{"id":17993,"date":"2013-05-14T18:24:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T23:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=17993"},"modified":"2013-06-28T07:29:45","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T12:29:45","slug":"my-take-on-ralph-laurens-courtyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=17993","title":{"rendered":"My Take on Ralph Lauren’s Courtyard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings, all!!! \u00a0Jordan and I are on day two of her two-day visit, and just finished hosting her second (this was out of town) Stella and Dot party in two days. \u00a0Whew!!! \u00a0It’s a whirlwind, but fab.<\/h3>\n

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\"IMG_5463\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Monday I showed you the baker’s rack that I bought, painted, and placed in our courtyard to hide an eyesore. \u00a0It will serve as a potting bench, bar, and server. \u00a0 However, the courtyard rearranging didn’t stop there.<\/h3>\n

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\"Courtyard2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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This is what it looks like now. \u00a0Not only did we move the table from another area of the space, but……<\/h3>\n

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\"Courtyard1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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…..we had the sweet bay magnolia tree chopped down (See the arrow above). \u00a0Although it provided a little shade for the sunroom, it was so very, very dirty. \u00a0It was shedding some form of flora 10 months of the year. \u00a0Sometimes it would drop so much of its stuff, that I couldn’t even get the door open. \u00a0Ugh!!! \u00a0It\u00a0had<\/em> to go.<\/h3>\n

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\"Courtyard3\"<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Last fall when I spent a week alone in Paris, I had lunch (here<\/a>) at Ralph’s one day. \u00a0It is the restaurant attached to the Ralph Lauren store, and I ate in the courtyard. \u00a0The space wasn’t much bigger than ours, but oh, what charm and personality it had!<\/h3>\n

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\"Courtyard4\"<\/p>\n

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It was lush with foliage and huge potted trees, wrought iron tables, benches, and chairs. \u00a0I wanted it and knew that I could work on recreating it here on a much smaller scale. \u00a0For instance, my little herb garden adds some nice greenery while being serviceable at the same time.<\/h3>\n

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\"Courtyard7\"<\/p>\n

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I’ll never have the pots of trees like Ralph’s (I’m talking HUGE pots) because there is no room here for storing them in the winter.<\/h3>\n

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\"Courtyard\"<\/p>\n

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I can have little seating areas like Ralph’s, though. \u00a0This is the space where the table used to be. \u00a0It is farther from the house, and having dinner there involved a lot of walking to get everything from the kitchen to the table. \u00a0Since the table is now nearer to the kitchen, this little shaded space under the trees and in front of the roses is perfect for reading or sipping a cup of tea.<\/h3>\n

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\"Courtyard6\"<\/p>\n

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I planted annuals (begonias) in all of the empty spaces and decided to stick with white this year. \u00a0When they grow, the entire area will be covered. \u00a0There are also trailing plants with white blossoms that will be climbing the brick walls.<\/h3>\n

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\"IMG_5428\"<\/p>\n

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Those two wrought iron planters hanging against the brick are on temporary hold. \u00a0Right now, a dove family is living in one, and I can’t do a thing till they fly the coupe. \u00a0Last year, she actually raised three separate families before deciding she had enough.<\/h3>\n

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\"Courtyard2\"<\/p>\n

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Although this isn’t Paris, I have a good start on capturing the charm and feel of Ralph’s courtyard. \u00a0With a few tweaks each year, eventually it will get there. \u00a0Till then c’est la vie.<\/h3>\n

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Click here to like us on Facebook.<\/a><\/h3>\n

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Take care.<\/h3>\n

Linking to Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style<\/a>\u00a0and Our Fifth House<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greetings, all!!! \u00a0Jordan and I are on day two of her two-day visit, and just finished hosting her second (this was out of town) Stella and Dot party in two days. \u00a0Whew!!! \u00a0It’s a whirlwind, but fab.     Monday I showed you the baker’s rack that I bought, painted, and placed in our courtyard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17993"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18734,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993\/revisions\/18734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}