maverick.

billy got a new girlfriend this weekend.

owning an old car is kind of a murphy right of passage.

his dad has them stacked two deep in the barn.

i know tripp has collected his fair share.

and now billy has his first classic.

i can relate to the classic car bug since my own dad has been bit by it, 

and i grew up dancing to oldies at the tastee freeze car shows.

there's nothing like a big hunk of rusty muscle, is there?

one of billy's coworkers gave it to him.

it's a 1971 ford maverick.

it's the "perfect project car" (read: my husband will be of no use to me on the weekends)

but he's just so excited about it.

and he was the most excited about showing it to finn for the first time.

so sweet.

i look forward to many years of greasy fingerprints.

a little piece of country.

when i was a little girl, we used to travel to "the country" to visit my great granny on "the farm".

"the country" was western virginia, in a town i still only know to be called "dogtown".  this always confused me as a child because the entire town was completely overrun with stray barn cats, like hoards of them, but i never saw a dog.  it should have been called cattown.

"the farm" was my great granny's farmhouse.  i think she was born there.  we like to say it's where it all began.

great granny went completely senile when i was still little, but i have very fond memories of her nonetheless.  she was a surprisingly talented artist and she taught me how to draw stairs, and houses, and other little architectural drawing tricks.  she also made really good scratch biscuits.  i still remember her flouring up the counter and rolling them out.  i used to string beans with her and granny on the back porch.  it was always hot there, and it always smelled fantastic.  that hot, country, cowpie, supper in the oven kinda smell.  it's the stuff my heart is made of.

my favorite memory of great granny is watching her comb her hair.  the last few times we went to visit her, i think granny had to comb it for her because she couldn't anymore.  but she always sat in the living room of the farm house in a straightback chair and took her hair down.  she kept it in a tight bun all day long, and i remember always being shocked whenever she let it down.  it was so long.  down past her back.  long, gray, silky hair.  she only let it down at night to comb it and braid it right before bed.  she would stare out the window while she combed it.  i remember peaking through the door and watching her from behind so she wouldn't see me.  it was so ritualistic that it almost seemed sacred.  i always watched very quietly and wondered what she was thinking about while she did it.  sometimes i think she was sad.  but it was always this kind of peaceful, resigned, dutiful sadness.  a sleepy sadness.  i guess it's like that when your mind starts to go.

my second favorite memory of great granny is sitting on the porch swing with her.  she would always wring her hands.  and she always wore a farm dress and apron that had been worn and washed so many times that it was thin and soft and smelled like sunshine from hanging out on the line long afternoons.  sometimes now i catch myself slouching and notice that my shoulders hang and my tummy sticks out the same way hers did.  i kind of like it.

i have always said that when i'm old i will let my hair grow long like great granny's was.

and i have always, always wanted a front porch swing.

billy put it up for me yesterday.

i sat on it with my daddy for a little bit last night.  and i swung finn on it this morning.

it might just be a swing i found on craigs list, but it's more than that to me.

it's memories, and traditions, and a dream come true.

my very own front porch swing.

see yew later!

these are the yews:

 

i hated them. tuck did, too. clearly.

i think they weren't properly pruned or cared for for a very long time, so that's why they were all naked at the bottom and only green on top.  

there was no saving them.

billys to the rescue!

a few weeks ago dad billy and husband billy got rid of those suckers for me!

bye yews!

but, it left the front looking a little lacking:

so a couple weeks ago, billy went at it again!

i told him i thought it would be nice if we mulched that area and lined it with stone.

after a little investigating, billy discovered that there already were stones there... they were just buried!  so he dug them up. 

yeah, he's pretty awesome.

don't worry, tuck made sure he did it right.

eventually we want to plant something along here that will stay green all year long.  

we've thought about holly, or english boxwoods.  

but we haven't decided yet, and new shrubs are going to be a little pricey, so we decided to put some pretty annuals down in the meantime to keep things looking bright and fresh.

we also decided on using black mulch, which we really love!

and the bright yellow flowers we picked were only $2 each!

 

isn't he the best gardener ever?

don't worry, i didn't just snap pictures while billy was busy working.  i did some planting myself!

i painted some of my old pots with chalkboard paint and i love the way they turned out!  

so when i was at the farmers market i picked up some herbs and tomato plants.  

eventually we'll have a real garden at the house, but in the meantime i thought this little potted garden turned out sweet! :)

having the yews gone has really opened up the light to our first floor windows now too, and our dining room and great room are much brighter and sunnier!  we're really enjoying it!

love our home.

it's nice to finally be able to say that my extreme nesting has finally worn off, three months after our baby was born.  i'm really enjoying letting things look a little "lived in" around here.

it feels so homey to have little baby things here and there.  there's so many signs of love everywhere i look.

here's some pictures of new little things that make me smile:

a little more "lived in" living room.

finn sleeping on the floor.

 

vintage magazines.

