Weekend Achievements

Well, like always, I did not get as much homework done this weekend as I would have liked. (Seriously, cross your fingers that I don't bomb my copyright final. It's a mere 15 days away.) But instead I spent all Sunday doing home improvement type things and, if I do say so myself, achieved pretty fantastic results! After a quick trip to home depot with the bf, I had supplies to rehab the rollaway bar and a ton of pots, plants, and soil for the balcony. The rollaway bar got a deeper cleaning, a reattached handle, a little work with the wood glue, and a newly sanded top. I did the sanding by hand, and it was an intense arm work out. But look how nicely all of the old stain came off!

Previous condition on the left. Freshly sanded on the right.

Finished product!

I think I got the wrong wood stain, so I'll save that project for another weekend. Instead, I moved onto my gardening projects. Jeremy brought home an azalea bush from Costco the other weekend, and it need to be potted. Plus our sad little lemon tree badly needed to be repotted. And, after watching enough episodes of My Cat From Hell*, we decided that we should pot the kitty grass we buy instead of letting it die in the plastic packaging it comes in. But of course, like all trips to Home Depot, once we were in the plant section we bought a ton of other plants that we did not plan on. So we also brought home herbs, flowers, and a banana pepper plant, which all needed to be potted too! It was a ton of work, and I was totally exhausted by the end. But I could not be happier with the results. The balcony is all spruced up in time to host my family and friends for graduation!

 The little ceramic face was from a sun-shaped garden decoration my mom gave me years ago. I hung it on my patio in DC, but one day a storm blew it down. The funny thing is that, when it shattered, everything crumbled except the face. So I saved the face, and I tucked it in various planters ever since.

* The cat therapist on the show is always telling cat owners to turn their patio into a catio. It sounds totally lame, but after hearing that phrase enough times, the desire to make our balcony more fun for Tiny has become ingrained in my consciousness. And in case you are worried about the flowers I planted around the kitty grass, let me assure you that I checked, and pansies are completely cat friendly.