Eden Outdoors

Because our house is so small and LA weather is usually so nice, we spend a lot of time outside. I just realized that I've never photographed or blogged about any of our updated outdoor space so here's my first pass: Eden's Garden.

When you first enter the yard Eden's area is hidden behind a large bougainvillea wall that sits at the end of the driveway. This used to be where the old wood-burning hot tub I hated lived and the outdoor shower area is just beyond so the previous owners erected this wall for privacy I guess. It works for us because you don't see a world of toys as soon as you walk into the yard.

On the other side of the wall is the giant letter E I made for her first birthday party (gotta remember to post pics of that too) and a little hook we have for her outdoor hat. 

Once you round the wall you can see all of her playground toys and equipment. This area is covered in mulch to keep the weeds down and protect the soil in case we want to use this area for a garden or something someday, and it sits in front of our two rickety out-buildings -the big one being the studio and the small one being the former home of the outdoor shower. Now that we have indoor plumbing (I swear this damn house...) we are toying with the idea of making this into a playhouse for Eden. The studio functions reasonably well as 1/3 music and media stuff for Scott, 1/3 art and crafts stuff for me, and 1/3 storage for camping equipment/holidays etc. I will post more about the studio once we finish redoing it.

Eden loves to draw (and force us to draw wonky cats) on her little chalkboard. We keep it outside to clear up space indoors and because the chalk does double duty as sidewalk chalk. 

The little umbrella area serves as a small hideaway and shade for the different areas. We move it around throughout the day.

The rest of her toys see a lot of action during the cool summer mornings and evenings we spend outside. She still uses her exersaucer except at now she stands and plays with the toys on the outside. It plays music too so it's kind of the soundtrack of this area. I bought it on Craigslist for $50 which was a steal seeing as the cute garden theme had been discontinued. Here she is using it properly as a little bitty thing.

The swing was a gift from Scott's sister Karen and a great solution for that weird pipe thing we have no idea what to do with. The cute little squirrel scooter was Eden's first Christmas gift from her Grandma (Scott's mom) and the slide and boat were $7 for both at a yard sale in our neighborhood.

This homemade water table (cinder blocks, boards, under-the-bed-storage tub) is probably her favorite thing in this area. Here's a shot of it in action from Instagram on one of my work from home days.

We're pretty happy with her play area. I'll share pictures of the new deck set up and tree-stump coffee table next time.