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Our Summer Mantels | Home Decorating Ideas

July 10, 2013 By Laura 9 Comments

We’re three weeks deep into the summer season, so I thought it was high time I got our summer mantels decor on the blog.  It’s not only fun to show, but hopefully it gives someone some home decorating ideas. And if you aren’t aware of it, mantel decorating is twice the fun around here, because we have double mantels! Courtesy of the hard-working hands of my carpentry-able husband. So the mantels inspiration, ideas, photos, decor, fun….is always x2 here at the House Of Joyful Noise! 

I knew the season of summer was going to be fun to work with. Once I got thinking about it, I started getting all kinds of ‘theme’ ideas that fit the summertime season! But, where we live right by the ocean, it only seemed to right to go with the beach/nautical/seaside authentic decor, this first summer with our new mantels. I am sure as the years go by, I’ll continue to get this thrill from the creative process of putting together pieces to decorate the mantels, and so it will always be somewhat difference from year to year and season to season. And by seasons, I am referring to both the four seasons of New England climate, as well as holidays. In other words, no 2 summer double-mantels will be just the same.

That said, I AM so in love with my finished summer mantels right now, that I can’t imagine ever taking it down, or putting it back together just like this, next year.

Do you love them too?  
I just love seeing them. Whether on accident as I breeze through, or just sitting there, looking them over, and enjoying them.
I realize Autumn will descend on us at some point, and I’ll have new excitement and inspiration for that season (which I love), but for now, I am digging summer. A LOT. In all kinds of ways.

Oh you know I took details photos, so I can tell you [Read more…]

Filed Under: Home Decor, Mantel Decorating (Ideas), Photography, Seasonal Home decor, SUMMER Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: decorating-mantels, decorating-with-theme, home-decorating-mantels, mantel-decorating-ideas, mantel-decorating-tips, mantels, nautical-decorating, ocean-decor, seaside-decorating, summer-decorated-mantels, summer-mantel-decorating-ideas

4th of July

July 4, 2012 By Laura Leave a Comment

1_painted-american-birdhouse

HaPpY 4th of JULY, Everyone!

Since I wanted some photos, to go along with our wishes for you,  I thought today would be a good day to show you where I put my painted American Birdhouse.  It’s out on the potting bench near the gardens!  So now you know! I’ve got a whole red-white and blue theme going on out there, and it’ll be there throughout the month of July.  Then I’ll likely change it up, to some other summer theme.

 The birdhouse has held up very well in weather, despite the sun and rain beating on it.  Again, I credit that to the wax finish. It seems to be a great protector for outdoor wood, in my experience.

2_hand-painted-american-birdhouse-on-potting-bench Have a safe and memorable celebration of our country, with your families and friends!

We’ll see you again soon.



Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Gardening, Home Decor, Refinishing, SUMMER Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: 4th-of-july-decor, american-birdhouse, american-home-decor, fourth-of-july-decor, garden-decor, red-white-blue-decor

Pumpkin Patch Progress | Gardening

August 10, 2010 By Laura 10 Comments

It’s 2010, and we are really new gardeners, learning as we go. Much of our gardening is guided by Googling, trial, error, chatting with others, and more Googling. This gardening post about our pumpkin patch progress well-reflects that.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-15

There’s a price one pays, for procrastinating.  This I know well.  When it comes to planned posts, when I wait for better light to get one more photo, take one more peek for a really updated report, or wait for a better opportunity to blog without having another pressing agenda….things happen.  The story grows, and often, ends up a more overwhelming task, than the simple one it could have been, a little sooner. Over whelming tasks, are often a new excuse for me, to procrastinate even more. Because I know I tend to struggle with the simplicity of a post, as it is.

So now, what once was a story with a hopeful ending, now ends in a questionable future. It almost pains me to do this post, in a gardener’s drama sort of way, as I cannot revel in the joy of blogging about this, as I could have a couple of weeks ago.

But I must be strong.  So here I go.

You may remember I mentioned that we decided to have a go at our own home pumpkin patch this year. Michael dug out an area for it in our front yard gardening areas, back at the end of May.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results

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I have been beyond excited about this new gardening project. I simply love fall decor, pumpkins in particular, and I simply detest paying for them by the pound.

