Front Porch - grace grits and gardening

Sunday Letter: 10.06.19

October 6, 2019 By Talya Tate Boerner 12 Comments

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

You probably know our daughter got married last weekend. It was a fabulous to-do in Austin. Absolutely dreamy (even though it was hot as Hades). But afterward? I wasn’t prepared for how exhausted I would be. And, really, I didn’t have that many responsibilities. The bride and groom coordinated most everything.

After we returned home to Fayetteville, for two days I staggered around, zombie-like. I even slept until 8:00 on Tuesday, something I haven’t done since I had mono in tenth grade.

It’s true.

I hope you’ll indulge me for a moment as I recap a few of my favorite things about the wedding…Continue Reading

Spring Porch Pizzazz: a happy thing.

April 17, 2017 By Talya Tate Boerner 2 Comments

I’ve been working to add a little spring pizzazz to our porches. In Northwest Arkansas, the weather has warmed enough to mix annuals into containers. My empty containers have been patiently waiting for warm temperatures. Empty containers are sad, sad things.

Totally pizzazz-less.

I planted a few of my favorites including salvia, petunia, calibrochoa, asparagus fern, and lobelia. The large containers look sparse now, but within only a few weeks, we’ll have a stunning display leading to our front porch. Plants need room to grow. I know this. Even so, I had to resist the urge to overfill. And if it’s left up to my husband, we’ll over-plant right off.Continue Reading

The case of the missing Halloween Bats.

October 24, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner 5 Comments

Put on your Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys hats and think. If you were a bat, where oh where would you hide? Not a real bat (and not my mother, the BAT), but a bag of felt bats. This is the case of the missing Halloween bats.

I made these bats several years ago, and since then, they’ve been my favorite Halloween porch decoration. Pictured above is our Dallas porch, which for the record, I miss Munger Place most at Halloween…

Last October, we were just settling into our new home in Arkansas, so I chalked up the missing bats to overall moving chaos. This October, I’ve declared them LOST. Yesterday I looked everywhere(!) for them. In every drawer, every odd place, every plastic storage bucket in the garage. Everywhere except the exact somewhere I should have looked.

Please tell me this happens to you.Continue Reading

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