You Will Not Win, Winter!!

I am solar powered.  Warm sunny days motivate me to get sh*t done (like yesterday- yay!). Can you imagine what dark cold days do to me?  Yup, I hibernate.  By the end of winter, there's usually a butt print on the sofa and I've caught up on all the reruns of my favorite shows (twice).  Every year I vow "not this year!" but I REALLY mean it this winter!!  I have a list of projects 5 miles long and a hubby who's getting sick of my 5 mile long project list taking up room in the dining room and basement. (Sorry Babe!)

The way I figure it, if I vow to you that this winter will be different, then I have you guys to be accountable to.  So here goes!

I have 2 rooms in my sights currently: my bedroom and my basement.  I already mentioned my bedroom in this post , but the basement has been my deep dark secret (pun intended).... until now.

Brace yourself, it ain't pretty:

I'm a gal who always has at least 1 project going on.  Now that we have a house, my projects are bigger, messier, and take up much more room.  oops.  The dining room has been the work room up till now, but that makes it tough to have guests over for dinner.  If you're anything like me, not having guests over, means that the house doesn't get as clean as it probably should...... "Who, me?" Yes, you.  Well, I miss having friends over for dinner and I miss having the house ready to show off to guests (I'm an interior designer here, I see my house as a living 3d portfolio).  So what's the solution to my woes and what does it have to do with the horrific basement shown above?

I'll give you a hint- it involves a LOT of organizing, and some craigslist shopping.

I'm tackling my basement once and for all!  First and foremost, there will be a work/project area with all my tools organized (lets pause for a sec and appreciate those 2 beautiful words: organized tools.... ).  There will also be a dedicated, organized storage area, and a totally reorganized laundry area.  Do you see a trend?  ORGANIZED!!  IF I'm feeling really ambitious, I might actually make the random toilet in our basement feel less random, although I really have no idea how yet.

The first step is the toughest though... purging and organizing.  I forced myself to get this started last weekend and donated about 10 tons of clothes to Savers (like GoodWill or Salvation army).  When we moved, we got rid of a lot (believe it or not), but we still have stuff that we kept 'in case we needed it' that we haven't used in a year.  If I don't remember you exist, you don't need to take up space in my basement.

Once I do a major purge and get started on the organizing, craigslist is going to help me find some pieces to organize and maybe give a little pizazz to my work area.  My dad mentioned that my Grandpa used to use old dressers to hold his tools and such- I love this idea!  Power tools stored in a cool old dresser, maybe painted an awesome color?  Doesn't sound like me at all.

If I'm cooped in the house all winter, I might as well make it productive.  Now I just have to force myself to dig in and do it!

Do you have any cold weather projects planned?

No, I do not want a pink door.

Yesterday I decide to take the front door from a dreary maroon to a vibrant cranberry.  Simple project, right? Why is it always the easy projects that end up being far more complicated than you intended?

Before heading off to buy paint, I pulled out one of my handy paint fandecks and picked out a color I thought would be fabulous: Radish.  The sample looked like the lovechild of magenta and maroon and matched my paisley rug fabulously.  I got the paint mixed and the wet paint almost sent me into cardiac arrest... it was hot pink!  When I saw a dried sample of it in the store, however, it looked closer to my sample.  I went home wary, but hopeful.

Thankfully I decided to test a patch with a few coats to make sure that I didn't end up with a hot pink door.

Yeah.. that wasn't going to cut it.  Even after 2 coats and letting it dry for 12 hours, it wasn't even close to the coveted Radish color.

Out came the acrylic paints left over from my design school days- I was determined to tap into my atrophied color mixing skillz and get the right color!

The color was super scary when wet, no?

Thankfully after quite a bit of trial and error, I ended up with an acceptable color and finally got 2.5 coats on the door.

Here's a reminder of where it started.  Not horrific, but could use a touch-up and pick-me-up.

The after isn't drastic, just slightly cheerier and much less scuffed. (and not neon pink!!)

How did your weekend projects go?  Easier or tougher than expected?

Veggie Garden- Phase 2

And then there were 2! See Phase 1 here.

The second planter was a much larger task than I was expecting it to be.  Not the actual installation or planting, but the getting of the planter box.  The original was from Home Depot and less than 2 weeks later not only did they have no more of the same kind, they had never heard of that brand!  Commence frustration.  Do we go for a mis-matching planter of the same size?  I begrudgingly bought the other planter, but attempted to hunt down the right one (I spent more time calling area Home Depots than I'd care to admit to).  Luckily an e-mail direct to the manufacturer of our preferred planter was fruitful and I was able to order one direct from them for the same price.  Yay! I was also assured that next year when we intend to add 1 or 2 more planters they will still be available through direct order if we can't find them at Home Depot again.  Double Yay!

Planter 1 is now the home of  2 thriving cucumber plants, a struggling green bean, 3 strawberry plants, one mystery plant from my sister, 2 cauliflower, cilantro, oregano, dill, sage, rosemary, and basil.

Planter 2 is a little zestier, housing 2 habanero peppers, 6 cherry bomb hot peppers, 2 red bell peppers, 1 yellow bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper and 4 cauliflower.  One of these things is not like the other.  I insisted on buying the cauliflower, whereas the rest are of Hubby's choosing- could you tell?

In other exciting garden news (what, you don't find garden news exciting?!) our brandy dandy new composter is on the truck for delivery as we speak.  The counter-top bin is still en route.

If you couldn't guess- this whole gardening thing is new to us.  Its uncharted territory and we're doing a lot of experimenting this year.  By next year, we'll be experts!  more or less...