Wednesday, May 14, 2014

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I love gardening, but I am by no means a pro. In fact, I know I've got a lot to learn, and much like my previous furniture post, from what I've attempted so far, I've learned that being lazy just means I'm going to have to do it again.

When we moved into the house we're renting, the backyard needed some serious TLC. I bagged about a dozen contractor's bags of dead grass, raked the gardens, planted, mulched, and put down stone, but then my pregnant belly got too big, and the backyard was once again neglected. All my hard work and my husband's hard-earned money, went down the drain (or in this case, got swallowed by weeds.) Lesson learned? Don't be lazy like I was - put down some weed-block.

In any case, the backyard is still pretty much unusable. There's a giant rock waterfall and pond structure right in the middle that takes up any playing space. On one side of the pond there's a pomegranate tree and a baby avocado tree. On the other side, there's a fig tree. What grass area there is is overgrown with weeds or brown. I love the fruit trees, but after filling the pond and running it for the past 6 months, we've decided it really ought to go. I'd rather have that area for the kids to play - maybe we could build a little clubhouse.

I'm going to attempt to add some pictures once again, but the upload has not been working today. Still not working. . . . . . . . . . .


Furniture Makeovers

So, clearly I have not been keeping up with my resolution to write everyday, but in all fairness to myself I've been a little busy with the newest baby and my other 4 kids, not to mention the puppy.
Baby #5 arrived right on her due date, February 5th, so she is now just over 3 months old. I've decided not to go back to doing daycare for the time being, instead I am going to give my first love - writing - a shot at being a money-generating enterprise. Not because that's what I spent 6 years and $60,000 dollars in college for, not because my husband has been telling me to be a writer for the past 10 years, not because it's something I love doing. No, not for any of those perfectly sensible reasons. What's prompted me to give this writer career thing a shot is some dumb quiz on Facebook that I attempted to skew by answering questions so as not to be told to be a writer, but which nevertheless told me I should be a writer! Go figure. But, I digress. This post is supposed to be about furniture makeovers, and so, I will now show you the results of my 2 attempted transformations.


Dresser Found in Alley Turned Coffee and Wine Bar

 
For the coffee and wine bar I was lazy and skipped the primer. Don't make that mistake! By the 2nd day it already had scrapes and scratches. For the baby's nightstand, I learned my lesson, and started with a coat of primer. In the words of Robert Frost (though totally out of context), "That has made all the difference."
 

TV/Microwave Cart Turned Baby Nightstand