We love having simple natural pumpkins around the homestead, but we also enjoy getting creative with them, as we have in past years.

decorated-pumpkins

So growing our own pumpkins was my answer, and the thrill of the progress was an additional a perk.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-2

We created a ‘patch’ as big as we could get away with, in the front yard space we had available.  Ideally, it should be bigger.  Realistically, it wasn’t going to be.

So last year, having the thoughts in our heads of growing our own pumpkins for the next season, (in part because of the staggering price total at the pumpkin-purchase-checkout), we harvested a handful of pumpkin seeds, from our expensive pumpkins.

We washed them, let them dry, and put them away.

And by golly, come spring this year, we actually still remembered where we put them.

So we soaked them over night, and kept them wrapped in damp paper towels for 2 days, in a warm place, like filtered sun. Which, if you aren’t aware, isn’t easy to keep paper towel damp.It dries so quickly, especially in window sunlight.  But thankfully, the kids were always on it, with the bottle of water, misting and re-misting.

What would we do without them?

They all peeled the edges of the seeds, and kept their own to plant.

Then we got to planting, in the awaiting patch.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-3

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 We thought we’d have a little pumpkin growing competition.  So the boys had their seeds that they planted together in one corner.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-5

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-6
And the girls had theirs, in the opposite corner of the ring.

(Sounds like a real fight heating up here, huh?)

We also planted the extra seeds, in the middle. making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-7


Now, we also had bought 2 piddly pumpkin plants from the nursery.  Not to say that I didn’t have faith in our ability to grow great pumpkins with our own seeds, but, I wasn’t really sure if I did.  So…just in case.

Because I was not paying for pumpkins by the pound again.

So, we had 5 mounds where seeds or plants were planted.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-8

Before we knew it, the starter plants, and the boys and girls planted pumpkin seeds, were neck in neck.

Or is it neck and neck?

Gosh, I’m stuck on that, and thinking too hard on this now. I don’t get it. Does this phrase about necks come from giraffes and their neck-wrangling behavior?

Whoa…way off topic. Re-focusing.

But I’m going to google that saying about where it derived from, if I remember to!

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-9 Anyway, every mound of plants, were looking pretty good, pretty quickly. Anyone random visitor would be hard-pressed, to figure out which were starter plants, and which we planted seeds.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-10 Soon, we all realized that the competition was going to be nearly impossible, to monitor.  All of the vines were growing into each other’s space, and they were hard to follow or keep straight. I mean…I sure wasn’t going to be the referee on this one.  I have enough confusion to straighten out in my head in a day.

But one thing was for sure.  We were very excited.  Most-especially-ME.

Of course, there was that little fear they would forever remain plants, just like this, never to birth a single pumpkin.

Or so much as a gourd.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-11

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-12

 But by golly, it started to.

All over the place.

I told you we were completely capable of this pumpkin growing business!

I mean….please.

What do we look like….amateur gardeners?

<throat clear>

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-14 The patch was getting downright out of control, and took some redirecting the vines, or even cutting some back.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-13 But the pumpkins were in there……everywhere!

So I hope you enjoyed all of that, because the story is about to get ugly.

We had noticed 2-3 weeks ago, that our squash garden was starting to look a little….desperate.  Needy.  It was struggling in some way….and I did not know why.

I googled (because Google is my other BFF), about the longevity of a squash garden in a season.  I thought…with the ridiculous abundance of summer squash and zucchini it had blessed us with, maybe it just sort of depleted itself.

I get that. ; )

I kept watering it and tending to it….more out of stubbornness than anything, because really…the kids were all squashed out.

But I wanted to know what the heck was happening, because things were looking from bad to worse.  I wanted to learn from it.

(Gosh I am getting mature, huh?)

Next thing I know…the Pumpkin Patch isn’t looking much better.

So, a few night’s ago, my neighbor came over. The really nice one…she and her husband are gardening extraordinaires. They have the Better Home and Gardens yardage.  But they live just short of us, on a dead end street, so they don’t see our gardens without purposely coming to visit and see.

