Mini make over and a WIP

Bed side table.

I bought this table at an antique store in Evansville a long time ago. It just had a glossy coat of polyurethane on it. I stripped that off so I could paint it.

After!

I just realized that picture is blurry. Well it was late at night when I took it.

Still need to get a knob.

I took some dark blue paint we had and mixed it with some yellow. After it dried, I sanded it down. Then I stained the top and the drawer with some dark stain. I wiped stain on over the paint too, so that the wood parts showing through would match the top and drawer.

I'm knitting until I can't see straight at night. I am so close to having my blanket done. When I'm knitting, I pretend the bedroom doors are painting themselves. Ugh. Maybe tomorrow night.

So close!

I just need to go around two more times. I'm at the top (off white) and need to do each color one more time. I'm not sure what kind of border to do yet. Or what color I am going to use.

Now, random stuff.

Woot! they are back! Best 10 bucks I ever spent (seeds).

Liatris.

Some of the coneflowers are as tall as me. The liatris is much taller than I expected. I think they are 4ft high. Maybe taller. They come up to the top of my chest.

Grow, Plummy, Grow!

Yes, our tree has a name. He's grown like mad this year. Too much really. He'll be getting a trim this fall.

Looking up at the sky.

So much to do! I need to get moving. Ellie took a long nap today (first nap in a couple weeks) so "my" evening won't start until about 9:30pm.

I've been busy!

I didn't mean to neglect my blog. We went away for Memorial Day weekend, and it feels like I haven't caught my breath since.

Every year we go t0 Ft. Wayne for Memorial Day weekend. There's always a big party at John's Grandma's house on that Saturday. Then we spend the night at a hotel and drive home Sunday. The weather wasn't the best this year (chilly and rainy), but the girls had fun so it was worth the trip. We got home Sunday and goofed off a while. Then John started to clear the storm damage up. I decided to help. I would pull the limbs back to John, and he'd burn them. The girls helped/played/ate snacks. It was crazy. I'd grab what I could and pull them 50? feet. It felt good. I'd turn around and the pile was still so HUGE. It seemed impossible. I'd get more. And more. I must have made 100 trips. That was just the apple tree and the cherry tree we lost. Mary and Ellie would pick up small sticks. Finally the girls and I went in and ate dinner. John kept working. That night, we hurt. My arms hurt, my legs were on fire. My feet hurt. Everything. We both had sunburns too. Monday we started again after lunch. The girls weren't as happy to play by themselves, so I didn't do as much. John put in another 6 or 8 hours. I'd help when I could. We got the ash tree cleaned up. Then John took Tuesday off work and went to it again. Mary was at school, and Ellie and I were doing our thing. I'd look out, and John looked exhausted. It broke my heart to see him so worn out. It was hotter than heck, and he'd been at it for 3 days. I could barely move from being so sore and tired. I couldn't imagine how he felt. We got it all cleaned up though. John still has to split the wood, but it's all piled up along the edge of the yard.

I hit the US 40 yard sale a couple times this year. First the girls and I went. Then I went alone last Saturday. I didn't find much this year. I took 40 towards Dayton. I planned to go look for some bamboo shades for our living room windows when I was done yard saling. I went to Target with no luck. Then I was off to Home Depot. I got to the isle and saw the blinds. And then I saw this:

I took this cell phone pic and emailed it to Mom right after I put them in my cart.

Was $36, now $6.80????? I looked at the tag about ten times, then took a picture. Then I stuck the blinds in the cart and rushed to check out (after emailing Mom) just in case it was a mistake. Four blinds for the living room for less than the cost of one! Woot! John hung them right up for me when I got home. Pictures to come soon--maybe when we paint or maybe if I ever even clean the room!

By Sunday night, I was getting the itch to craft. The problem though is that my crafts seem to be getting more and more difficult. Ellie's blanket nearly killed me. My new project? A twin size quilt for Mary's bed. I was so intimidated by it that I didn't want to start.


Here's what I had as of this afternoon. The pattern is called a coin quilt. The coins are the little squares of fabric. They form a huge line, then are bordered by a plain (white) strip on either side. The quilt has 175 coins each cut 4.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall. There are seven coin strips. Tonight I finished sewing all thirteen strips together. I still need to do the two outside white strips, and then put a white strip across the top and the bottom. When I got everything sewed and pressed tonight and turned it over, I couldn't believe I made it with my own hands. I cannot wait to see it done. I still have a long way to go (making the back, basting it together, quilting it and binding it).

