get sh*t done sunday - the furniture edition

So this past Sunday, I did two things I've had on my 'to do' list for eons... finally!

When I moved into my house six and a half years ago, I bought a lot of nice, dark stained furniture for my living room (a bookcase, a console for my tv) to match my dark teak wood dining room table. But I had an unstained, giant coffee table from Pier 1 Imports....

Well, I don't anymore!

And as the #2, I decided to also refurbish my childhood desk that my parents kicked out of their house a few years ago that's been collecting dust in my garage.

Step 1: Lug giant table out to really hot garage (why didn't I do this last weekend when it was not 90 degrees outside?). Dust cobwebs and plain-old dust off of old desk that's been shoved in the corner of the garage for 3+ years.

Step 2: Unpack new sander (since I thrashed the old sander while sanding and painting the garage trim and window box shelves two weeks ago) and thrash the new sander while removing old stain, scratches, dents, splinters, etc. from furniture to be stained.

(Note: the "high performance dust collector" on the back of my new Black & Decker Mouse Detail sander does NOT collect the majority of the "dust" created by sanding a giant unstained coffee table and really old, previously stained open-top desk. It collects a little, but there was more on the outside of the "high performance dust collector" contraption than inside it.)

 

Step 3: Vacuum sanded dust particles off of coffee table and desk so there is a smooth, clean surface to paint. 

Step 4: Paint the wood stain onto every visible surface, being sure to drizzle it into the crevices between the wood slats. I used Varathane Wood Stain in the color "Kona." At first, I just put this on the desk, and had an older stain I'd used in my condo on the table (seen below) because I thought the Kona was too dark for the coffee table.....

Step 5: ... But after it dried on the desk (in just an hour -- the label doesn't lie!), I really liked it.. it had a great shine to it like my other furniture. (The older stain didn't have a shine to it.) So I re-stained the coffee table Monday night. 

And while I think it IS darker than my other furniture (because it doesn't have any red to it like the TV console and book shelf's stain does when the light hits it), I am really happy with the re-do. And Lucky is really happy to have his hiding place back from the garage after two days. (Yes, I have newspaper taped to the legs still because I'm paranoid about the new stain staining my cream carpet. Sue me :p) 

As for my former childhood desk, after buying a really cute new knob for the pull-top door and six new drawer pulls at Home Depot, I've decided to try it out in my dining room as a mini-buffet cabinet of sorts. I've put all of my table linens (that were formerly stashed in a cabinet above the fridge) in the drawers, and figure I can open it up and put serving dishes or other assorted overflow items from the table on it when I have people over and we actually eat inside. Yay!

get sh*t done monday

Being as today was a national holiday and all, I had big plans to sit outside on my patio to be lazy and attempt to make a dent in this ginormous magazine pile....

However, I woke up all motivated... and Home Depot was calling my name... for the third time in nine days. So back I went. 

I picked up eggplant / dark purple Behr paint swatches to debate as the potential new color of my soon-to-be-new front door. I'm thinking something less purple than "Exotic Eggplant" and more purple than "Curtain Call." Or a little less lavender than the top one. (This is so stressful!) Thoughts??

I also bought a new can of dark brown wood stain for two projects that have been on my to-do list for years that I am going to get to by the end of June. 

I also bought a pretty wildflower blue can of spray paint for another project that's been on the list since I bought my house. 

I bought more mouse traps for the attic. (These are just for mice... no rats. Pretty please.)

I bought a cool new yard tool I'll be writing about after I use it next weekend. 

I bought chicken manure to fertilize my orange tree that I fear is still in shock after getting trimmed back in January. It had flowered and there are little green wanna-be-big-oranges on it, but a lot were blown off when it was super windy a few weeks ago. And I've yet to see any of them turning orange. Here's hoping the chicken manure (and the massive soaking I gave it... shhh!) make it happy and fruity.

I also bought three more bags of my go-to Scott's brown mulch and finished laying mulch in the big rose garden and neighboring flower garden. Also fed the roses again for spring and tilled the soil around their roots so they stay as hydrated as possible under current watering restrictions. (See, I'm a good citizen. The grass in my backyard is practically dead to prove it.)

Then I got to work on the patio. In my herb garden, I planted a new rosemary plant and thyme I got at Trader Joe's last night 

I also planted a pot of lemon balm, after reading that it repels mosquitoes (who love me). It's that green leafy plant behind the candle, behind the wine on my patio table this lovely evening... :)

Since lavender also repels mosquitoes, I took some cuttings off my giant lavender bush in the front yard and am propagating that (along with some rosemary too) to hopefully keep potted on the back patio after it roots. I was inspired to try "propagating" by this article on Pinterest this morning (That's it! That's what derailed my lazy day...  damn you Pinterest! oh well!)

Finally, while at Home Depot, I walked past these cute white-washed planter crates from The Hip Gardener and decided to see if Mexican Heather will survive on my newly-painted window ledges in front of my house (ie: in direct sunlight most of the day). The planters are super-cute.. you can write on one side of them -- the side I have facing the house because I haven't decided what to write yet. (Maybe my house address?? What do you think?) I put terracotta pots inside them to hold the heather, and weighted them down with river rock pebbles so they don't blow away. I think I might need a third one.. we'll see :)

get sh*t done sunday - the sequel

This weekend continued more of what I started and/or discovered last weekend... but I got it done in half the time :)

First, after trimming the out-of-control rosemary and lavender bushes last weekend, this morning I sanded down the chipped paint on the planter ledges (that I've yet to put planters on) in front of my two front windows and repainted those in the same exterior Behr paint I used for the garage trim.

