Backyard Update!

It only took five months, but my week-long backyard makeover is finally [almost, mostly, kind of] complete.

Just don't look at the dead grass.

I said don't look at the dead grass! But do look at that very happy chicken!

I finally got my butt into gear after coming home from our honeymoon to Hawaii (yes, we've married three years, yes it took us three years to take a honeymoon, yes saving up for Hawaii was worth it). After spending a week on the beach, coming home was depressing, and I had to do something to get out of my funk and enjoy the fact that I was home and not in Hawaii. So, I decided there's nothing quite like manual labor and home improvement to snap you out of your sadness.

(Seriously, this is a picture I took. This is a real place, and I was there. Even the swelling of sunburnt legs does not take the taint the joy of Hawaii.)

The thing about finally finishing a five-month long project is that you mostly do it in three days and you really don't take any pictures. Because when you finally find the motivation to finish, you're not taking the time to take pictures.

Especially when you are the person hauling 3,000+ pounds of sand, rock, and step stones...and your husband is at work (he was home the last day and laid the last part of rock by himself; it may have been the best day ever).

The point, though, is that I finally got around to finishing the path through the yard. This path connects our gate at the front of the house (side yard) to the gate at the back of the yard (alley access). My favorite part about the path is that the dogs and the cat follow the path when trotting through the yard. ADORABLE.

Because we had left the path undone for so many months, the first step was two hours of weeding and fighting with goat head stickers. Note: Toms are not appropriate footwear for thorny weed mitigation.

You have no idea how satisfying this photo is:

 Just look at all that weed-free dirt!

Unfortunately, the next time I took photos was AFTER I had leveled, tamped, weed barrier-ed, step stoned, and river rocked. Oops. But, tl;dr, that's how it happened.

And it is GORGEOUS! I love-love-love my new backyard! Here are some things that I learned:

• New mulch can make any landscaping project instantly gorgeous
• The cheap river rock will look just fine and is half the price of the beautiful Mexican beach pebbles 
• My Ford Taurus can haul about 700 pounds distributed between trunk and car before I begin to worry about my suspension
• "Adequate" is an ok mantra for DIY landscaping. Perfection is not necessary. 
• Measure your square footage, calculate your rock/mulch needs, then add about a gajillion extra cubic yards, and that is how much rock/mulch your project needs. 
• You save money by DIY because the labor is REALLY FREAKING HARD, but I did find it doable. 

After all of the rock and new mulch was laid, I got to turn my attention to the fun things! 

The path looks great. Those little sticks of plants in my cute DIY planters? Not so much.

I planted some new plants, and added some new seating to my patio, courtesy of IKEA and Target. Oh! Here's one more thing to add to my list of lessons! 

• Taking five months to complete your one-week backyard project means you get up to 70% off on your patio furniture because you waited until the end of summer to buy it! 

For the planters at the corners of the patio, I selected tall tickseed plants. I think the height helps add some dimension and definition for the patio. 

Then I potted just four of my pots. After all, it is September now, and that means cold weather is just around the corner in Colorado. Fall is a very short season here.

While doing so, I discovered the dogs had been using my dirt-filled pots as a hiding place. 

See that there?

I'll uncover it for you. It has been MONTHS since we've had English muffins...

Even though I only planted a few pots, I think it's a good effect because of how nicely they group between the adirondack chairs. 

Next up: that fence. Our neighbors have graciously agreed to replace it.

Last summer we bought the Falster table and four chairs from Ikea, but what I really wanted was the bench to go with them. I've been to Ikea at least four times since, and each time it's been out of stock. This week, though, it was finally there and I got my bench!

I also picked up three little outdoor rugs with green stripes (on sale!), and four Marius stools. I was intending on just stacking the stools and taking them out as overflow seating, but then I found the table at Target for less than $14. The table folds and the stools stack, so this little seating area can easily move out of the way. I'm thinking of spray painting the stools and table--what do you think?

Next up in the yard, we'd like to replace the slab patio so it doesn't drain toward our house, and we're going to have to do something about that dead grass. I'm thinking I would like to make an outdoor chalkboard like this one. I also would like to paint a mural on the side of the shed facing the grass. I made this painting, which hangs over our couch, and I think I could scale it up for the side of the shed.

It's taken an entire summer, but I'm very pleased with my new backyard. Just so you can really feel my sense of satisfaction, here are some photos of its humble beginnings: 

And now: 

Much better.

Yard Transformation Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of spring, and the clouds parted and the sun started shining. Perfect for starting on the backyard.

I have pretty ambitious plans for somebody with basically zero landscaping experience, but I feel pretty good after Day 1.

Also, exhausted. And thankful for sunscreen. And if I weren't so sore, I'd get up to grab the Ibuprofen.

A few months ago, while it was snowing, I drew an ambitious picture with basically everything Pinterest tells me I can possibly fit into a yard. Besides being not quite being to scale, this drawing has some problems. First, I put the chickens behind the shed where they would get NO sun. Not good. Then I put the fire pit right beneath our overhead electrical wires. Not good. I drew two beds, and decided I actually wanted three...The list goes on. But, I think for a general working vision, it's alright.

