Em

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I am a tree murderess. I know Bradford Pear trees are invasive and horrible for the environment, but taking a tree's life still makes me sad.

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Casa Leone Weekend Recap-4th of July Fun times were had by all.

Just a little recap of our holiday weekend goings-ons. I had such a nice time this weekend that I even forgot to be subconcious about my stupid braces.

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My New Year's Resolution was to give up thrift shopping. And 6 months in, I stuck to it (for the most part).

Thrifting was way too big a part of my personality. Gave it up, and I'm feeling good about it.

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A New View from the Kitchen Window. If you're going to disassociate and stare out your kitchen window, you might as well have something pretty to look at while you do it.

Check out my latest essay for substack
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The Steves would be so proud of me. I let middle aged, Midwestern guys named Steve on youtube teach me to build ponds, and then I built my own.

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Channeling my inner Steve Girls can build ponds too

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I Let AI decide my wall color And damn it, if those robots don't have good taste.

My newest post on Substack...enjoy!

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Chasing the feeling of flow. There's nothing better than the feeling of getting so immersed in an activity that the rest of the world disappears.

I am writing for substack now! I hope you'll enjoy my newest post about chasing the feeling of flow.
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I was watching the Office, the one where Michael and Jan take a client to Chili's and we spotted a cameo from my table. The guy I got it from on facebook marketplace said it was from Applebee's but he was wrong, apparently. How much blossom awesomeness has this table witnessed through the years?

Tabitha has officially been a 100% indoor cat for over a year now.

My camera roll these days is just photo after photo of mystery plants that I'm trying to identify to see if I need to pull them out of my woods or not

My favorite sort of youtube to watch is Midwestern white guys named Steve who are building backyard ponds and powerwashing sidewalks.

Color changing pond lights!

I finished my limestone patio and my little water feature pond and started planting a pollinator garden, which hopefully will fill in over the years and give the patio a more private feel. I really like it all. Feels like it was always meant to be here

I planted native blue flag irises last year for the first time. So pretty!

A millions-year old trilobite fossil in a paver on my patio

My limestone patio is complete! It was a lot of work but I really like how it turned out

I'm going to make it a rain garden/bioswale to soak up all the water and just add a little standing fountain as a water feature. I'll put my pond in the backyard. I don't want to have to worry about a pond overflowing and flooding my patio

A new to me flower popped up in my yard---never seen one of these before! My camera ID'd it as an "Eastern Bluestar", a native woodland plant

My sons and I have been working on building a patio out of a pile of old limestone pavers I found in our woods. It's not done yet, but it's coming along! In this photo, we are in the process of "grouting" it with our own mixture of sand, crushed rock and clay from the pit that will soon be a pond

When it comes to home improvement projects, it always has to get uglier before it gets prettier.

Since we moved into this house last year, I have been looking for the perfect railing to go between our kitchen and sunken family room. Found one this weekend! Wrought iron with a floral motif.It came from a house built in 1973---mine is from 1975 so it looks perfect here, like it's always been here

A little scene from my backyard...a huge and beautiful Japanese maple tree, a freshly cleaned pond, a rhododendron in bloom and my seating area, which consists of two vintage 1950s wrought iron butterfly chairs and wrought iron slate-topped side tables----all found on curbs in other people's trash.

My rhodedendron bush is blooming!

Poet's daffodil, spotted deep in my neighbor's woods. It was so fragrant!

Fungi spotted in the woods