Just don't throw them at the windows.

We made a ladder-golf set! It was stinkingly easy. And kind of fun; like k'nex for adults. We used the great instructions found here, and have enjoyed many a game thus far. In the making:

Bits and pieces (= fun.)

Ta-da!

The "bolos" or whatever you call them (nunchucks?) are made out of nylon rope and two golf balls. Drilling a hole in the golf balls was a potential problem; the instructions use a drill press (we just bought a lawn mower--we don't have a drill press). The Mr. gave it a try with his hand-held drill, which, but for the added risk of drilling through a finger, worked pretty well. Then you throw the nunchuck-things at the ladders and try to get them wrapped around the rungs. It's fun. Honest. So after he set out to make these things, we've been seeing ready-made sets everywhere; however, we still have yet to see one that's cheaper than this was to make...

Oops (I guess?)

So we had some excitement yesterday afternoon. The Mr. was out in the backyard eating weeds (or weed-eating, to make him sound less like a goat), and I was making potato salad in the kitchen. Cue sudden and loud WHAP noise, which caused me to look toward the back yard, the Mr. to put down the weed-eater and stare at the house, and the Dog to leave the vicinity. We watched, mouths agape, as large spidery cracks spread in spokes across one of the plate-glass doors in the family room. We both went through a few stages of "Whoa, what?," followed by "Aaaigh! Keep the dog out!", to "Hey, that's kind of cool-looking" once we figured out it was the outside pane of two and that it wouldn't be exploding into shards inside the house. What actually did it, though, is still kind of a mystery. The Mr. thinks the weed-eater may have kicked something up, which is a definite possibility, but he was pretty far away; we've also had a couple of birds smack into these windows, so I guess there's that, though you'd think if a bird hit the window that hard he'd be lying there on the patio seeing stars. Some pictures:

I took those yesterday evening, a couple of hours after it happened. It's actually still cracking this morning--every couple of minutes I hear another little "pop." The Mr. criss-crossed the outer side with packing tape in the hopes of keeping it in bigger pieces, should it fall out of the frame. We read somewhere online that some kinds of safety glass can withstand storm winds without falling out of their frames if they're cracked like this--here's hoping that's the kind we have. Anyway. The glass guys are coming today to see what it is they'll need to do. As long as it doesn't fall out, it's kind of neat-looking--we had some friends by yesterday who hadn't seen the house and actually thought it was crackled on purpose. We were like, "of course it is."

Well, it hasn't fallen down, yet.

So we have a tiny (as in 7' x 8') "office." I'm convinced it used to be a pantry, or something, but the agent listed it as an office, so we went with it. When it comes down to it, it's plenty of room for a desk, a chair, and a bookcase. We also have two filing cabinets that are a little worse for the wear (one was originally my sister's, and is in good shape but for having been moved four or five times; the other came from beside a dumpster at my old apartment complex and claims to contain "Rob's Professional Files." Sometimes I wonder who Rob was, and whether he had another filing cabinet for his unprofessional files.) Right. Anyway, the point is, they're different sizes, so stacking things on top of them looks kind of weird. Eh, here's a picture. It illustrates the "problem" better than anything:

Yeah, that's ugly. Needless to say, none of our furniture quite offered a solution ("yea tall, deep enough for two filing cabinets, wide enough for two printers on top and a trash can underneath"), so we tried our hand at furniture-making. Anybody who actually builds furniture might suffer some sort of trauma seeing the following ("you used L-brackets where!?"), so.. warning. Construction pictures:

Top board, left, and legs. The top board was precut 2' x 4' 1/2" plywood (about $6, I think), and the legs were actually deck rail supports. They were way cheaper than the actual "table legs" we found at Home Depot ($3 apiece), and longer, which turned out to be a good thing. The top, put together:

It sat like that for a week or two. Then we got around to putting the legs on it:

Okay, so it's not going to win any awards. That back brace looks kind of stupid, we realize. But you won't really be able to see it, and if it keeps our printers from falling on the floor, bring on the stupid. I used some of the leftover quarter round from trimming the baseboards around the top edge, and painted the whole thing white to match the trim in the office:

I find I'm often painting things at, like, dusk. So if you come visit, don't stare at anything too hard. It's surprisingly stable. We got it in, festooned it with printers, and I made it a tiny curtain to match the valances I'd made for the windows in there. Here's the "after" shot:

With the paint and lots of L-brackets, it came to something between $20-$25, which is about as good as we could have hoped for. We'll just hope it keeps standing...

