#i’m so happy i bought this clay a few months ago it SAVED me from burnout

[whumpy-wyrms]

hiiiiii how are you doing????

-❤️

hii

i’m doing pretty good for the most part, i’m on winter break for over a month but i have the worst case of writers block and art block ever and no energy or motivation to do literally ANYTHING

..anything besides make my blorbos out of clay

here’s ollie’s decapitated head. i’m making him out of clay. life size ollie (3.5 inches tall). real ollie. ollie will be real. for realsies. also i made part of his body but it’s not in the picture. i started this yesterday and i’ll probably finish this today i’m locked in. very excited

[xoluvx]

worst in me - t.h x fem!reader

Worst In Me ♡

a little angst thing i had saved from a while ago and finally got around to finishing. i don’t think i’m the best angsty writer but also who cares. enjoy. 

(gif)

It was a cold day. Your nose felt number; you’d almost lost all feeling in your fingers urging you to bury your hands deep in the pockets of your coat longing for warmth. Though it was cold, you soaked in the fresh air that hit your face like a dozen pins and needles. You snuggled your chin into the safety of your scarf as you continued walking down the street. You could spot your apartment and suddenly your feet felt heavy like rocks. 

The door to your place creaked as your keys jiggled in the lock. The sudden wave of warmth soothed your body; a wave of relaxation. You removed your boots, discarding them on the shoe rack you’d bought a few month ago. The shoe rack he’d sent you a link to; the same one he had at his own place back in London. 

“Hey,” you heard a soft voice speak from the dim lit living room. You turned your attention to the man sitting on the couch while you struggled to take off your giant coat, a small puff escaping your lips. You blew a strand of hair from your face. “Hi,” you said hanging your heavy coat. “How was your walk?” he asked looking at you. His brown eyes gleamed, even in the dim light. “Good,” you simply replied walking straight to your bedroom after giving him a half smile. 

You let the door shut silently behind you, but your chest felt heavy and you were sure anyone could hear the thumping of your heart as you leaned against the door. Your eyes shut, trying to remember you got to this point. The heaviness of your chest now turning into a knot that was hard to swallow.

He’d been back in town for almost a day and though you were happy, very happy, he was here things hand’t been falling into place like usual. A part of you didn’t know how to act around him. Every time he went away, it was like you’d forget how to live with him. How to function with him physically here, and not just a person on your phone that would disappear every few hours. 

You’d been happy. You were happy. 

But the distance. The distance killed you. The fucked-up time zones. The constant questioning. The speculations. The doubts. What was he doing in that paparazzi photo? Why hadn’t he called you all day?

You felt stupid thinking about it. This is what you’d signed up for. You both knew that. But each day, each time he went away, each time he came back – it got harder and harder for you to remember all the good times. All the good things about the relationship.

You hadn’t realized you were crying until you tasted the saltiness of your tears creeping down your upper lip; your back still pressed against the door, the palms of your hands holding you up. There was a small knock on the door that brought you back to reality. You sniffled, wiping the tears with the sleeves of your long sleeve shirt. 

You cleared your throat, moving from the door allowing him to come in. You made your way to the wooden dresser, pulling at the knob. You removed your tear stained shirt, pulling on a large grey t-shirt then quickly removing your jeans. The warmth gone once again. Your let your body flop on the bed, sitting on your leg as you tried to control the shakiness in your body. You heard the door open, his head peeping in. 

“Hey,” he said asking for permission to come in.

“Hi,” you said meeting his eyes. He noticed the redness in your eyes and the slight puffiness when he let himself fully into the room. He was clutching to the doorknob before shutting the door softly as he approached you. “What’s wrong?” he asked taking a seat next to you at the end of the bed.

You didn’t answer. He followed your gaze, which was fixated on the window. You heard him sigh; his body tensing up at your side. “I’m sorry.” He said not being able to sit in the uncomfortable silence. You turned to him, eyes searching his face. You felt horrible. He was here for you. Here to spend time with you. And you’d gone on a walk, hardly talked to him since his plane landed. He had nothing to be sorry for.

“No” you whispered, shoulders slumping. You reached for his hand, intertwining your fingers in his. You both looked down at your hands which were connecting for the first time since his plane landed almost five hours ago.

🎶Remember when I used to be happy for you?

“I’ll be back by midnight,” you heard your boyfriend’s voice echo through the small space of your apartment. You pressed the pause button, turning your attention from the TV and towards your boyfriend who was slipping on his jacket. “Have fun, babe.” You said sending a sweet smile his way leaning your weight on the side of the couch.

“I love you,” he said moving closer to your face, planting a small kiss on your lips, careful not to smear his face with the clay mask currently happening on your face. He laughed slightly taking in the view. “Love you,” you replied smiling.

He planted a small kiss on the top of your head before exiting the apartment. You turned your attention back to the TV, resuming your show. You loved this. He goes out with his friends; you stay at home and catch up on your shows and squeeze in some self-care.

You didn’t mind a few hours to yourself. You went out lots of times together, so you never minded when he wanted to go out with friends on his own. You trusted him. More than anything, the time apart made you miss him even more and made you cherish the time he blessed you with his presence. 

You were happy.

🎶Remember when you used to be happy for me?

“Oh my gosh!” You jumped clapping your hands, tears forming in your eyes. Hearing the scream, Tom rushed down the hall and into the kitchen only to find you jumping and jittery. “What’s wrong?” he asked, a confused look on his face.

You turn your attention to him, a big smile on your face. “My article is going to be featured on The New Yorker,” you said feeling your chest fill up with butterflies. You bit your lip trying to contain the happy tears but as soon as you felt his arms wrap around you, you let them go.

“I am so happy for you, babe. You deserve it,” he says pulling away only to come face to face with you. He brushed a strand of hair behind your ear closing the gap between your faces. “It’s not front page or anything but-” you mumble lips still attached.

“Doesn’t matter, you got it and it’s a big stepping stone,” he said wiping the tears from your cheeks.

This you also loved. He celebrated your successes. No matter how small. He was always there for you, your number one for everything.

He was happy.

🎶And now it’s like we’re scared of getting good.

“Talk to me,” he urged in a whisper. His hand held yours tighter as you felt your body shaking once again. It was an uncontrollable shake that sprouted from your chest and infiltrated every fiber of your body. You hadn’t realized you were sobbing. Your chest heaving as you tried catching your breath. You felt Tom’s hand on your cheek wiping the tears that were streaming down your face until his thumb stopped at the corner of your lip. 

“Please,” he pleaded. The worry in his voice was evident. The way his thumb brushed along the corner of your lip was reassuring and made you feel warm inside. The best kind of warm.

You’d been scared. So scared he wasn’t going to understand. That he was going to see the worst in you and just walk away. Scared that you wouldn’t be worth the fight. But the way his fingers intertwined with yours flawlessly like they’d done for many years. The way his thumb brought you a sense of security and stability that only he could provide was enough to let you know that even in the worst, he’d always be your best. 

Masterlist

[theputterer]

Good Things in 2019

It’s that time of year again! Time to remember all the good things that happened in 2019. I did this last year, and highly recommend doing this as a fun way to reflect (and to have something for future reference when you are feeling Down.)

