Monday, May 20, 2013

Spring Slides into Summer

This is the blog post where I should be talking about the garden but probably I'll wind up talking about how amazing one's social life can be when it is nice out!

Minor improvements have been happening all over the garden.  Like this schlubby patch of weeds underneath this ancient honeysuckle vine:

Added some compost and some low plants and voila:
 A slightly less schlubby bed. 

And these rosemary topiaries in their uggo red and green pots from Christmas?
Finally transferred those guys into some real pots!
(Ignore the porch flotsam, it was a long weekend of working hard.)  I realize this is incremental progress, but that's how it seems to roll with the garden tasks. 

While I'm definitely learning to appreciate gardening for gardening's sake, I still mostly do it for moments like this one:
A lovely spring evening.  Or this one:
 A great dinner with hilarious friends.

We've been enjoying spring all over the city, not just in our backyard.  There's not a lot to report on the homefront because we've been busy making pictures like these happen:
Croquet in the park! 

And the ever popular Madras Monday:
Complete with gin and tonics... in the park!  (Only minorly illegal!)
This month feeling very lucky to live in such a beautiful city.  Raise your glasses to spring into summer!

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Classy, or Trashy??

This is the blog post that could be otherwise titled "creativity". I spend all day harnessing my creativity for my projects at work, and I often forget to apply that on the homefront. Sometimes there is a project on your list that bothers you.  The elephant in the room. Sometimes it's right in the middle of your living room! But the effort it would take to finish it correctly means that it will get done at some point during the next ice age.  It was time to remember that when life hands you lemons, you should make a cocktail!

Our living room is shaping up nicely:
We actually got drywall and paint up on that last bare wall, we found some china storage, all good things...until you turn around...
Blam!  Unfinished-tastic.  This pass through used to have a door covering up the below-stairs area.  The husband tore it off and threw it away when he put in the new floor in this area.  Yay for no more crappy door.  Boo for a gaping hole and ugliness.
The bare studs are hein and from the far side you have my favorite, jagged drywall. 
Pretty sure everyone on Apartment Therapy is a week away from embracing jagged drywall as the latest trend.  Yeah, you saw it here first.  Feel free to pin this last picture, you know you want to.

I started brainstorming (with myself, ahhh the skills of an only child) about how to cover the door and the ugly ceiling area.  What do I have in abundance?  Shoes, sass, back issues of Domino, and fabric.  Lots and lots of fabric. Cue the lightbulb.

I started with a piece of fabric a friend lent to me that I think started out as a bedsheet.  A few thumbtacks later, and voila!  A door/curtain!
Next up, I cut a rectangular piece of ecru canvas.  I tucked the edges under all around and stuck that sucker to where the ceiling would be if we were normal people who didn't like it to rain 100 year old dust on us all the time.
Practically looks like drywall!  OK, only if you squint, but hey, it's like a Monet?  I haven't figured out how to get around the rough drywall edges yet but it already looks better from the far side:
 And from the near side?  Before and after!
I can't decide if this is the best idea I've ever had, or if Martha is rolling over in her grave with the trashiness.  Either way, not having ancient dust bunnies divebombing us is the jam so I don't regret it, even if it is only temporary.  You get to vote, classy or trashy??  Can we get away with it for a couple months?