gifts and dinner. It was so much fun decorating the house for Christmas, hopefully next year I'll have acquired a few more decorations. So, enjoy the pictures of Christmas at the Fiet's!

(Above) since we are lacking in a fireplace I decided to hang our stockings on the upstairs railing. Worked out pretty good!

(Below) Our tree fit so nicely in our living room!
(below) Christmas garland above the kitchen cabinets.