Mailbox and Mums

Fall is clearly in the air, and all over the blog world.  I have to admit that I am loving every minute of it!  After a summer of record high temps and zero rain, the crisp, cool air is a welcomed change.

To go along with some interior autumn decorating I’ve done {more on that to come}, the hubby and I decided that our mailbox could use some season-appropriate sprucing up.  Ideally, we would love to replace our entire mailbox.  Its old, and definitely not our style.  The poor thing has definitely seen better days, and I think it was even recently hit by someone….possibly the new garbage truck our town just purchased?!?  Now the lid won’t close all the way, which means it’s become a wonderful structure for spiders to call home.  YUCK!

I always thought I’d remove the cracked plastic sleeve and spray paint it a fun color.  But upon closer inspection, the sleeve is majorly screwed into the mailbox, and those screws and some other areas, have become rusted.  Soooo we are going to make do until we save up for a new one.  And truthfully, a new mailbox isn’t at the top of our priority list.  We might have this pathetic thing for a couple more years.  {Please don’t judge!}

So to make our mailbox less heinous to look at more tolerable, we decided we should create a mulch bed around the base and plant some pretty mums.

Hubby already pulled up what little grass we had in that area before I could snap a picture…so here is as “before” as I could get for you. ;)

And after we planted some mums…

And after we watered and mulched…

The key for this project is to not focus on how grimy our mailbox is, but to look at how pretty it’s base is now. :)  Yea, let’s just do that…because the plastic cardinal sleeve is beyond sad at this point.

Oh, and for sake of keepin’ it real, I’d like to point out that we planted these in say mid-August {yup, we totally jumped on the “hey fall is right around the corner” bandwagon}, so the mums were already in bloom and have since lost their flowers. :(  At least we still have some mulch and greenery around the mailbox, right?!?!

Anyone else in dire need of a new mailbox?

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

Okay, so my week long break for vacation turned into a much longer blogging break…whoooops!  Let’s just say life has been pretty hectic lately.

For example…on our drive down to North Carolina the hubby got a speeding ticket, then we sat in 2 hours of traffic due to the Roanoke Rapids overflowing and shutting down I-95 and thennnnn we got in a car accident.  Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!  Thankfully, the accident was what I’d like to call best case scenario.  No one was injured…it wasn’t our fault…the people who smashed into the back of our car {while we were completely stopped waiting to turn into a gas station} were very apologetic and accepted 100% of the blame…and our car was still drivable.  That last piece of the puzzle was crucial since we still had, oh I don’t know, THREE HOURS left to get to my parent’s house.  Basically, our 11ish hour drive turned into a 15 hour adventure that I would never like to go through again.

But wouldn’t you know, just two days later, we were on the road again…with my parents this time…heading back to Jersey.  Because of our banged up car and a whole lot of rain that was heading to the Carolinas from Hurricane Isaac, we decided the best way to use our time off was having a staycation at home.

It turns out that this really was the best way to spend our vacation, and things totally happen for a reason {a saying I 100% live by}.  If we didn’t run into so many issues on the way to NC, my parents would not have returned to New Jersey until September 15^th.  They were planning the trip because my sister was due to have her second baby on the 21^st, and they are also in the process of selling their house and buying a new one.  My parents planned on being there to help with both exciting adventures for my sister's family.

Around 5AM on the 6^th, I woke up to my parent’s cell phone ringing out in my living room.  I ran out to pick it up because I wasn't sure my parents heard it.  It was my sister.  She was in labor and heading to the hospital.  Just a couple hours later, my niece Blake Violet was born.  And since my parents were already in Jersey, they were able to make it to Connecticut in time. :)

Then late that night/early the next morning, my parents got a call that my Gram {my Mom’s mom} passed away.  The service was this past weekend, so they needed to be up here for it.

All I can say is, thank gosh that things worked out the way they did.  God knew what was going to happen, and he made sure my parents were where they needed to be, when they needed to be there.

Here is the beautiful addition to our family.  Meet my niece, Blake Violet.  Her big brother, Carter, really loves her! :)

Oh, and to top off all of that craziness...we've been in the middle of a merger at work.  Ahhhhhh!!!  So pardon my craziness! {Pretty please?}

PS - Clearly I didn't have time to do a proper house crash of my parent's pad, but I do have some pictures that I took years ago when they first moved in.  I'll be sharing them soon! :)