Mid-Summer Patio Flowers Update

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’m going to do a little potted plant update today. I love having a lot of big potted plants around our patio during the summer. It allows me to switch out the types of plants that go in them every year, see how things fare and what I end up loving and what just doesn’t look that great by the end of the season.

I do in general keep the same color theme for all of the potted plants on our patio, and echo a handful of plants but in slightly different ways throughout all of them. Last year, I did sets of three of the same plants over and over, but this year, I wanted a bit more variety.

If you’re interested in how I put together a pot, I wrote a blog post on the four easy steps of that HERE.

All of my patio plants were planted in mid-May, so this is a little mid-summer update.

In May…

When I planted this series, I thought it was going to be my least favorite combo of the three sets of pots. I was soooo wrong. It’s in the running for most favorite now.

The zinnias fared so well, that I actually pulled out one of them and put it it in its own pot.

Plants in this series:

  • Large Pot: Superbells in Double Blue, Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus), Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue
  • Middle Pot: Euphorbia in Diamond Frost, Zinnia in Double Zahara Salmon
  • Small Pot: Lantana in Sunrise Rose

In May:

Also in the running for my set of favorites. The hibiscus wasn’t blooming the day that I took this picture, but wanted to show you how beautifully everything came in. And one of my favorite things to do is to use the creeping thyme in a pot, because it starts to cascade over the sides of the pot and looks so cool by the end of summer.

Plants in this series:

  • Large Pot: Superbells in Blue Moon Punch, Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus), Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue
  • Middle Pot: Hibiscus in Passion Wind
  • Small Pot: Creeping Thyme

In May…

When I initially planted all of these planters, I loved this set this most. And now it’s my least favorite 🙂

I think it’s something about the colors in the coleus against the million bells here that I don’t love.

Plants in this series:

  • Large Pot: Superbells in Doublette Love Swept, Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue, Euphorbia in Diamond Frost
  • Middle Pot: Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus)
  • Small Pot: Creeping Thyme

One thing remains true, this coleus that I’ve been using in my pots for years is a stellar performer. I’m getting to a point now that I cut it back in my pots just about every week so it doesn’t take over, but it is truly a beast. That’s one of the reasons I was curious as to how I would like it by itself in its own pot this year.

We’ve reached the time of a year in mid-summer, where I’m dealing with the most pests to my flowers, they need a lot of water (as in, I water these pots daily), and fertilize them once a week with a water soluble fertilizer. This will be the routine until early September when the heat starts to subside a bit.

Hope this was helpful to see how much plants fill out in just a couple of months! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! I love to hear from you!

The Lanes Currently…

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Harrison is napping upstairs, and I’m finishing up my one, now cold, cup of coffee. Planning for the week ahead, assuming we’re still on Baby Watch 2020. I thought we’d do a little “currently for the Lanes…” Here we go…

MAKING: Making up toddler activities. With Harrison back at home, I’m back trying to come up with good toddler activities to keep him busy! Harrison loves all things sensory, so I try to do sensory activities with him as much as I possibly can. But there are some days that I’m just not up for the mess. That goes for baking too. You all that bake with your toddlers are my hero. Whenever we do that I end up stressed and want to eat all the brownies we’ve just baked.

WEARING: Lots of sunscreen! And minimal make-up. I realized the other day that I wear three different products on almost a regular basis during the summer with sunscreen in them.

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A Room Fit For a Big Brother: Harrison’s Big Boy Room

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Back in February, we found out that we were going to be adding another little boy to this Lane clan (in just a few short weeks now!). Knowing the gender of our newest little Lane set about deciding what to do with Harrison’s sleeping situation. Would we buy a second crib? Would we keep Harrison in his current room or move him to a new room? Toddler bed or regular bed?

We decided it would be easiest for Harrison to move to a new room, and for him to give his crib to his baby brother. We already had everything set up in his room as a nursery. Rocking chair, dresser low enough to put our diaper changing station on it. It’s the smallest room in the house, and perfect for a little baby. And fortunate for us, was already decorated for a little boy! So I set about designing a new room for Harrison.

I have loads of “internet” friends that I adore following on Instagram for their amazing home style. But somehow, anytime I set about to do a home project myself, I get 85% of the way there, and then that last 15%, which is usually wall decor, just kind of hangs around for months…sometimes years. We literally have walls and rooms in our house that don’t have a single thing hung on them after six years of being here. (Can you say also fear of putting nails into a beautifully painted wall??)

Here’s a peak of the walls/room before painting…

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Friday Favorites {07.10.20}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It seems like it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged just a random Friday Favorites! We’re one week into our potentially three week quarantine waiting for baby Lane #2. A lot of you have asked me over on Instagram why Harrison is home again. So, I thought I’d chat about that here as well.

We sent Harrison back to daycare at the end of May at the recommendation of primarily Harrison’s pediatrician, and my OB agreed that, while a risk, was a low risk to send him back to daycare. My OB also, though, at the same time recommended that Harrison come back out of daycare three weeks before my due date, and join Nathan and I in “quarantine” waiting for baby’s arrival. I think the three week recommendation is based on the guidance from the CDC, but don’t quote me on that!