Less than $10: An Ode to Craigslist

Speaking of "less than $10," my sister-in-law informs me that somebody on HGTV recently spray-painted a chandelier like we did. Maybe we should demand royalties. But back to Craigslist: for eight bucks apiece, we picked up these two chairs from (as it turned out) someone who lives about three miles down the road from us. They're a neat shape, and the finish looks great with our dining table. They needed some cleaning up, and besides a minor flaw that we discovered when we got them home (their arms are about a quarter of an inch too high to fit under the table), I think they're going to work. I took off the cushions (one was red, one was green. I didn't ask.):

...and recovered them with upholstery fabric.

I may recover them again at some point. This fabric, despite how the picture looks, is not at all pink, but different shades of gold; some blocks are warmer, and some have a greenish tint I thought would blend nicely with the green chairs and the gold-ish walls. Ultimately, the checkerboard bit is a lot less subtle in our house than it was in the store and I still may keep my eye out for other options. At any rate, the Christmas cushions and stains and such are gone and I'm happy with that for now. We still have to figure out how best to fix the arm-height problem. So far our plan is to saw a half-inch off the bottom of all the legs. Either that or screw something into the feet of the table that raises it up enough. Suggestions?

PSST, TOOTS? HOLD MY CALLS.

Gotta go see a dog about a guy.

Farming the Back Yard

Okay, other folks would call it "gardening." A couple of weekends ago the Mr. set out to tame a very overgrown pre-existing garden plot in our new back yard. It was already fenced off (and protected from the munching of larger animals by chicken wire):

The above was after a good bit of heavy weeding. And de-snaking. Yes. Snakes. That's when I went inside and said, "Tell me when to come take another picture. I'll be buying stilts off the internet." Here's part of the ridicumongus pile of weeds he pulled out of it (by the end it was about five feet in diameter and came up past my knees):

Tilled up, and ready for topsoil:

Note the monstrous rosemary bush in the bottom right. Other survivors of neglect included some chives and a spearmint plant. And... planted!

Because I'm twelve years old, I found the following hilarious. He mixed this into the topsoil before spreading it:

"We are Number 1 in the Number 2 Business."

And, voila! He was able to cram tomatoes, okra, several kinds of pepper, some cucumbers, some squash, and others into that space, and so far they seem to be doing pretty well. We also planted a nice little herb garden in an existing window-box-like planter on one of the fence walls in the back yard. It's going to be nice to read "fresh [insert name of herb]" in a recipe, and not roll my eyes. I don't know about you folk, but buying anything like that fresh at a grocery store in these parts adds up fast, so I never do. Ha, dried Basil. Ha.

Thanks! (Curtains update)

Okay, so an update on fabric choices (thanks for the suggestions!!) I have now learned that there is a Waverly outlet within reach (I love me a discount). Thanks, too, to my mother-in-law for the positive identification of our Roses (Knock-Out?) and for assuring us that they are, thankfully, of the easy-care variety. I just wanted to share some things I found via the suggested links. First off, HEE. "Seagull," by Jenny Lee-Katz:

Next, beautimous: "Avalon," by Daisy Janie

I also really like this one of hers: "Maxie"

LOVE, but probably too dark: "Hydrangea Blue," by Cicada Studio

and, "HEE," all over again: "Chicks-a-dee"

Ah, so many great things out there. Thanks to my sister for restoring my faith in online shopping. Be on the lookout for pictures of the Mr.'s brand-new garden!