The Vision

Our first stroke of luck was that we came into a chicken coop, run, and three chickens. In very sad, but also happy news, our neighbors across the street whom we love are moving. The happy news is that they are moving to a house across town better suited for them and their family, so we are very glad for them. In between the time we're spending being sad. 

This meant that their chickens needed a new home! So, our family welcomed Nugget, Tender, and Peg a couple of weeks ago! We walked the coop (with chickens inside) and their run all the way out of their yard, across the street, through the alley, and into our backyard. C and I walked the coop over and then our neighbor helped C get the very heavy and awkward run. 

(I lived in Portland when the new Voodoo donut location opened and they marched the oil from the old location to the new across the Burnside bridge. It was kind of like that. Maybe slightly less epic?)

C and Neighbor walking the run through our alley to our backyard (how nice is our new fence!?)

Tender, Nugget, and Peg seem pretty happy here. We've had an egg or two every single day! 

L to R: Peg, Tender, Nugget

The coop and run 

Chickens grazing (pecking? ranging?)

Yesterday C I spent about an hour at Home Depot picking out cedar for our raised 6ft x 4ft beds. We had eighteen 10ft 2x4s cut into lengths of 6ft and 4ft and had two 8ft 2x2s cut into 1-foot sections. I got home and my mom literally Facebook messaged me and said "I think you should really consider those ready-made raised beds" to which I replied "Ok" instead of "You're a little late to be weighing in on this."

So, today was assembly day! We also borrowed one of our neighbor's rototillers and I completely destroyed half the backyard while C worked on the beds on the patio. 

see that green machine back there? That's the rototiller. This thing looks like it might actually kill you.

Where there once was grass

Working on the beds

This is me clearly wondering "What have I done?!"

By the end of today we were up three raised beds and a moved chicken coop! Tomorrow I'll be moving the beds out of place to till more, and then seating the beds to ready them for dirt inside and mulch outside. Then maybe those beds will even get planted...

Three beds!! (I also spy two chickens, a Penny, and a husband)

A better look at the beds

Living Room Update

The last time I posted it was to confess that I've stopped cooking. It forced me into a state of reflection and since then I've cooked a few really great meals.

Week one was sweet potato kale soup (step one, throw things in a pot; step two, hope it works), tuna noodle casserole (from scratch, except the noodles--ain't nobody got time for that!), and chili with stew meat. It was very snowy and dreary here, can you tell?

Week two was this sausage and spinach soup. I followed the recipe exactly and it was delicious! I also made this lasagna (except with full fat everything because I like full flavor things), and a quiche inspired by this one.

Week three was special because I cooked double batches to feed both us and a family who just welcomed their second boy! I made broccoli quinoa casserole and wrapped up breakfast burritos for the week. The parents were pretty clearly exhausted, but I was so impressed at how well they are doing with a two-year-old and an infant. It's pretty amazing how we humans can adapt to any situation! And the little one is just perfect!

The big house projects lately have been (1) taking down Christmas, (2) cleaning up mud, mud, and more mud that the animals track in, and (3) remaking our living room.

Number (1) is sad, Number (2) is overwhelming and underwhelming all at once, but Number (3) has been fun!

Our front room is one long room. We have a sweet little entryway, and then we've divided up the room into two separate living spaces.

When we moved in, we had the two spaces set up as so:

Not bad, but not a great use of the space either. The tall furniture on this side of the room also loomed over the shorter midcentury furniture on the other side of the room

This side of the room was fine, but the distance from the couch to the coffee table to the chairs was way to much. I also sold my giraffe quilt, so she now resides in South Carolina.

Then we made some changes in the house, which moved out all of the furniture in the first photo. First, we transitioned one of our empty bedrooms (we only have three bedrooms, but one was empty...we don't have a lot of stuff yet!) to a hobby room. So, away went the table and the sewing machine to that room.

Then Christmas came in, and I moved out the teal credenza because it just didn't go with my Christmas decor. Then the Ikea Kallax shelf was just sitting there by itself, so I moved it to the other side of the room, where it resides now behind the swivel barrel chairs.

These are the "during" pictures, when things got moved around for Christmas.

 This is the same side of the room, with the coffee table between the couch and chairs and the Kallax shelf unit relocated to behind the chairs.

Between the last set of pictures and this one, I also acquired four midcentury dining chairs from a thrift store, and the beautiful midcentury Danish dining table that was my grandparents. The lack of furniture on this side of the room was fine until the Christmas tree and "fireplace" had to go. 

Our solution was five Billy bookcases from Ikea. I drew inspiration from the Ikea catalogue, Design Sponge, and Apartment Apothecary. This was a one-day project, and I think it turned out great!

Cohabitant assembling the shelves

I think the bookcases make the space feel both bigger and more yet more comfortable! I love them, but now I have to work on styling them. Cohabitant and I have moved so many times over the last few years that we have unfortunately not hung on to many of our books (and I have no idea how this process happened...when you're moving you're delirious and that must be why I still have a copy of "Archaic and Classical Greek Art" yet lost my copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird").

