AFTER! Our cozy bedroom in it’s new garb.
Turns out our bedroom isn’t a depressing room after all. True, it’s main function is to provide a dark and cozy place to sleep, but why not look pretty doing it? Lee and I were looking online for bedroom ideas and stumbled upon the WestElm site. Holy wow Batman! We were kids in a candy store. I could have taken one of everything (and two of some things). We ended up with four curtain panels, a king duvet cover, and three large accent pillow cases. Thanks to blackout blinds (which, from one night shift worker to another, don’t create a total blackout) and cheap curtain rods from Ikea, the look was almost complete. We are still looking for a great rug (white or light grey?) and two lamps (orange?) to finish the look.
I have been working on a photo collage for the wall to the right of the bed (to the left of the bedroom door) and once we get the photos printed, hello plaster dust! The seriously fun-dampening result of owning a home built in 1896 is the plaster walls. I think I’d have all the photos hung by now in the house if I could do it myself. Correction: it’s not that I couldn’t, but I do see the benefit to having a little upper-body strength to produce a cleaner and more streamlined result (admittedly, the drill often wins in the strength department, and that’s just not ok when you have one shot to get it right). As a friend once put it, some jobs are just ‘blue jobs’. Not because they require equipment below the ol’ tool belt, but because there are tasks he’s going to be better at than I.
*Below - a seriously sad bedroom 
The real shame is that I wasn’t able to document more dying snowmen. Too many fastidious home owners out there cleaning up pieces of coal, carrot noses and miscellaneous kitchenware laying limp on their wet lawns. By time I located my camera, the evidence was gone.
What’s home made pizza night without red wine? And how do I like my wines? Structured and quaffable please. And if the mood strikes, EXTRA quaffable.
Feed the furry rodents in your backyard….then creep them while they’re eating 
I am pretty excited about this project. Since we bought this house, I have looked forward to having a vegetable garden. What to grow and how and when have been huge question marks - this is my first time growing veggies. I thought about what I use most and made my growing list around that. Lettuce, arugula, onions, tomatoes, basil, parsley, thyme, garlic, beans and radishes were what I settled on. The little plot at the back of my yard is a perfect space for the garden. Sun in the morning and early afternoon, then shade the rest of the day. It’s raised and should drain nicely. We have an irrigation system, which I plan to use in a different way this summer. I’d like to irrigate regions (like the veggie garden) regularly, but not the whole of both yards. I’d really like a rain barrel. We shall see.
Choosing what to plant where has left me a little confused - I really have to sit down and think about what should be next to what. And in order to have a consistent crop of stuff to eat, I have to time the sowing of each seed. I started a notebook for these reasons. I would also like to use herbs and veggies as decoration. For instance, the planters on the patio and at the front door are going to be edible. I don’t need a ton of colour, just something growing! And why not have it be useful?
Two days back I moved a few plants around to make a sunny spot vacant for my new berry garden instalment. I planted a blueberry plant, raspberries and several strawberry plants. A few years down the road they should be fantastic producers of a few of our favourite fruits.
I got to thinking about the front yard… The grass is a serious waste of space and energy. We have to cut it three times a week and it does nothing in return. I’d be happier if we were using the space in a more beautiful and useful way. One thought was to let the vinca take over the yard - which would look substantially better than grass on the shady half of our front yard. Then I thought, why not turn the sunny half into a veggie garden? It would have to be planned meticulously so that it lives up to ‘front yard garden prettiness’ standards, but wouldn’t that be great? I have to say though, with only one part-time staff to work the soil, one veggie garden is a big enough undertaking for this girl - I’ll keep that idea filed under ‘possibilities’ for next year.
Until then, I’m going to stare at these peat pellets and will them to sprout!
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