Tag: home

Uncategorized

Home sweet home

Jessica Smith

I cannot believe I forgot to share the darling illustration I created of my house. I made this last month after working on a similar project for work, and I just adore it.

HOME-SWEET-HOME

How stinkin’ cute, right?

I designed this one of my building at work for a giant poster right when you walk in the building.

VMH

I think they are so charming. I am tossing up the idea of selling them on my shop — not that folks want to buy an image of my house (creepy!), but I could do theirs! So cute.

Speaking of designing things, I have exciting news! At the end of the summer I am going back to school to get my master’s degree in publications design. I am pretty freakin’ excited about it. Also terrified because, you know… homework. Haven’t done that in five years. But on the whole, I’m pumped for all of the awesome things I’m about to learn. In fact, I’ve started dreaming in Photoshop and inDesign — anyone else do that? It’s like I am editing my dreams. Strange, but cool.

Speaking of my sweet home, my pride and joy, my garden, is doing phenomenal. this season. Last night I made my first batch of pizza sauce from some 50+ tomatoes I picked over the weekend.

tometers

I also and the proud grower of a watermelon! Brian wants to pick it so badly, but I think it needs a few more days. I have never been so pumped to have grown something in my life haha.Watermleon

In other news, B and I just got back from a weekend trip to Buffalo, NY. My family had a family reunion and we had a great time.

I’ve got a few furniture projects I want to finish before the summer is over and I get crazy busy with school — a dresser and two nightstands to be exact. Here’s hoping I can find the time and cool weather to tackle each project!

Life

Columbia Mall Shooting

Jessica Smith

Ugh. I don’t understand why people do the crazy things they do…

Columbia is my home. It is my happy place. It is where I grew up. It is where I went to school. It is where I bought my first house. It’s where we’ve met some of our best friends. It’s where we will have babies. It. Is. My. Home.

It could have been me at that mall. Or my husband. Or my sister, brother, mom, dad, stepmom, stepdad or mother-in-law. It could have been my best friend or my neighbors. It could have been someone I loved. It really saddens me that such a senseless act of violence took place in our mall, leaving three people dead. Three families are mourning the loss of their loved ones and I feel for them. I feel for them and at the same time am so eternally grateful that my sister and I weren’t shopping at the mall. Or that my hubby and I hadn’t just ran in to get food like we’d done two nights prior to the shooting. Or that my mom couldn’t get her manicure appointment until Sunday. So grateful that my loved ones are safe and didn’t have to endure the terror that filled the mall on Saturday.

I am also so grateful to live in such a great community with fantastic first responders. The Howard County police and all of the other first responders who attended to the mall shooting had the situation under control minutes after they received the distress call. I truly appreciate the professionalism and courage they displayed on Saturday and know that they do everything in their power to keep our community safe.

Here’s hoping the families that lost loved ones will find peace and this tragedy in Columbia will help inspire a change. No family and no community should have to suffer a loss like this.

Hug your loved ones tightly.

#HoCoBlogs

Garden, Uncategorized

My dad, my landscaping hero

Jessica Smith

My dad is my hero. Not because of the sweet things he does for me and Brian, but because he’s an all-around wonderful person.

This weekend when Brian and I went to the beach with our friends, my dad also became my landscaping hero (as if he wasn’t already).

I knew he wanted to reapply black top to our driveway, so while we were away he came over and transformed our driveway.

This photo does not do our driveway justice. It is looking fly! Also, notice the rocks alongside of the driveway!? They are finished, too. Only took a few months and us paying someone to finish it. Oh well.

New Driveway

That would have been awesome in itself, but he didn’t stop there. He also removed our old well poll from the front yard, which I can’t even begin to describe how amazing it is.

Old well

But wait, there is more! He planted begonias in our landscaping and put out American flags around our house!

American Flags

Bogonias

Isn’t he just awesome!? It was so nice to come home and be proud of the way my house looks, and my dad has been instrumental in making our house look great.

While I’m talking about the outside of my house, here are some pretty pictures of plants around the yard:

Black Eyed Susan
 Purple Cone Flower

Speedwell butterfly

Speedwell

And here are my dead stumps!

Dead stump

Dead stump2

Tonight we are tackling the lamp post. I’d bought a new post altogether (even though I told dad I should just spray paint the old one), but I’m going to return it. I spray painted the old one with black paint to make it look just like new. OK, it doesn’t really look like new up close, but who really examines a lamp post closely?

Lamp post prep

Here’s a shot of my house as a whole.

House exterior

A HUGE thank you to my dad for all of the help and positive encouragement he’s given us to tackle the landscaping at our first home. It’s been a ton of work, but I am really proud of how far we’ve come.