On garden beds & poppies

 Have I mentioned how much I adore R? Cuz, like, he's amazink. So wonderful, in fact, that I substitute letters in words for emphasis. A-maz-ink. This time, he built me something I've lusted after for quite some time. A garden bed. Insert squeals of joy -here-

He didn't just build me one. I haz TWO. After the first one was built, we decided it looked lonely (okay, I decided it looked lonely).  He made my garden bed a buddy. So, now, I haz TWO. Again, with the awkward spelling. Anwho, I was so giddy with my first bed that I forgot to take photos. The second time around, I did better. I stalked the man around with a camera. There was plenty of grumbling on his part, and I promised to post no face shots if he let me ask silly questions and bother him when writing the tutorial.

Once it's all together the beds are 4' long x 4' wide. All the wood is untreated cedar- rot & weather resistant, repels insects to some extent, and is pretty durable. Since we'll be moving around a bit, I wanted something we could easily take apart, and a size that could fit into a variety of back yards. We also decided to place the beds against the back fence, to prevent neighbor dogs from digging under fence boards, and our dogs charging the gaping holes.  It took several trips to two different home-improvement stores to get the right materials. One had everything we needed, but their saw couldn't cut through the posts. The other didn't carry the cedar boards, but, they had a large enough saw to cut posts. Oy.

We had all the wood cut before buying. It was loads easier to transport, and cleaner than what we would have done at home with a hand saw. Also,the cuts were free. So there's that...
The downside is that they do rough cuts only, so the boards weren't perfectly aligned for assembly. We didn't mind much (just kind of matched up boards as it went along), but if you're a stickler for perfection you'll probably cut the boards at home with a schmancy saw.
 Now, for the good stuff. To the list!

Materials

Hardware:

We settled on screws specifically for wood applications, one box of 3 1/2" screws for the long ways, and on box of  2 1/2"  for the short ways. You'll have plenty of screws leftover if ya buy a box. Also, each box comes with a drill bit.  These Deck Mate screws were on sale for about $6 each. Scwhing.

Wood:

Untreated cedar. On the left we have the rough cut boards, on the right, our posts. Boards were 8' sections of  2 x 6's cut in half. The posts are sections of  2 x 4.  Probably started with a 12' hunk and cut it down to however tall we needed it (17" in this case, which gives you loads extra room). There was lots of arguing discussion about what size of wood we needed. The man likes to overbuild. 

Other junk:

                                                                  Sexy cordless drill.

                              Tape measure, assortment of drill bits, and a few of the 2 1/2" screws ready to go. 

Make it so:

 Grab two posts and one board, like zis: 

Mark where ya want your holes - ours went in about 2" from the side and 1" from the top. Drill pilot holes for the 2 1/2 " screws, then apply ze hardware! Here's what the first should look like: 

Clear as mud? Excellent. Now, repeat until you have both ends of one board screwed into two posts.Then, do it again, til you have one section that looks like this:

Once ya have that finished, make another. 

Go ahead, I'll wait here. I have coffee..... 

Let's put the sides on, shall we? Don't forget to offset the position of the screws. This time around, we're using 3 1/2" screws. 

First board placed, it should look like this: 

 Easy, no? 

                                     Now, just go on and screw in the remaining boards, like dis:

At some point, it was set on it's side to screw in the last board. Why? I dunno. Just felt like showing the photo. 

Once you're done, you'll notice the posts stick out. That's on purpose, really. 

Take that sexy new bed out into the garden, whereabouts you wanna put it. Grab your shovel. 

See those legs? Yeah, they're going in the ground. Mark the area around those posts, and dig baby. Dig. 

And he did. :) 

                               Isn't it gorgeous? For the purposes of blocking invasive neighbor pooches, the back
                              end is a little higher. S'okay. Bust out your level, and tweak to even it on up. Fill in the
                                         holes, and voila! You haz a garden bed, too. Easy, right?

Aw, aren't they cute?  We filled the second bed with hay and the entire contents of our compost bin, mixed, and dumped in three bags of organic soil. Gorgeous. 

That greenish thing in the middle? Potato tower. The bed to the left has five tomatoes, two peppers (Ancho and jalapeño), yellow straight neck squash, garlic, scallions, two types of basil, oregano, and rosemary. Oh, and some marigolds planted around there to attract hover flies.

The second bed  has Alaska peas, zucchini, loads of Texas sweet onions, eggplant, watermelon and dill. I'll probably tuck in some marigold seeds here, once planty goodness establishes a bit more. 

Yeah, I'm rockin' the veggie mojo right now. 

Oh, and one more thing: 

Oriental poppies. Marvelous. 

Recovering!