PERSONAL

I got a raise this year; TWICE!

And I am salaried now! Which is a good thing, I think.

I went to Alaska!

Anchorage

The Anchorage Museum is FANTASTIC, well worth a visit. Earthquake Park is very interesting, Glacier Brewhouse is YUMMY

Seward

Seward Highway is gorgeous, the Seward Museum is well-worth a visit

Kenai Fjords National Park

We took a five hour boat and dinner cruise and it was probably the highlight of the trip. Mountains IN the ocean! Plus whales, seals, puffins, etc.

Talkeetna

Fantastic little town with a delightful museum; I bought a print of a star chart that I adore

Denali National Park

Beautiful! Saw some elk, sled-dogs.

I wrote over 41,500 words of fic!

Much, much shorter than I have in the previous years but I’m okay with that. I am trying to Move Away from it.

Yours Is No Disgrace

Assorted Nonsense; a nice Jyn and Ersa story

I know what it’s like to hate my own father.

The Follower

An AU to the AU; a prompt fic for crane-wife

“Hey, Follower.”

Interludes

Assorted Nonsense; a prompt from my dear friend @leaiorganas

Sometimes, we can’t save everyone.

Speaking of @leaiorganas, she PRINTED the Nonsense for me! 

Like, all of it.

Magical, magical, magical.

@dasakuryo made covers for GRAY AREAS!

These might have been made a while ago, but I just saw them this year, so

I started some Light work on the Trash Fire

Gross; but important.

I went to a few Mariners games!

Not even mad the Nats won the World Series; happy for my buddy @magalis​

I attended Opening Day!

Edgar Martinez was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

The USWNT won the World Cup!

MOVIES

Some 2019 movies I saw and enjoyed: 

CAPTAIN MARVEL

KNIVES OUT (unsurprisingly, I loved it)

US (terrifying)

HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (exactly what it said on the tin)

LONG SHOT (haven’t laughed this hard at a movie in a while)

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (cute)

AD ASTRA

MOONLIGHT SONATA: DEAFNESS IN THREE ACTS

BOMBSHELL

THE DEAD DON’T DIE

Caveat: I’m watching this for the first time tonight... but I am optimistic

I saw more movies than that, but #positivity.

Special shout-out to CATS for being..... That.

Some 2018 movies I saw late and loved: 

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (I never saw ANT-MAN)

WIDOWS (holy shit did we sleep on this)

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER VERSE

MARY POPPINS RETURNS

Other movies I saw for the first time and enjoyed: 

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (I was led to believe this was bad and it wasn’t??)

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

god I must have seen other movies for the first time, right??

theputterer: I love movies

also theputterer: i never watch movies

TV

I had a big year in watching TV!

I loved: 

BROOKLYN 9-9

FLEABAG

KILLING EVE (kill me Jodie Comer)

DERRY GIRLS (people told me for months I’d like it and surprise I adored it)

SUPERNATURAL announced that this is the last season

so. we’re dealing with that.

Chance The Rapper hosted SNL and holy shit, it was hilarious

BOOKS

“Call Down the Hawk” by Maggie Stiefvater

My kingdom for me to write This Good

I also re-read “The Raven Cycle” series which is still Good

“The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood

“Bridge of Clay” by Marcus Zusak

“The Collected Schizophrenias” by Esmé Weijun Wang

just beautiful and so important!

“Life on Mars” by Tracy K. Smith

“The Center Cannot Hold” by Elyn Saks

important!

“The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostava

bananas, but I inhaled it

“The Last Policeman” by Ben H. Winters

“Monstress” by Lysley Tenorio

an impulse grab that I loved

“Borne” by Jeff Vandermeer

LOVED

“The Strange Bird” by Jeff Vandermeer

“All The Lives We Ever Lived” by Katharine Smith

“Morning In The Burned House” by Margaret Atwood

a re-read, but still

“Black Leopard, Red Wolf” by Marlon James

I wish I liked this more than I did :(

“The Dreamers” by Karen Thompson Walker

“Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe

VERY GOOD, recommended to all

“The Female Gaze” by Alicia Malone

“The Mere Wife” by Maria Dahvana Headley

BEOWULF retelling, hello

“The Lady From the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Millicent Patrick” by Mallory O’Meara

“Disappearing Earth” by Julia Phillips

this was really, really good.

“The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson

I know I’m super late

“Educated” by Tara Westover

“The Chain” by Adrian McKinty

“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong

stunning, will mess you up

“Three Women” by Lisa Taddeo

I’m working on “Dead Astronauts” by Jeff Vandermeer! I had a big Vandermeer year

MUSIC

Did anyone else release music this year besides Hozier??

Wasteland, Baby! owned me

“Jackboot Jump” is similarly good

Harry Styles returned with Fine Line

I know it’s late but I dressed up as Stevie Nicks for Halloween and spent the entire month of October listening to Rumours

The National came out with I Am Easy To Find, which I haven’t listened to nearly enough

“OLD TOWN ROAD”!!!!!

YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS returned with a great “mini” season on “Song of the South”

I got really into CRIMINAL

OTHER GOOD THINGS

“Nazis Killed Her Father. Then She Fell In Love With One” by Katrin Bennhold for the New York Times was devastating and a fascinating look at legacy

“What If Your Abusive Husband Is a Cop?” by Rachel Aviv for The New Yorker. Rachel Aviv is one of the best in-depth writers working today and this piece was fantastic

“The Challenge of Going Off Psychiatric Drugs” by Rachel Aviv for The New Yorker. This is a topic near and dear to me, and an infuriating and hugely important look at this issue

This conversation between Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper about grief. It was shortly after Anderson Cooper’s mother passed away. It is a moving and profound seven minute chat that I think about a lot

“Faith, Friendship, and Tragedy at Santa Fe High” by Skip Hollandsworth for Texas Monthly. Friendship and kindness endure and bond across cultures and religion, and this is a gutting reminder of it. beautiful.

“Who Gets To Be The Good Schizophrenic?” by Esmé Weijun Wang for Buzzfeed. I inhaled as much of Esmé’s writing as I could in 2019, and this older piece is no less smart and critical than when it was originally published. a look at the undeniable psychiatric hierarchy.

“The Forgotten Women Who Hand-Painted the First Color Films” by Amanda Scherker for Artsy. For a very brief time, women were some of the most powerful players in Hollywood; a look at some of those most forgotten artists

“I am not always very attached to being alive” by Anna Borges for The Outline. TW: discussions of suicide and suicidal thoughts, but a very empathetic look at a shockingly common way of thinking.

Father Magill asks a very important question at the funeral of Lyra McKee in Belfast

“One Couple’s Tireless Crusade to Stopping a Genetic Killer” by Kelly Clandy for Wired. An absolutely amazing story, looking at the intersection of science and devotion.

Trey Turner calling out Joe Torre live on television, #NeverForget

“So The President Fucking Hates My Girlfriend” by Sue Bird for The Players Tribute. Hilarious

this image I found the other day and will be using forever because it kills me:

for next year, I plan to drink more water, exercise more regularly, listen to more (new) music, get into a new podcast or two, and write more.

