the yard.

me and summer have somewhat of a love hate relationship. i hate being hot. i hate being sweaty. i hate having to run the air conditioning nonstop to keep from melting in my own house. i hate that i'm an adult, and i no longer get to be on vacation for three straight months. but as much as hate it, i really am beginning to love watching things grow.

today, whilst doing such much needed yard maintenance, i collected some of what the garden has made for me. a handful of the second or third round of the green beans. these are being steamed as i type.

a couple of tomatoes. this particular variety is called an 'abraham lincoln' tomato. jon and i may have picked out our tomato plants based on the silliness of their names. we also have a 'boxcar willie' tomato.

five jalapenos. i need to figure out something to do with all of these. there are probably five or so more that i should have picked, but there's only so many peppers you can eat in week.

some coriander. this was from our cilantro. growing cilantro as an herb always seems to be a failure, as it get too hot too soon and it bolts to seeds. i have never tried to dry out the seeds to make the coriander spice, so we'll see how it goes.

and these strangely perfect pine cones. i was picking up the one thousands sticks that the recent storms have thrown about the yard, when i found a stick covered in a dozen or so pine cones. i don't really know what i'm going to do with them, but they're pretty swell.

so that's today. a nice little spread if i do say so.

queen anne.

as you know, our yard grows magical quantities of queen anne's lace this time of year. saturday, jon walked into the house with an arm full of this.

it's a bit crazy, but mostly fantastic. and we put it in this sweet owl umbrella stand that we got for ten dollars at the thrift store. which i of course spray painted white. because that's how i roll. i certainly couldn't leave it like this.

and this is where it lives right now. between the cabinet and the tv. where i can stare at it while sitting on the couch.

cabinet.

i got this sad cabinet for free. where i work there is tons of empty old office space and thus abandoned office furniture. my friend rachel and i would go for walks in these spaces during lunch sometimes. one day, we spotted two of these cabinets in the hallway, and i knew i wanted one. 

after much encouraging from rachel and a lot of confusing phone calls to various maintenance departments, this cabinet showed up in my cubicle. complete with various drawers full of door pieces. a coworker then helped to wheel it out to my car using my desk chair as dolly. i'm pretty sure he thought i was crazy.

after this grand adventure, it probably sat in our garage for a year. i'm actually not quite sure how long it was, but a year seems like a conservative estimate. fixing it up just seemed daunting.

but a few weekends ago, in an apparently delusional state, i decided to start get my doing on one ninety degree saturday.

there was a lot of dremel-ing and prying (as the handles were riveted on, not screwed) and sanding and power washing and priming and spray painting. so much spray painting. so much spray paint on my arms, toes, feet, shoes, hair, glasses. i think delusional may have been an understatement, as this monster has thirty drawers. thirty!

but was it worth it. i don't think i can express how much i love how it turned out. i love it. love love love. so much so that it currently lives in the living room. which doesn't make any practical sense, because really, what am i going to do with thirty drawers in the living room, but i think i'm going to keep it there. because i like looking at it. all of the time.

and i put a lot of things that make me happy on top. like that giant wooden thing i got at a thrift store for ninety-nine cents which i'm pretty sure is a cassette tape holder. and that glittered hippo. and that cross stitch that i actually finished and didn't post about.

man, that sure is one handsome cabinet.