I just wanted to post a quick update about the recovery process. Went in for my two-week (ish) check up Thursday, and the x-rays look fantastic! The bones seem to be knitting together nicely, no sign of infection, and both the incision sites on my pelvis & shoulder are healing beautifully. Thank goodness I horded a couple of the coco butter massage bars I made a while ago-it's really coming in handy right now!

I'm still pretty limited as what activities I can do, but all in all, I'm rather well. Oh, and I'm cleared for swimming!!
Seven years is far too long to be relegated to a doggy paddle, let me tell you. I'm really, really hoping that being able to swim again will help get my chubby arse in shape. I'm all about loving my curves, not so much the extra flubby jiggle. Besides, swimming being a low-impact exercise, I am seriously less likely to hurt myself. Also, swimming = guilt free scoop of caramel swirl with chocolate sauce.

Or, this:

 

This sweet bowl of heaven is homemade (!!!) Dark Chocolate Truffle Caramel Swirl Ice Cream, from Kristine's Kitchen.   For the love of of your tastebuds, follow that link for the recipe! If only I had an ice cream maker....

Egad!

I know, I know, I should be stoned for not having posted for so long. Or maybe banned from sweet treats...which is worse?

So what's been shaking? In March we went to visit R's fam for a couple of weeks. Of course, I brought my camera and promptly forgot to take pictures for the entire visit. I'm awesome like that.

Something SUPER exciting happened, something that makes me squeal like a girl. I. HAD. SURGERY!

Why is this exciting, you ask ?
Well, for those of you who either don't know me or just don't pay attention, I was broken. All wonky like. Since 2004.
I was the passenger in a rollover car accident. We went down a hill and slammed into a tree. A redwood tree, right where I was sitting. The driver & two other passengers were fine ( a little whip lash, a couple of stitches). I came out with a concussion, broken clavicle, six fractured vertebrae, compressed vertebrae, multiple lacerations and a wound that resembled ground beef more than the back of a shoulder. Yummy, huh? Just be thankful I don't post photos. The bone injuries never healed, and I've been walking around with a broken clavicle and nerve damage since. Awesome, right?

I finally get myself insurance that covers the previous injuries (hooray!!) and find out that one section of the clavicle is pressing on my lung. So, surgery! This is incredibly exciting because, ideally, the bones will heal properly, fixing the nerve issues and back problems. I didn't just slouch, I rolled forward. I looked horribly shrunken, and could barely lift my tubby lil 20lb terrier.

If all goes, I will be able to lift my arms above my head with no problem, lift things, and (glee!) go swimming again. Not to mention have better posture, and oh yeah, no worries about puncturing a lung if I get into a fender bender, or trip over my own damned feet. It's a miracle it hand't happened, honestly.

For now I'm incredibly pampered by the R, well medicated for pain, and have an amazing new laptop (thanks, Babe!) to keep me occupied. Oh, yes, also, I'm looking into starting a business! Can I get a yee-haw?

Sorry, TX is seeping in....
I'm still working on official-like designs & inventory for the shop. When it's all ready, I'll make a fuss.


Enough shameless promotion? I think so.
As always, thanks for reading. I"ll try posting more pics later, when I have a functioning right arm n all.

Moroccan Table #1

As promised, here's a peek into one finished project: The Morocco inspired nesting table. I still have two more to complete, but those are keeping houseplants away from nosey dog snouts for now.

I started with a vague idea, and three cheapy nesting tables via Craigslist ($10 baby!), A little dirty, mostly scuffed, and under a charmingly thick layer of oily cleaners & veneer. After an inordinate about of time sifting through old art class handouts and the mounting collection of Moroccan inspired images I've collected, I finally came up with a design that I could reproduce.

A few hours at the light table, several sheets of paper, and a few choice words for the endless stream of broken pencil tips produced this:

Then came time to sand down the table (by hand, mind you. No fancy-pants tools for this girl). It would have been shorter on time, and easier on my knuckles if I had any sort of electric sander handy...probably why I'm still procrastinating with the other two tables.


So, a good thorough sanding leads to an equally thorough wiping down with a tack cloth, then transferring the design from paper to the wood itself. I taped the original design to a sheet of contact paper, and sliced away.  I'm sure there's an easier way to do this. Like ordering a stencil (which, in hind sight, would have also been much easier on my hands, but, hey, I learn the hard way). I, being the stubborn lady I am, decided to use an exacto knife to cut out the pattern. Pre-made stencils, people...they are your friend.

Once my home-made stencil was complete, I laid it out over the nekkid wood, and went to town with gold paint pen. After the base design was down, I decided a border would be nice, so the edges of the table were attacked with masking tape. I have no idea what size, it just seemed to work.

