outdoors – Casa de Berry

2013, husband, outdoors, september

Ivy tired of this!

September 3, 2013September 2, 2013by casadeberryLeave a Comment

There is a spot on our front yard that has been an eyesore for me since we moved in.

It’s a square of ivy. The footprint is delineated in brick and then it’s just ivy.

Like many decisions made by the first owner of this house, I have no idea what they were thinking, but in any case, it wasn’t to my liking. Eventually, it, uh, wasn’t to my husband’s liking either. You know how these things go. He was good enough to begin demolishing it on Labor Day weekend.

As you can see, there is a concrete square in the middle. Then the area between the concrete and the brick, where the ivy was planted, is just ground.

This is what the front yard looked like when Steve called it a day:

We have cleaning up to do, of course, but already I like looking at the front of my house more. Instead of this random ivy block placed on one corner of the front yard, now I can see the hibiscus and other plants we have out front.

The general plan is to convert this area into a covered sitting spot so in the afternoon we can sit out here while the kiddos play. The details have not been finalized, but you can believe I am having some fun putting things together.

Hope your long weekend was a wonderful one!

2013, flowers, frame, fruits, gardening, husband, lavender, outdoors, veggies

Garden Update: July 2013

July 22, 2013July 22, 2013by casadeberry4 Comments

We’ve been enjoying our fruit and veggie bounty – I mad 2 loaves of zucchini bread and a batch of chocolate chip zucchini cookies from just ONE monster squash, and we’ve been eating our delicious tomatoes in sandwiches, salads, and a sauce that had my friend’s kids asking for lunch at 10am 😀

Some more future cookies 😀

We’ve recently planted some more corn for an autumn harvest:

And, hello! Check out the awesome planter my husband made!!! He’s planting bamboo in it, and he got his inspiration from a couple of gorgeous river photographs by Keith Liang.

Steve made the mold with a high-relief design and then built a structure to pour the cement in. This turned out amazing, and yes, I’ve put in an order for a smaller planter with a fleur-de-lis 😀 Of course.

Our strawberries continue to produce as well:

The other day we harvested some lavender for our neighbor. I think I’m going to make some eye pillows with the rest.

This crazy madness going on here is our Concord grape vine. Well, one of them. The other is just started to go all wild but this one is going to become another yummy batch of grape jam.

This is what the vine looked like in April:

Current goodness and future grape jam, nom nom nom.

Our pretty flower frames are doing great as well!

We are also harvesting potatoes and onions, and mint for our mojitos.

Gardening is to me an incredibly rewarding experience. Which is not to say there aren’t days (usually those in 100+ degree weather) where the last thing I want to do is go out there and water and tend to the plants. But homegrown veggies taste so good, and knowing that my family gets to eat fresh, delicious, healthy food is pretty awesome.

I say this every year, but next year I’d really like to get more flower plants for cuttings. I just love having fresh flowers in the house. I’ve killed some gerbera and hydrangea, though, so we’ll see how I do in that goal.

Have a wonderful week!

2013, craft, outdoors

Bird Buffet

July 8, 2013by casadeberry3 Comments

We’ve prettified our back fence, and it was time to share some summer goodness with our lovely bird friends. After all, they brighten our lives with their singing, it seemed a fair trade off to give them some food and water.

Our oldest chose a feeder the hummingbirds could not possibly miss:

We’ve had lots of visitors since putting it up. I took a great picture of one drinking, but we hang up our laundry to dry and some of my delicates were in the background and as much as I like to share with y’all, I’m not sharing pictures of my underwear.

My youngest chose patriotic colors for a little birdhouse – it lives on the fence, near our flower pot frames.

He was very interested in that bird seed!

Alex and Steve getting another bird house ready:

Isn’t it pretty?

Steve hung the white bird house and the hummingbird feeder away from the windows so we can see the birdies feasting:

Our backyard is now not only full of color, but full of movement and music with the birds flying in for their refreshments all day. We had a lovely weekend, hanging out together as a family and working on little projects.

Wishing you all a wonderful Monday!

2013, flowers, frame, gardening, husband, outdoors, project, wood

Redwood flower frames

April 15, 2013May 1, 2013by casadeberry43 Comments

We love our backyard, no question about it. It is a pretty decent size, it allows our boys to play hard and it allows us to entertain and grow fruits and veggies for our family.

THAT said . . .

Sometimes things out back get kind of, well, boring.

True, we will have lots of lavender and tomatoes bringing in the reds and purples of summer, and there will be fresh corn and plums, too, but we wanted some instant gratification and my husband decided to put together some frames for nature’s works of art.

The frames are made from redwood planks – we painted them using leftover spray paint and some mistints that cost $5/gallon.

I love looking outside the playroom/office window and seeing these bright pops of color!

We are very happy with how this project turned out, and it has been featured at:

Linked to:

2013, flowers, fruits, gardening, husband, lavender, outdoors, veggies

Springing and stretching!

March 4, 2013March 3, 2013by casadeberryLeave a Comment

These last few days have blessed us with glorious weather here in Sili Valley. The sun has been out, but it hasn’t been super hot, I’ve been loving it! This past weekend we decided to hit our local gardening stores – two of them!

Our front yard got some much-needed brightening up with these trailing white flowers on the hanging baskets:

My youngest was determined to get some yellow goodness ;D

In the backyard, we started our herb garden:

My husband added a brick border to define our salad greens area:

Caged and ready!

We also planted more potatoes, including some purple varieties. Our potatoes come back every year but we wanted some russets as well, and then we saw the purple sets. Can’t wait to eat some of those! Our onions and chard are doing great, they come back, too, and hopefully our garlic will do well this year. My husband planted two blackberry bushes in the side yard. We have a blueberry bush that is my boys’ favorite treat. Hopefully the vine will do well again this year so we can make some grape jelly again, and I look forward to the lovely scent of my lavender plants.