Thank you all for your friendliness, patience, and enthusiasm, whether it’s been here, Instagram, AO3, or all of the above. I treasure these little relationships in this blue void.

It has been a year, and a decade. Be kind.

tagging @leaiorganas​, @amorosoed​, @winedarkseas​, @illuminahsti​, @lisa-in-the-sky​, @anexitlike​, @i-am-slain​, @alittlemomentum​, @fortysevenswrites​, @gloriouswhisperstyphoon​, @magalis​, @vaderkat​, @cassianserso​, @callioope​, @raeadropofgoldensunshine​, @the-strongest-stars​, @rogue-rook​, @lostinmirkwood​, @riderunlove​, @ssa-alexandria​, @castiellover77​ and anyone else who I have had the privilege of interacting with in this trash compactor.

<3 Happy New Year

[writingforjoy]

Chapter One: The Interview

At long last, ladies and gentlemen, I give you a very rough draft of the first chapter of (Im)Mortal! I hope you enjoy~

p.s I promise it looks better in docs💀🤦🏽‍♀️

@orchidalienscribbler @alexprompts @rhikasa @morganwriteblr @stephrawlingwrites @wiseauthorowl @givethispromptatry

       Mallory and I were over my cousin Cassidy’s house one weekend, working on a project that neither of us like and only Cassidy had experience with. We were in Cas’ room when Mallory shot up from Cas’ bed and looked at me with a huge grin on her face. “Hey bruh, let’s do something while we wait on Chef.”

The smile on her face told me that whatever she was planning had to be worth getting into trouble. “What is it my bold and bored friend?”

“Let me interview you.”

“Seriously? Right now?”

“Yeahp. Just tell me your life story…okay maybe not, like, yo whole life but the um...most eventful? Yeah we’ll go with that.”

I shook my head and laughed. “Wooow, okay then. Should I include Skyla or nah?”

“Was the meeting eventful?”

“I found her in the woods. She liked me. I liked her. Then she became my precious baby lamb.”

“Save it for our next interview. It’ll be our pet edition.”

“Alright, cool. Ssoooo...how am I starting this off?”

Mallory rolled her eyes and tossed one of Cas’ pillows at me. “Witcha name ya dumb duck!”

“Rruuuuuude. ...But what about her?”

She sat quietly on the bed, thinking about the question. “Ummm...I don’t know? Just roll with it I guess?” She took her phone out and started recording me as I fidgeted around on the floor messing with our dying project.

“Okay then, here goes nothing.” I took a deep breath to relax myself. “Now, this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became the demon of a town called Easthaven.”

“Okay, Will, let’s get it then!” She said laughing.

My name is Helouise. I was born with clay-red skin, eyes the color of golden topazes, and raven black hair. I’ve been told a few times that ‘Helouise’ wasn’t supposed to be my name, but ‘ELouise’ instead to kinda match my mom’s name ‘Ellen’. So whoever wrote my name on my birth certificate misheard her completely. Lucky for them I had a great grandmother with that name. So my whole name is ‘Helouise Nevaeh Piercemen’, which I think is kinda amusing. My middle name, ‘Nevaeh’, is ‘Heaven’ spelled backwards.

         Growing up I was known as the ‘Problem Child’, as most other parents called me. I honestly was a hot-headed little girl. Whenever I would throw a tantrum, my parents would often give me ‘soothing potions’ calm me down. To some parents’ disbelief, I wasn’t as spoiled as they thought I might’ve been. My parents raised me just as like any other parents would raise their own children (just a little bit overprotective), but I didn’t feel as if they actually loved me all the time. So I would call them ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ to irritate them often. It didn’t bother them much as I had hoped though, they just laughed it off.

“Pfft, but why would you do that?” Mallory asked through her giggles.

“Bruh I don’t know! I was an evil lil shit I guess.” I said laughing with her.

         When I first started school in fourth grade, all the other kids there just stared or stayed away from me. I could tell that they were afraid of me. I was afraid of them too honestly. I was homeschooled at first, and had never been to a school before until then. Someone had talked my parents into thinking that I should go out and make friends, prove to people that I’m not as weird or awkward as they thought I was. So, I was just as scared of my classmates as they were of me. I wasn’t wearing my shades back then, so I believe that it was mostly the color of my eyes that either scared people away or was the reason I got bullied a lot. No one stood up for me except my new teacher Ms. Wrangler. The old one mysteriously disappeared one day and she was there the next day. She was always there to comfort and protect me from the other kids, she was the nicest person to me in to whole school. She had always made me feel special at the end of the day, telling me that I had nothing to worry about as long as I stayed with her. On days when I didn’t eat in the cafeteria, she would go out and buy me food to eat and we’d eat in the classroom together. She would even buy me things ‘just because’, and told me not to tell anyone. I really liked her, I felt more love from her than I did either of my parents, so I did what I was told. Then one day she told me that she wanted to take me somewhere special and that I would need permission from my parents to go. So, she handed me a slip saying that the class was going to the local science museum.

On the day of the ‘field trip’, we didn’t go to the science museum. She took me to a park outside of town and said that we were going on a nature walk. Whenever she looked at me, I thought it was funny that her eyes had changed from their normal bright blue color to red, but I was young and didn’t know better. Later that evening she said that today was going to be my last day with her. I didn’t understand what she meant and couldn’t ask, somehow I had blacked out after that. All I remember after that is waking up in my dad’s car, being held tightly by my mom with her crying ‘I won’t…not again’, then I went back to sleep.  We moved from our first home later that week with the help of my uncle. I tried asking them what happened to my teacher, but all they would say was ‘We’ll explain it when you’re older’.

After being homeschooled again for a few years, and after being told some strict rules and to never take off my shades for anyone, I was allowed back into school. I was in high school by then, and I was lucky enough to make a few friends, even though others continued to stare and judge me whenever they thought I wasn’t around or couldn’t hear them, but I didn’t care as much as I did when I was little. So I thought things were finally looking up for me. Then again, what would high school be without a few surprises?

         One day while I was in biology class, I was called into the office and was told that my dad was coming to pick me up.  Since it was close to Christmas break, I thought we were taking an early vacation, but as soon as my dad got there and we made it to the hospital, all thoughts of any vacations were gone. For fourteen years, I’ve been alone and gotten used to being an only child, then my parents decided to go and add a new kid in the mix. I was never fond of the thought of having a sibling, let alone a sister, and this one caught me by surprise. I never noticed mama’s stomach getting big (even though she was a ‘stay at home mom’) and they never told me. They said that they wanted to surprise everyone. When I first saw the baby, she had deep blue eyes and rosy cheeks, and small tufts of hair that looked so shiny at the time they thought it was golden. She was such a beautiful baby…I didn’t like her. I hated how normal and happy she looked. Then they told me her name. They named her Rose.

A beautiful name for a baby girl. Was I so ugly when I was born that my parents let me have an ugly name? I thought to myself. Is she even that pretty to deserve a name like that?

