The Great Living Room Rearrangement

We were totally in the right place at the right time!  We hit up the Saugus Salvation Army store, which has a great furniture warehouse, on Saturday.  Our main goal was to find a rocking chair or slider for the nursery.  We found a slider with stool, both in great shape -- and then found a nice couch!  We've been in the market for a new couch but hadn't had great luck or good timing for it.  Not only did we find one that we both like, there happened to be a couple guys with a moving truck hanging out who were available to bring it back to Woburn for us.  Score!  (If it were just me and Ben and I weren't pregnant, we certainly could have come back to the store without the dogs and with the seats and barrier out of the van and moved it ourselves.  But I'm about 8 months pregnant and we would have had to hit up Ben's stepfather or a neighbor for help moving it on relatively short notice...doable, but would have been a hassle.)

So here's our old couch and the living room arrangement before:

We found the old couch on the side of the road in Lexington, not long after moving in. We were new homeowners and not that eager to spend a lot on a living room set, so the price was right. The couch was in good shape and a neutral color. However, it turned out to have a sloping back and squishy, deep seats. Not great for those of us who aren't super tall, and just generally uncomfortable. The cushions slid around a lot and we ended up with lots of throw pillows piled up.

Enter the new (to us) couch!

We moved the couch to the south wall and rearranged the other chairs in the room. Totally changes our rather small living room! The TV is behind Ben in the bottom picture, so this will allow for us and guests to watch a movie together. I usually sat in the black chair in the northeast corner, and now I can join Ben on the couch (dogs now have cushions on the floor) or not be stuck in the far corner.

The flower pattern on the couch isn't really..."us." But it goes with the decor we already have (oatmeal colored walls, peachy-pink curtains, gray-blue rug) and it isn't horrendous. Just a bit outdated. And it really is a huge improvement in the comfort department!

We're feeling pretty grownup today. Nesting FTW! Now time to enjoy the new setup for the Patriots game followed by the "Call the Midwife" holiday special.

Spring flowers

I planted more bulbs last fall, and they all came up magnificently.

Crocuses were first, of course:

Happy crocuses in the sunshine after clearing out the leaf cover.

Next came lots of daffodils and a few Siberian squill:

Where's Herman?

Then some wood hyacinths joined the daffodils:

Pretty in pink

The daffodils are going by now, and something new is coming up. I can't remember what it was, but I now remember planting some late spring bulbs last fall:

Still looking for Herman...

Love the periwinkle color, even if I can't remember what they are!

Down at the southern end of the plot, the day lilies are going bananas (lower left), the columbine is coming along (upper left), the ice cream tulips are slowly opening (upper right), the irises are sprouting (middle and bottom), and the Dutchman's breeches are sure to be my new favorite (middle top):

C'mon flowers...

Google "ice cream tulip" if you've never seen it before -- it's amazing!! I can't wait for them to bloom fully.

Herman and I really love the multiple-flower ruffly daffodils and the two-tone ones:

Hooray for a beautiful spring!

For the Birds

MIL Gayle gave me a birdfeeder and bag of finch mix for my birthday this year, and I've finally set it up, filled it up, and put it out. Since the birds already love hanging out in the crabapple tree in the front yard, I figured we'd start there. We should be able to see them enjoying the seed from the living room window. Will follow up with the results. I think I'll try another seed mix that appeals to more birds next...and hopefully woo my favorite: cardinals!

Wedding prep: DIY tealight jars

Following a how-to I found on Offbeat Bride, I collected jars of all sizes (not just Mason) and turned them into hanging tealight holders. Even with the thinner floral wire I had on hand, I think they turned out pretty well!

Signs of Spring

There are signs of spring at 16 Morse! After a late morning/early afternoon of shopping for work clothes and walkies, we came home and did a little spring cleanup outside. The bulbs I planted last fall were starting to poke well through the cover of leaves I'd left on the bed, so I pulled out the knee pads and gardening gloves to work on that.

It looks like most of them came up -- yay! I had planted mixed daffodils (my fave; they should naturalize and return every year), blue wood hyacinths, crocuses (Ben's fave), and Siberian squill (a new one to me).

Stripey crocus is eager to bloom!

Gayle very thoughtfully thinned out some day lilies and columbine for me last summer, and I planted them at the end of the bed. They seem to have survived the winter, and I'm optimistic that we'll have some pretty variety later on after the bulbs have flowered and passed.

I think this is the columbine. Yay!

We have lots of ideas of what to do with the front yard and driveway -- it'll take some time, but it was nice to sit out on the porch with tea and talk over plans.

Additional rocks and bricks courtesy of the empty house next door.

Between gardening and Ben's babysitting gig -- a break to shoot some hoops out back!

Fall Yard Cleanup

It's truly amazing just how many leaves you can rake up in a lot that's only 0.1 acre.  I suspect that the hedges around the edge of our back "yard" form a nice leaf-catcher.

Here's the product of two Sundays' worth of raking and bagging:

12 bags full!

It's kind of funny how we do this every year in this part of the country, and we're just accustomed to having to do it.  And interesting to feel obliged to do your part in a neighborhood!  I have fond memories of jumping in piles of leaves as a kid, and I'm glad we'll have enough yard and no shortage of leaves for our kids to jump in.

Here's a shot of the front of the house, post raking:

And now you all know that we're Friends of the Woburn Public Library!

A Beautiful Autumn Saturday

It's just a gorgeous fall day.  We walked around the back pond at Horn Pond, which is less than 1/2 mile from our house.  The community gardens have been put to bed, the leaves are changing and falling, the sun is out, and there's a brisk chill in the air.  The geese and swans are still in town, though.