Thanks, Ikea!

HEY, guess what this is?

If you guessed "Ikea's DIGNITET curtain wire system going up on Laura's living room ceiling," you win!

My recently-rearranged living room was working out great, floorplan- and functionality-wise...but the lack of room divider between the two rooms was REALLY getting on my NERBS. 

Seriously, this is just messy-looking.

However...

HUGE difference!

 It did wonders for the office, too:

not that I didn't love looking at the back of the tv...

YAY!

 I absolutely love how the living room feels almost like a little fluffy cave.  These are Ikea's LILL mesh curtains, by the way - I have tons of them, all over the house, I love them so much.  In this case, they coordinate with the windows, divide the room without feeling heavy, and let lots of light pass through for all the frillions of houseplants I keep.

yep, still trying to figure out that art arrangement.

Sasha helped.

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Success!

The new backyard plans proceed apace, largely due to the fact that I'm on VACATION this week at home. No work, just work around the house that I never have time to do!

Look What I Made!

This is the couch cover I've been working on for a friend of mine for the past month:

TA DA!!!

Only one more to go, and I'm already [mostly] done with the seat cushion covers, with all this wonderful time off.  :)

And also....

Kress and I hit the backyard for about thirty minutes this morning to move some fencing around, and the trellis that was behind the little Chastetree.  Here it is before:

And after:  

This is in the shady corner behind the patio.  It's mounted on the fence with eye-bolts now, and ready for plants!  

Here's the little Chastetree without the trellis and giant weed behind it (egad); we removed all that temporary wire fencing from around that half of the yard, too, and used it to corral the Chastetree and the shady corner, to keep the dogs out until they can deal with the new additions without digging them up. :)

that grass is going to be SO GREEN in the Spring.

I wonder how long this will be the "little" Chastetree - this thing is growing like crazy!  No kidding, it's already settled in and has already put on about 8" of height since I planted it three weeks ago!  YAY!

The Beautyberry, however, I suspect is not long for this world.  It's having a REALLY hard time getting established out there.  Here's hoping.

Meanwhile, I'm working on costumes today, and will update about that shortly over at my other blog. :)


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Planticular Update

Gardeny-Do's Done Last Weekend/This Week:

 1.  Planted a white, single-flowered rose in my front garden; part of a new design plan in that bed which I haven't discussed here just yet.  I will, as it slowly unfolds. :)

It's a great, healthy, strong plant.  It's hard to see in this pic, but it's COVERED in flower buds which have appeared just since I planted it.  I guess it's happy!

The sprinkler is a dog-digging deterrent!

2.  This is the American Beautyberry bush I planted in the backyard - the variety with the white berries, insetad of purple.  (Callicarpa americana var. lactea).  It's planted under a bedroom window, just off the patio.

The whole area looks pretty sad in the picture - but that's not barren dirt you see under the plant.  That's freshly-tilled soil mixed with fresh compost and new grass seed!  The spiky thing is a stand of Garlic Chives, one of the few plants from my old herb border that survived The Creeping Death Fungus of 2010. They're not all that excited about the drought.

 3.  This is the "shady corner" behind the back porch I keep talking about.  Another area that's not nearly as awful as it looks, LOL - my Clematis vines are shutting down for the year a bit eary, which they always do when it's been as hot and dry as it's been this year (which is hasn't, actually, since this year has been the worst drought and heatwave in Texas history, but I digress).

Tilled, composted, and mulched heavily, in preparation for the work I'll be doing in this corner next weekend.

4.   The Chasteberry Tree, two weeks after planting.  We had some droopy, yellow transplant shock for a few days there, but it's standing up proud now, and is already beginning to grow upward and produce new flowers.  YAY!

The "trellis" behind it - which is actually a headboard from Ikea! - is what I'm doing in the "shady corner" above:  it's hinged in the middle for flat-packing (bless Ikea), so I'm going to mount it on that fence corner and put another Clematis in there.  A Niobe, if I can find one locally next week.











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Pseudo-Update

Wow, I'm doing a great job updating this week, aren't I?  

I'm really doing the stuff I said I was gonna do, too.  I just keep forgetting to take pictures!  So far this week, I have:

1. Planted a rose bush in the front garden, and cleaned up the area around it in preparation for some changes I plan to make next week
2. Planted a bush in the backyard (and scolded a dog who tried to dig it up, even though I'd put fencing around it, then put the sprinkler next to it to keep him away, because he's terrified of the sprinkler).
3. Put up some of the shelves in the craft room, and began organizing my fabric onto it, in order to (a) start getting the floor cleared of giant plastic bins, and (b) free up a couple of the bins so I can pack camping stuff into them
4. Taken a gigantic truckload of clothes and items to Goodwill, after having mercilessly purged my wardrobe recently to make space for (a) clothes that actually fit me and (b) costumes! 

Speaking of costumes...

I started that costume blog that I was telling you about the other day. Good news on two fronts:  YOU don't have to be bothered reading my costume stuff if you're only here for the plants and houses; and *I* have a shiny new toy.  Hee!  If you're interested, my costume blog is here:

http://clothofstars.blogspot.com

 


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Fail! Score! And Week Ahead...