I was so angry that I started to hate Rose. She looked normal and they gave her a normal name, and the way that they were looking at her, with so much love and affection, made me hate her even more. Mama tried giving Rose to me, but I didn’t take her. I was too angry. Then my dad rushed over to me, held me close while brushing my hair back, and told me to calm down before I set off the alarms. I pushed him away and ran out the room, I ran into the nearest bathroom I could find and curled up in the corner of it and cried. I cried from the anger and from the feeling that my parents weren’t happy with me, let alone loved me. A moment later, my dad opened the door and peeped in. When he saw me, he came and hugged me, saying things like ‘We still love you’ and ‘We thought you’d be happy to have a little sister or brother’ and other things that I barely heard. Once I stopped crying, I noticed a burned hole on his jacket and asked how that happened. He laughed and said his stupid cigarette lighter button had been pressed earlier when he wasn’t paying attention. Daddy was a frequent smoker, so I believed him. He brought me back into mama’s freezing room. I still didn’t want to hold Rose, but I was curious about her cheeks. So I asked mama if I could touch them, and she said yes. I placed a finger on one of her cheeks and jumped back a little as she laughed at me. Rose’s cheeks were ice cold. She said that it was just the room, but it didn’t matter. I still didn’t like her, and I had already made up my mind that I wouldn’t have anything to do with her (as less as possible anyway).

The next surprise, which I’d like to call ‘The Train Wreck’, happened almost immediately after I turned sixteen a few months ago. The first thing was that Rose’s hair wasn’t blonde after all, but instead it was white like our dad’s hair. I figured that it was some genetic mutation like the color of me and Mama’s eyes. Another thing was that I actually kind of liked the idea of having a sister and I kinda liked her, even though she was a brat at times. The last thing happened one day after school. My parents, Rose, and I were meditating in the basement (well Rose was half-asleep holding her new, blueberry scented teddy bear). I was really thinking about the ugly sofa that Mama had bought last week. For the first time ever, I had a few friends coming over to study and hang out in a few days, and the first thing they would see when they came in would be that disgusting, over brightly dyed hippie couch. My parents needed a new couch, but couldn’t really afford one after they had redecorated Rose’s room. I knew and understood that, but the couch was so damn hideous that the neighborhood cat my parents like to let in every so often wouldn’t even piss on it.

There has to be a way to talk them into getting new couch! I’ll be embarrassed for life if my friends saw that hideous thing. They need to get rid of it! Uugh, I hate that stupid looking couch!

If you hate the couch as much as you say you do, then do something about it. I jolted my head up and scanned the room, but no one else was there other than my folks, so I thought that I was just imagining things. You’re not imagining it, I’m the…’other’ you, I’ve just woken up from a peaceful sleep. If you hate the couch then get rid of it.

What do you mean ‘the other me’? And just how am I gonna to get rid of it?

Haven’t you figured it out yet? The reason why you look the way you do. Don’t you think you were destined to do something great in your life? I’m the…’special’ side of you. An active subconscious, if you like. We’re a special girl Helouise. Did you know that we can manipulate fire?

“I can do what?!” I blurted out. Mom and Dad looked at me with startled faces and Rose fell over backwards. I quickly apologized and went back to trying to meditate.

The subconscious giggled. Of course we can, all you have to do is concentrate on the couch, speed up the molecules, and imagine it bursting into flames… or something along the lines like that at least.

I don’t think that’s a good idea. I mean, what if instead of burning the couch I, and I hope it doesn’t happen, burn down the house?

What do you have to lose? Our parents got the extended warranty or whatever on it anyway and if something does happen to it, they have the money to get a new one! You could even convince them to get something better than that. And what if the house burns down? It’ll be even better since you’ll be able to get a better house than this dump we’re in now. Besides, no one will get hurt in the process, we’re not that strong yet, promise~

I thought it over on what she said and decided to give it a shot. If she’s right then no one will get hurt and we’ll be getting a new couch. I wished that I was going crazy, but I hated the couch so much that I started imagining myself setting fire to it. It’d be a win-win for me if everything went ok. Minutes later, the smoke alarm went off. We rushed upstairs into the living room and saw that the sofa was on fire. Daddy rushed to get the fire extinguisher in the kitchen while Mama set Rose down and ran to the hallway to try and activate the sprinklers and yelled for me to watch Rose who was already stumbling towards the blazing couch. I, on the other hand, stood there watching in amazement.

See?! You did it! Don’t try to stop it now, just let the couch burn!

I can’t just let it burn! I’m gonna try to stop it now, it’s burned enough anyway. And besides, Rose will get hurt if she gets to close. I thought after I yanked Rose away from the couch and set her beside me.

Then let her burn too. You never liked her anyway; she’s nothing but a pest. Remember, she’s the one that replaced you and took what little love your parents had for you. It’ll be all over quickly if you push her into the fire. Just push her towards it and hold her there. She’ll be the only one being burned if that’s what you’re worried about. Haven’t you realized yet that temperature doesn’t affect you? So if you touch it, you won’t get burned genius.

Are you insane?! It doesn’t matter if I like the little brat or not, she’s my sister! I can’t kill her, Mama and Daddy would kill me if I did!

ONLY because you killed what was precious to them! Think about it: they don’t love you anymore, they don’t care about you, and you know it. That’s why they replaced you.  …Look at you, if you really couldn’t kill her like you said, then why are you slowly pushing her towards the fire?

I looked down to see that Rose was only inches away from the fire again, but it was me pushing her towards it. “Rose you little idiot!” I yanked her back again and took several steps back from the couch.

Why don’t you just go ahead and do it? You were almost there; she could’ve been dead by now! You can’t deny the fact that you want to kill her.

“Shut up and leave me alone!” I said loudly. Okay Helouise, just take some deep breaths, and concentrate on the fire…and don’t touch Rose. I concentrated on the fire on the sofa, and imagined the flames getting smaller. Then Mama and Daddy finally came back just in time to see that I was already making the fire go away. They stood there with a worried look for a moment, and then asked me calmly if I was the one who put the fire out.

“Yes, but I caused it too. The thing is I don’t know exactly how I did it, I just” -Maybe I shouldn’t tell them about the voice…maybe I’m just going insane- “I just thought about burning the sofa like the voice said at first and then making the fire small. But why did this have to happen in my junior year, just when everyone was thinking I was normal, just when they finally accepted me? Why am I hearing this cynical voice inside me head?!” I cried while looking at them. They told me that they knew I was going to have my powers fully awakened, just didn’t know when. Then they told me that I had fire-powers since I was young and that I just couldn’t remember them. Then I showed signs of it when I was about three and threw terrible tantrums. Then I remember the day that Rose was born, when Daddy was telling me about the alarms and came into the bathroom with the hole on his jacket, and then I became angry.

“So that day when Rose was born, tell me Father, what did you mean about the alarms? And what really happened to your jacket?” I asked looking directly at him. His face went from a calm expression to a shocked one as he mumble something about my eyes. “I didn’t ask about my eyes, tell me what really happened the day that Rose was born!” I yelled. He told me that when I was upset, my hair was slowly turning into flames and I was standing by some posters that were right under the smoke detector. Then he told me that when I pushed him away, I burned a hole through his jacket and almost his shirt. Then Mama started speaking, but I couldn’t hear her, my mind was too busy processing what I just heard. They lied to me, that’s why they kept giving me those potions when I was younger; they knew something was wrong about me from the very beginning! I’m just a weird accident to them; they never loved me enough to tell me the truth.

