Me And My Brown Thumb

I'm famous for having a brown thumb. Plants die when they're in my care. Mostly because I eventually forget that they exist, which means the watering stops, which in turn means the plants turn to dust. Good, eh? In my defence, it's mostly because they're outside and I just don't do outside. It doesn't occur to me to go outside, to look outside, do anything outside. Indoors is my jam. It's where I keep my things clean. 

The hubs and I went to the nursery and bought a bunch of plants... and then I left them in the garage for a couple of days without watering them. Oops. Then I moved them to the back deck for sunshine... and forgot to water them. For a week. Bottom line is, they looked like death by the time I actually got around to planting the sorry things. So the fact that these petunias look like that now is nothing short of a damn miracle. 

I've been good about watering them since. These ridiculously beautiful petunias are bright and gorgeous, and whenever I walk by the front door, I see them (there's another pot on the other side of the front porch). Which means they get watered and fed yummy fertiliser and they don't die. 

So the key is to get brightly coloured plants if I want them to live. Got it. 

And because I remember the petunias exist, I also remember that I've got four tomato plants out the back. AND THERE ARE TWO TOMATO BABIES ALREADY!!! I squee'd a lot. Like a giant idiot but who's going to see while I'm dancing around on my back deck? There's actually a couple more itty bitty ones popping out... so excited!

These tomato plants were withered and slumped over by the time they actually made it into their pots. I truly thought I was going to have to dump them and get new ones. But by the next day they popped right back up and forgave me. I think. I hope. I love you tomato plants.

We've got the stakes in there but I'm going to have to get cages because soon they'll be heavy with fruit, and the last time I left it too late and had to wrangle the branches in the cages trying very hard not to break any. I did not succeed. Sigh. Bad plant mummy.

So this is my 2015 attempt at gardening. I took a couple of years off from growing tomatoes but I really missed picking cherry tomatoes for salads. So sweet and fresh, absolutely nothing like it!

What are you growing this summer?

Randomness: The Verbal Diarrhea Edition

- Aren't these gladiolus in my front yard just ridiculously gorgeous? Things keep popping up in our yard that we have no idea are there... I continue to be amazed one year on! Good job, Nature! And the previous owners...

- The summer weather has been weird. Sometimes steaming hot and muggy, sometimes cool-ish but somewhat humid, and sometimes it's just so bloody hot you pray for sweet, sweet death. And no matter the weather, all I want to do is eat ice-cream or froyo. Which I've done a great job of not doing despite my reputation for having no self-control. But the struggle is real.

- Recent things I've shouted to the hubs from the shower include, "That wasn't me! It was the conditioner bottle!". Classy.

- I'm trying to figure out what to do with the Cotton + Steel fabrics because I need it in my house! On my bed, on my sofa, EVERYWHERE. Too damn good.

- But I did make one as a sample for work... pictures to come!

- 25 Husbands who must be stopped... They require patience and a sense of humour, don't they?

- We had something living in our backyard, and we think it's gone now. The hubs found parts of a bunny, and most of a bird, and then spotted the culprit one morning. He initially thought it was a fox (because he failed science apparently) but upon looking at pictures, I determined it to be a damn fisher cat. In other news, I'm never going outside again. I'll keep an eye on the baby bunnies and chipmunks from the safety of my house.

- I feel awful for these 11 doggies who ate bees (and I hope they're alright!) but I couldn't help but laugh hehe!

- I now have a blog post with 'diarrhea' in the title. I win everything.

It Only Took A Year

We got art on the wall, ya'll! It only took an entire year! Yay! High five!

I don't know why we kept putting it off... I think after we moved in, we kind of couldn't be stuffed anymore and eventually forgot about the decorating part. So that's the wall in our living room... a bit of love for NYC / Brooklyn, Lisa Congdon, The Black Apple, Marc Johns, a hilarious Batman / Joy Division (Ian Curtis) mash-up, and one my sis gave me that I've absolutely no clue who it's by. She also gave me the Marc Johns one because that's what our tattoos are based on :)

I've thrown a quilt over the sofa because it is cooler than sitting on microsuede in the summer. Gah is it September yet?! Although, mercifully, the weather has been lovely the last few days!

