For example, about a year ago, I decided to paint the kitchenette area yellow. So I did all the work - got lots of paint swatches from the local Ace Hardware, asked a ton of questions about paint and painting, and even got two small sample jars (free with a Benjamin Moore coupon!) and a 12x12 Sheetrock piece to paint and set up against the wall to see how it looked in different light during the day. Remember, this was a YEAR ago. The paint samples are still in my laundry room, I have no idea where the 12x12 Sheetrock piece ended up - somewhere in the garage I think, and the brushes I bought for the job are still in their original packaging.
Example 2 - I LOVE cookbooks. I can spend hours looking at the pictures and thinking how fun it would be to make something I see. I bookmark the pages, plan menus and even sometimes shop for the items. But most of the time, when I'm busy looking through the cookbooks for what to cook that night... it gets late... and we end up with something simple like stir-fry or pb&j sandwiches. I have a million recipes I want to try, that I never seem to get done.
My friend Kathy is amazing - she is always trying something new - especially with recipes. She really inspires me... mentally, but apparently not to action. I've been this way as long as I can remember, and really didn't see it changing anytime soon.
Enter PINTEREST. I didn't jump on the bandwagon at first. But after a few months of seeing Facebook posts about it, I went ahead and set up an account. The first thing I did was remove the connection to Facebook (you can opt out of it after you register through it). After that I started looking around. Started following some friends. Starting loving the ideas I was seeing. And something strange happened. I started getting inspired - not just in my mind - but to DO something!
Since I've joined PINTEREST - I've bought and planted more plants. Re-potted more of my existing plants. Created hanging baskets. Bought, hung and filled a flower basket for the fence. And the biggest thing - found a "tipsy flower pot" idea I wanted to recreate in the dead area in front of my bedroom.
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This is a much bigger project than it sounds. The tipsy flower pot is a big project in itself - sinking a piece of 8" re-bar two feet into the ground, 5 terracotta pots that need to be weathered, and planting then all with flowers. But that's not the biggest part of the project. This "dead" area in front of the bedroom is a 14x14 "flower bed" that has almost nothing in it. Four Camellia bushes about 3 feet tall against the wall, some monkey grass and a TON of weeds. After getting it weeded, It still needed about 6-8" of soil to fill in where the foundation had been repaired and the soil cleared by never replaced. That seemed expensive (I'd been researching this for about 2-1/2 years and based on everything I found it would take about $150 of dirt to fill in), and I didn't allocate the money to do it. But after searching Pinterest, finding these tipsy pots and so many other great ideas, I began to form a plan for this area. And I started to get excited.
I knew I couldn't do the whole area at once financially. This would have to be done in waves. I measured off an area that I thought we could dump the dirt in to build it up, and I could start there. I knew we could get a bucket of basic dirt for $10... so I asked SG about the possibility of getting it and shoveling it in ourselves. After a quick search online, he found we could get a better product for that area with better drainage for $25... and we agreed to do it.
That afternoon, we went out and weeded and raked the bed. Got it totally clear. The whole thing (which seemed like a waste to me, but it looked better anyway). The next morning he got up early, took the truck and got that bucket full of good dirt. He brought it back and in an hour - we had it out of the truck (GS throwing shovel fulls of dirt) and spread on the ENTIRE area! I was so shocked! We started with that 7x7 area I wanted to use, but there was still so much more dirt! So we kept going. He told me this would be plenty, but I didn't believe it. Every time I ran the calculations for an area, it showed we would need much more than it actually needed! SG was on a roll, and he went back to get a load of mulch, and we put that down too. I moved some of the monkey grass, too. And now it looks BEAUTIFUL! We even had enough mulch to do the rest of the beds.
I have the pots now, and will get them painted this weekend and ready to go when we get back in town. Still need to figure out where I want to put them, which is a big challenge, not knowing what I will actually be able to put in that area in the near future due to finances. And I have a feeling once that re-bar is in the ground, SG is NOT going to want to move it! :)
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