To be honest, they probably never really loved you at all. Why else do you think they had her Helouise? Don’t you remember how they were looking at her and how pretty she was?

I remembered how they were looking at Rose in that hospital room and became infuriated. That’s why they had another child, they never loved me, they probably never even wanted me in the first place, they wanted a normal, beautiful girl! Another little girl that they could truly love! I felt Rose trying to give me her teddy bear, but I was too angry and knocked it away from her and she began to cry.

“Helouise, look what you’ve done!” Mama called out rushing past me.

“So what if the stupid bear is burning?!” I cried wiping the tears from my face. “You two lied to me almost all my life and then tried to replace me with that stupid brat! And now all you care about is some stupid bear and-” I looked behind myself to point at Rose, but I stopped as mama rushed past me again with Rose in her arms, holding and kissing on her hand. I noticed a small burn mark on Rose’s wrist as she did. I just burned my sister. “Oh my god, I’m sorry! It was an accident, I swear!” I can’t believe I burned my little sister.

It felt good, didn’t it Helouise?

What did?

Setting things on fire, and of course, burning your sister. Feel a little proud of yourself, don’tcha?

…Just leave me alone.

I knew you’d enjoy that. You can’t hide it from me.

Will just go away already?!

Just think of how great you’d feel if you would just kill the lil brat already! It’d be fun, you’d-…wait a minute…do you smell that Helouise? It smells like we’re not the only one with magic in here. Helouise, we gotta have that power.

Suddenly my dad came up behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t touch me!” I yelled, bumping into the hanging fern and causing it to burn too.  Then I moved away from him and the fern.

That’s it! That’s where the power is coming from! You can take his power for yourself if you touch him. Drain his power. That’s all it takes.

I do want that power. Why haven’t I noticed it before?

You never noticed because he knows how to conceal his power, and you couldn’t sense it, you didn’t know how to sense other people's magic. But now that I’m awake, we can sense other peeps magic a little!. All you have to do to get their power is drain it from them.

…I really do want that power; it smells sooo good. Whatever it is, I need that power.

Then drain him. I reached for my dad’s hand pretending to want to hold it for comfort. Kill Daddy for his magic. I drew my hand back quickly before grabbing his hand. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

ARE YOU CRAZY?! “Dad get away from me!”

 JUST KILL HIM!! 

“I can’t kill my Dad!” As bad as I wanted his power, I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t kill my own dad. He told me to calm down but I couldn’t. “Daddy, I just made our couch and our fern get on fire, and I burned my little sister and her bear! I can’t calm down! And look,” I pointed frantically towards the couch and the fern. “The couch is burning again and the fern is still on fire! I can’t control them!” I said panicking. He stepped towards me again with his hands out saying that everything was going to be ok.

He’s practically giving you his hands, just take them and kill him!!

“NO!!”

His power could be ours and we could be stronger!

“Daddy get back! I know you have powers I can smell it and the voice is trying to make me kill you for it and I’m trying not to so please just stay back!” We looked at the smoke alarm that finally went off and the built-in sprinklers turned on, but when I looked at the flames on the couch, nothing happened to the flames.

Quick! Do it now while he’s distracted!

“WILL YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!” I shouted out flailing my hand out, pushing nothing away, and letting a fireball fly out of my once empty hands onto the faded blue curtains. Still the water from the sprinklers couldn’t make the fire die out. “See?! Even the water can’t put it out! What if the fire spread? What’s going to happen if the firefighters come and they can’t put it out? What if-” Then he swiftly approached me again and grabbed my shoulders, and an immense chill overcame me that caused my knees to buckle. Then he told me to calm down again, only more sternly. He told me that they know it was an accident.  It was their fault for not telling me about my magic sooner. He let me go and told me to look back at the couch. I looked at the smoldering couch and then turned quickly to see the burnt fern and the burnt curtain. He told me that I could do anything as long as I was calm. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out his lighter and tossed it towards the couch. He said that if the firefighters did come, they‘d find that, so I could stop worrying about them trying to find out who did it or what would happen if they stayed to long.

I looked back towards the kitchen where my mom and Rose were coming from and saw she had put some of the homemade healing salve on Rose’s wrist. I looked back to my dad and he told me that everything would be all right, then Mama said that we would start practicing to control my emotions and magic tomorrow.

The next day, to make sure that Rose didn’t get hurt or learn about our magic ‘too early’, my parents called and told my grandmother, my dad’s mother, what happened and asked if she could keep Rose for a while. She agreed, and she when she came over she smelled the same way as daddy did; just slightly different, but definitely stronger. The same urge came over me to drain her too as she and my dad walked in the house, but mama held on to me, and told me to focus on her scent and to tell her what it smelled like. Then Granny looked over at us with disgust as Daddy showed her to Rose’s room, and to tell her what was going on. I could feel the anger building up as she glared at us, but Mama covered my eyes and nose and told me repeatedly to calm down as she rocked me. A moment after she did that, we could hear Rose crying upstairs. She wasn’t willing to leave at first, but soon they convinced her that it was only for a little while, and that she was going to have a lot of fun with our granny. So she left with her, and it was just me and my parents once.

Afterwards, my parents told me the truth. The whole truth. First, they told me about the color of my eyes. Mom said that everyone on her side, including me, had the exact same eyes and that we’re demons, and the voice I heard was actually my inner demon, like an active conscious of sorts, that was implanted, given, or something by our many great grandfather, Guidry. She also said that some demons were born with the natural instinct to kill, to be truly ‘evil’, and they were mostly always the ‘upper level’ ones, but for us it was different and she couldn’t exactly explain why. Daddy said he wasn’t a demon, but he wasn’t a witch (or warlock…wizard, whichever they classify themselves as) either, but he could subdue people with a single touch. They didn’t know about Rose yet, and only time would tell if she’s was going to grow up to be normal or like one of them. Then Mama told me what happened Ms. Wrangler, and why I had to start wearing shades in public. Ms. Wrangler was a demon too. Everyone on mama’s side of the family were being hunted by other demons. They feared that we would become over powerful or somehow immortal, so they would catch and take us to the Upper Council where we’d either die from enslavement or something else entirely. So for whatever reason Ms. Wrangler had tried to kidnap me for, the end result wasn’t going to be good.

When Mama noticed that my scent had gone outside the city, they came after me. They saved me and had to kill Ms. Wrangler and the other demons that was there, and that’s why we had to move. Then Mama started blaming herself for not going to meet the woman herself when she first came into town.

After that, she helped me to gain control of my new ability and to quiet the voice inside. They had me to train with my power everyday. Soon, I was able to create fires and make them go away at will. The voice was still there, but she didn’t talk as much after that.