It also took an entire year to finally change out the hideous light fixture in the dining room. And only because the stupid rotary dimmer decided to get stuck in the on position. It was original to the house, so we've now had it changed out and join modern times, so we thought we'd get the light fixture swopped out at the same time. 

By the way, if I'm being honest, it took about nine months for us to decide on dining chairs. We finally used the dining table for its intended purpose this week. I have no excuse. Moving on...

This one's in our bedroom, taken on the day we actually got married. 11am on a Wednesday in his parents' living room. Romantic.

This print is also in our bedroom :) I'm very aware of the grammatical horror of this print, but I really don't care. It's awesome and I like it. And now we get to stare at it from our bed for... like... ever. 

The library overfloweth. We need another shelf ALREADY. It's a sickness. This is the view the hubs has from his desk. I think it's a pretty lovely view, especially when I appear in the hallway, inexplicably dancing or making faces.

I don't know if you can see it, but there's an orange book on the top left corner, on the shelf. We went to a rare and used bookshop and the hubs found this phone directory from 1961 that had his grandparents' contact info marked. What are the odds?! So of course he had to come home with it hehe 

And yes, those are my Mr Potato Heads on top of the shelf. Spud Trooper, Darth Tater, Artoo Potatoo and Opti-Mash Prime. Oh, and Lenore, Mr Gosh and Ragamuffin. I'm classy, what can I say?

The 'Get Our Art On The Walls Already!' project started last weekend when we dragged everything we had up from the basement. I even found some prints I'd ordered and had never framed, so we took a trip to the shop to get some frames. The hubs has decided that he detests frame shopping more than anything in the history of the world. Wah wah. 

There are some prints that still need to go on the wall but I can't decide where they should go, and if I still like the frames. I've got a couple of cross-stitch pieces I did (American Pastoral and Starry, Starry Night) and I honestly don't know where to put them. So rather than slap things on the wall just to get it done, I'm going to place them here in the corner of the living room while I walk around with the frames to see what rooms / hallways I like them in. I might need psychiatric help fairly soon.

And that mirror... well... here's the thing. If I hang it, the hubs can only see his chest. If the hubs hangs it, I'll see maybe three hairs from the top of my head (humidity and frizz... what a bastard). I'm thinking perhaps it should go on the wall along the stairs so I can stand on the stair and use it while the hubs can use binoculars and use it in the hallway. The trials and tribulations of being 14" shorter than your husband...

And just to prove that I sometimes go outside, here are some things my front yard grew! This is some purple stuff!

And this is some white stuff!

The white stuff attracts many fat bumble bees!

There's also tiger lilies (I mean orange stuff!) but one of the bees looked like it was trying to plot my demise, so I decided to retreat.

OH! And there are more itty bitty baby birds! Man, they're ugly right now.

Summer Has Landed

Not being a huge fan of summer, I have to concentrate on the good bits. Like fresh strawberries picked by friends and gifted to us the very same day. This thing should have smell-a-vision, because holy hell, they smell glorious. 

I thought I'd killed the petunias because I'm horrendous with plants. What had happened was all the blooms decided to go byebye at once, so I assumed I'll done something wrong and they were dead. But then here they are, blooming and being all pretty :) Sigh.

Perhaps I should've planted more... but that's for next summer. I'm done planting. Touching soil once a year is more than enough for this chick. 

The marigolds are blooming too :) Although I'm very upset at the bird who decided to shit on them. Thanks bird. Thanks a lot.

Mmmm salvia :) Love the purple against the green! 

