In Transition

 

                   

            
            Boy, this has been a bizarre winter. It didn't snow around St. Louis until the beginning of February, which is the point I started getting pumped up about planting the garden. LAST summer, I had moved in with my boyfriend and completely overhauled the garden in the front of his house, which had been left to fend for itself for like... 4 years. We're talking tilling, digging up plants left by the previous homeowner and rearranging them to add more flowering plants, trimming back a 10 FOOT TALL SNOWBALL BUSH that had ripped the screens out of the front windows, taking paver stones from the side of the house and making another layer of garden bed, and on and on and on. I spent $200 on plants and soil, which is alot of money for me if you haven't gathered that already (since I grumble about spending money on anything, ha ha!) and my boyfriend also spent a good amount on MORE soil, only to have the hottest, dryest, drought-iest dought-y summer that I can remember. Of the sixty or so bulbs I planted, about 6 blooms came of it. I should've expected it, but I was still pretty bummed! No worries, this year I have a better canvas to start with, some great plans to personalize my garden a bit, and I won this really freakin' awesome watering system (seen above) at a trivia night yesterday. Sounds like fate to me!

        My plans include:

Spray painting my "brick red" pavers; I suspect I can't paint them light gray because the red will just show through, so I hope to blend colors and give a coppery-brown look that will be subtle and unique, and should blend with the red as it will eventually shine back through with time.

Fixing the screens (I'd show you a picture but it's hard to get through the crunchy ice and snow to take a good one. Basically, I just ripped out the destroyed screens in the fake bay window, so, you know, I'm going to put screens back in so we can enjoy a breeze without the cats climbing out the window)

Re-finishing a lovely bench that my grandpa "found in the flood of 1932" that he was proud as punch about, and then after my grandpa passed away my grandma painted it a hilarious shade of bright yellow. I plan to bring it back to its former glory!

Getting a doorbell, which is not a garden detail but it's outside and I dream big, ha ha.

Planting again, taking more care to put down some weed cover (that's the only thing that thrived in my garden, weeds and grass) and putting in my fancy schmancy new watering system.

Now, if only this inch of ice would go away, and these "Blizzard conditions" for Monday and Tuesday would hurry up and pass by....

Christmas Project: DIY Christmas Tree Cones

Greetings! I feel like the holidays have snuck up on me once again, but I don't think that's the truth. If they HAD snuck up on me, I wouldn't have all of my Christmas decorations outside before December 1st. I put a garland around the front door like... the day after Thanksgiving, but I waited a week or so to put everything else out. Okay, I didn't wait on PURPOSE, I waited because I was at a standstill.

You see, I don't know if you're aware of this, but I'm one of those post-college-very-broke girls. I live in a lovely home and have a decent car to get me around, but there's not much "Christmas decoration" money to be had, ya know? I splurged on the $12.99 pre-lit garland at Walgreens, got a pack of 100 mini colored lights there, got a pack of mini blue and silver christmas ornaments at Walmart, and a few other misc items, but mainly I had to start digging around the house for strands of leftover lights and items I could incorporate into my scene. Overall, I think it turned out pretty nice:

My favorite crafted project was the paper cones, pictured at the top of this entry. They are made from the heavy brown postal paper that comes in rolls, like wrapping paper, at the dollar store. I just laid out the paper, cut a haphazard "birthday hat" shape, and sort of elmer's glue/hot glue/wiggled it around until it was an acceptable shape, then I cut the bottom until it stood nice and flat. I then painted with shades of blue craft paint I had laying around, cut out stars from heavy disposable plates, and splurged with spray on glitter. The spray on glitter is the only item I purchased for the project, definitely the MOST expensive at almost $7 for a medium size spray can, but the effect was outstanding. To keep them standing outside, I hot glued full water bottles inside their base, one per cone. They made the cones stand a little funky, but now I know they won't blow away!

I feel like they add nice height to my flat porch, which made for good balance with the light display! I hope you enjoy this project enough to give it a try yourself, and check out my other christmas projects.