stüpdate #2: fall 2016

Fall Stoop Decor

Dry leaves rustling in the street, chilly early mornings, and empty canned pumpkin shelves at the grocery store can only mean one thing… Fall! As a September birthday, I’ve always felt like my birthday meant the official beginning of fall, and considered myself an official pumpkin ambassador. Pumpkin pies on my birthday, PSL for my free Starbucks birthday drink, and pumpkin picking at the apple orchards. This year was no different, except we bought mini pumpkins at the store instead of trekking to an apple orchard. I don’t mind though, it holds that same quirky city appeal as buying your christmas tree at Home Depot.

I finally spotted some mums at our local nursery, and loaded up my bike with as many as more than I could carry. I ended up hugging/balancing two giant mums on my knees after filling the rest of my bags and racks to the top. Who can say no to $0.99 perennials at the end of the season?! I got a few chuckles on my way home, so here’s to hoping my overeager plant-love spread a little happiness through the neighborhood.
Fall Stoop Decor

Our alley-picked Red Flyer came through for us again and is the perfect backdrop to my fall-ish decor on the stoop. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with it over the winter, but after putting this together, I’m starting to get some ideas that involve pine trees…. stay tuned.Fall Stoop Decor Fall Stoop Decor Fall Stoop Decor

Our garden is transitioning itself for fall too, and while some plants are on their way out, others are really starting to thrive. Our roma tomatoes appear to be late bloomers – pun intended – since we’ve finally gotten our first few popping up this week. I feel like I’m always posting pictures of green tomatoes that are almost ready to pick, but I promise we’ve had a few red ones too! Also, our vine started to bloom… what?! We had no idea it was a blooming type of vine, so it was quite the surprise when the first flower burst open.Transitioning the Garden for Fall Transitioning the Garden for FallFall Stoop Decor

Brian was playing around with his very first film camera, so I’ll update the post with his pictures once they’re developed. Please ignore our messy entryway, but notice our nice new built in shelves… courtesy of me. In the meantime, here’s a little video of us getting creative to get some pumpkins up on our ledge on a rainy morning. Taking bets on how long until they get smashed.

stüpdate #1

Hands down the best part about writing this blog is being able to write stuff like that title without Brian rolling his eyes at how stupid it sounds. hahah! writing it anyway, sucker!

IMG_1425We really owe most of our stoop to the generosity of our family and neighbors. The majority of our plants and planters have come as gifts, alley finds, or freebies.  We’ve met a lot of great people in our neighborhood while we work on our corner, and it’s awesome!

One of our neighbors works at Home Depot and is constantly putting out flats of plants free for the taking. So we have partaken. Partook. Partooken. We partook. (?)
Then there’s a little older guy who wears suspenders under his white t-shirt and stops to chat about our plants, and tell us about sales at Jewel. Always a great time.
Our latest friend is Ed, who mentioned that if we find little pots of plants on our steps, they’re from him! Sure enough, the next day there were two new little black eyed susans just waiting outside our door. Thanks Ed!

We also stumbled across a new nursery around California and Thomas, called Adams & Sons Nursery. THIS PLACE IS AMAZING. It’s packed with great plants, including a massive wall of just succulents (Brian about died). We’ve already been back twice, and I’m already excited for our next trip. Not to mention, its in the same neighborhood that we are just dying to live in. Soon enough, Humboldt.

Today we harvested our first tomato! We’re pretty surprised that nobody’s stolen them yet, since they’re bright red and right within the eyesight of everyone walking by.

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With any luck, we should have a few jalapenos and cherry peppers soon too…

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