Mark, Peanut and I have been taking lots of long walks through the neighborhood. Sometimes Peanut will be lucky enough to go twice a day! Once in the morning with Mark when I am gone at school and again in the evening with both of us. He is quite the social dog, he wants to meet every single person and dog that we pass. This includes lawn men and roofers, he is usually going crazy pulling the leash to go into the yard where they are working. It is times like this when I wish he spoke english so I could explain to him that while he is adorable, not everyone has the time to meet and praise him. Poor lil' Peanut though...if anyone should be dreading the summer it should be him, the pup's got so much fur and even being out in the middle of the day now can get too hot for him to walk very far...there is no way he will be able to walk on those 100+ degree days. Since my bar exam prep classes start at 9:00 am this summer, I am going to try to take him for a quick walk prior to class before it heats up too much.
Emerging from such a frigid winter has really been inspiring me, I forgot how happy sunshine can make you feel!! Last weekend I went full out Martha Stewart and bought new flowers for my pots, refinished an old piece of furniture and bought all of the supplies to start my own organic garden in our backyard!!
I am so excited for this garden, it is something that I have wanted ever since we bought this house. I think that this first go round in planting will be very experimental but hey, you have to start somewhere right? Tomorrow Mark is going to build the raised garden, we bought all of the lumber and hardware cloth for the bottom at home depot, he borrowed a saw from a friend and we are all set to go! From my research on the easier vegetables to plant in Oklahoma that will do well being planted this time of year, we are going to do carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and then maybe okra or swiss chard. I can't wait to have this little plot of earth to work in. As a avid cook I love buying local organic produce and what could be more local than walking out to my backyard! I really do hope that I prove to have a green thumb and that I can be patient enough to keep up a garden. Patience isn't always my strong suit. I think thats one reason why I love cooking so much, its a creative process that comes together very quickly. Even with baking your finished masterpiece comes out of the oven in usually an hour or less. Waiting weeks for results in the garden will take some getting used to, but I also hope it will be a good stress reliever during this crazy summer to just go mindlessly weed & water.
My apologies for this boring no photos post- I will put up pictures of the garden as soon as we finish it! As for my furniture project, I do have pictures of it! This piece was handed down from my parents who had it sitting in their garage forever, before that I believe it was my great-grandfathers! So its quite the study little piece, and it was free, so of course I wanted to make it work in our house! We decided it would work great as a media center for the TV in our bedroom so I went to work painting it to match the bedside tables that I painted last year.
Here is a before photo, sitting out on the back porch ready to be sanded down....
and after a good sanding, a couple coats of metallic champagne colored spray paint, and new crystal knobs!
Oh and along the saving money line of thought...I'm doing a no clothes buying challenge for six months. This is because I have zero need in the world for them and until I have a spiffy new lawyer job where I need new clothes for work, there is just no reason to spend money on clothes when I want to spend money on so many other fun things like buying gourmet ingredients to cook with, I mean whole foods is being built within walking distance from me, I need to save up!!! Haha all kidding aside I have at least 6 dresses in my closet that have never even been worn...and as much as I love clothes I have to echo the sentiment of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex in The City 2 when the girl in the store asks why she hasn't seen her lately and she tells her she has "been cheating on fashion with furniture." Well I'm cheating on fashion with furniture, and food, and travel and when you look at it that way, having more to spend on those things makes it all worth it. So goodbye jcrew, anthro and neimans, I will no longer be checking your websites, at least not until September 28 (the 6 month mark from my decision to do this). Oh and Mom? If you are reading this, gifts of clothing are allowed by all means :)
Mark finished test block today, only one more until he is done with test blocks forever! I am so proud of him, he never ceases to amazing me with how smart he is and I know he is going to make a wonderful doctor someday. In his honor I baked a chocolate banana bundt cake with the ripe bananas I had on the counter, so I'm off to try that out. I'll post the pictures and recipe if it ends up being as yummy as it looks!
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