 

a sofa table relocated from the music room. (thanks mom and billy!)

a new bird. (don't judge me).

a ribbon around the front bedroom's curtain.

a struggling to survive orchid, and more importantly, clean gutters. (thanks dad).

blankets and baby books.

wooden boxes from the shop to house hair pins.

refinished original doorknobs in my dressing room. (thanks again dad :))

and finally, although i am not ready to post the full reveal of my beautiful new landscaping out front until the installation of our craigs list found porch swing (yay!), here is a sneak peek of my amazing husband making things beautiful out there:

love it.

love my husband, love our baby, love our home, love our "lived in" life!

changes around the houzzzzzzz......

i wanted to try and write a blog about some of the changes that happened around the house this weekend.

some pretty refinished original glass doorknobs in my dressing room,

rearranging and changing some things in the great rooms,

more red storm doors,

taking out the yews outside (!!!)

but i'm so sleep deprived that i can't really think straight.  finn was a good sleeper i think, at one point, i can't remember because i'm too tired.  but ever since we transitioned him to his crib, he's been getting up every couple of hours at night.  it's not enjoyable.

i started writing down how often he was waking up because in the mornings i was so tired i couldn't remember if i dreamt being up or if i was really up.  last night was the first time i did this, and this morning i discovered he woke up at 11, 1, 3:30, 6, and 7:30.

rad.

he did not want to go back to sleep this morning, so i consumed just enough coffee to keep my eyes open.  then, when he went back to sleep for a morning nap, i discovered it was also just enough coffee to keep my eyes from closing.

damn it!

i did squeak an hour in and now i'm somewhat returning to normalcy.
normalcy currently involves eye bags, wet hair, and a t-shirt that's been ravaged so badly at the neckline by finn that i look like i spent the night at a fraternity party.
this is sad.
please go back to sleeping, baby.

this morning my words were like:
"hold on baby, let mommy go make some toothpaste. i'm so sleepy."
and
"please tired baby. mommy is so sweet."

things are looking up since i can spell and type, a little bit.
hopefully i can get some pictures taken today to share the pretty changes around here.

in the meantime, here's a funny video of a tv show billy and i are very much looking forward to.

it's basically our life.

what's black and white and red all over?

nope, not read all over.  red all over.

among many other sweet things, billy got me a gallon of red paint for mothers day.

because i've always wanted a red front door.

this weekend my folks were up for mothers day, and they are always eager helpers, so we decided to dig out our storm doors from the garage and reattach them so we could make use of the screens this summer.  the only problem is, all of our storm doors look like this:

dad and billy powerwashed them this weekend so they would be ready for a fresh coat of paint.

red paint.

i don't know if i'm going to paint all of the storms around the house red, but we decided we definitely wanted to paint the two front doors red.  

the main front door goes into our kitchen, and that's the door we use every day, but there's another front door that's more prominent because it's in the stone part of the house that sticks out, so we decided to paint that one red as well.

tuck babysat:

yeah, there's a baby in there.

anyway,

what do you think?

we only managed to get one coat on in between mothers day brunch with my family and mothers day dinner with billy's family.  i'm going to try to tackle the second coat tomorrow, but i think you get the idea so far.  

i think the red makes the house look really polished.

ooh and look, they finally put our historical sign up!

neato!

but speaking of mothers day, we had a great one!

it's easy to do when your baby is the sweetest little teletubby you ever did see.

i got the baby i always wanted and the red doors to boot!

hope you all had a great mothers day as well!

xoxo

the christmas tree shoppe.

i had never heard of the christmas tree shoppe before i moved to pennsylvania.
billy's mom freaked out when they opened one here because i guess they only used to have them in maine.  despite her enthusiasm, i never went... until last year on a whim after we bought the house, and ever since then i was hooked.

you can find the most randomly delightful things there!  like little cow coffee creamers and $2.99 antiqued curtain rods and kitchen chairs!  everything is so cheap and so fun.

this past sunday after our yardwork extravaganza i ran in with billy's mom while the menfolk were waiting for a table at the restaurant across the street.  the store was closing in ten minutes, but i still managed to snatch up these fabulous little curb-appeal-boosting beauties.

the perfect monogram doormat for $5

 

the classic pennsylvania outdoor metal star for $5

and a huge antiqued american flag for $5

i even found a lovely little chotchky for the inside of the house...

this little "primitives" wooden sign for only $1

i couldn't pass it up... i love alternating little decorations in our deep window sills.

fun little treasures!

thanks christmas tree shoppe!.... (i wonder why it's called that? the one thing i've never come across there is a christmas tree. odd.)

landscapers to the rescue!

ever notice how i don't post ANY pictures of our yard?

we have a really nice property, that at one point i'm sure was very beautiful.
it can technically boast a swimming pool and tennis courts, but they are in such disrepair right now that it's best not to speak of them.
the property was very overgrown when we moved in, after years and years of neglect.
it really is a hard yard to keep up with, and we've been having a hard time getting our hands around it.

the winter did not treat our yard too kindly... all of the crazy snow and windstorms knocked down dozens of branches and trees and left our already injured yard looking like major ish.

billy and i have been trying to get out there a little bit every weekend, but there's not much that i can do with little finnster to tend to, and there's so much to do out there that billy can't put much of a dent in it on his own.

luckily, today we had some fabulous landscapers rescue us!

.... landscapers?
okay let's be honest, we can't really afford landscapers.
but billy's parents are the next best thing!
they surprised us today in their gardening gear complete with pickup truck and heavy machinery!
and thank goodness! cuz we really needed some major help.

billy and his dad (and tuck) worked out front clearing out overgrown stuff with the gravely.  the gravely is a crazy piece of machinery that basically magically makes overgrowth disappear.

while they were doing that, mumpeg and i (and finn) worked in the side yard clearing and burning.

 

ok honestly, mumpeg did all of the work in the side yard.  finn and i were pretty useless.  

especially finn:

there is still SO MUCH to do out there.  but it was so nice to have eager help, and they really did put a big dent in everything today.  it was encouraging to at least get it started!

billy also found this super phenomenal stop sign/amazing piece of hippie art in the yard.

pretty great, huh?

it also helped remind me that there are worse things than having a messy lawn.

and even though i don't have trimmed hedges and a white picket fence, i do have an amazing family. with a whole lotta elbow grease and a whole lotta love.
and our yard, much like our home, and ourselves, is a wonderful work in progress.