Otherwise, if they just tried to peek, they’d get caught.

Trust me. My kids don’t miss a thing.

Well, my neighbor (Peg), she was telling me that their squash gardens do the same exact thing, EVERY year!  She and her husband said it was squash bugs, that were the culprit. She explained that every year, they get a really good harvest, and then BOOM…..everything starts going to pot, in a fast way. She believes it is an areal problem, from what they know. She said they had tried everything, to ward off these squash bugs, that destroy the plants at the trunk. But they have never won the battle.

Now, I was ready to let the squash garden go anyway.  We ate plenty, there was plenty in the freezer all shredded, slightly blanched and ready for cold season breads and soups.

BUT MY PUMPKINS!!!!  OH NOOOOOO!

I’m telling you…the patch is looking pretty bad at the moment.

I tried to take a photo, but I couldn’t see through my tears, to take the shot.

Plus, it’s just humbling.

At this point…we still have pumpkins growing.  ELEVEN in fact.

But….we are desperately googling and working to get this bug infestation under control, in hopes of saving our patch.

Now that I have googled and researched so much about these squash bugs, I know what to look for next year.  But I want these pumpkins we’ve got growing! I can’t lose them! So…we’re trying all kinds of things.

I do fear too, that we might have planted a tad too early. If they survive, they may be ripe before Halloween, and I know this was a long shot anyway but….Thanksgiving.  So next year, we’ll know to plant later too.

But, for now, I’ll be busy saving the pumpkins, God-willing.

Because the gloves are not off. (Who knew this would happen? It wasn’t my fight to begin with!)

Ask anyone. I just don’t take a fight, laying down.

making-growing-pumpkin-patch-progress-results-16
We’ll keep you posted on this sad pumpkin patch story.

Filed Under: Gardening, Seasonal Home decor, SUMMER Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: first-pumpkin-patch, Gardening, home grown pumpkins, learning-how-to-grow-pumpkins, planting pumpkin seeds, squash bugs

What’s Growing in the Gardens!

July 13, 2010 By Laura 12 Comments

18_summer-squash-photos-300x200

Finally, I have gotten it together enough, to show you what we’re growing in all of these garden beds we’ve got going.   I’m telling you, I find it extremely challenging to blog about garden updates, because everything changes so fast!   So, this post shares some of the rapid garden progress that can happen in what seems like the blink of an eye.

But I also wanted to share this little story with you.  A couple of weekends ago, we had a spontaneous tag sale.  We had quite the traffic for it too (thanks to Michael’s  Tag Sale professional signage that no one could miss).  But what was so funny, was people were more interested in our gardens when they got here, than our tag sale items!!  It was comical.  They were walking around, peeking under leaves, asking questions and generally flattering us to death.  For 2nd year gardens, we were puffing up a bit and struttin’ around like peacocks. I know…then we felt guilty.  lol.  But seriously….people were all over our gardens.  We sold a lot at the tag sale though too, once they got on task for their stop in the first place.

So anyway, back to the point of the post….

01_first_garden_bed Shown here first, is garden bed #1.   This photo was taken June 23, 2010, as are several of the following photos.

02_1st_garden_tags In it, we have growing 3 varieties of tomato plants:  2 Romas, 4 Early Girls, and 2 Burpee Big Boys.
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03_garden-bed Here is another view, taken the same day, to show the height of the plants.   As you see in this garden, we also have some Marigolds, Celosia, and Cosmos.
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04_2nd-garden_bed Garden bed #2.
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05_2nd-garden-tags In this one we have growing several plants of  California Wonder Green peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, and Straight Eight Cucumbers.  We also have in this bed, 2 more tomato plants, of the Sweet 100 Cherry variety.
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06_2nd-garden-newangle Here’s another angle, from the same day.
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07_garden-turtle-ii-decor Also in this garden, is my turtle.  I had a turtle just like this one some years ago, in my hosta bed, and the kids lost it!  We never did find it either.  So I bring it up now and then to the kids, when it comes to mind, because I really missed my turtle!  Well, we were in Michael’s Arts & Crafts one day, and one of them spotted the same exact turtle I’ve been missin’.  So they all pitched in a dollar and some change, and bought me a new one.  So this one has even more sentimental value, because the kids were thoughtful enough to buy it for me, and compassionate enough to feel bad about the one they lost, when I….was trying to make them feel bad about the one they lost. lol.  I love my turtle.  You don’t have to.  But I think he is cute.
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08_triplets-strawberry-bed You’ve seen a 100 photos of our whole strawberry bed, so I skipped that.  But we got quite the crop from our June Bearing plants!  The kids were out there picking them every day.    This photo was taken on June 8, when we were really cranking them out.
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09_a-strawberry-picking

