In my usual pattern of seasonal nesting, spring has me in a tizzy (or maybe it's a chocolate induced sugar high)! I *wish* I could bottle up my current energy level and this perfect weather for when I'm not feeling up to it, but right now, I'm going full force. I know that this won't last forever, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can!
This past weekend I was able to check off a few things on my never-ending-continually-growing to-do list. I'm not gonna lie, it feels pretty good to cross things off the list! First up is my back door. I wish I had a before photo to show you, but it might gross you out. Just imagine a dingy white door with peeling paint and mud splatters (at least I hope that's what that was) at the bottom. Yeah, GROSS! And this is the door that is used the most - by everyone. That poor old door got a good scrubbing, a scraping, a priming and a new coat of paint - black. I was a little worried about the black, but I love it. It really adds some depth. I still needs a little something, maybe wreath and a new doormat, but it is much improved from where I started. Now I have 3 more doors to paint across the back of my house, but I'm saving that for another day.
And now when we walk through my back door, there's a nice long row of hooks to hang all of our stuff, conveniently placed at kid level. This is something we've been wanting to do for quite a while. It's a little thing that I think will make my life simpler - I can't tell you how many bags, jackets, hats, etc that I pick up which have been flung on the floor because there's no real place to put them...now there's no longer an excuse.
The biggest project I tackled was new curtains for my dining room, 4 panels in all. Oh boy, am I ever glad to have that behind me! Drapery panels aren't difficult to make, but they sure are time consuming, and a pain in the butt - fooling with all that fabric isn't my favorite thing in the world. This fabric made a mess. It's a heavy white linen, which shed all over the place. I'm still cleaning up white linen lint from every surface in the room, and probably will be for a while. I do think the effort was worth it - this space seems so much more airy with the white panels.
Did you notice the top? I got fancy and added a little pinch pleat at the top. I find that panels hang so much nicer with the pinch pleat. I think I need to start underestimating how long my panels should be because I always end up with panels that are too long. This time was no different, even though I cut them shorter than my previous panels. One thing I didn't take into account is how linen grows (the hem is folded in the above photo). Oh well, lesson learned.
While I was in the dining room, I finally hung up my little collection of blue & white plates. Love!
I've been taking advantage of the gorgeous spring weather by doing a little gardening. My window box got replanted. I don't seem to have much luck with keeping things alive in my window box, but I have high hopes for this year. Last year my geraniums did well, but that's all I had in there. I decided to go with my tried and true while mixing it up a bit with some additional color and a few things that will trail down (to hide my pieced coco mat). I sure hope this takes off!
My little vegetable garden doesn't look like much, but it's jam packed with veggies! I'm being adventurous this year by doubling the size of my little raised bed. I've planted quite a few seeds, which I've never done before. I can't wait to start tending to this. Checking on my garden every afternoon is one of my most favorite things to do. And picking the fruits of my labor, well, that's just icing on the cake.
Boy, do I ever love this time of year! Happy, happy spring!!