Then comes the really fun (messy) part-painting! While at the local Home Depot , I wandered off and  fell in love with a Behr color chip by the name of "Berry Charm." Of course, I had no idea what it would be used for, so I bought a color sample to add to my growing collection of "stuff I love but have no current use for."
Fast forward to the table. It was perfect. The gold, the rich violet. Very luxurious, very Morocco. 

 

Once that Berry Charm worked it's magic, I simply couldn't help myself. The mini paint roller took control, and attacked the rest of the table. Legs, sides, it was all fair game. The hardest part of the painting session was keeping the dog fluff to a minimum  between coats. I'd venture a guess and say I put two on there, plus loads of touch-ups where clumsy fingers , noses, and a giant husky-butt got too close to wet paint. In the meantime, some turquoise was put down on the top of my table. I would love to tell you the name color and brand of this gorgeous paint, but the bottle is so old and abused, I could barely read "Acrylic" on the front. It's a craft paint of some sort, if that helps?

I decided that a defined border was called for, so out comes the masking tape again, strips put down on either side of where I wanted the border to be. It took about three passes with my gold paint pen this time around, mostly because I kept finding little gaps and bumps that needed fixing. The final step was to haul this baby outside and descend upon it with a bottle of clear indoor/outdoor spray paint (thank you, Krylon, for making that part a breeze).

It took about three days of working off & on to finish this sucker. Some things I will probably change when I go to work on the next two tables:

• Use an electric sander: I wasted a lot of time, energy, and skin trying to sand this down by hand. Though we don't have one right now, I can wait until we do. Getting more power tools was something we both wanted to do, anyway.

• Stencils: While I kind of dig the irregularities in the pattern, it will be a huge sanity saver to just find, or order a custom stencil to get the pattern down.If I can score a reusable stencil, all the better.

• Cleaner work place: I love my dogs, I really really do. I just don't love how much they contribute to the painting projects (and dinner) with all that fur floating around our house. If I could find a dog-free zone to finish this up, I would. While the random strands of paint-locked hair are homey, it's not quite what I was hoping for. Having to chase down a beast before she sits because she got her hind-end too close to wet paint, really puts a cramp in the flow of things too.

Originally intended for the back porch, the table is making an appearance as my nightstand for awhile. At least until I can drag my butt outside long enough to clean up the porch area.
So, whaddya think? Can I keep my "crafty" member card for awhile?

"VDAY"

I have some unresolved issues with over commercialized holidays, especially one that makes a big deal about buying crap to "prove" your love to someone. The idea of showing affection is wonderful, and should be year round-not restricted to a predetermined day with a specified set of allowable gifts.
I'm a sucker for romantic gestures, but I just can't bring myself to go along with the traditional Valentine-craze.

Fortunately, R feels the same way.  So we spent the night doing our own romantic thing:

Nothing says love like a massive piece of grilled meat, some veggies, and cuddling on the couch to watch an awesomely cheesy 90's TV series.

Projects..ish

True to form, I have been one lazy monkey.

I did manage to finish two large paintings, in gouache no less. This is impressive, in that I generally loathe working with any medium other than pencil or oil paints. The bulk of the credit goes to a good friend, K, for the inspiration. Every time we speak, I walk away with warm fuzzies, and a certain artistic confidence that generally eludes me. If I could put her in my pocket and carry her around with me, I really would. A pocket muse!

Anyhow, I set out to do a series of paintings for the yoga-corner in my living room. A lot of planning went into it-hours of figure research, sketches etc..but when it came down to actually getting the figures on canvas everything crumbled. Until I spoke with K, that is. I still haven't managed to work out the yoga paintings, yet, but many great sketch-paintings came from it.

During one of many conversations about my frustrations with the idea, she reminded me to stay relaxed, and just let the art flow. Which, I finally did to wonderful results. A little wine, a little netflix documentary goodness. Lots of small, light, loose gouache paintings akin to sketches. I'm hoping to do several more in a similar theme and get them in one frame for a finished piece.

Just wish I had been smart enough to take a photo of the end result.
Of the two larger paintings I finished, the largest one I mailed off to K as soon as it was dry (okay, so I waited for a nominally warm day to mail if off).  Maybe one day I'll remember to ask her for a photo of it.
The other is hiding in the depths of my office closet waiting for a frame with proper hanging hardware, and far away from prying dog snouts. Eventually, hopefully, I'll manage to get at least one photo of that on here; if for no other reason than to prove that I actually did something last month other than make cookies and futz with the dormant garden.

Until then-here's a small example of what I whipped out while listening to Carl Sagan and learning about our cosmos.

Unsupervised

My dear man is away, training, for a month. Training in an area with poor cell reception and no internet access. Leaving me with no adult supervision whatsoever.

Oh boy.

  Let's try not to go crazy, shall we?