Tuesdays With Tracy Planning, Projects, and Pretties

Hello Friends!

This is Kelly’s mom joining you for my once a month Tuesdays with Tracy and this month is all about Planning, Projects, and Pretties. 

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Isn’t it crazy how some months just get away from you?  Well that is what happened with me for the month of March. As I sit here in my living room pondering, I realize that March has had some crazy weather. This was March 15th…

And then as you can see below, we enjoyed some Spring weather on the first day of Spring. See that little area near the patio to the right of the mini green pines? Oh boy do I have dreams/plans for that!  I will be planting a whole bunch of Floret Flowers zinnia seeds.

“Spring is the time

of plans and projects.”

Leo Tolstoy

Planning

I am a dreamer.  I probably spend more time dreaming of ideas than actually doing them, Ha!  Kelly can tell you that I am constantly sending her ideas with the tag, “Thought you might like this, if not, I’m not offended.” 

So this month I am dreaming of flowers.  Kelly has inspired me with The Lazy Girls Garden Club so I will be planting Zinnia seeds.  Above I mentioned the area by our back patio where I will be planting Floret Farms Zinnia seeds.

This is the Unicorn Mix.  Seriously, how gorgeous are those!?

This is the Victorian Wedding.  Floret Flower Farm breeds their own flowers for seeds.  They are still refining them but Kelly and I thought we wanted to try them.

So you may have seen Kelly’s Zinnia filled raised garden beds.  If not, here is a photo.

I have a side yard that gets lots of sun so I am planning on putting in a raised garden bed.  I want to fill it with Zinnias so I can have lots of cut flowers for bouquets.

This is where I would love your help.  I am thinking about a metal corrugated bed.  Which color would you do? Blue? White? Green? Terra cotta?

I also love Kelly’s wooden ones and love that they are so classic.  Below is a photo of one I saw on a neighborhood walk.  It was full of tulips just beginning to emerge.

If the raised garden bed was in my front yard I would definitely do a wood one like this.  But I am undecided.  So scroll down at the end of this blog and drop your thoughts in the comment section.

Projects

I helped my daughter, Lindsey do a project in her mud room a couple years ago.  I’m a dreamer and that girl is a doer!  She and Kelly have always not been afraid to tackle projects in their homes.  

Years ago, when the girls were little,  I installed tile in my small entryway right over some old linoleum.  So Lindsey decided to install brick in her mud room.  This was a little more involved than my little project. 

This one involved more cutting and some mitered corners.  I was in the garage with a rented tile cutting machine.  And I can tell you that my cutting wasn’t perfect and we lost a small amount of tiles that broke.  But, somehow it all worked out.

We started by laying out all the bricks and adjusting the spacing to fit each row.  You can see how professional we are by using a pencil as a spacer. 

These bricks are so pretty and come in different shades and finishes. The dark wood runs throughout the main floor of the house.  The stairs go down to the basement.  And the door in this space goes out to the garage.

After getting most of the spacing where she wanted it, Lindsey literally glued each brick in place.  

We left the glued bricks to dry overnight and then filled in the grout the next day. They allowed it to dry a couple days before walking on it. After two years it is still in great shape and I love how it upgraded this tiny space!  

In the photo below you can see a slice of an old antique black barn door.  It slides over the opening of this space when needed.  The pew was a gift for Lindsey and her husband Ryan from his parents.  It was originally used in the church where they were married. How sweet is that?!

Pretties

I’m always putzing  around with the decor in my house, do you do that?  I have kept my Spring and Easter decor simple this year. I refreshed the entryway sideboard with some faux flowers and some mementos.

The vintage Margaret Furlong shell angel was my mothers.  And I made the little green cross in art class when I was in the seventh grade.  It was a gift for my mom.

We host lots of family and friends for Easter so I did a little refresh in the dining room.  The blue & white jar shown below was in the living room on top of an armoire so I pulled it down and put some faux hydrangeas and greenery in it.  The battenburg lace cloth was also my mother’s.

I also flipped the big old shutters from the green side to the blue side.  Larry painted these a few years ago and one side is green, the other is blue.

Oh and I added flowers to the vintage French bread basket and added a couple of plates on the wall.

Our family will celebrate Easter this Sunday.  It’s a time that we go to church and then gather around the table with family and friends.  We open eggs that are filled with the resurrection story and each person reads a verse.  It might be my favorite holiday – it is so full of hope.  My prayer is that you too will know the hope and love that settles your soul.

“Easter is the only time when it’s perfectly safe to put all your eggs in one basket.”

Evan Esar

”All I really need is love, 

but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!”

Charles M. Schulz

With Love,

Tracy