The good news is, my A/C isn't broken.  The FAIL! news is that it shut down this weekend because the filters were so clogged that it quit and froze over!  I cannot believe I let that happen.  I have the washable filters, so I didn't even have to replace anything, just take them down, hose them off on the back porch, and dry them in the sun.  Fail, fail, fail!  Thankfully, everything's up and running again; and I'm going to flush the condenser drain this week for good measure, too.  Jeez.

I found some awesome fabric yesterday on clearance! And I'm not going to tell you about it!  :D  Actually, I'm going to move all the costume crap over to its own blog this week, and keep this one to house-y stuff and garden-y stuff.  I'll link the new blog once it's up.

Coming up this week:

1. gardening! 
2. shelves! 
3. living room artwork!
4. curtains! 

Stay tuned...

for Racu  :)

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Garden Plan Sketches!

I just love making these.  I finally figured out how to get my scanner to understand that they're drawings and not "documents" in plain black and white. What? I never claimed to be good with machines (well, power tools, but I digress).

Anyhow, you saw the garden "floorplans" last week that I made with Icovia Space Planner:

The following sketch is what you'd see if you were standing behind my Mulberry tree (the big green thing above) and the tree was invisible.  Small (2x2') raised garden beds in front of the bedroom windows, the patio shade thing I'm going to be putting up in the next few weeks, and the two (full-grown) Chastetrees - one of which I planted last weekend.

from the west, behind the M. tree.

 Looking at the yard from the east - which, technically the perspective here is from my next-door-neighbor's yard, and I certainly hope he can't see this much!  (That's what the shade, the vines on the side of the porch, and the Chastetrees are for).  The letters in the picture go to a key on the actual drawing, that I cut because my handwriting is atrocious.
A.  The existing patio area is 10x11'.  I need to remove a whole (2' wide) course of stones to make the space the size I want it to be for future plans.
B.  10' 4x4 posts, planted 18" deep in the ground, to support a canvas canopy that will swing over to the eaves of the house over the porch, to shade the patio.  Painted black.
C.   I'm thinking of putting a Bouganvillea by the eastern post (the west side already has my big Mexican Orchid Tree behind it).  It's one of my very favorite sub-trops, and my favorite color of Bouganvillea seems to have made a comback - it's all over the nurseries this season!  I'd better grab one before it's too late. Again.

from the east

There's a wee 6x4' section of lawn that sticks back behind the side of the porch, and is the only place in my yard with shade.  It's a bit of a pit of dead grass at the moment, but it's perfect for some fluffy, shade-loving things I don't normally have spots for.  The trellis out in the yard (near the Chastetree) is going to be hung on the corner of the fence (thank you, Ikea, for flat-packing this thing so that it hinges in the middle, making it REALLY versatile), and will become home to, I hope, a beautiful red "Niobe" Clematis.  Underneath will go some Lady's Mantle, Bird's Nest ferns, and maybe a Bleeding Heart. 

here's my little Chastetree!    ^                     

I have a LOT of digging to do this Fall.

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Living Room Art Before & Not After Just Quite Yet

Way Before

navy blue sheet on the mini-couch, old TV bracket still up

Then a bit later

Ikea's "Ofelia" blanket on the MC. I <3 this blanket.

You don't even want to KNOW how long it took me to get around to taking down that tv bracket, patching the holes, and touching up the paint.
And I still need to upholster that minicouch.
And now the wall's all big and empty and LOOMING. 

Blocking out an art idea on the Big Gray Wall of Looming: 

I love the way it fills the space, and the assymetry.

from the meditation space behind the brown couch

I like it.  But something's... I think they need to be farther apart, for starters. More of a gap.  I haven't decided yet on paper/canvas, watercolor/paint/oil pastels...but it's going to be one large, yet simple piece done across all the canvases (or papers), so, balancing the shape and flow of the entire arrangement is big deal.

::Edited to add::  It needed more space between the papers!  I relaxed the arrangement and moved the papers farther apart, just a tiny bit, and it's perfect! Still going to live with it a while to make sure I keep liking it.

As soon as I'm reasonably happy with the arrangement, I'll sketch out the design on the papers and live with that for another few days, and then get painting. Or sketching. Or pasteling. Or whatever ends up happening.


Inspiration, In Case You're Wondering:

via pinterest

To be continued...eventually...


P.S. - I finally figured out wtf was wrong with my scanner re: the pencil sketches I do that never scan right.  Garden plans coming this week! :D


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WHEW.

I spent most of the weekend sewing, which will surprise exactly no one.  Got caught up on everything I meant to do last weekend, when I was down with The Food Poisoning.  Blech.

Not much to show for myself, photographic-evidence-wise - but later in the week there'll be a couple of posts about the costumes I worked on this weekend, some pseudo-14th century jewelry, the craft room shelves (YAY!), some organization achieved over the weekend in the craft room AND my bedroom closet,  and the aquarium stand I've been working on.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  <3

just something pretty to look at, in the meantime. from Pinterest

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Costumaroni & Cheese: Headgear Post #1

Remember this?

the most shit I've ever had on my head at once.

