I wanted to share some updates on my garden this week, but before I could make it back there with my camera –  I wondered why all the leaves on my moon flower plant were carefully snipped away. We received this plant as a cutting from my father-in-law’s garden, and it  was thriving in the small pot we had it in. I loved how it was blooming with these big white flowers.

I knelt down beside it, carefully looking at – puzzled as to what happened. Then I saw it…

What is THAT?!?

He blended right in with the plant, and he was working on having the seed pod for lunch! I still don’t quite know what it was exactly – but very cool to see in your backyard. Anyone have any idea what it is?  Once we had a little frog on our patio table that JP was quick to point out.

Yes, I love taking pictures of critters when we come across them – which is odd for me because I really hate bugs. Somehow, I didn’t mind the frog gracing us with his presence – I even secretly wondered what would happen if I kissed him, but then I realized you need to be a princess first.

Maybe in my next lifetime

As for the other ‘thing’ I had my husband re-locate him, so we can have a fighting chance at having our moon plant!

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Jayna

Hi, I'm Jayna, a Wylie mom blogger living near Plano, Texas. I'm a Dessert love & recipe maker. Mom to a rowdy little boy. Coffee lover. Beloved wife and creator of Bellabyte Design Studio. Connect with me, I'd love to hear from you!

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This post brought to you by Flood Wood Care. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you have a place in your house where you enjoy time with your family? We do – and it’s our backyard.. How we LOVE hanging out there!

One evening a few weeks back we were outside, enjoying the summer sunset while letting JP exhaust his last little bits of energy. My husband and I each sat casually in our respective adirondak chairs while I snapped pictures of JP playing.

I was kicking the soccer ball to him, and he was kicking it back when suddenly – weee! My flip flop went flying in the air and landed several feet away. Right away JP wanted to ‘help’ put mommy’s shoe back on… Awww!

Sometimes, I really feel that little boys are made up of sugar and spice and everything nice!

What does any of this have to do with Flood® Wood Care, you ask? Well, it made me take a closer look at my fence… I realize a re-paint job is probably not too far off!

Our backyard has slowly evolved into a more inviting place, every time we add a new plant or patio furniture. Eventually, we’d love to put in wood deck with a jacuzzi tub and build some flower boxes into it.

Maybe i’ll get lucky, because Flood® Wood Care specialists is offering the Take it Easy Sweepstakes. How I’d love to win!! Maybe they could help me make our backyard that much nicer for us to enjoy as a family. Even if you’re not interested in entering a sweepstakes of any sort, there is plenty of DIY inspiration for idea gatherers!

Get Your Deck Refinished. Plus Big Bucks to Celebrate!!

If you win, Flood^® Wood Care will provide all the supplies AND labor to prep and stain
your deck PLUS $2,000 for the deck party of your dreams. It’s always easy with Flood products, but it just doesn’t get any easier than this!

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Jayna

Hi, I'm Jayna, a Wylie mom blogger living near Plano, Texas. I'm a Dessert love & recipe maker. Mom to a rowdy little boy. Coffee lover. Beloved wife and creator of Bellabyte Design Studio. Connect with me, I'd love to hear from you!

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I talked about my garden a little while ago, and I thought I’d share yet another update I have made recently. Now that I got everything planted, fertilized and thriving – I realized I needed some garden markers to know what was what because the little plastic printed ones that came with the plant wasn’t cutting it.

I decided it would be the perfect project for none other than the brand new Painters Paint Markers by Elmer’s.

I found these Elmer’s Painters Paint Markers in the craft department for a bargain 1.97$ when I was out shopping, they had a bunch of different colors!

…And the paint stir sticks were a whopping 28 cents!

All you really need to create this craft is:

Here’s my spray paint setup – a plastic drop cloth held into the ground with garden lights and bounce house stakes!

Then I masked off the bottom of each one so I could add another color.

I had such fun painting these, i did it all while JP was at preschool during the day while I sat on the back patio listening to birds chirping. It was pure therapy, I tell you!!

I wanted a fun, whimsical touch with lots of color for these markers – I am so in love with how they turned out!! Now it’s time to add to the collection becauseI still have a little bit of garden space left…

….I’m thinking pumpkins are next!