But still my grandmother didn’t bring Rose back. Mama called and asked her why, then I heard her gasp from the kitchen and I went to see what happened. I watched her as she was listening to whatever Granny was saying, and then she finally said that she understood and hung up the phone. Mama never told me what happened, but only said that we could visit her whenever we wanted. I thought that Rose had either gotten really sick or this had somehow became a custody battle. Even though I never really liked the brat at times, it still hurt to hear that Rose wasn’t coming home, and it made me feel that with my power being ‘fully awakened’, my granny didn’t trust for me to be around her. I regretted being a demon at all that day despite what the voice said otherwise. I saw no point in having this power if it only caused my parents pain and having my sister taken away. I could tell that her not being able to come back home yet had broken their heart. Then I promised myself that when she comes back, I would be the best big sister ever.

         “Wow...just wow. Why didn’t you tell me all this before?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess I don’t like talking about it much.”

“Fair enough. Now just a few questions. Just two, I think, if you don’t mind ma’am?”

“Shoot.”

“You said that your Dad’s power had a scent? Is it just him or what?”

“Well, it’s more of a scent for him and not his magic? Like, I can smell it even when he’s not using it. And no, everyone has their own scent. I think I’m just now...paying attention to it? I mean, I probably noticed his and Mama’s scents before but never just...thought about it, if that makes sense?”

“Cool. So what’s my scent?”

“A sweet little cupcake.” I laughed as she groaned. “It’s not chocolate though, friend~”

“Thank you Jesus.” She mumbled. “Now, what about Rose? When was the last time you saw her?”

“We see each other everyday, sometimes Granny would bring her over, or we’d go over there to visit. Sometimes I don’t go though, cause I still don’t think she likes me.”

“That sucks. Do you still feel like you want to...you know, take their magic? Or anyone else’s?”

I shifted around the floor. “No comment.”

“Damn bruh...savage.” I snorted at her attempt to make things better. “So, final question! Do you think this is the end of your epic adventure? Has everything finally calmed the fuck down for you?”

“Oh my God yes and I hope it stays just like this forever.”

Silly girl, if you believe that then you should really know better. This is just the beginning of our adventure.

[crowsofareaper]

A Reaper of Crows

I was sat on the windowsill of my bedroom at the farmhouse in Norco where I had been raised for the past fifteen years. With my biological mother, my half brother and a guy my grandmother, Gemma, had dated for a time. It was beyond dysfunctional, to say the least, and in actual fact, I never wanted to be here. Since day one this place was never my home. More like a prison that I was unable to escape from. Wendy, despite being my biological mother, had never earned the title of 'mom', not by me anyway. My younger brother Thomas on the other hand did, but she wasn't even his mother. I led a complex life, with far too many twists and turns and far too much that was fucked up beyond belief. Everything I could remember about being bought up in Charming was no longer there. We moved due to that. This made me despise her more. So many unanswered questions, so many lies. I wondered all my life if anything that Wendy or Nero told me of my life before this place, was even true. They say time is a healer, and that the over time you begin to learn to deal with grief in different ways and are able to manage it more easily. The truth is there is no time scale with grief. What people actually mean is, your mind eventually starts to forget the pain you are in, and it turns into a different feeling, a numbness that you can't ever explain. Time doesn't heal grief, the wounds that are left from losing parts of your soul never truly heal. I still have the faint lines on my arm where I had harmed myself with a fork when I was five. I did it because I didn't understand what was going on. Everyone I loved was dying or lying and it confused me. Those scars are constant reminders of my childhood, forcing me to remember, even when I want to forget. Even now, I still blame myself for my grandmother, Gemma's death. If I hadn't said she was responsible for the marks on my arm, then maybe, just maybe she would be alive today, and so would my father. It's been fifteen years since Nero and Wendy packed my brother Thomas and I up in the car and bought us here to Norco; it was Nero's uncle's farm. I was five, Thomas was barely two when we came here; I didn't fully understand then what was going on; Wendy believed that I would eventually forget the memories of Charming and what happened. Luckily for Thomas, he can't remember anything. He didn't remember his mother Tara, or our father Jackson, he doesn't even remember Gemma and in some ways, for him, I was glad Thomas didn't remember, because I did, for fifteen years I held on to all those memories. I tried to let it go, to forget, but I never could. The main memory that stuck in my mind was my grandmother Gemma's last words to me, she had come to school and gave me a ring, it had 'Son' on it, at the time I didn't understand, but I kept it even to this day, but she told me that I would someday follow in my father's footsteps, though back then I didn't fully understand what his footsteps were,.I kept the ring all these years, I felt I owed it to Gemma to at least research my past and my roots, I owed her that much at least. Leaning back against the wall of the window, as I dropped my gaze from the aches of farmland outside and down to my hand, I was holding that exact ring between my thumb and forefinger as I glanced over the lettering and letting out a slight sigh. I knew now what Jackson Teller, was all about. I wasn't stupid, Wendy tried many times to prevent me from finding out, but my father's rap sheet was a mile long, and with more digging, it didn't take me long to figure out what SAMCRO was and what it meant. The more I read the reports and newspaper articles, the more I remembered, the memories I had suppressed for so damn long. Wendy meant well, I guess, for an ex-junkie who didn't give a shit about me and who I would become when she was carrying me. I had a 12-inch scar that ran from my naval and settles just under my sternum from the life-saving operation I had to have when I was no more than a few days old. But again, I suppose Wendy meant well, she was trying to make up for lost time. But even from a young age, I didn't want or need it from her. Thomas however did, he needed a mother figure, he needed Wendy. Tara was not my biological mother but she was Thomas' and she was mine for the first five years of my life until she was killed and I wondered often if Wendy would have even bothered to be in my life if Gemma hadn't killed Tara. Thomas called Wendy 'Mom' and I didn't stop him, he knew about Tara; he had a lot more forgiveness in him than I did, he also needed a lot more of his questions answered, and those were answers I couldn't give him even though I wanted too. I had far too many questions myself and that was why I was planning to leave Norco and return to Charming. There was nothing there anymore. SAMCRO was still there but it was quieter than it was fifteen years ago, they kept to themselves. I hadn't told Thomas of my plans, but Wendy and Nero knew. I knew they would both try and stop me from going back but it was like a gravitational pull luring back into the dark abyss of nothingness. I planned to go back once Thomas went off to college in a few weeks time, he was wanting to be a doctor, like Tara, even though he doesn't remember her, he wants to make her proud that she didn't die in vain, I was nearly twenty-one and wouldn't be bound to this place any longer, I just could never connect with Wendy, and Nero just tried too hard to be a father figure. I didn't need a father figure, I needed for my real father to not be a selfish cunt and kill himself the way he did. I got it, he didn't want his sons to grow up the way he did, to follow in his footsteps, but didn't he realise that his life, his past, and his decisions would be around?! The legacy of John Teller and Jackson Teller is notorious and so is the rise and fall of SAMCRO! Thomas and I were bound to find out and want answers. Wendy tried to tell me once that my father wanted us to hate him so much that what he did when he was alive would disgust us and for a while it did! He was a cold-hearted bloodthirsty murderer, who was hell-bent on revenge for things that were out of his control, that he took down anyone in his way, Jackson Teller, was no better than Gemma, or Clay for that matter. But despite all of that, he was my father and I loved him no matter what he had become. Still he chose the fate he did, he thought he was saving and protecting us but in fact, he was just paving the road for me to go back. I was pulled from my thoughts quickly when there came a knock at my bedroom door and I quickly palmed the ring as the door opened, I didn't say anything as I watched Wendy lean against the door frame, her arms folded loosely over her chest. She was a lot frailer now, even though she had been clean for almost fifteen years, the drugs had already done their damage, and she was looking a lot older than she really was. She stood there just staring at me, as I remained leaned back against the wall, my feet up on the window ledge, my wrists resting on my bent knees, as I concealed the gold ring in my palm. "Yeah? I cracked first, I cleared my throat as I spoke, causing her to raise an eyebrow at me. "Just checking that you are doing okay?" My brow raised at her question, she wasn't checking on me out of concern, she was checking to see if I had made a break for Charming. I looked away from her and back out the window. Nero and Thomas were outside in the stables. I watched as they mucked around and Thomas was laughing. He was a happy child and when he grew up he remained that way. He was eighteen now and he was a smart kid, having got the grades to go off to medical school. I hoped he would break away from this life and not follow me in the path of going back to Charming. There was nothing there for him, he remembered nothing, he didn't need to be there. Letting out a puffed sigh as I spoke. "I'm fine Wendy" I heard her gasp and sigh at my words, she hated that I rarely called her 'mom', she just never felt like my mother, that was Tara and it always would be as far as I was concerned, she was the one who was there when it mattered, when it was life or death, Tara raised me, Jackson raised me. I don't remember any of the bad that my father did, I just remembered a man who loved me and protected me. "I've told you, I will be leaving when Thomas goes to college" Her eyes widened as she pushed from the door frame. "Abel, there is nothing for you in Charming, we came here for a better life" I finally looked over at her, my expression voided of all emotion. "You and my father made that decision, not me, you can't stop me, Wendy, not anymore" I swung my legs down from the window sill and sat there watching her. "Abel, you have to bury the past, no good is going to come of chasing ghosts" Pushing myself to stand up and pocketing the ring, I took a few steps towards her. My eyes trained on hers, unwavering. "These are my ghosts, I have a right to go back, to find out why a motorcycle club turned their members into murderers and drug addicts" Wendy shifted awkwardly and glanced down at her own arm, years of sobriety and still, the scars remain littering her pale flesh. So as I went to move past her, she grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop. "Where are you going?" She looked a little worried and her tone was shaky, but I spoke to her with utter destain "To take my medication, if that's okay with you? I raised my free hand to tap my chest