See the blue ribbon around my hair, under the veil? That was a trial run, done in acrylic craft paints.  Just a plain ol' little trefoil-vine design, nothing fancy.  I wanted an embroidered version...so I made one.

Please keep in mind that I've never embroidered anything before, and be gentle with me.  This was quite a feat for me, even though (as I'm well aware) it kinda looks like a four year old did it. It's my first try.  And I'm pretty pleased with myself. :)

1.  First line of vines (I sketched the pattern onto the ribbon with chalk pencil first)
2.  Thicker
3.  Trefoils on the fine ends (little three-lobed plant leaves)
4.  Gold outlines
5.  Stitching a second ribbon on the back to hide the hideous back of my work, with a little blanket-stitch
6.  Reinforcing the ends with a pseudo-buttonhole stitch type situation, because...
7.  Lengths of embroidery floss over the edge, and tied into a fringe, which was then...
8.  Braided into three braids, which were braided together to form a single cord at each end of the ribbon.

DONE. FINALLY.

Why?  Because it's pretty. :o)   And because my wimple is really only half of one - it doesn't go all the way around the back or top of my head, and it's not wrapped:  the upper corners of it pin to this ribbon, which hold it in place, which in turn keeps the ribbon in place.

WHEW.  That took me like two weeks.  I have no idea how people do this all the time.  I don't hate embroidery with a bloody passion like I did before I started working on this - but I sure am tired of it.

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Organization SCORE!

Coworker:  "Hey, I don't suppose you have any use for these plastic boxes, do you? We have dozens. We were just going to recycle them."

Me: "HOOK A BITCH UP."

aw, yeah.

No, I'm not crazy about the green, but that's what spray paint is for!  Guess whose craft room is about to get hella-organized! And the garage! And the laundry room!

MUWAHAHAHAAAA!!!

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Yes, have some!

My backyard, in pictures: 

YAY! 

Ok, not really. This is what it actually looks like.

But then there was a tree* planted, and under that did I get all muddy.

Yes, that's this same area.  Stupid drought. That's a big weed behind the trellis.

So now it looks like this.

Plans for the next couple of weeks include:  removing some of the stones from the patio surface, clearing the brush pile in the southwest corner, planting a second Vitex tree, erecting the shade/roof over the patio that you see in the very first picture, and raking up the dog poop from the yard (not pictured).




*Chaste Tree, aka Vitex agnus castus, the one I bought on Monday.  A Mediterranean/north African native; extremely hardy, evergreen, water- and pest-resistant, covered in purple flowers and bees in most seasons here. Not really a "tree", rather a large shrub, 15' max. 


(Also, the house:yard ratio is waaaaay off in the drawings - the house is basically just there to show where it IS; but in the picture it makes the yard look huge, and it's really only about 36x23').




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Landscaping?

Wow, what a mind-blowingly busy three-day weekend that was!  I am so tired! I did EVERYTHING!

Not really.  I got some nasty food poisoning Friday night and spent almost the entire weekend either in bed or in the bathroom. And then when I finally came out of it and was able to, you know, move and speak and get on the internet, I found out half of my state is on fire.  Fun times.

I did, however, get the wall support rails for the craft room shelves put up yesterday.  And I bought a little Chasteberry Tree for the backyard.   Also, the weather is gorgeous. 

I'm gonna go worry about my friends some more now, bye.

Not a Chasteberry Tree. Isn't it pretty, though?  I want.

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An Adventure!

I'm still up to my ass in alligators, project-wise, between the SCA and all my regular home stuff.  August 2011 turned out to be a month-long exercise in maintaining my own boundaries and learning to manage my time better.

Home project-wise, I did do a lot of work on the craft room shelves and the aquarium stand; but I don't have progress pictures uploaded yet, and certainly not an afters, since I'm not finished with either project.  Hopefully I'll be finishing the shelves and hanging them Saturday morning.  <--- and there's your progress report for August.  Fail. :c  Oh, yeah, there was that little footstool, too.  Yay.

Costume project-wise...oy.


Meanwhile, I had an adventure!  My best friend, author Dianne Sylvan, was invited to Armadillocon last weekend, and I was invited to tag along as her +1 ("assistant", lol).  Armadillocon's a sci-fi/fantasy writer's conference.  Not a big, glamorous fan event; more geared towards writers and aspiring writers themselves.  It was a lot of fun.

I'd fully intended to take a million pictures and bring you a wonderful and exciting blog entry about our weekend, but...I forgot.  But I DO have a picture of Dianne in action:

the café in the hotel lobby had the BEST cheesecake!

I took the [glass!] elevator all the way to the top/9th floor of the Renaissance Hotel just so I could look down.  I'm not afraid of heights, but they make me feel weird enough (and I'm enough of a wuss), that just riding the elevator and looking down was a pretty big rush, LOL.

There she is!  Everybody wave at Dianne.  And then go buy her vampire books.

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