Greener Grass

Wrigley snuggling with the happy grass

I thought it would never happen. A lush green lawn  — and not the "I-just-bought-some-sod-and-rolled-it-out" kind, but an actual thick green turf that grew on its own, well kinda. And Wrigley agrees that it feels good underpaw.

The secret? Well, I guess you could say drugs ... and some dedication.

My grass is all hopped up on seed, fertilizer and weed control. Its a slow process that takes some serious faith in the green grass system. Let me be the first to tell you that if you stick with it for a couple seasons, you will begin to see results that are very satisfying. But it does take time.

What I learned in the process:
1. Fescue is the best for my sunny yard, and not bluegrass.
2. Leaves left in grass will suffocate your grass over the winter.
3. If you are in a drought, its pretty hard to keep grass alive without a sprinkler system.
4. Clover won't die without weed killer.
5. Mow your lawn at its highest setting to let the good grass control the yard and block weeds from getting sun (this one is really important and took me two seasons to actually believe).
6. Spring is for preventing weeds, fall is for seeding and preparing the lawn for the next year.
7. A lawn aerator is a big scary machine that pokes holes in the earth and can pull you anywhere.

Wrigley approves.

Finally, grass I can walk on barefoot

Is Less More?

AFTER: Leftover butcher block wood turned into a pen holster

Two points for writing a design catchphrase.

In my experience, sometimes less is more — sometimes more is more. Just depends on what you need and are going for. This is a test on whether or not we need 100 pens at any given moment on our desk, or just eight. I think we should know soon enough if this was a good idea.

I suppose I could have put fancy matching Ticonderoga pencils into the piece for a prettier picture, but the pen/pencil mix is probably more realistic.

BEFORE: Previous pen solution for my desk

How To: Homemade Cutting Boards - Part 2

Completed 12" x12" end grain cutting board

Orion and I met up for a second night on the cutting board project.

I can now tell you that 50% of the work on cutting boards is sanding. The rest is gluing, and waiting, and waiting and waiting.

We managed to get three cutting boards out of eight 1.5" X .75" X 6' strips of walnut and red oak. One board is completely sanded and ready for use in our kitchen, the other two are getting smoothed out in the coming days.

We used a random orbit sander to smooth out all the surfaces. 80 grit was not rough enough, so we went to 60 grit for quicker results on the super hard surface. In a perfect world, this would be a job for a planer, but since we don't have one, the hand sander will do. After 60 grit feels smooth, we did 150 grit and 220 grit for a perfectly smooth finish.

After sanding, added something called "feed n' wax" on the wood, which is a combo of beeswax and oils to make the wood visually richer.

The results are satisfying — and we've learned a new trick that will be perfect for making family gifts next Christmas...

Patience is the secret

Orion glued up the biggest cutting board last night

Cutting board smooth as marble after 220 grit sanding

The waxy oil looks like snot

This wood was thirsty for sure – now it's in HD

Rubber grips on the bottom allow for some grip and leave room for moisture to escape

Between Four Ferns

Since Saturday afternoon, I've had four monstrous ferns in our basement while Kansas City experienced a very unusual late March snow storm. Today the weather has finally cleared to something resembling spring, so the ferns have found their place on our porch.



I love having these wild plants out there. They add such fun color and texture to the porch (which doubles as a living room/dining room/reading corner from April through October) and I think they're just the perfect accessory.

I wonder if our tenants from last year will be nesting with us again. . .

How to: Homemade Cutting Boards: Part 1

Gluing up an oak and walnut cutting board

I am lucky to work with to an old college friend at my job. We're just figuring this out now, but we both have a passion for woodworking and all things diy.

The past week we have been chatting it up in the cube about meeting up to make some hardwood cutting boards. Orion made a trip to Schutte last Wednesday to pick up some oak and walnut, and we finally got rolling this Sunday.

The cutting boards are probably going to take 3 days to complete, just because there is alot of gluing, which takes a night to cure before moving to the next step, but eventually we will end up with some sweet checker board, endgrain up, cutting boards.

Here is the progress so far.

Orion chopping up the wood to 13" strips

Gluing up the strips face to face

Multiple clamps keep things square

View of end-grain, which will eventually be the top of the cutting boards 

Oak and walnut contrast nicely

Italia!

Remember the cool picture frames C made while I was out of town? Well, we've finally put them to use.

Here's our boring stairway wall before:



And here it is after:



Quite the improvement, don't you think?

Chris built the frames to match the size we wanted for these prints, which came from a Paper Source calendar featuring vintage Italy travel ads. Total cost of the project is pretty cool:
- $25 calendar
- $25 for glass for the frames
- $0 for the reclaimed oak the frames are built from (yay for old stair treads!)
- $32 for 4 mats

Making a grand total of . . . . $82! If we consider the calendar used up for this project, that's only $20 and change per picture.

BUT . . . I have some plans for the remaining prints so let's count all twelve prints, taking our cost to . . . . $16 per picture! That's pretty hard to beat, and one of many reasons it's so nice to have a handy husband.

We've loved the Firenze print in particular ever since our honeymoon when we got to see Florence's amazing cathedral in person.





Ahh, memories . . . .

Anyway, our last step: painting the big white patch on the wall leftover from our messy plaster job a few months ago. Ugh, memories. I guess they can't all be good.

Grow

I saw this picture on a blog I follow, and couldn't help but think how amazing these letters, made of recycled misprinted soda, juice, and soup cans, would look on the back of the garage, facing the garden.

Do you think the plants would get the message?