It's a start!

We closed on our little yellow cape cod cottage in the middle of April 2009. With 3 small children and a border collie, my husband and I knew we would have to get to work making the space super efficient.

A house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, of maybe 1,275 sq ft, is small house living for us. We really like the neighborhood where everyone is friendly and someone is always walking their dog. We saw a lot of potential in this little house!

Before moving into our new home we had made a list of projects. The first of many would be our kitchen landscaping.


Those blah shrubs had to go. Having all sorts of cottage gardening ambition but little money or time I decided those great pink hydrangeas I got for Mother's Day would be great planted in front of my little yellow house! (Please excuse the crooked picture!)

Maybe I should call our little house The Pink Lemonade Cottage!

They lasted quite a while through the summer. I really wish I would have done a better job drying the heads. They were really quite beautiful! These plants now reside in the back flower bed next to the house along with all the great Forever Pink hydrangeas. There was just too much sunshine for them to survive. I got several Forever Pink at an end-of-season sale at one of the box stores for a fraction of their normal price! (More on those later this coming spring!)

Here are pictures of our house and backyard after one of the many snows we have had this winter:

A winter wonderland.