pottery...

i gave my husband pottery lessons for his birthday.  he just finished his last lesson last night, and brought home several pots from all his hard work of throwing and shaping.
i love the look that they have on the mantel, and best of all, they will be able to be used to serve food in!!  so, they will live there, but come down occasionally for a party--then again, i'll have to come up with something else to go there while they are being used.  decisions, decisions.

all lined up (the white one is one of his teacher's pots, but i liked the way it looked there)

he made this as a tea light holder

this is actually a planter (with hole in the bottom for drainage)

our lovely fireplace's new look

here is some of the detail that he put in the bottom of the pots.

he also made a mug and a serving platter.  the platter is my absolute favorite--can't wait to use it.  i love the detail he added.

he made two or three more things at his last lesson....i'm anxious to see them after they are glazed and fired.  one of them may join the mantel.

on another note, i'm working on a project.  once our backyard is finished, we are going to hang tea lights all around the pergola in little jars to light up our patio.  i will show you what i'm doing to make the jars....but for now, here is a sneak peak at a PB tea light holder that is going to join the bunch i'm making for that touch of sparkle.

backyard updates...

we got the pots spray painted, and we got lots of plants planted.  or should i say i spray painted, and daddy put the plants in.  baby boy watched and helped.

the yoshino cherry in the back

the herb pot....with a blueberry bush and the scottish brooms

my red pots....left is shasta daisies--right is a dwarf alberta and sweet potato vine
do you like the mat?  it will be in the grass in front of the bench

two elephant ears (not up yet) and two endless summer hydrangeas

he loved daddy's wagon

backyard...

slowly but surely...the backyard is coming together.  the weather didn't cooperate this week, so we are at a complete standstill, but here is what it's looking like right now:


you see a butterfly bush in the back corner...and two boxes for raised gardens.  we picked out creeping phlox and blue junipers for the border along all the rock that we laid last week.  it is from a quarry in TN and i loved the redish hues to it....(not too visible on the camera).

right side of the yard

there are pots on either side of the new bench we got.  the pots will be spray painted red and the closer pot will have wild flowers while the further one gets a dwarf pine tree (that you can see in the picture) and sweet potato vine.

left side of the yard

the back of the yard is getting a border of some sort....(not picked out yet....and now it is!  mother of thyme), a yoshino cherry tree, and some vines to grow on the wall to cover the concrete.

back wall of the yard

here are a few more shots of the bench....baby boy seems to like it.

daddy and baby boy discussing the rest of the seed and plants that will be going in.

our little rock wall we built to divide the grass and the patio....some kind of bush will go in between the two.

the scottish broom about to bloom...they will go in the corner near the house.

the pot you see there will be painted blue and will house all of our herbs.

a view from the bench of the rock wall, patio, and rocks that will be dug into the new sod to make a little foot path.

the big silver pot that is upside down is also getting a blue coat of paint and going to the right of the patio with a hydrangea vine in it to screen our air conditioner, gas meter, etc.  we bought a trellis for it to grow on to create a screen.

that's all for now....hopefully planting will get done this weekend!