So given that, and after talking to Harrison’s pediatrician, who also agreed that would be best to ensure that we are at the lowest risks as we can possibly be going into delivery for COVID, Harrison’s staying home with us again from now until some period after baby’s arrival. Initial suggestions from his pediatrician were to keep him at home for at least 4-6 weeks after baby’s arrival to allow the new baby time to build up their immune system. So here we all are again, one big happy, expectant family!

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Installing Drip Irrigation

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Before I get to all of the wonderfulness of drip irrigation (which there is so much wonderful!), I just wanted to remind you to head to my Instagram to enter my giveaway for a $50 Nordstrom gift card!

Ok, now to drip irrigation excitement….

I have long been the person dragging a hose around all sides of the house watering my flower beds. I would spend an hour every other day watering. Somedays it was more! I prayed for rain and welcomed the relief from watering. This year, I decided I was finally going to invest the time to figure out how to install drip irrigation to the flower beds I hated watering the absolute most. Admittedly, I’d watched videos for years about how to install it, where to get the parts, putting it on a timer, and I just never pulled the trigger. It seemed too difficult and complicated.

But what I learned this year is GOOD NEWS! It really isn’t hard to install. And now I’m living the dream of just hooking up the hose and letting the water drip out into my flower beds for an hour while I sit in my air conditioned house and write this blog post.

Here are the supplies I needed:

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Blogaversary Nordstrom Giveaway!

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s been a year since I started this little internet space, and made the leap to making my Instagram PUBLIC. I love having you internet friends to connect with and share life with, so it seemed that it was high time to share some of the love with my first GIVEAWAY!

I’m giving away a $50 Nordstrom gift card to one person over on my Instagram. All you have to do is:

-1- Follow me on Instagram. My instagram handle is @sunwashedlinen.

-2- Tag a friend in the comments to share the love! You can tag up to ten friends in separate comments for additional entries.

-3- You’ll get an additional two entries for sharing the post on your Stories!

That’s it! Giveaway closes at 11:00 CST on Thursday, July 9th, and I’ll contact the winner on Friday!

Given that I’ve been at this for a year now, I thought it would be fun to look back at some of my favorite pictures and posts.

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Let’s Look At…Your Summer Wardrobe

Posted on by Lauren Lane

If your’e new here, once a month, I link up with two of my favorite blogs (Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything), to share a “look” into some little aspect of our life. Before we get to this month, here’s a peak back at what we’ve “looked” at so far this year:

Today we’re sharing our summer wardrobes. And if you read all the way to the bottom, I’ve got a super exciting thing coming up NEXT WEEK!

I’ve shared in earlier posts that being pregnant and living in the time of COVID (aka – I don’t get out much), my summer wardrobe is laughable at best. Most days I opt for gym shorts and a workout tank. Not having to get dressed up for work each day has been a blessing on the wallet this go around and saved time in the morning.

I’ll share the things that I’ve been wearing regularly during quarantine with my ever expanding belly.

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The One Thing I’d Change With My Second Baby

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Recently, we sat on our back patio with some friends who had just announced that they were pregnant with their first. What an exciting time of life to have our friends starting to have babies! But they asked us a question, as I kept one eye and ear on Harrison running around the patio kicking and throwing a ball. If we were going to do it all again, which we are, what’s the one thing that we would absolutely not do this time around.

Bringing home Harrison

I didn’t have a good answer. Parenting is such a personal thing, in my opinion. Every child is different. Every family is different. The only thing I could really think of that I would do differently is allow myself some more grace to live in the messy state of life that is figuring out life as a family of three.

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Garden Path Tour Summer 2020

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Our garden path holds a special place in my heart. After Nathan single handedly designed our entire patio remodel, and then built over three years through hours of digging with a shovel and laying stones usually BY HIMSELF, we went from a patio that looked like this when we moved in…

To this finished last year…

If you missed it, I did a whole post about our patio remodel HERE.

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What’s Up Wednesday {06.24.20}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

The days of June have come and gone so quickly! I knew that things would really feel like they were speeding up as we head into the home stretch before meeting our newest baby boy! July is already baby month! Or at least, we think so. I guess if he decides to be very late, we could end up with an August baby as well. Harrison was two days past his due date, and right or wrong, I’ve got it in my head that I’m going to have the full forty weeks before this little one arrives too.

Tell me – did your babies arrive early, on time, or late?? Were second babies more on time or earlier than first babies??

I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life lately!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:

  • Sunday: For Father’s Day, we’re going to do take out from a local restaurant!
  • Monday: Leftovers
  • Tuesday: Salmon & sautéed spinach
  • Wednesday: Chicken nuggets and Mac & cheese – Nathan has insisted from the first day that we were dating that Mac and cheese must be served with chicken nuggets. I’m guessing that combo reminds him of his childhood
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday: Carne asada tacos

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Preparing for this newest little Lane boy has me super reminiscent of the early days of bringing Harrison’s light into this world.

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