the itch I can't scratch

Against better judgement, I planted my tomatoes today. It's pretty much got to the point where they were either going to die in the house due to small pot or they're going to die outside due to frost.  (Frost is expected all the way until next week. For reals June? Gah.) I'll try to do the best I can to keep them alive, but so far the odds have not been in my favour. I initially wanted to buy 6 plants because that's how many I had last year, but ended up buying 12 because we figured what the hell? I'm taking care of them already, what's a few more? Well 5 died in the house (because I've had them in here since friggin' April. Why are they selling tomatoes in April?! Why? Who authorized that and why can't I find them ever again after that month?), and I broke one of them in half while planting, so I ended up with 6 anyway.

Junipers. Thou art mine enemy. We have a whole 'hedge' of them in front of our house. They were here when we bought the house, and they've never been taken care of. Naturally, like all plants, when they realize they have the right of way, they'll take over pretty much everything they can. In our case, this also includes our porch. Did you know that if one of their branches touches dirt, it starts growing roots and turns itself into another plant? Yeah, I didn't know that either. I just discovered it today in my quest to rip them out. Oh did you also know that when they're tall and unmanaged, they're all pretty much dead under the greenery and any fallen needles kinda compost themselves into dirt which covers lower branches which then root themselves...and yeah. Vicious circle. These are not no-maintenance plants like everyone assumes. Unless you want a hedge of them. There's that obscene notion.

 So I don't necessarily hate them. Let's just be clear. I'm not against planting one in the corner as some nice greenery and junipery smell and then keeping it nice and trim and, well, this is odd to have to say outloud, but as a low-to-the-ground bush-like plant as they're intended to grow. You know, maintaining the plant like most plants require you to do (I'm talking to you, lilac owners). So trust me when I say this: once they pack up, you pretty much have to do away with most of them and it's not going to be easy and there will be casualties on both sides, so you know, just. Think before you plant, ok?

Anyhoo, I want to paint all the wood trim on our house (as I've probably mentioned before). So besides the fact that I wanted to get rid of half the junipers anyway, I had to get rid of most them around the porch. There's no way I could have gotten in with a paintbrush with them there. So I did a little more juniper cutting today (mostly to clear the porch perimeter) and started scraping off the old loose paint.

I've never done that, by the way. Scraping off old flakey paint, but it's one hard and tedious job, let me tell you. I thought it would be pretty easy. I got myself a paint scraper and thought I could just go around and brush those visible flakes right off, but no. I had to sit and scrape and brush one spindle for a good minute or two, and I still didn't manage to remove any of the flaking. So after doing the inner portion and a little of the outer sides, I gave up. My hand is tired and my arms are covered in hives from the junipers. They're all red and swollen and...ugh...lumpy. They also burn like crazy which is another great benefit to allergies. I kinda want to scratch my skin off right now, so I'm trying really hard to keep my hands busy.

my one solitary tulip seems to have survived the heavy snow just fine. Maybe it'll open one of these days

and despite being squished by the snow, my oriental poppies are starting to turn towards the sun again. I love poppies. They're one of my absolute favourite flowers. I'll be sure to take pictures as soon as these open -- they don't last very long. They're the orange ones with black dots. Mm pretty

the cornflowers are the only flower I can actually cut and bring into the house right now. They really love my backyard. Either that or they really like terrible dirt and growing conditions; they don't mind being squished by a fence, having full blazing sun or no sun at all, and they still manage to spread themselves anywhere they can find a speck of loose dirt. Seriously. If you can't grow anything in your yard, get yourself some cornflowers, I'm sure they'll do just fine. 

more Domino inspiration

I love the bold use of colour

I love how rustic and unconventional this kitchen feels

I love how all the pieces in this dining room don't match and yet still feel very harmonious. I also love the random art in mismatched frames.

I love that sofa and coffee table. I just really love the overall feel of that whole room.

One thing I've started to notice as I've been going through my Dominos is that I really gravitate towards the quirky, unconventional, antique, and offbeat furniture and furniture arrangements. For example, something I realized I really want is mismatched chairs with my dining room table (I don't necessarily mean all different chairs, like in the examples above, but chairs that don't match with the table itself). I think I'm ok with the shape and line of the table, but I've just realized I've never liked the chairs.

I'm really starting to love the idea of wallpaper as a backsplash

we've been discussing the potential of turning the main floor living room into an office study-type lounge instead of having a 'formal' living room (that I almost guarantee we'd never use). The first Bookworm furniture setup makes me think that idea just might be possible afterall.

a disappearing art

I added "learn calligraphy" to my list of things to do this year. I've always loved writing and coming up with different styles for myself, so naturally calligraphy is something I've always wanted to do. A quick little search proved that yes! I can learn it on my own online! Sweet!

