Spring Has Sprung... and Apparently So Has My Motivation

Spring is Here! The weather has been slowly getting better and better (which, I assume will take a turn for the worse any day now... we're due up for at least one more blizzard) but it means pool season is just around the corner! In preparation for summer there have been some good things going on around here... a few weekends ago we cleaned the house top to bottom, which is such a cliche way to kick spring off but hey... it works. The sun comes out, the layers come off and as we stumble out of our winter hibernation it's nice to just get the dust off everything (and in our case cat and dog hair).  Once done on the inside I moved outside to the project that is our back yard. Having gone all winter without a helping hand and being abused by three dogs the yard was in pretty poor shape, nothing a few choice words for the pine trees and the dogs for both equally littering the yard with their droppings and an hour of steady raking (seriously though, our yard isn't that big) it started to look more like the cute quaint space I fell in love with, than the hazardous waste sight it had become over winter. This last weekend we decided to gate the grass and patio off from the dogs and throw down some grass seed hoping to fill in some of the barren spots. My fingers are crossed that my (plant) killing spree has ended and the little seeds take root. Maybe if I pep talk the yard everyday and lay out my vision for this summer it will rise to the occasion and grow, let's hope I have ambitious grass.

Pine needles everywhere you look

Between cleaning and dreaming of summer I also managed to make my most favorite cake that uses fresh strawberries, lemon and Greek yogurt. I like to think its pseudo healthy what with the fruit and yogurt but I still have to give most of it away or I'll take to it like a fat kid who loves... well cake. My coworkers all loved it and scarfed it down while watching their March Madness Brackets implode (or maybe that was just me) I used this recipe and actually cut the sugar in half since I used a vanilla Greek yogurt. It's delish and refreshing and the perfect compliment to Spring.

I have also been obsessing over moss wreaths like this, this or this one.  After pricing them out and realizing I couldn't exactly source moss from my own backyard to DIY one I kind of gave up until a happened across this little lovely Spring craft on Brooklyn Limestone, one of my fav blogs to follow.

I slightly modified the original instructions to use either what I had (ie cardboard instead of buying foam core) or what I could get close by (instead of making a trip to Ikea to buy the frame I used a scrapbooking shadowbox from Micheal's that was $8 and just painted it white) I think after a 40% off one item coupon I bought everything I needed for around $16 which isn't too shabby.

After a little painting, cutting and gluing, I think the worst part was the writing... in the original post of course the crafter has super cute handwriting whereas mine looks like a 3 year old using the wrong hand. After attempts at tracing and mimicking the best I could I just called it good. I may try to re-make the little "Hello, Spring" sign but for now it will do. So this happy little number is what I see as I come and go from the house. It's a nice reminder that Spring is in fact here.

Now if only Spring would get out of the way for the real star... Summer.

xxoo
Adria