Then I dumped and spread out four bags of Scott's Earthgro Color Advantage brown mulch in the front garden and in two of the four gardens in the back yard. I need to go back for at least two more bags to recover the main rose garden.

I also planted a big pink Hydrangea I broke down and spent way too much money on at Home Depot yesterday. It better not die like the last one did. I'm hoping this new spot along the back wall will provide a better mix of morning sun and afternoon shade. I also planted it right in front of a sprinkler, just to be safe ;)

Then in this weekend's outdoor critter update, Part 1, I decided to be nice and give free food to the three families of birds that have nested in one of my trees, my jasmine vine and under the eaves of my house in a mud nest. This is my supposedly-squirrel resistant feeder... last year they learned how to pry the top off, so this year it's tied shut with wire ties. We'll see how long it takes them to figure that out...

And in critter update, Part 2, I decided to see if I can deal with whatever is under my house on my own before paying people. First, I closed up the grate on my patio that I'd discovered something had pushed open during the winter. Second, I bought a plastic pre-baited rat/mouse trap and put it the crawlspace under the house. (I've decided that it's something small because I heard something in the wall behind my bar Thursday. Eek!) In a week, my dad gets to come and pull the trap out from under the house and let me know if there is something in it or not. If not, then I'll call for an inspection. 

Although... I had a somewhat more pleasant thought as I drove home tonight and the neighbor's one-eyed cat (who has taken up a second residence on my back patio) ran across my driveway. Maybe poor Susy (who lives outside because the neighbor's now-ex wife was allergic) got cold this winter and she's the one who pushed the grate in. And maybe she actually caught and ate the mice under there. Or maybe there were no mice and I was just having a psychosomatic hearing episode. 

Either way, here's hoping I don't hear anything else in the walls ever and that grate stays put. 

a new, succulent view

I'm not a big Pinterest person. I just don't get the obsession some people have with looking at photo after photo after photo taken by strangers and then sharing those strangers' photos with others. But I have been on there three or four times in the year since I first created an account and have some boards, mostly filled with images of cool ideas for my house and garden. 

One of those ideas was this cute wall garden I "pinned" to my "loveliness" board of pretty garden stuff about a year ago. 

I originally thought I might use this idea to decorate the gray stucco walls of my back patio. But then, at some point a few months ago, someone mentioned (sarcastically) what a lovely view I had outside of the window above my kitchen sink. (The view is of the half cinderblock, half wood wall giving my neighbors and I some privacy from each other.) 

That side of my house is a barren wasteland... the ground is a cemented-in a brick path allowing access to the one working electrical plug I have outside, and my tankless water heater mounted on the side of the house. To improve the kitchen window view, I first thought maybe I could grow jasmine or bougainvillea out of a big pot and have it crawl up and cover the wall. But both of those plants love sun and need lots of water... and watering in the barren wasteland will be a chore. 

Then I remembered that cute wall garden and realized there are some plants that don't need a lot of water :) 

Via the blog of the photo's original "pinner," I found out you can buy latches to hold terra cotta pots on a wall, so I ordered some from Vat 19, "Purveyors of Curiously Awesome Products." Then I wandered into the Burbank DoIt Center to kill time while friends were shopping in second-hand stores nearby and found cute green and blue painted pots on sale to use with my latches. 

These things sat in my garage for about a month until yesterday when I finally had time to go to Home Depot, where I bought six small catci and succulents. I put them all together and now this is the view from my kitchen window!

I'm hoping these plants will be able to survive mostly on rain and early morning mist because, like I said, getting water to that barren wasteland will be a pain. And sadly, my "brilliant" idea of watering them by squirting water out the kitchen window from the faucet's hose isn't going to work. Couldn't make the angles and squirting distance mesh at the same time. I did make a faboo mess all over the window sill and counter though. Live and learn ;) 

getting things done: day 3

I hate leaves. Realizing that factoid is my only complete accomplishment today. Because leaves, lots and lots of leaves, are preventing me from accomplishing anything else this week.

Today, as part of my continuing attempt to check item #3 (clean up back corner and side of yard near the shed, which I started yesterday) off my to-do list, I spent three hours raking and shoveling leaves into my just-empited green bin. I filled it up to the brim and there is still a giant pile of leaves left. So I've now gone to Home Depot to buy a "back up" trash can that I will be filling with leaves tomorrow and holding till next Wednesday when the green bin gets emptied again. (Special note: I bought other stuff at Home Depot too, and spent exactly $100.00... on the dot. Who does that?)

I also relocated what's left of a big brick pile so it's now out of reach of the evil falling leaves. Hopefully, this will make next spring's leaf-a-palooza easier to clean up.

In the middle of my leaf-induced delirium, I also decided to create more work for myself by psuedo landscaping this hidden area of the yard that only I and like four other people ever see. I have a ton of stepping stones that were part of the brick pile. So now I'm going to lay down black weed blocker fabric, arrange stepping stones to the shed and paved side of the house on top of it, then add pretty gravel/rocks around them because my smart mom says it will be really easy to use a leaf blower to get the leaves off of rocks. This new plan should take me at least two more days... if I'm lucky. Ugh.

I was also thinking, as I shoveled scoop after scoop of leaves into the green bin, that if I had a composting bin, I'd have some awesome free fertilizer in a few months. Does anyone out there compost? Is it worth doing? What composting bins are good for starters? Leave a comment below if you have any advice. Thanks!