Backyard Progress

Turns out, there was a reason Dan and I've slacked on landscaping the past five years...

Landscaping is no joke.

In the past, we've settled on just using our backyard as a pass-thru to get to the alley to take out the trash. We've eaten out there exactly once, 4th of July with friends the first year we bought it.

After that, we somehow decided that it wasn't worth dealing with all the issues: the mis-matched fence, the monkey grass, the mountains of magnolia leaves, the hazardous patio with jagged slates, the poison ivy hidden in said monkey grass, the leaning tree, the unpruned bushes, and the influx of mosquitoes attracted, no doubt, by the effing monkey grass.

This spring, though, we finally decided that the monkey grass was done ruining our lives and that it was time to work on the backyard. While it doesn't look like much of a change, believe me, it was a ton of work. Here's our progress so far...

Before, when everything was overgrown:

After Dan and I spent hours pick-axing the monkey grass, planting six hostas, and mulching:

Before of bush/tree:

After we pruned the tree, axed up more monkey grass, put down stones, and planted three shade-happy plants in colorful pots:

Before, our patio without furniture:

Progress, now that we've purchased a table and chair set and filled up two trash cans of magnolia leaves:






We decided to make good on our spring resolution to actually use our backyard, so we made dinner for friends on Memorial Day. I couldn't resist picking up some bright accents, like lanterns to drape over the back fence


and cheap-o Target plates to go with the throw pillows:

I spray painted these terra cotta pots (Rustoleum's Lagoon and Key Lime, in case anyone else is interested) and potted a few other plants for some color near the patio:


Lastly, we bought corn hole to play (horrible name, great game). I'm all about the outdoor games lately, and am planning on investing in a bocce set soon.

Ignore the leaves in the below pic. We were completely spent after the rest of the backyard. And honestly, trying to keep them picked up is a losing battle.





So that's our progress so far. I know it doesn't look like much, but it felt like a huge difference from the disaster we started with.

And I have to say that hanging out in our backyard finally was pretty damn rewarding!

Spring To Do List

Something about spring makes me want to actually get stuff done, especially with my recent discovery of Pininterest, a site that has tons of inspiration pictures. It's basically the online version of the dorky binders I keep for hoarding inspiration photos from magazines. In short, I've been obsessed with it... and it's made me want to start on my own spring to do list:

Here are a few that caught my interest:

I love the chalkboard door (althought the scarily organized apothecary closet is definitely something that would only exist in Catalog Living- ha ha!):



And this photo made me want to have a better backyard:


I love the idea of using mason jars to create lighting outside:

Sigh.

Yep, the only issue I have with going on Pininterest is that it makes me want to start too many projects at once.

My Spring To Do List

* Paint a chalkboard in my kitchen (a la closet at top of post)

* Tidy up landscaping in front yard

* Find perfect burger recipe (ours always fall apart)

* Have a cook-out for friends or family

* Make our backyard somewhere we could hang occasionally

The last one is my biggest. Why? We've only eaten out there ONCE in FIVE YEARS. In case you are wondering why that may be, let me give a virtual tour.

Here's our patio now, smothered in magnolia leaves:




The rest of the yard is equally a disaster, with overgrown shrubs:

TONS of monkey grass:

Trees in need of pruning:

More monkey grass (with poison ivy hidden inside):



Monkey grass, monkey grass, monkey grass:

I'll let you know if we actually finish any of the above items. We've started all of them, guns blazing!

Any excuse to wear those oh-so-sexy goggles, right? :)

Just do it #16: Get a little dirty

I'm hoping that the title of this post doesn't sound like I'm taking stripping lessons or something raunchy, a la Christina Aguilera "Dirrty" circa 2007.

Uh... no.

Nope, I mean this goal was to actually get dirty. You see, I can be kinda prissy. My Halloween costumes are always decidedly cutesy and I don't love doing yard work and I once won a superlative in my sorority as being "Most likely to carry a purse."

So two months ago, when I heard about a 5K mud run that the Dominion extreme sport festival was putting on, and I thought it might be a good excuse to get a little dirty.


I recruited my muddy buddy Mali to do it with me 'cause she's always up for anything. She agreed, but insisted that we join the costume contest for the mud run. I love Mali for many reasons, one being that she'll always up the ante on stuff that is already crazy.

What does one dress up as when you're about to be dripping with mud? I'll give you one guess...

Is this commitment, or what?? She put these entire costumes together, pig nose, homemade ears, pink shirts, and even curly tails on our (soon to be muddy) asses.

Our husbands drove us to the festival, and after registering and praying that it would not start pouring again and limbering up and oinking for strangers, we finally started the run.

Here's a little virtual tour of the three mile course.

We started by running over the interstate and through Belle Isle, a nearby island overlooking the city.

Then, we jogged to the river and skipped rocks, like the ones below. Except imagine them covered in sludge and puddles and mud from over 2,000 people scampering across them:

We climbed up this rusty ladder (the same one in the photo below, except we are not as hardcore as that dude. He kinda looks like he could outrun a truck.)


The path eventually brought us to the river, where our group of mud wallowers (the slowest group) had to wade into water up to our armpits and crawl up a muddy bank.


Then, we looped back and ran over this suspension bridge. At first, I thought I was about to faint because a wave of dizziness washed over me. Nope, I was fine; it was just that the suspension bridge was swinging from the 100 other people tromping across it...



Then, we run about 1/2 a mile more and crawled through this mud pit. By the time we got there, it was dark so you can't see us crawling, but these people give you a good idea of how it was set up:







Dan and Mali's husband did catch this photo of our triumphant finish (about an hour later- ha ha)!

Afterwards, we went (wee, wee, wee!) all the way home for beer and barbeque.

And showers. After all, there's only so much being dirty this girl can take.

Pictures of Dirrty girl, Belle Isle and mud run from here, here, here, here, and here