I told myself I would go to bed early tonight. I went to bed at 12:30am last night (this morning!?!?!) so I guess if I went to bed now it would be slightly earlier than that. I'm so tired I can't type or even remember if I had anything else to say.

Goodnight.

A brown and yellow spring

I am ready for some leaves on the trees and some green grass too! I think this is the longest spring ever. About three weeks ago, it got really warm. Then it got super cold. Somehow my new daffodils survived.

I'm really excited about this area pictured above. In the middle is an old stump. It was the tree that knocked our power out (for 91 hours) in September 2008. John split all the wood but left it right there in a pile. All of the bark, twigs, and leaves sort of composted in place and now the dirt is excellent there. On Sunday I planted 2 rose of sharon bushes on the back side. I put in some stargazer lilies. This is where Mary had her zinnias last year, so we'll plant more there this year too.

I'm going to plant a row of giant sunflowers next to this part of the fence. The fence is basically our property line. The grassy part on the other side belongs to John's Dad. It was all weeds and thorny bushes until last spring when John decided to clean it out. It looks so much better now. John mows it now to keep the weeds from coming back. The first picture in this post is right out of shot here, up and to the left. The driveway turns and that's where the stump is.

Both the planter boxes by the garage are planted in daffodils. They just started blooming. Once they are done, I'll plant all the bulbs (150) in the yard somewhere. Then I'll buy more bulbs this fall for the planter boxes next spring. My dream is to have ten thousand daffodils in our yard. They multiply quickly, right? We've put in about 500 since we've lived here. Some single bulbs have already turned into 5-6 bulbs which could be dug up and divided.

Here's a close up. I really need to go outside when the garage door isn't open and take a picture. My car is in the garage, and if I take a picture of both planter boxes my license plate will show. I'm too lazy to edit it out. Maybe more daffodils will bloom in the next few days, and I'll remember.

See? It's brown out there. Maybe the grass is green and the weeds are brown? Or the weeds are green and the grass is brown?

The above area is this weekend's project. This area is the poppy garden. There used to be a dead tree there, but John cut it down and put in a new maple tree for me. I planted the hyacinths. There's a few daffodils in there too. Maybe I'll put more in someday. There are these little yellow wildflowers too that are just starting to bloom. John's going to dig up the "back" of this area, and we'll go over to our trusty tree line and get some daylilies. Maybe we'll move some other stuff too. I bought some perennial daisy seeds yesterday, but they won't bloom until next year. They will be in there too.

This fancy little guy came in a package of boring ol' yellow daffodils. Guess he didn't get the memo to be yellow, so I took his picture.

Yard/Garden 2010

Well, I didn't take pictures from the same angles, but who knows if I will ever have time to do that. Our yard is coming along! The part we mow is about 3 acres. Someday, I plan to have it half covered in gardens. Wouldn't that be something?

Spring 2009. Newly planted hostas and ornamental grasses.


May 2010. The hostas have grown so much! Ornamental grasses with newly planted coneflowers (one's blooming already!), daylilies, and liatris.

Another view. Our ornamental plum has grown so much!


Sadly, this is the best pic I have of it from when we planted it. September 2007.

In August 2007, Mom dug up all of her hostas and brought them to me. What a sweet Mom I have! She also stayed 2 days and helped plant them all.

August 2007

May 2010

Don't look too closely! I need to weed! This is just to the right of the center path.


Just to the left of the center path.

My planter boxes also look better this year than they ever have. I'll get a pic in a few weeks when they fill in a little more. I also want to get a picture of the coneflowers and daylilies blooming. I am so proud of that area. The grasses were from Mom (free), the coneflowers grew from seed ($10), the dayliles are from John's Mom (free) and the liatris are from Mom (free). It's a little sparse this year as I had to divide everything out to make it fit the area I wanted to cover. I have high hopes for it though in about 2 more years.

As much as I wish we could snap our fingers and have the inside of the house remodeled, I am glad we've spent so much time and effort outside. Walls may need painted, but plants grow! Getting them in and growing so that they can mature is more important to me that anything else.