Here’s where my garden was before the planting begun:

And here it is now with my garden and garden markers!

I even have a couple of little green strawberries growing!

I can’t wait to finish making more of them!

You may follow Elmer’s on twitter and facebook

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #CBias. All opinions are 100% my own.

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Jayna

Hi, I'm Jayna, a Wylie mom blogger living near Plano, Texas. I'm a Dessert love & recipe maker. Mom to a rowdy little boy. Coffee lover. Beloved wife and creator of Bellabyte Design Studio. Connect with me, I'd love to hear from you!

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Whitney Farms. All opinions are 100% mine.

As most of you know, I’ve been talking alot about my being outside and gardening lately – but I haven’t really shown you anything.. Yet!  Lucky for me, the nice folks over at Whitney Farms®  (click and get a 3$ off coupon) sent me both plant food for my vegetable garden in my backyard as well as plant food for my flower garden in my front yard. How nice!! You know what’s even more awesome? It’s 100% organic too!

So I gave the organic plant food a try on my little patch of flowers our front – it came in the form of these easy little granules you spread over your soil, minus the funky odors.

I think my flowers are already happy with it!

When we first moved in this house that we now live in, I inherited a little stoned-in patch of garden that appeared to have been someone else’s vegetable garden at one time. It needed alot of good old fashioned elbow grease to get it back up to snuff – but I’ve finally managed to till up the ground and pull the weeds out. My little buddy even helped in adding some more organic soil!

There it is, in all it’s glory – ready for me to plant some veggies! We planted a bunch of things – tomatoes, potatoes, okra, watermelons, strawberries and even some pumpkins! I think it will be fun to grow our own pumpkins in time for halloween this year. Here’s a shot of my strawberry plants – I’ve already got a bloom!

I think it’s an important lesson for kids to learn that vegetables and fruit come from the ground, and not necessarily only from the grocery store. It’s really been a fun& educational activity to interest my little 3 year old, and a big learning experience for both of us!

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Jayna

Hi, I'm Jayna, a Wylie mom blogger living near Plano, Texas. I'm a Dessert love & recipe maker. Mom to a rowdy little boy. Coffee lover. Beloved wife and creator of Bellabyte Design Studio. Connect with me, I'd love to hear from you!

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This post brought to you by Bulbs. Dig, Drop, Done.. All opinions are 100% mine.

One thing I love about spring and summer around the corner, is that I absolutely adore flowers! I love smelling the sweet aroma that fills the air when they are around. My dream is to build a pretty little oasis out in our backyard, one of these days of course…  isin’t this one pretty?

Our house came with a cute little pergola when we purchased it, and I imagined so many different ideas that could be done with it. I’d love to have a little backyard nook, but it will just have to take a number behind the million and one other things I’d like to do around my house.

After visiting digdropdone.com, I discovered the many uses for flower bulbs. I used to think that bulbs were only for outdoor use and for people who have gardens. Turns out  you can plant bulbs in pots of all different types – Like this one…

…and these…

Potted flowers seem to be an inexpensive solution for adding multiple levels of ‘pretty’ to your outdoor space. So will I try potting some flowers this summer? Yes. Probably. Plus I want to get one of those cute potting benches for out back! I visited digdropdone.com and it offered alot of good insight for someone like me (a.k.a NOT Mrs. Greenthumb) to learn some basics and get started, if growing is what you would like to do. I particularly enjoyed the young mom – because similar to her, I think it’s a great learning activity to do with your kids.

They have an FAQ section, bulb browser and their website is packed with good tips on how to grow a better garden, even if you already have one. visit www.digdropdone.com to learn more

But my favorite is the Garden Guru tool at Curbside Chaos. Basically you select your country, your region and what time of year you would like your flowers to bloom, and it gives you appropriate flower selections for your climate. Easy!

To get you started with some cute ideas for flower planters, here’s some that I found on pinterest.

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Jayna

Hi, I'm Jayna, a Wylie mom blogger living near Plano, Texas. I'm a Dessert love & recipe maker. Mom to a rowdy little boy. Coffee lover. Beloved wife and creator of Bellabyte Design Studio. Connect with me, I'd love to hear from you!

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