Post-Thanksgiving Game Plan

"I don't see how I could, I'm just worn out .

The holidays just about did me in this year. 

Every time you turned around, there was another party. 

I don't think I've caught my breath since Thanksgiving."

Black Rose

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Photo by Surrey Lane - Search home design pictures

Once you’ve recovered from the big day, 

take these steps to make welcoming 

the next round of holiday guests easier.

HOUZZ

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Of course, she'd had the house full only a couple weeks earlier, 

with all her boys home for Thanksgiving and her birthday. 

Austin and Mason would be back for Christmas. A mother of grown sons 

couldn't ask for better.

God knew there'd been plenty of times when they were growing up

 that she'd yearned for some quiet. Just an hour of absolute peace 

where she had nothing more exciting to do than soak in a hot tub.

Then she'd had too much time on her hands, hadn't she? 

Too much quiet, too much empty space.

Black Rose

lush lawns and gardens don't create themselves

"She started snooting at me about the gardens and the lawn, and how she wondered I didn't do more than I did with mine, why I didn't take more pride in the home her son has provided me with."
"You have a lovely yard." Not that it reached its potential, but it was, in Roz's opinion, well kept and pretty enough.
"She just pushed my buttons-like she always does-and I just blurted out how I'd been slaving away, and put in new beds and whatnot. I just blathered, Roz, and now, unless you help me out, she's going to see I was lying through my teeth."

Black Rose

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how to work with a landscaping professional for a smooth proccess and pleasing results

Even if you can decorate a living room and bedeck a bedroom with the best of them, landscape design has a unique set of challenges that may leave you stumped. Not only does it require a totally different skill set from interior design, but it also changes and evolves over time - flowers wither, trees mature, shrubs grow and spread. And that's where a landscape pro can prove to be invaluable.

>HOUZZ<

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Roz explained, in basic terms, that they'd do a four-season perennial garden. One that would impress, whatever time of year the in-laws visited. Iris and dianthus, campanula. Bleeding heart and columbine for instant bloom. With spring bulbs, craftily placed annuals, and the foliage from later bloomers filling in now.

And once the massive planters she'd chosen were done and exploding with flowers, the bed would be a showpiece even a persnickety mother-in-law would love.

Black Rose