My husband and I have the sorest hamstrings ever from all the planting and weeding, I’ve been stretching because otherwise the pain doesn’t let me sleep very well. I hope you’ll follow our gardening adventures this year, I’m very excited to see how our veggies do!

2012, decor, holiday, home, house, outdoors, wreath

Puttin’ some flair out there

December 4, 2012December 4, 2012by casadeberry4 Comments

Our sweet little Christmas tree is now up and delighting my boys with the colorful lights:

But when it comes to the outside of our home, we like our lights clear and steady. No blinkin’ for us ;D

We got a few extra pieces, some to replace items that had gotten damaged over the years. Like these huge red ornaments, they look great against the white garage door!

Between our two windows, we place this lighted wreath, which I love.

The swirly drop ornaments are also new this year. I like the different textures on them; smooth metallic, glittery, etc.

Our entryway has a bit of whimsy with a hanging Ho Ho Ho decoration that Steve painted, and a couple of welcoming pieces leading up to the wreath on the door.

On the front lawn we have some candy canes and sparkly accents:

I didn’t notice my youngest’s big wheel until I was editing the photos ;D but you know, that’s part of our home’s charm.

Are you decorating outdoors for the holidays?

2012, boys, california, outdoors, summer, travel

Fifty Shades of Brown

August 31, 2012August 31, 2012by casadeberry2 Comments

We had a blast on our camping trip – but let’s face it, there were less-than-glamorous aspects that we had to contend with for four days. The first one was the aforementioned wasps; they got a couple of the kids, so we had to designate off-limits areas. The second one, or rather, uh, number two, was a most odorous situation. Meaning, no-flush toilets. Our friend P, who, along with my husband, decided to aim their headlight down the long-drop toilet to have a look, christened it Fifty Shades of Brown. That’s boys for ya, because I used those toilets as much as they did and not once, NOT ONCE, did I feel the compulsion to aim my headlight so I could see better. Bleargh.

ANYWAY, on to better things now.

The man tackling the wasp situation

The day before we came home we went to a river, it was such fun – the boys busied themselves with building a dam.

Friendly river duck 😀

Our youngest enjoys a jam session with our friend J:

See? This is proof that I was cleaning those boys up whenever I could ;D

The next morning, it was time to pack up and head home:

“Thank you very much, good night!”

And that was our four-day adventure at Yosemite. The boys love camping, playing around in the woods, and being manly men with their buddies. We love hanging out with friends and family and having great food. And wine. Wine is good.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

2012, chocolate, family, husband, kids, outdoors

My mother’s day

May 14, 2012by casadeberryLeave a Comment

Our Sunday was a relatively quiet one, the boys ran around and did their own thing while we (me and my in-laws) enjoyed on the wonderful lunch my husband put together.

But first, it was present time!

I got a sweet, handmade “vase with flowers” from each of my boys – one was on a paper plate and the other was made out of a pasta sauce jar. I’d asked my husband for light summery jammies and he bought me a bunch – thanks, honey!

The food was delicious – the corn on the cob didn’t even need butter!

My burger:

My husband’s burger:

His momma’s burger – she was very adventurous!

Enjoying lunch under our little gazebo

And then — oh my goodness, came the dessert tray:

Strawberries, mango and kiwi dipped in chocolate, and fresh-from-the-over brownies. So good!!!
I had asked for something chocolatey for dessert and boy, I got it!

It was a wonderful day, full of love, and I hope you all had a great Mother’s Day, too – or a great Sunday, if you did not celebrate.

2011, autumn, birthdays, california, friends, gifts, husband, lunch, november, outdoors, photography, restaurants, wine

Birthday weekend, part 3

November 17, 2011November 15, 2011by casadeberry2 Comments

After leaving Castello di Amorosa, we drove to Joseph Phelps for the tasting our friends C&D had set up for us.

Joseph Phelps has not only great wines, but also glorious views from their tasting terrace:

The tasting we had included their Insignia wines:

My favorite was the 2006 Insignia, followed by the 2005 Cab. I am a Bordeaux girl at heart but love Cabs as well, so this tasting was right up my alley.

Me with our friend M. Yes, I am a hobbit. Ironic since she is from New Zealand 😀

For lunch, M had made reservations at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, a super charming restaurant from the owner of Brassica and Mustards. I loved that the window boxes surrounding the restaurant were full of vegetables!

I had the Backstreet Burger, my husband and J had the Adult Grilled Cheese, and M had the Duck burger. Everything was delicious and we headed back to the hotel for a nap. More about my birthday weekend tomorrow!

boys, fall, fashion, october, orange, outdoors

Fashion Friday: at the Pumpkin Patch

October 21, 2011November 15, 2011by casadeberry1 Comment

This time it was time for me to join my youngest and his class on a field trip. We went to one of our local pumpkin patches and had a blast. We’ve gone to Uesugi Farms a few times with our boys and we’ve always had a good time. They have hay rides, a train, a pumpkin lab to see the growth process, and my personal favorite, the honey booth. Not to be confused with a booth babe, the honey booth had lots of different flavors of honey grown in the farm itself. I tried two and they were yummy. My boy was less than impressed but I think it was more the texture of it that made him wrinkle his nose.

This morning was super chilly, so even though I love the cold weather, I brought along a knit scarf to keep my neck warm.

Later on it was a bit warmer so I was glad to wear this super light chevron-stripe top. We each got a pumpkin and I bought some small white pumpkins at 3 for a dollar. We were happy to be home but had a wonderful time with our friends and classmates.

Have a great weekend!