Basement Wall Makeover

We are working on giving the basement some 70's vibes and a big step towards that was installing this fun yellow and orange floral wallpaper!

This project has been a wish for quite some time and earlier this year I placed the wallpaper order. When it finally arrived we had to get to work prepping the wood paneling. We filled all the grooves, smoothed out the surface the best we could, then primed the wall to make sure no brown peeked through. This is the wall after the first layer of filler. 

While hanging the wallpaper I got very frustrated aligning the flowers and could only do a few panels at a time so I could calm down. There are some places that the flowers don't perfectly align, but when you step back the wall looks pretty good. I'm pretty happy with how the basement is looking so far. The next little project is painting the window trim on the wall to the left. I think that middle orange color will look quite nice!

Shorten the Daffodil

I made another foraged floral bouquet! One of the flowers even came from a neighbor’s yard (after asking permission though).

Over the weekend I noticed that the Japanese pieris in the yard was now blooming so I clipped two branches to start this bouquet. After wandering around the yard for a bit I picked a few sword fern fronds then started building my bouquet. It definitely needed a large statement flower at this point so I got up the nerve to take a daffodil from the neighbor’s yard. They happened to be outside so I got permission and don’t have to feel bad about taking their flower. 

Now that I’ve been looking at the photo of this bouquet, it would probably look better if the daffodil was shortened a little bit. I might do that, but probably won’t.

Garden Update

I’m slowly starting my garden seeds. In January I direct sowed brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, snow peas and some spinach. So far there might be one seedling that is growing. It’s very tiny and I think it looks like a brassicaceae, but it could also be a weed. I’ll find out when it gets true leaves. 

This week I did my next round of seed starting. These were sown indoors since they are tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers. I tried the snail starting method for the first time and made only a little bit of a mess. To make these soil roll ‘snails’, I took some scrap fabric added soil, folded the fabric over, and rolled it all up like a cinnamon roll. Next I watered the rolls very well and added the seeds on top. One drawback I’m realizing is that if you are doing multiple types of the same plant in the same roll it is difficult to label them. I decided to not label my seeds so hopefully I have enough of a gap between seed types that I’ll know which tomatoes are which.

Bingo Progress

Two months of the year are (mostly) gone so I’m doing a resolution check in! In hopes of getting a black out on my bingo card, I need to regularly look at what projects remain. (I had already forgot I wanted to make a photo calendar.) Here is my progress:

I’ve completed three tasks on my crafty bingo card. That’s 12.5% and we are done with only 15% of the year. The socks are still in progress which has had me feeling discouraged (knitting isn’t interesting me right now), but I am planning on marking another project from the card tonight so I’m doing alright. What project should I start next?

Not a Snow Day

This winter has been the most dry of Portland's history and while I have been enjoying the frequent sunny afternoons and clear night skies (winter stargazing is such a rarity!), I was really looking forward to the snow that was forecasted for this week/today. Unfortunately, the forecast of snow for today turned into a forecast of a mix of rain and snow which then turned into a forecast of rain which ultimately ended up being mostly no rain.

Whatever weather you are having I'm sending you a virtual snow day where you can spend some time cuddled up on the couch with a cute kitten or pup or book or whatever makes you cozy. Hopefully this sweetie will cuddle me for a bit tonight.