When I realize I haven’t published a blog post in 5 months, that makes me want to write a bunch of posts and backdate them to disguise that I’ve done nothing for nearly 6 months. Or, should I say done nothing online. The last few months have been a lot. I didn’t want to force myself to do something I couldn’t mentally manage, so one of those things was unfortunately my blog.
Robert and I have been working full time [from home] while Cora is home with us all day [our gut instinct has been to keep her home and stop sending her to daycare. She’s been at home with us since the first lockdown started on March 13th]. Cora started her first year of kindergarten this autumn [from home], which has meant adding another plate to our already circus of spinning plates.
I won’t get started with work, but it’s been a lot. November is always a very busy time for us, so I’m glad the last month is behind us.
Luckily, both Robert and I strongly agreed on going overboard with Christmas this year. Not necessarily presents, but over-the-top decorating and twinkly lights and baking and crafts and putting every ornament on display, beginning with buying two more Christmas trees [yes, we have lost it and no, we have no regerts].
I’m adding a brand new category to my blog that in my nearly 9 years of blogging I’ve never had – garden!
This summer I’ve not done a huge amount with our garden as this is our first summer in our new house and since I had no idea what was planted, I let our garden go completely wild. And I mean wild. There’s a lot of colour in our garden – some of which I like, and some I don’t. Almost everything that can bloom has bloomed, so I know what isn’t planted and that’s my favourite colours; burgundy, black and dainty pink.
My neighbour Lesley gave me a bulb catalogue from Veseys this week and to say I had over $300 in bulbs in my cart within minutes is an understatement. I removed a good few items [I was today years old when I found out how expensive peony bulbs are. Welp], but I wanted to share some of the things I did order:
I ordered 72 tulip bulbs altogether. There’s no way to play that number down so I’m going to own it. I didn’t get as much of everything else, but I’m hoping it’s possible to split the roots or get seeds from them next autumn and be able to divide everything else into more plants as time goes on.
I won’t get the bulbs until autumn when the plants are finished their current cycle, so it will be later this year before I plant them. It means they won’t bloom until next spring, but I on occasion have such huge levels of patience that I can wait a year or more for something. Sometimes. Only when it’s not food-related.
Speaking of food-related, I also ordered seeds for TONS OF PUMPKINS. I didn’t find any pumpkin seeds that I liked in time for planting this year, but next year I’m going to have the witchiest garden full of pumpkins. They are going to overrun our yards and I’m more than okay with that.
Of the few things that I planted this year that I actually have grown are black tomatoes and bobo hydrangeas. I have my neighbour Lesley and another neighbour Gord, for giving me their black tomato plant seedlings earlier this year, to thank. I haven’t felt more appreciative than when both neighbours offered me their black tomatoes after sensing my eternal gothness.
FULL DISCLOSURE: neither of these photos are mine. I can only wish.
Yes, I am sharing my inspiration completely out of order and after my big One Room Challenge reveal. Not before. Not during. After.
I think the reason I didn’t want to share my inspiration images before I began my project was because I was worried my room would pale in comparison to them and further highlight that I didn’t achieve all that I wanted with the final look of our front room.
Throughout my ORC, whenever I was doubting my decisions or hesitating about painting an entire room practically-black, I opened my secret board on Pinterest and gave myself a boost of inspiration.
Do you have secret boards on Pinterest? Or do you have a secret stash of design related images that you prefer to keep private?
Image credit: 1, 2 [I unfortunately cannot find the original] and 3.