I found a good website (finally) that shows you exactly how to hold the pen and how to make each stroke. I was using one a couple weeks ago that only explained it (in minute detail) and I found that to be terribly demotivating. I like pictures. I learn best by doing, not reading. (Here's the site if you're interested.) Also I suck at math and telling me to hold the pen at a 21 degree angle to the page wasn't helping.

I'm sure you noted the "a couple weeks ago" statement. Yeah. As usual, I got some crazy idea in my head, looked it up, then never looked back. So since I've also been procrastinating on writing a letter to a friend, I've since made that my short term goal. Learn and practice enough calligraphy to be able to write her address on the envelope. Kills two birds with one stone.

Since making that goal, I immediately felt super rushed. I wanted a shortcut, and I figured the best thing to do was to learn just the letters I needed. Naturally that didn't work at all, and it added another week to my procrastination. Big surprise.

I started to think back to when I was first learning how to print and handwrite. Do you remember that?We had to write pages and pages of only G's or S's (all the letters) over and over again to practice the shape. We also had to practice drawing waves and other little patterns just so we would get better at manipulating our pencils, too. (I can still draw some pretty sweet waves.)

I sucked it up and started with the first letter in the foundational alphabet (arranged according to how the shape is made, not alphabetically. An O in this case), and I wrote it over and over until I could do it as perfectly as my highlighter would allow. And you wanna know what? I've actually found that that's made my calligraphy lessons go a lot smoother! I can see my progress. I can see when it looks bad and I can figure out what I did wrong. Procrastination is replaced with motivation!

I also switched from that stupid dull highlighter to some smelly Mr. Sketches today since they're the only other pen I have with a chisel tip. And if that's not motivating enough well, I don't know what more I could do.

note to self: buy a chisel tipped pen

things I got for cheap

matching milk glass mixing bowls

I couldn't pass up another mixing bowl with a spout, now could I? It's always best to have at least two of every kitchen aid, am I right or what?

walnut side table (to paint or not to paint? that is the question)

thing I made for Hermes for cheap

yeah ok. Technically I didn't really make this nor did I even come up with the idea for it, but it broke my heart to see him sliding his beak aimlessly along the empty twist tie that holds this mirror in place (trust me. It was the most cheerless and melancholy beak-sliding I've ever seen). So I took a measly 5 minutes of my time and slid some beads on. Now he can do some work sorting out the colours and making them even on both sides like his other store-beaded mirror. (Which, by the way, I really hate esthetically. Who groups red, green, yellow, and purple together? No one, that's who. Hermes knows it's wrong, too. He always groups them either with the purple bead by itself, yellow and purple together, or yellow, purple, and green, but never ever red. He's got style, that one -- or I need to do something other than watch him slide his beads back and forth)

things I wish I could have gotten for cheap

this amazing plate-bowl. It's the most perfect plate-bowl I've ever seen AND it's not covered in some tacky pasta pasta mama mia! pattern. It's everything I've ever dreamt of!! (in a plate-bowl, of course) Why didn't I get it? There was only one, and I don't think it'd be fair to Idle Husband for me to be using my kick-ass plate-bowl all the time while he's left with some junky regular plate OR bowl (not two in one like mine, suckah! -- and that's exactly how I'd be about it, too).

know thy enemy

Guess how much I hate mowing the lawn? Now guess what I've been doing today. I left it entirely too long (hey, it's been raining, snowing, I was sick for a couple weeks and you know what? I don't really consider it grass mowing time until the end of May anyway, so there you have it). It took me an hour just to do the backyard, and if it doesn't rain tomorrow, I should probably do it again on a lower mower setting.

I hate grass. It's the most useless creation ever. I don't understand why it's so popular. It's prone to weeds, most people have to devote at least half of their weekend time to mowing it, it needs lots of water if it's anywhere in full sun ($$),  you have to pay for and apply weed and feed, and...oh gah, just talking about it angers me. What a waste of time, money, and energy.

My neighbours have pristine grass. I'm definitely not down with that whole 'keeping up with the Joneses' junk, but sometimes I wonder how they do it. I've seen left neighbour out there, with his kids, on his hands and knees digging out each dandelion individually, and I've never actually seen right neighbour with a lawn mower or a push mower or anything. I'm starting to think he just uses a pair of scissors. Don't they have something better to do? Even staring at the wall is something better. That makes me think of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry asked Elaine what she did last night and she said, "Nothing. I sat in a chair and I stared." I guess she could have been mowing her lawn had she had one.

I'm sure my bias has a little something to do with the fact that I'm allergic to grass, but honestly. Don't people want plants they can enjoy? What's enjoyable about grass? And (besides kids) have you ever seen someone outside on their lawn physically enjoying it? Like seriously enjoying the hell out of it. Yay! Woo! Grass!! I've worked so hard on it! I'm going to sit on it, roll in it, have a picnic on it, happily walk around on it and enjoy that fresh grassy feeling on my bare feet!! Think about it. I know you haven't.