The bestest thing was finding more eggs in the little nest!!! All the baby birds had flown away a couple of weeks ago, and we just popped our heads in to see if it was indeed still empty, only to find FOUR little eggs in there!!! Does anyone know if it's the same mama bird or has this become a rental property? Hehe Either way, we have more baby birds to look forward to! They'd better not shit on my flowers...

I Planted Stuff

I planted stuff. Yup, I'll wait here while you buy your lottery tickets.

The other night at 8pm, it started to drizzle rain and I thought that would be the perfect time to go plant my flowers. I've now cemented my standing as the neighbourhood crazy person.

I've never grown petunias so tada! Petunias! I'll be honest... These puppies came home with me because of their colour. They're called lemon zest yellow or something like that. A lady at the nursery stopped me to tell me that she loved the colour. I told her my house was white and I had black shutters, and my porch was greyish, so yellow flowers would be great. She looked at me strangely, smiled nervously and shuffled away.

Anyway, the petunias were my choice because everything else was the wrong colour or needed full sun, and since these guys would be hanging out on the front porch where the sunshine is spotty, I needed something that'd be okay with partial. I just said a lot of things that've sent my mum and sisters into a coma.

Oh, I got marigolds too! They look weird and sad now because they're itty bitty but hopefully they'll fill out and be all sorts of lovely soon :)

See that tiny hole in the tree? That's where the nest is. The birdies were all chirping and bopping around... until I opened the front door and they all immediately froze like we were playing musical chairs.

I did my best with taking a picture of the baby birds but I'm too short to have a clear shot, and I don't want to get any closer because I really like not having my eyes pecked out of my head. See the bird eyeing me already??? He's all STAND BACK, WOMAN, and I intend to.

Fairly certain this isn't from the momma bird because it's about the same size as her babies, but it looked kind of pretty just sitting all by itself on my porch :)

Some of the irises we had pop up... there's white ones too but they've since gone a bit sad and droopy because I honestly hadn't realised we had irises at all till the other day hehe!

And this is one of a few bunnies who dwell in our yard. This one likes to come nice and close, and almost got run over when I was leaving my driveway the other day. Oh I see you giving me stink eye, my friend, but you don't want to argue with my tyres, capisce?

What have you guys planted in your gardens?

Garden Blooms

I took a few pictures around the front yard of the blooming Rhododendrons (I think that's what these are, yes?) the other day, before all this rain started to fall. The yard is just awash in pink because it's everywhere, and I love it! 

These and the birch trees just make me so happy :)

Look! Tulips!

Another hyacinth! I didn't see this one till it was starting to fade because it's on the other side of the front yard, and I can barely see it amongst all the daffodils.

Speaking of daffodils... sigh :)

Driving up to or past the house always brings a smile to my face.

I'm not much of a gardening type, but I'm always amazed at how plants just pop back up after a long, difficult winter to greet you with cheeriness. Can't wait to see what else we have in store!

Spring Has Sprung

One of my biggest thrills about a new house is finding out what's in store for us when Spring comes around. These flowers just popped up and every time I drive home, there's more yellowy gorgeousness greeting me. There's more on the other side of the front of the house, and it's all looking so beautiful :)

I didn't even see the hyacinth until I went to take pictures! That's how much I go walking outside lol! I LOVE them!! I hope there's more hyacinth to come because they smell so lovely.

Also, I can't say / think of hyacinth without thinking of the show Keeping Up Appearances. Anyone? Anyone?

Pretty, pretty, pretty :) What's blooming in your garden?

First Tomato!

LOOK! IT'S A RIPE TOMATO! 

As in just the one! I ate it right after snapping the picture (I washed it first, of course) and then realised I didn't take one to post on Instagram. Doh.

Two other plants have tomatoes ripening too... Look at all of them! Hopefully I'll be able to make a salad with a whole lot of them very soon :) 

The little fellow is still plugging along but definitely not doing so well. There are little tomatoes growing though, so maybe there's still hope. Fingers and toes crossed!