Friday night. 6 o'clock. Most would be celebrating the start of the weekend. Not us! We're getting half a dump load of top soil dumped on our driveway. On a whim, I decided I wanted to get the garden in this weekend or sometime during the week. I made these great raised garden beds last week, and with the great weather, I really, really wanted the garden in. They just looked so naked.... I'm a huge fan of shopping local, but you know your small town stores have some stocking issues when ALL the hardware stores didn't have any six foot- 1x6's. Well, I held to it, and managed to still shop local when I went straight to the source. I hit up one of the local lumber mills in town, and had the owner himself hand bombed the rough cut lumber right into my car. Talk about killer service! Not to mention, it was less than half the price of what I was expecting it to be. (See my previous post, 'You Aren't Just a Number' at http://www.aestheticadesign.ca/1/post/2012/02/you-arent-just-a-number-keeping-it-local.html), So the call was made and suddenly, we had dirt on its way. Not sure if I mentioned it was 6 o'clock at night.... We were so not ready for the dirt; we didn't even have the garden beds placed! So we got to work digging out the border and the posts so we could level the beds. Then we laid some filter cloth, which hopefully limits the amount of weeding I'm going to have to do! We filled the garden beds with about ten wheel barrows full each, and now we are ready for some serious planting! So that was great, getting that task crossed off the to do list, but I should have known that half a dump truck load was going to be more than enough for those two little raised garden beds. Next thing we know, we are levelling out our entire backyard. The yard was so full of ruts and hills; you'd be walking back from the fire pit, hit a dip and be face first in the grass. Or I would be anyways. I'm not the strongest girl in the world, but I do have a 26 pound 11 month old. Rolling a 50 pound tire around our entire yard to level it out, after shovelling half a dump truck load of dirt, was no big deal. Ok, I only did half of a half of a load. Maybe a little less.... But regardless, we got it done! So, the moral of the story is: yes, we are insane, but it sure feels good to get our home in order.
It's a never ending journey, and a lot of hard work, but I've got great company and help!
0 Comments
I was so sure that we were having a boy, we walked into the maternity ward, saying, "So, if it's a girl, what are we naming her??" And we walked out saying, "Good thing we popped out a boy!" Thinking of some girl names while having contractions wasn't exactly happening. We had decided on the boys name very early on, so as it played out, I got to use my last name for his first name. I added some whimsy to the ceiling with some painted twigs and pine cones tied up there with fishing line, for a floating effect. Keenan thinks it rocks. I do too. We bought this leaf from Ikea before Keenan was born, just because its cool. I had a sneaking suspicion that we were having a boy, and even if it was a girl, I'm not the girly type so she wouldn't have been getting a pink frilly room, by any means. The leaf was going in, no matter what gender. Once again the leaf was inspiration for Keenan's dresser. Originally it was Adam's, and it was perfect for Keenan to work as his dresser and change table. Keenan has a fairly small room so having pieces work as double duty is key. I painted it with Beautitone Cabinet Paint in Sqeezed Limes. If I could go back, I would definitely use a different type of paint. I even sanded and primed this sucker, and it still took me 4 or 5 coats of paint! I lost track after two, and it could probably use one more coat, for good luck. But it does look good, and it's a durable finish, the drawers aren't sticking and peeling off paint, so I guess I can't complain too much. But one coat would have been awesome. Just sayin! Lastly, we made a growth chart out of our left over wood from the fence. It's nothing fancy, just wood and a sharpie! But it sure is cute, and it's something we can take with us if we ever move. And no marking up walls. I just never could see the point of the writing on the walls. Adam also made these little boxes with the left over wood from the fence too. All we have in his room is the crib, the dresser and a chair, so it's pretty basic in there. These are nice to add a few decorations on the wall, as there isn't much floor area, and there isn't much space for little things like this anywhere other than on the wall. Obviously, I am sure this is a room that will be in constant change, as Keenan grows and tastes change, but for now, I am happy with the way it has turned out. Hope you like it too!
Thanks for reading! Jena
The best of the OCD tips (organization and cleaning) Organization is a huge undertaking if you are not organized to start off. We just moved into our house, and of course, there is always a few things that need to get re-adjusted, but I've been able to stay pretty organized, for some reason. Maybe it's since it's our first house and we will obviously be here for longer than a few months or year, which was how often we seemed to move before we bought. Anyways, now that we have all these new, fun homeowner's manuals and forms and paperwork, I really had to consolidate all our paperwork into one place. The folder holder I bought had every thing! Banking. Bills. Budget. Car. Correspondence. Dental. Education. Investments. Insurance. Miscellaneous. Mortgage/rent. Personal. Receipts. Retirement. Taxes. Travel. Utilities. Warranties. That pretty much encompasses every aspect of life that accumulates paperwork. The only one I could think of to add was "Business" but that just went into the miscellaneous folder. Truthfully, I actually enjoy organizing anything other than paperwork. But at least now I know it's going to be easy to find and to file now. I can handle it, I guess. Maybe, someday, I'll learn to like it. The best of the DIY I had a really, really great home-ec teacher in junior high who taught me how to sew. My Oma was also a seamstress, so maybe I havea bit of it in my blood or something, because this was my first sewing project since junior high, and it turned out! My kid actually got to wear these for the first 2 weeks of his life until he grew out of them. Probably won't try this one again though, because sewing teeny tiny slippers with a sewing machine is as hard as sewing teeny tiny slippers with a sewing machine. (I was in that neurotic, nesting phase of my pregnancy- I HAD TO DO IT!) Anyways, the pattern was great, but hard. I found it through Michael Miller Fabrics blog. I think I'll just stick to sewing blankets for gifts. I also had a really great knitting teacher. Yes, we had home-ec and a knitting class in junior high. He was great, and I got the knit and purling down perfectly. I just can't seem to dedicate myself to big knitting projects because I generally knit in winters, and then by the time the next winter rolls around, I've forgotten where I am in the pattern. I had the sweater I started in junior high in my parents basement until 2 years ago, until my dad finally realized it was NOT getting finished. Sorry, but styles change since junior high, Dad, and no, I am not going to finish it now. Yes, you may give the quarter finished sweater to someone else to finish and/or use the wool for other projects. So these simple little projects, like this bracelet, that take not an entire season are where it's at for me. This one was really cute, and it worked, although I used a pretty chunky wool so it turned out a little bulkier than I would have prefered. The video tutorial really helped though; I seem to learn best when I can watch and do. Check it out at Animated Knots. There are a lot of making-new-things-look-old techniques out there, so I practiced here on an old Ikea frame, with a purple base and a turquoise paint over top, and then sandpapered away until I got the look I was happy with. My best advice? Go for it. Old things are usually pretty bashed up so you can go with a trial and error attitude on this one. But, in line with my life motto of using what you have and just making it better, paint is a perfect (and my favorite) way to upcycle and give something new life. Reduce, reuse, recycle, right? I made this for my sister-in-law with some vintage lace left over from my mothers wedding dress. It was a pretty simple project, and I just took one long strip of material, finished the edges, and folded it all up until it looked like this. I did change the button to match the thread though. I was going for a contrasting look, but it just wasn't doing it for me. So picture this with a maroon button and that's the finished product! |
Ants on a BlogBy Jena Keenan Categories
All
Archives
November 2017
|