What I did while the rest of Chicago was watching football

Fall yard cleanup
Originally uploaded by sweetlenny

I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather yesterday to finally raze the overgrown garden plot in back. It was overrun with weeds and mutantly overgrown tomato and mint. From all of the biomass I cleared out of there, I probably could have made a salad to feed 300 people.

Part of the cleanup involved a final mowing that helped clear a bunch of dead leaves out of the front lawn. I seriously hate raking leaves, and have somehow managed to avoid it this fall. Our neighbor to the south has a tree in their front yard with obnoxious super-tiny leaves that get EVERYWHERE, so I doubt it will stay clear for too long. Especially considering they're predicting a huge windstorm tomorrow with 60 mph winds. Ah well, maybe all of the leaves will blow away or back onto my neighbor's lawn.

We also emptied and stored the containers that had dying annuals. I pretty much just gave up on watering them after a certain point and let them die.

I almost didn't raze the back garden, but I'm glad I did, if only to spend a few hours in the beautiful warm weather. It will also mean we don't have to look at the ugly dying garden all winter, and hopefully saved us some work next year. Starting next spring, as part of our massive landscaping project, we're planning to tear up the entire back plot and replace it with 3 or 4 raised beds. I haven't posted all the details about this project yet, but I will soon.

My office, a year and a half later. Or wait... is this thing still on?

My office
Originally uploaded by sweetlenny

So you know how you can avoid something for so long that it pretty much drops off your mental radar, and it ends up getting filed under "procrastinate indefinitely" and finally goes away? That's pretty much what happened to this blog, at least until tonight. I happened upon the "Blog This" feature in Flickr and was then reminded that I actually still possess a blog...and then realized I might actually miss it after I re-read a few old posts. And lo and behold, just 4 posts down are photos of my newly refinished office from a year and a half ago. Obviously this is before it became a refugee camp for houseplants in various stages of distress. Looking back on the old pics now, my office looked so empty and devoid of life. I guess a year and a half makes a pretty big difference.

For the most part, my blogging avoidance can be attributed to the fact that I felt inadequate as a "house blogger". Inadequate for not completing as many projects on the house that I thought I would, and feeling like I wasn't offering anything of value to anyone reading. But one thing I've come to learn over the last 2 years is that not every home improvement effort can be summed up in a post with perfect before and after pics, detailed DIY instructions, and amusing anecdotes on how I bumbled through it and made mistakes but learned from the experience, yadda yadda yadda.

The reality of DIY and home improvement is that it's messy and frustrating. Or at least that's what MY reality feels like most of the time. Reality is making too many trips back and forth to the hardware store because I don't know exactly what tools I need. Reality is getting paint in my hair, scuffing the walls, and removing the threads from screws. It's having to call my dad to have him explain what seem like very simple concepts that I should inerently just *know*, and then having to call him again after emailing him a picture of my failed attempt. Reality is the giant hole in my bathroom ceiling that I need to patch up but of course my first drywall project involves a ceiling.

But I'm still trying and doing and learning and enjoying, and I guess that's all that matters. I just haven't felt much up to writing about it, because I don't want to just gloss over the bad parts, nor do I want to document every failed effort. Just know that I call my dad a lot. And I'm forever amazed that he knows so much and grateful that he's willing to patiently explain how to do things, sometimes over and over again. And I hope he's proud when I finally send him an "after" pic.

Aside from bumbling through a bunch of random projects that I'll sum up in another post.... The photo I took yesterday morning of my office actually sums up what I've been up to in the last year and a half pretty well. I've been enjoying having the space and time for hobbies and creative pursuits. Plants, terrariums, making jewelry... I've been busy living life, as opposed to constantly trying to make everything better. Stay tuned.