So this is what I actually did today {I’ll try to keep it to the DIY parts}…

I snuggled my 3 kids, who all decided to come in my bed this morning, from 7-8am.  I dropped them all off at school at 8:50am.  I need to pick the 2 younger ones up at 11:20am, so it doesn’t give me too much time to get anything done.  Today I went right to Lowe’s.  It’s actually on the adjoining property to my kids’ school, which sounds weird, but it really isn’t.  I wanted to pick up a free sample of the Valspar Spring 2013 paint.  There was a coupon for it in Better Homes and Gardens.  I also bought 2 packs of lettuce seeds per my hubby’s request.  I ran into my favorite employee, the manager of the garden department!  I’ll have to take a pic with him one of these days.  He said he would stash one retaining wall block for me.  My block has been discontinued, well the color changed, and I need one more, but I want him to chisel it for me, but didn’t bring the measurements, so I’ll be back tomorrow.  Here you can see the missing block.

Back home to dig up some plants.  I had worked in the garden this weekend trying to get the raised planter beds ready to plant.  (Garden #10 on my map.) There was a $2 sale at Home Depot two weeks ago, so I already bought some veggies and want to get them in the ground.  {I always buy eggplant and peppers as plants and don’t bother with the seeds.}   Part of prepping the beds was digging out a bunch of crazy out-of-control mint.  I potted up 8 and brought them to an earth day festival that was having a plant exchange.  I’ve never done one before and it was really cool to come home with 5 different plants.  It inspired me to dig up even more.  Today, {see I was getting to it} I potted up more overgrown mint, as well as crazy sprawling strawberries and raspberries and took them to a meeting at my church and sold them for $1 apiece.  I made $22 and if felt great to send the plants on to good homes.  I can’t wait to go to another plant exchange either!

Well that got me thinking about my garden beds some more and I decided to dedicate one of the 5’x5’ beds to raspberries and blackberries.  I have a raspberry patch behind my shed that started as 3 or 4 plants in 2011 and last summer I was shocked to find how quickly they spread.  In all honesty, I had no idea they spread by runners at all.  At first I was pulling up the little plants because I thought they were weeds.  I ended up putting a stone border around the area and letting it turn into a raspberry patch.  The soil is naturally acidic, which is a plus, but I don’t think they get enough sun back there.  I did get berries last year but not a ton.  So today starts my experiment to see if the ones I transplanted to the bed in front of the shed do any better.  I dug up 6 raspberries and both blackberries I had, which were definitely failing to thrive, and put them in raised bed A.  {I actually made a map of my yardin hopes that one of you might be interested in taking a look at it.}

Then I started thinking that the raspberry patch could benefit from a trellis of some sort to help support the plants.  Actually that’s what my hubby keeps telling me.  I think the plants are doing just fine au natural, but I’d love to put in a trellis to conceal the view of the compost/storage area.  I stuck some stakes in the ground to get an idea of what it would look like.  I like to check these things out from the kitchen window.  Definitely an improvement!!  But no time to build one right then.

What else?  I planted some more sprawling lime green plants called Creeping Jenny or Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) .  I planted them for the first time last year in hopes they would cascade over my retaining wall although I’ve only seen them do this in pictures.  I’ve mostly seen them used as filler in pots, cascading over the side.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out they are perennial.  They are great for me because they like part shade.  I’ve got a lot of shade!   I filled in some spots and added more on the left side.  I likey!   In this picture the plants I added today look more green, while the ones from last year look more yellow.

Enough gardening, it was time to go pick up the kids.  We spent the afternoon in a friend’s yard.  Tuesday is our playgroup day.  I cherish my time with my girlfriends!

When my assistants got home around 3:45pm, we had an hour to bang out a few projects before all the sports practices started.  {My hubby drives carpool to cheerleading.  I like doing basketball because it’s from 6-8pm and I get out of the house for over 2 hours and he’ll have our 4 and 5-year-old in bed when I get home.  Yay!!  I usually go to Goodwill and Home Depot while she’s there, but not today lol!}  Hubby was in charge of raking up some leaves and adding them to the never used 3^rd section of our giant pallet compost station.  My oldest, who hates weeding and raking, has found her new love… spray paint!  I sent her into the woods {but not very far people} to prime and paint a sorry looking magazine rack I’ve had sitting in my family room for ages.  She picked my favorite new shade of spray paint from Home Depot called seaside.

Meanwhile, I decided to test out the Thomson’s WaterSeal hubby bought last year but we never got around to using.  When we bought our new dining room table we decided to bring our old IKEA BJURSTA table outside on the screened porch.  The problem is that rain does come through the screened windows/walls.  I wanted to try to waterproof the table and I also plan to add wheels so I can roll it away from the windows during a hard downpour.  I was just going to test the stuff on one area, but I am so all-or-nothing I just covered the entire thing.  I poured the stuff in a Solo cup and applied it with a cheapy foam brush, but it’s when I rubbed it with a rag that it really looked great!  In the pic below, I brushed the sealer on the entire table, but had only ragged off the left side.  I did the legs and sides too.  I even grabbed the two table leafs and did those too.  I don’t think the product is intended for this type of application, but I was willing to take the risk.  The container says to test a surface by splashing water on it, if it beads up it can’t be sealed.  Oh well, the water drops did bead up on this table, but I sealed it anyway.  I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

I had a bit of my hour left so I decided to get in on the spray painting.  My assistant had primed 2.5 patio chairs.  I dragged a pallet over to put the chairs on, because duh, you can’t get the bottom of the legs when they’re in the dirt! I painted 1.25 chairs before the spray paint and my hour ran out.

Which brings me to Starbucks.  When I get home, before I plop on the couch for some ME time, I want to get the queen size mattress out of my office and bring it upstairs.  I built the guest bed in the office, but now   I want to convert it to a loft/fort bed for my favorite little man.  Baby steps though, first step is to move the mattress and get a better look at the bed.   I also would love to paint 4 IKEA KNUFF magazine files for the laundry room, but I’ve been trying to pick a color for months, so I don’t have high hopes of getting that done tonight.  I would also LOVE to finish up some posts that are just missing a picture or two.  But I am making a promise to myself to post this tonight!!!

…I painted the magazine files with my new free paint from this morning.  Yey!  I am going to add a second color, but it’s a good start.  I did not move the mattress because hubby was too busy working on his bike.  As in bicycle lol!  Now we’ll have to see how much blogging I get accomplish while watching my men on NCIS: Los Angeles.