We're planning to do one more "new" garden this fall by moving some more free daylilies. I'm also hoping Mom will come over and we can move and divide some hostas for that garden. I just yesterday dug up 60 compacted, non-blooming daffodils and need to get them planted back out with room to grow. We already saved 100 or so that were so compacted and sad that we weren't even sure if they were daffodils. They bloomed this spring for the first time!

More pics of the yard and gardens to come as things bloom (assuming there isn't a freakish hail storm that destroys everything for the year like last year).

Blog posts in my mind

I spend time every day thinking about things I want to blog about, but by the end of the day, I'm too worn out to deal with it.

On May 6th, I wanted to write a post about how it had been 4 years since the day I got pregnant with Mary. Four years. Four years of being a Mom full time. Four years of either being pregnant, nursing, being pregnant AND nursing, and then nursing my two babies. A full time job. I wanted to write this beautiful post about how it's all changed me. But Ellie didn't go to bed until 9pm that night. And she's waking up probably 10 times a night right now (teething). And when she went to bed at 9pm, all I wanted to do was go to bed myself.

I could write an entire post about how dang tired I am. Really tired. Exhausted beyond exhausted. The same thing happened when Mary was teething. Up 10 times a night, sometimes more like 15-20. Ellie isn't nearly as bad about it. She doesn't cry all night, but she wakes up. And wants to nurse or wants her paci or wants me to hold her for a while. I feel like I don't sleep anymore. I feel like I get nothing done around the house. I'm too tired. All my energy is devoted to the girls during the day. Half the time, I'm pulling Ellie off Mary. Oh, Ellie loves to pull up on ANYTHING. Including Mary. Poor Mary. Or I'm fishing out tiny toys/old play-doh/dirt/old food out of Ellie's mouth. I must take 50 things a day out of her mouth. Who knows how much I miss. The other day I was doing a craft with Mary. I thought we were being really careful, gluing some buttons onto a picture frame. The next morning, I carefully opened up Ellie's poopie diaper and found.....a green button. Hmm. I saved it. It's going right in the baby book. I know that this phase will pass. Well, I hope it will. I think it will. I get NOTHING done around the house. By the time I get the kitchen cleaned up in the morning, Ellie's ready for a nap, then I need to cook lunch, then we go outside, then Ellie takes another nap. Then dinner. Mary goes to bed at 7-7:30 and Ellie's down at 8pm on a good night. And then I just want to go to bed. But I don't. I sit up looking at crafty blogs. I look at decorating blogs. I imagine the day when the girls are in school. Because NOTHING is getting done before that. I'm not complaining. Well, maybe a little. Mary's so smart and funny. I love hearing the next thing that is going to come out of her mouth. Today she helped me mulch the garden. She said "oh! Mom!" I thought something was wrong. "You know that good egg we had for breakfast? I want that again tomorrow." Huh? We're out mulching, it's 4pm, and she's thinking about breakfast. Okay.

Was I going somewhere with this post? Hmm. I'm tired. I think I already covered that though.

We've been working super hard outside. We got 2 "scoops" of mulch today, which completely filled the bed of John's truck. We got about half of it spread. Mary loves to help, and Ellie will sit and eat grass without needing too much supervision. I stopped every 5 minutes, and got the rocks/grass/tree bark out of her mouth and let her at it again. I'm hoping that I'll get some pictures in the morning of all our hard work. This is our 3rd summer here (moved here in June 2007) and I think it's pretty amazing how much we've done outside considering I was pregnant and miserable last summer and now we have 2 kids to entertain while we work. It's fun though. Really great. John and I both love living here so much. We love working outside too. Mary loves watching things grow and taking care of plants. She calls them her "buddies." The girls and I went to get our annual flowers and some potting soil yesterday and then planted them (I was in WAY over my head trying to watch a fussy 8 month old and an overtired 3 year old....WAY OVER). Mary said "oh, let's water these buddies! Let's help them grow!" Mary's been driving my absolutely crazy lately, but today we had a lot of fun while John watched Ellie. I think Mary and I are going to have a great summer taking care of our plants outside.

So that's it. A long, crazy post when I should be going to bed. Probably an incoherent post about nothing. Life I guess.

It's been a while

I guess chasing after a crawling 7 month old keeps a person busy. That and fishing Mary's toys out of Ellie's mouth.

We finally finished this project:


And after! Woohooo!