I also fixed the gallery wall behind the couch. When I put it up, I didn't arrange the frames around a straight line, I didn't have enough frames, and it was way too high over the couch. This is the after:

(complete with wrinkled quilts!)

The next projects up are hanging the green lantern up on the other side of the shelves, making curtains for the windows, and making a plan for the bedroom that now has the teal credenza. 

Oh, and I also have to reupholster one of those swivel barrel chairs. The puppy decided she doesn't like that chair anymore and this happened during my second day at my new job:

(see all that mud on the rug too! I told you it's bad!)

Wednesday Confession: I have stopped cooking

I started grad school right around the same time that Cohabitant started the WORST shift schedule EVER. Fortunately, he starts a new shift in eight days. We are counting down. 

With night class twice a week, and night work twice a week, and Cohabitant working a horrible shift, I have almost stopped cooking entirely. 

Thank goodness for Trader Joe's or we would starve. Well, we wouldn't. We love food way too much to starve. We would probably exist on a diet solely consisting of bread, cheese, peanut butter, and candy (+5 adult points). 

Here's an abridged list of our favorite Trader Joe's products, in case you have also stopped cooking. 

From the refrigerated section: basil and white bean hummus, Mediterranean hummus, spicy hummus, triple cream brie

From the shelves: naan, boxed soups (butternut squash...mmm), pita bite crackers, nuts

From the frozen section (this is where TJ's excels): multigrain blend with vegetables (pro-tip: heat up with any of the frozen products with sauce), polenta provencale, creamy polenta with spinach and carrots, gorgonzola gnocchi, beef and green chile/cheese tamales, falafel (pro-tip: refrigerate the day before use and add to salads--I use hummus with olive oil and balsamic to dress), spinach/kale/feta pie, mac'n'cheese bites (for when you have company...or depression), Gone Bananas!


I love me some TJ's and I'm so excited the store made it to Colorado around the same time I made my return. Now the state really truly is almost perfect. Now, those temperatures yesterday? Those I could do without.

House Exterior

I met my best friend in college. We were freshman roommates. And then we broke the 'the shalt not room with thine best friend' rule and were senior roommates.


In high school she went to Colorado to visit potential colleges. Fortunately for me, she ended up in Oregon. But, unfortunately for me, she loathed Colorado from the start. And I have to say, I agree with her assessment.


Colorado is the land of purple mountains, amber grains, wide blue skies...and beige.


Beige is the color of choice. It's everywhere. Interior. Exterior. And it drives my bestie insane.


Which is why as soon as we moved into our house, I knew we were going to make some changes if I ever hoped to convince her to visit.

It only took about five months to finally make some paint decisions (and convince my cohabitant that citrus green is a GREAT idea for a front door). We kept it low(er) budget and labor by painting just the trim and front door.

And. I. Love. It.

Post-Christmas Christmas Tour

This was our first Christmas in our house.


It was kind of a big deal.


I hosted a cookie decorating party. And then I failed to take a single picture. I baked for two days. There were adorable children. Friends drove from over an hour away. And I was so busy that I didn't take pictures. NOT A SINGLE ONE. I'll know better next year.


I was so excited to have people over. So I started decorating. And my cohabitant was being driven insane. He just doesn't quite understand the thrill of Christmas. He's learning.

I cut a ton of snowflakes from coffee filters. The went on the windows. They went in the hallway. They went in frames. They went in garland.

I made a cover for our one (yes, we only had one) throw pillow. I was pretty proud of it.

Then my mom gave me the best early Christmas present. And utterly showed me up. No, those pillows are not a part of the #iwokeuplikethis movement. She made them. Zippers and all. Amazing.

The dogs think they are theirs. (yes, that's a dog on top of a dog, on top of a pillow)

We decorated the tree. Our tree is filled with ornaments that actually mean something. My tree is not styled. It is a journal entry, and I can tell you exactly why we have every single ornament.

(It's a trophy that says "not last." I wasn't the world's greatest athlete, but I tried. And my family has a sense of humor about it.)


Surfaces received little vignettes a la the Dollar Tree, and leftover decor from our wedding.

This guy was found on Pinterest. You can even print out a template to make it (I didn't because I never clicked through the link...oops.)

Since there isn't a chimney, I had to make a place for our stockings. I even decorated the 'mantle' with homemade mini quilts, but when those sold on my Etsy, the mantle went bare. My mom made all of the stockings. Mine has been mine since I was very wee, and the others she's made as I've acquired family. You can tell my cohabitant is the favorite since his stocking is at least 2x bigger than mine.

We don't have an outlet outside, so I got creative on the exterior decorations. Maybe *fingers crossed* Santa will bring us an electrician next year.

Lest you think it was all a great decorating success, here is my snowflake hallway now. The steam from the shower in the adjacent bathroom was just too much for these guys to handle. RIP.

I love Christmas. I will probably cry when I take it all down. But, I will have to rearrange some of the furniture. And there is almost nothing better in the whole world than rearranging furniture.