The days were still occasionally cool, especially when the sun wasn’t out. Thus, Old Lady Winter here, in her fleece jacket. lol.  My mother used to call me Old Lady Winter, because I was always cold when I was younger.  “If you can hear me up there, Mom, I’m not cold all of the time anymore!  I’m more like Old Lady Hot Flashin’!“

Our Everbearing strawberry plants have put out some smaller strawberries (as is expected with this variety) but not the  impressive quantity yet.  We should have a crop in spring, summer and fall.  But spring gave us nothing, and summer has only given is a small handful so far.  Maybe the roots are still not established enough?  Maybe we should have plucked the flowers in the early season of this year too?  Anyone know?  We’re holding out hope.

10_strawberries But if they don’t start giving us some fruit this year, we may just rip the Everbearing plants out, and let the runners of the June Bearing take over.  Because they have been very good to us!!  I’m thinking we might need 2 strawberry beds.  Maybe 3. lol
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11_big-strawberry
Care to taste the fresh berry sweetness?
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12_4th-garden-bed This, is bed #4.  It’s the new bed we built this year.   The tag salers really couldn’t get over our squash plants. One tag sale’n guy was so very amazed, he just stood there staring and asked, “What the hell did you put in there?!”  (Pardon his French. lol)
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14_yellow-summer-squash-tag In it, we have Yellow Straightneck Summer Squash, and also Zucchini of some kind, which I forgot to take a tag photo of, just like the Sweet 100 Cherries.

So, just to show you some growth and progress, and proof that we haven’t killed anything yet:

15_1st-garden-bed-grown

….This is Bed #1, with photo taken this time on July 6, 2010.  The tomato plants had grown much taller and stronger for sure.  They are also beginning to produce fruit.  I am very excited about my tomato sandwiches to come.  : P’   Even the Marigolds and Celosia are bigger than we have ever grown.
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16_2nd-garden-bed-grown The Cherry tomatoes and pepper plants are growing well too.   Both gardens have grown even more, now a week later.  I cut the lower leaves on the pepper plants since this photo too, so we are expecting a big growth spurt.

But here’s what has really just grown out of control……

17_4th-garden-bed-grown ….the squash garden bed!  Man….that guy from the tag sale would probably fall right over, if he saw it today.   It’s truly insane, and I swear it has grown another half of a foot since this shot.  See that cosmo plant in the front corner there?  That thing too is MUCH bigger than our cosmo plants last year.  This thing has a trunk!

We water all of the gardens every night with the hose.  But I’ll tell you, the rain works magic.  If it rains during the night, we can’t wait to peek out there in the morning, because there is always very obvious overnight growth.  It feels like Christmas morning!
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18_summer-squash-photos Here’s just some fun summer squash shots.   I didn’t take any of the zucchini that day, because they were just so dark on the dirt.
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19_fresh-picked-squash We can’t even keep up with the squash picking.  I sent a heap home with my father, and the next day we had a heap more.  It’s madness.  Gave more to 2 neighbors, and there is a bunch more today.    I’m going to try making some zucchini bread.  We love steamed vegetables anyway, but we might not much longer,  if we keep eating it the way we’ve had to!  I think maybe we don’t need this many squash plants.  Does anyone have any recipes for us to use these?  Do send.

No Giveaway in this post.  But you’re certainly welcome to grab some squash, if you want some!

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Filed Under: Gardening, Seasonal Home decor, SUMMER Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: cucumbers, front-yard-garden-beds, gardens, green peppers, raised garden beds, strawberries, summer squash, tomatoes, triplets, zucchini

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