In this post – a Spring Garden Tour with David Austin Roses and Peonies

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The roses are in full bloom here this week.

I thought you all might enjoy a little garden tour!

bright pink rose – Heathcliff, behind is Mary Rose

Below is the Shropshire Lad climber. It smells good.

See that old bench? My grandfather made it.  He was making benches from reclaimed products long before it was hip and trendy – if he were still here today he could make good money on them!

Shropshire Lad Climber

I have forgotten the name of the rose below. It is actually a miniature rose.

The red carpet roses took off. Some of them are as tall as I am.

If we plant these again, they will begin a field far away from us as they grow so well here.

We all hate trimming them!

red carpet roses

Another miniature rose – I have again forgotten the name.  This year this rose looks great – honestly, every other year though it has just been ho-hum.

forgot the name!

I like this little corner of the garden.

shropshire lab climber

As I was taking pictures, this little hummingbird was zooming around me.

He (she?) always zooms by me when I walk on this path. I think it lives in the tree nearby.

I also frequently see it feeding when I’m looking outside from the house.

I love arches with roses on them! Although I couldn’t walk through this one – need to trim back the roses!

shrobshipre lad climber

Here is the Eden rose – one of my favorites! I wrote a whole post about the Eden rose here.

eden rose

The eden rose always bows its head because it is so heavy and full of petals!

eden rose

This iris below is from my great grandmother’s garden! I think it is so neat that it is still able to grow despite being transplanted from the Midwest!

iris

The lavender is about to bloom too.  We trimmed the lavender back so much this year I thought it would not grow back – glad I was wrong!

crown princess margareta climber

This rose this year is really pink – it is interesting as last year it had more of a peachy color to it.

lady of shalott

This flower is a great bloomer.  Here in the hot California sun it usually fades to white during Summer so it is nice to see it live up to it’s golden name!

golden celebration rose

This rose below blooms for us from May through December! We do have to keep up with pruning but we love this rose! It smells great!

charlotte rose

Although the rose below is the most fragrant of all of them.

jude the obscure rose

As you can see, we like rose arches.

sombreuil

The sombreuil rose is a very old rose – from the 1850s. It has a pleasant scent and I think the bloom is very interesting and unlike many other roses.

sombreuil

The lavender is blooming elsewhere…

And my beloved peonies are blooming too.

These are my favorite flowers (hence the name of the blog!)

As you can see, the old English garden roses look similar to peonies and that is why I love them!

I love looking at peonies – how many layers are there??

More than you think – look, it keeps unfolding!

Peonies in various stages of bloom…

One last look at the garden…

sir john betjeman

In this post – blue and white home decor picks for May

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

Last month I was inspired by Pantone’s Greenery, but this month I have been inspired by the color blue!

I think blue is actually the color of the year, not greenery!! 

(affiliate links used for your convenience)

Outdoor patio umbrella || Cotton Tasseled throw pillow

Vintage ginger jar  || Stoneware French Coffee Press   || Ceramic ice bucket 

flatware set || Capri Blue candle in “Volcano” || splatter melamine plate

Picnic Basket || Judarn mural set || Mykonos pendant light

I was thinking about getting ready for entertaining outdoors… with a picnic basket, melamine plates, ice buckets, a candle that smells like a tropical paradise, a mural that brings the outdoors in!

I have been dreaming about where I can use that pendant light above!

Where I Party

Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com

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In this post: Vintage French country farmhouse decor style picks for April!
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

I’m starting a new series on the first of every month that revolves around my favorite picks for the home.

Towel || Figurie Candle || Vintage Botanical Prints Set of 4  
Green Majolica Plates || Sconce || Ocean Glass Tray
Garden stool || Jadeite || Throw Pillow

For April, I am inspired by the Spring green that I am seeing everywhere.

This also goes along with Pantone’s color of the year, Greenery.
Spring green is my favorite shade of green, what’s your favorite shade of green?

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Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com

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In this post: Tips for building your dream home

10 Tips for Building your Dream House

 1. Start with your Appliances!

This seriously dictates *everything*.  My recommendation is to go into the appliance candy shop and pick out what you want.  That way, you know the exact size of kitchen you need, the exact place to put plumbing in, and the exact amount of wiring/electricity/power needed.  It is much easier to put in the appropriate amount of power NOW instead of later when you’ve put up the walls and say, oh hey, I want a built-in espresso machine only to find out you can’t because you didn’t think of it ahead of time!  My builder and so many of our contractors thought we were so smart in doing that!

2. Know what type of housing style you want!

It helps to make a Pinterest board or a board on Houzz to give your engineer/architect ideas of what you want. Otherwise if you say “farmhouse” their idea may be of traditional American farmhouse not Joanna-and-Chip farmhouse.

