little black journal

It’s amazing what a little paint and a few small touches can do. We had grown tired of the aqua blue that we had chosen when we first moved in, and since I am constantly looking for things to add to my to-do list, we (by “we”, I guess I mean “I”), decided that we should give the bedroom a little update.  I love the way the gray turned out – Shane and I were a little nervous as we were painting, as the paint looked much more lavender than gray when it was wet, but it dried into the perfect balance of cool and warm.  For a pop of color, I bought new pillowcases and did the small painting that hangs over the headboard.  The painting was done over a page that I tore out of an old French paperback, which makes a nice background for the simple graphic.  The lamp was an old Ikea purchase that I was no longer in love with, but I wrapped the base in gray yarn to give it a totally new texture and color. We’re still working on a couple of small finishing touches – a new lamp for Shane’s side table, and maybe a new duvet cover for the bed, but it’s coming along.  And now it’s on to the next the home project…

Our front yard has been getting progressively shabbier these past few months, as our grass was browning blade by blade.  Poor soil and a lack of water had resulted in this patchy, dry mess:

We decided this week that it was time to take action and get rid of our dying grass altogether.  I never realized what a maintenance headache grass can be, and we much prefer the look of plants anyhow, so we went to work yesterday afternoon pulling up all the grass in our front yard.  Shane was resistant to taking this project on this weekend, since we hadn’t done much planning, researching, or budgeting, and things certainly got off to a bumpy start yesterday morning (me dramatically crying “Why don’t you ever want to do anything around the house?!”, Shane accusing me of being impulsive and illogical…), but we eventually re-opened the lines of rational communication and really started to get things done.  Shane did the hardest part, in actually ripping the clumps of grass out.  I assisted by shaking the dirt from them and hauling them around to our yard waste bin out back.  Within a couple of hours, we had our very own little grass-free dirt patch.  We got up this morning and headed straight to Home Depot and our new favorite local nursery to pick up compost, mulch, and plants.  The installation of the plants took some time, as we wanted to dig big enough holes to surround each plant with a decent amount of compost.  We also ran into quite a few rocks and chunks of concrete – with soil quality like this, it’s not surprising that our grass wasn’t doing well.  Anyhow, nine big holes, six bags of compost, and two bags of mulch later, we were the proud owners of this nice little yard:

We’re pretty pleased with the results.  It was tempting to overplant, as things look a little sparse right now, but many of our plants have doubled or even tripled in size in the past year (hence the lavender forests that you see in the foreground and background of the photo), so we will just have to wait patiently for things to fill in a little bit.  I’m excited to watch the plants take shape, bloom, and (hopefully) fluorish.  There’s so much satisfaction to be had in a completed home improvement project – I keep looking out the window, appreciating the progress we made today.  We’ve had several neighbors come by and comment on how nice things look, which feels so good for a novice gardener like myself.

And cheers to my husband for a job well-done!  He was one tired, dirty, sweaty, blistered man by the end of the day.  I’m off now to pour him well-deserved glass of wine…

Shane and I have enjoyed spending the last couple of evenings working out in the yard, doing some weeding, planting, watering, and general clean-up.  We are completely new to the yard maintenance game, so we’re asking our neighbors for advice and making the rest up as we go.  My little back porch herb garden isn’t quite thriving, but it is at least surviving, which is enough to keep me happy.  I did break down and buy a full-grown basil plant from Trader Joe’s, since the basil I grew from seed still hasn’t really taken off.  But my dill, on the other hand, is going crazy and has produced these beautiful firework-like flowers.  The trick now is to figure out what to do with all these herbs, since my cooking skills are as rough as my gardening skills…

For better or for worse, I can be incredibly sentimental. I am that person that insists on holding onto old Barbie dolls and stuffed animals on the chance that my future children will want to play with them someday. I am constantly trying to instate new traditions in our family that can be carried on for generations to come. I am nostalgic, romantic, and (sometimes) sappy. My sentimentality is why I love visiting my grandparents’ house and hearing the stories of all their belongings. It seems that every piece of furniture, every vase, every dish has a special story behind it about who made it or where it came from. Many of their things have been in the family for generations. In contrast, a tour through Shane’s and my house would go something like this: that table came from Ikea in 2007, those dishes were on sale at Crate and Barrel a couple of years ago, and that vase from Pier 1 is almost 6 years old (practically an antique by our standards!). This is the price I pay for enjoying a simple, modern, clutter-free home, and I’m ok with it. I’ve found a way to compensate for our lack of meaningful decor items – I’ve sprinkled our walls with photos of people we love and places we’ve been. One of my projects this weekend was to update our living room photo wall. The ones of Paris had to stay, but I printed out a couple newer favorites from our wedding and our Thanksgiving road trip. It’s nice to be surrounded by reminders of the people and places that have blessed us. I’m a sucker for a happy memory.

My little window-sill herb garden really took off in the past couple weeks, so I took advantage of the sunshine today to do a little transplanting. Shane filled our new, larger pots with soil, I gingerly placed our little sprouts in them, and we now have basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, thyme, and rosemary happily taking root out on our back porch. Another few weeks and things should be ready for the picking (I cheated a little and bought the rosemary and cilantro as plants, rather than starting them from seed, so they’re much farther along than the rest). It was nice to be outside – I spent a lot of time curled up on the couch this weekend, and I think a little fresh air did me some good. I’m obviously still mourning the loss of my grandma, but each day I find more peace with the fact that God has called her home. Much thanks to everyone who has reached out with their words of comfort.