"Dodgy heart, remember?" Of course, I spoke to her in a patronising way. She released my arm quickly, I knew my heart condition was hereditary, from my father's side of the family, I was glad that Thomas didn't inherit this fate. However, it never stopped Wendy from feeling guilty for the way I came into this world nearly twenty years ago, and she hated that I would never let her forget it. That I blamed her heavily for everything. That for nine months she couldn't put me first. "You really are your father's son, Abel" There was pain in her voice, it was no secret she still loved Jax Teller, and always would, though that wasn't my problem or burden, and I refused to indulge her. So I simply shrugged my shoulders at her. "So you keep telling me.... Wendy... Now excuse me" I nodded my head at her before heading down the hallway, Thomas was out in the fields with Nero and Wendy would probably join them as well shortly, now she hadn't got from me what she had wanted. I wasn't always trying to be difficult, but if they wouldn't give me honest answers, then I needed to do what I had too, to find them; even if it means returning to Charming. I gave Wendy a glance back before I headed down the stairs of the farmhouse to get my medication from my jacket pocket before heading to the garage where I worked as a mechanic. I really was my father's son, without even thinking about it, I was already following his path, in his footsteps. They always say, those that don't learn from history and their past mistakes, are always destined to repeat them. The trouble was, Jax's mistakes were never vindicated. Even in death, his legacy continues, and it's not only imprinted in my mind, but in my heart and soul. I just had to have more control over my own path and not succumb to the same fate he did. Only time could tell, if my own journey will end in the same way or if I can pave a better road without such a violent end.

[myskinandstyle]

I have seen this brand all over Instagram for the last 2 years and resisted the call of the minimalist packaging and cute names and the temptation  of alleged holy grail products.

3 months ago , I thought stuff it and purchased a few different products to see what its all about.  The packaging is even more glorious up close and I understand why its one of the more popular brands to photograph . Its well priced and everything I tried smells delicious. They don’t use parabens, sodium laurel sulfate, phthalates, chemicals, fillers, animal testing, mineral oils, petroleum.

So I bought one of the gift sets which included travel sizes of the Coco Rose body polish, Rose & Hibiscus mist and a full size lip balm. The other products were the Pink Clay mask and Pink Cloud Rosewater Moisture Creme.

I will share my thoughts below .

Coco Rose Lip Conditioner $35.95 aud

This is quite a thick balm that I really need to warm up on my fingers before applying. Once applied it feels very soothing and protective and smells delicately of rose and coconut as the name suggests.

I’ve also been enjoying tapping a little onto my cheekbones instead of highlighter on no makeup days and a touch on my brows before combing keeps them in place all day.

Repurchase Yes , although its on the pricier side I believe it would last a long time.

Ingredients  Hydrogenated Soybean Oil (Non-GMO Soy Wax), Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Cocos Nucifera (Virgin Coconut) Oil, Orchid Root Extract, Rose Damascena (Moroccon Rose) Absolute, Coconut Pulp CO2, Tocopherol (Vitamin E) Oil, Red Iron Oxide

  Rose & Hibiscus Hydrating Face Mist – Available in 60ml $23.95 aud 120ml $49.95 aud

Another lovely offering, lightly and naturally fragranced , feels refreshing on the skinned comes in a travel and full size which I appreciate. I ended up using most of this to mix masks with for me when I purchase a mist I want it to really start off my skin with a good layer of hydration and for my drier skin type this didn’t really fill that function. It is loved by many so always do what works for you.

Repurchase No.

Ingredients Aqua (Water), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Water, Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Disillate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water (Aloe Water), Rosa Damascena (Rose) Hydrosol, Leucidal (Radish Root Ferment), Hibiscus Sabdariffa Flower Extract, Neer Sikkappu Red

Pink Clay Exfoliating Mask $35.95 aud for 60g

I’m not really a lover of powdered masks traditionally, however of late I’ve been enjoying the ability to customise according to my needs at the time.

The pink clay is meant to be good for rejuvenation and elasticity, It also contains reship which is said to have anti ageing benefits. For me my skin looked brighter after use and it came in handy during the great pimple crisis of May 2018. If you have a dry or sensitive skin and suffer from congestion or love a do it yourself clay masking session then this may be for you.

Repurchase  I didn’t love it and have another powder mask I prefer.

Ingredients French Pink Clay, White Kaolin Clay, Organic Rosehip Powder, Organic Rose Powder, Organic Chamomile Powder.