3. Your architect and engineer will mess up

You need to triple check your plans a hundred times with every time they make a change.  Remember how you said you wanted “X hall” 5 foot 6 inches so you can put a certain piece of furniture? Yeah, well they changed it. So you have to keep correcting them.  Otherwise that special piece may not fit!  They constantly changed things with every drawing! For me this was the most exhausting part. And then came time to framing… make sure the framer is framing what you want!  We modified the drawings the framer got because we were sick of making corrections with the engineer!

4. Know the building code!

For example: we learned we cannot have dual shower heads in our master after we already designed everything.  So great, right? Yeahhh still fuming about this…  Same with the driveway, oh surprise, driveway can’t be pretty crushed granite gravel, thanks fire department.  Outdoor lights have to have a light sensor on them, so maybe that antique light won’t work unless it is modified with a sensor. Knowing the building code ahead of time can allow you to plan for things like that. Don’t you love governments, telling us how to live?

5. Is this your ‘Forever’ home?

If so, you need to think about what were to happen if you are going to end up in a wheelchair? You need to have a bedroom with a full bath on the main floor – even if this isn’t your master bedroom of today, it might be the one of your 80s!  You need to make sure the door and hallway can accommodate a wheelchair, same with the shower and the toilet room. Laundry should also be in the main floor for that reason.  Get what I’m saying? You say, oh, well I won’t live here when I’m 80. What happens if you break a leg and need a wheelchair? Or you need to have hip/knee surgery? Same thing.

6. Pay attention to your HVAC system

Yeah, so… our architect and engineer did not think about the HVAC.  And apparently this is a very common thing per the HVAC man.  Our engineer put beams left and right where we would have run the HVAC. This has led to a massive headache. We have solved it (I think), but beware, this is a common problem.  HVAC is so important if you want to keep your house a comfy temp year round!

7. Budget

Your project can very easily go over budget. It is very easy to pick the most expensive of everything – it is much harder to find cheaper alternatives – BUT they are out there!  Get multiple bids for the same thing. You think the plumbing bid is high? Go get two others and find out.  For instance, the kitchen cabinets went over budget, so I cut back on cabinets in the laundry room.  Figure out where you want to spend your money and splurge there.  And FYI, the permit fees may be way higher than you expect.

splurge on the inset cabinets, save on the overlay.

8.  Plan. Plan. Plan.

PLAN! Plan for everything.  Think you might want a chandelier in this room but can’t afford one right now… plan to do a flush mount ceiling light that later can be easily changed into a chandelier.  You seriously need to think of everything. Do you think you want a floor plug in the floor? Yeah, you need to know BEFORE they pour the foundation.  Same with the plumbing. BEFORE the foundation.  Think you might want to put a TV possibly in the room with internet/cable/satellite? Wire that sucker before the sheetrock goes up.  Want to use that antique door or fireplace? Need to plan for that!

9.  Having Someone Tell You What You Need/Want

NO! This is your house, if you want a window flower box, GET the window flower box. Don’t let the eye rolls and grunts from your builder get in the way!  The only thing I did NOT get was a groin vault ceiling. It just wasn’t possible.  I am still sad about this. It just couldn’t work.  Remember, you are paying them to build what you want and you are the one that has to live there!

10.   It is a lot of work.

A LOT of work. That is an understatement.  Building a house is not meant for every one.  It is a second full time job.  It is stressful. It can tear apart marriages. The home shows make it seem easy.

Remember, it actually can be fun.

When things screw up (like um, the HVAC system), it is not worth it to me getting super angry about.  Why? Because I can’t redesign the whole house.  What’s done is done.

You must face the challenges given to you, and not stress about what should have been done, and do what can be done!

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St. Patrick’s Day is just a few days away and I have rounded up some of the St. Patrick’s Day posts you all shared at last week’s Thursday Favorite Things!

Lisa from My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings shared this recipe for Mint Oreo & M&M bars! Yum!

Pink Peppermint Design shared these St. Patrick’s Day Pots of Gold! 

 Strength and Sunshine shared these gluten-free, allergy-free, vegan mint mint chocolate brownies.

HoneyBear Lane shared this Shamrock Cracker Toffee Recipe.  

We can’t always eat dessert.  DIY Budget Girl shared a recipe for healthy and easy Green Spinach Smoothies.

Crafting a Family shared this St. Patrick’s Day PomPom banner.

Debbie at Debbie Dabble Blog shared a St. Patrick’s Day Cabinet full of green! I love the dishes!

 Amy Kin’s Blog shared her St. Patrick’s Day fireplace. Love the vintage postcards!

We love all of your posts and enjoy visiting you – there is something for everyone at this party!

Don’t forget to check out our Thursday Favorite Things Pinterest Board!  

I pin my features for the week to our board as well as many others! Make sure your posts have a high quality pin that screams “pin me!”

Please take the time to stop by ALL of your hostesses!

If the link party doesn’t load right away, just click “An InLinkz Link-up” Below.

An InLinkz Link-up

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