When John hung the door back up, Mary noticed we had painted the edges a light green. She said we now need to paint the rest of the kitchen! I agree! But, that's way down at the bottom of the list. I think I'll just go with the dated fake wood paneling until we remodel (in 10 years).

I forgot to blog about Earth Day. Well, I think every day should be Earth Day. So we waited until the weekend and we planted a new tree (to replace a dead one) in our front yard.




It's a maple tree that has bright read leaves in the fall. We have one out back too. John has since cut down the dead sumac tree. I'll take a new pic if the sun ever comes out. I think the tree has some leaves on it now too.

Alright, it's madness here.

Busy weekend

We've been spending so much time outside working in our yard. The lady who lived here before us had a.........carefree approach to landscaping. When we moved in, there was a maple tree growing out of a crack in the driveway. John's Dad said she had the attitude that if the maple seed fell there and a tree grew, then it was meant to be (we cut it down the week we moved in). A lot of the trees are dead, dying or need heavy pruning. The entire woods and treeline is covered in invasive honeysuckle which chokes out all native woodland plants. We are slowly cutting/pulling it out. The yard itself is about 3 acres and the woods are another 2 acres.

When we bought the house, there were some issues with some trees planted too close to the house which were causing erosion issues. They are all gone, but now our house looks so naked. So we are slowly working on landscaping around the house itself. The deck of the house is on the south side, and the sun is brutal. So on Saturday we planted a new red oak tree on the south west corner of the house. And in 20 years, it might actually provide some shade:).



That isn't the best picture because the tree is green and everything else is too. Plus there's another small tree to the back and just to the left of it that takes away from the oak. Anyway, it's a nice sized tree and we are really happy with it. If I were to guess, I'd say it is 10 feet tall.

Next, John planted 3 hydrangea bushes for me. They are on the west side of the house which is the back of the house. There was absolutely nothing there before. We still need to mulch and kill the grass, etc.



On that corner of the house (left side of the pic), Mom gave me 6 nice sized ornamental grass clumps. They aren't really that tall yet, but will look really good soon. Well, as soon as we kill all the grass around them and mulch it. Right now they are just sort of planted out in the yard, and we can't mow behind them anymore, so the actual grass is about 2 feet tall. We'll get to that this summer sometime though. It will just be all mulch behind them once we get it the way we want it.

I also got my planter boxes near the garage filled with annuals Sunday and they are going to be so pretty once they grow a bit. John mowed the entire yard which took 4 hours on the riding mower. We pulled some invasive garlic mustard which is taking over parts of the yard. I worked in my hosta garden a bit, and we dug up some daffodils that were old and hadn't bloomed this year. I am going to replant them (space them out a bit, they were completely compacted) and fertilize. Hopefully they will do something next year.

Okay, one last picture. These just bloomed this week, but the rain and wind have pretty much already done them in. There are several poppies planted in a little garden near the driveway.

An evening walk

Every night after dinner, I walk the day's kitchen scraps out to the compost bin. This is the view of the yard walking back towards the composter.


Here's the composter. John made it out of blocks that the previous homeowner left here. Nothing fancy, but it works. The right half is for compost, and the left side is for burning stuff (sticks, limbs, etc, etc). On top you can see my stainless steel bucket for collecting kitchen scraps. The compost side has a lid (sheet of plywood with huge holes drilled into it so rain can get in), but it's off right now. The only reason we have a lid is because we have raccoons in our yard. But they seem to leave the compost alone so we haven't bothered putting it back.


Tossing in tonight's scraps. I put in fruit and veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds (and filters), cat hair, human hair sometimes, wool yarn, and the occasional paper towel or tissue. We also put in items from the yard like grass clippings and leaves, etc as needed. I think it's looking pretty good this spring. I think we started this pile last July.


After I do the composting, I walk out and check on my hosta garden. This area was just part of the yard last summer when we moved in. We removed the sod, and John tilled up the area. Some of the plants are from my old Evansville garden, and some are from my Mom. I think they all look really good this spring, considering most of them sat in pots most of the summer and it was really, really dry here last fall. I have before pictures, but the odds of me finding time to upload them are pretty slim these days:).


See that dead tree directly behind St. Francis? John noticed on Saturday that a bird had made her nest there. So I took a picture of her last night.


There's a lot more of our property/yard to see, but it was chilly last night and Mary and I were about to head off to a La Leche League meeting.