Pink Cloud Rosewater Moisture Creme $69.95 aud for 50ml

I was completely and utterly surprised by how much I’m enjoying this cream and how moisturising it actually is. I mainly purchased this because of the rosewater and more importantly its called Pink Cloud ( thats why they don’t come to me for the science lol.)

Its very light in texture and fluffy almost ,when I apply looks almost greasy but after a few minutes settles into a dewy appearance and my skin feels good throughout the day. Of an evening which is where I most commonly use it , I like to layer after serums and before oil. I wake up with plump looking skin. Its also delicately and naturally fragranced with rosewater which I find a comforting yet refreshing scent.

  The ingredients aren’t groundbreaking , It won’t save your life or make you look 10 years younger however it will moisturise your skin and its called Pink Cloud !!!

Repurchase Yes I thoroughly enjoy it.

Ingredients Aloe barbadensis (aloe vera) leaf juice, Helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, diheptyl succinate, capryloyl glycerin/sebacic acid, glyceryl stearate citrate, cetearyl alcohol, Populus tremuloides (aspen) bark extract, Rosa damascena (rose) flower water, Aleurites moluccana (kukui) nut oil, glycerin, cetyl palmitate, Cocos nucifera (coconut) extract,Oryza sativa (rice) seed extract, Camellia sinensis (white tea) leaf extract, Butyrospermum parkii (shea) nut butter, propanediol, Myrothamnus flabellifolia extract, ascorbic acid, sodium hyaluronate, Eclipta prostrata extract, melia azadirrachta leaf extract, moringa pterygosperma seed oil, Rosmarinus officinalis(rosemary) leaf extract, Rosa damascena (rose) flower oil, sodium phytate, xanthan gum, Lonicera caprifolium (honeysuckle) flower extract, Lonicera japonica (honeysuckle) flower extract, sodium anisate, glyceryl caprylate, alcohol, citric acid

Coco Rose – Coconut Oil Body Polish.   $54.95 aud for 226g

This is a sugar scrub and I loved every last grain of it !!!!!

It smells delicious and scrubs well without feeling scratchy, I like to use after washing and before shaving as the coconut oil provides a nice slip to the skin. After using my entire body feels so soft and glistens like a non-creepy eel.  I could easily forgo moisturising ( I don’t though)

To date this is my favourite physical exfoliant for the body.

Repurchase Totally !!!!!

Ingredients  Sucrose (Sugar), Cocos Nucifera (Organic Virgin Coconut) Oil, Capric Triglycerides, Cetearyl Olivate, Sorbitan Olivate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Limnanthes alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Rosa damascena (Moroccan Rose) Absolute, Rose Clay

So there you have it 2 products I adore , One I enjoy and 2 I can live without all in all I’m extremely happy with that and am utterly ashamed that I wrote it off for so long as I assumed it was only suited to millennial so whilst packaging can pull us in occasionally its our own labelling which can put us off.

Have you tried anything from Herbivore Botanicals ? What would you suggest I try next, let me know in comments .

Thank you for reading and I hope you subscribe !!

Best Wishes Genaya xx

Herbivore Botanicals – I finally went there !!!! I have seen this brand all over Instagram for the last 2 years and resisted the call of the minimalist packaging and cute names and the temptation  of alleged holy grail products.

[endlessarchite]

DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update)

My vegetable seedlings popped up quickly this spring, which meant I needed a garden bed — FAST! Check out how I made this cheap & easy L-shaped raised garden bed out of cedar fence pickets. In just a few hours, I had a vegetable garden ready for growing!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Got a new backyard update for ya today: my L-shaped raised garden bed, completed and growing strong with veggies! Since I’ve been putting some effort into doing more video this year, I have a both video tutorial and a post below about it, so you can pick your poison.

DIY L-Shaped Vegetable Garden Bed

I say “new” because they’re new as of 2018, but in truth, they’ve been in the yard for about two months now. I’ve been scrambling with the deck build and getting the shed underway, but I think it’s probably best to share the garden build before the new veggies — which are starting to grow in, so I need to get a move on with this post!

If you recall from my seedling post, I was in a rush to build some new garden beds in the back yard. I was crazy-surprised how quickly the seeds popped up and were ready to be transplanted. Luckily, I’ve already been through this whole garden bed build experience thanks to the gardenia garden beds I built along the fence a few years ago. My experience from those gave me a few things to keep in mind:

More 2×4 posts (I used mostly scraps last time, and the 2x4s simply needed a few more to make for better reinforcement spacing along the bed)

All cedar this time

Maximize the amount of beds I could build with as little wood as possible (budget-conscious build as always!)

Use wood glue as well (I didn’t last time, but some outdoor wood glue seemed like another way to keep it solid for as long as possible)

Like last time, I bought dog-eared fence pickets, but went with cedar for a way to change it up. Cedar has natural oils in it that resist rot, so they’re great for an application like this. I also picked up cedar 2x4s and cut all the pieces down. (links to supplies may contain affiliates)

Wood:

14 – cedar fence pickets

4 – cedar 2 x 4x (8ft length)

Cuts:

Cut off the dog-eared parts of each fence picket and line them up to make sure they are the same length (my preferred method that avoids measuring: stack them and tape them together with painter’s tape, then cut them together in a batch)

Cut 2x4s to 18-inch lengths (roughly 5 per 8-ft board)**

Each rectangular bed needs 4 full-length cedar picket boards, then 2 more cut in half to create the sides

** You can make these longer if you have to concern yourself with frost or whatever (in Georgia that’s not really a thing I think much about), but I know my friend Kit from DIY Diva cuts hers to 19 inches and lives in freezing cold Michigan, if that helps!

Supplies:

Wood glue

Painter’s tape (for cutting)

Miter saw (I recently upgraded my saw to a bigger and badder one, and I LOVE IT)

Drill and drill bits (if you have one available, it’s faster to use one drill for pre-drilling, then an impact driver for driving all the screws… they’re often sold together in combo kits so if you don’t have these, I highly recommend them!)

Exterior wood screws

Shovel (boy howdy, did I ever do some digging!)

Landscape fabric

Note: If you don’t wish to buy materials yourself and prefer a kit, this one is similar (but obviously, you’ll spend a little more for the convenience of having it ready-to-assemble… I still think it’s pretty affordable for the garden space it creates.)

Be sure to pre-drill the boards; they risk splitting if you try to screw into them without!

I screwed the sides in panels and eyeballed the spacing of the supports along each longer side (see above for a visual example). Since I was installing on unlevel ground, I used some of the not-yet-installed pieces to create a more level surface for stacking.

For the corner bed, I didn’t actually build an entire other bed; instead, I used 2 boards, cut each in half, created the corner, and screwed it to the other two beds to form an L.

Once it was all flipped over, it was ready for digging.

A.

LOT.

OF.

DIGGING.

Georgia red clay is no joke. But after wrestling with the shovel for a good while, the bed finally succumbed and sunk into the ground. Then, I added some landscaping fabric to help block weeds from the bottom (a MUST if you have a weed-prone yard like mine).

Then, I began layering in organic material, similar to how I layered in the raised garden beds for my gardenias. This “lasagna” method helps to get a good layer of weed-blocking matter toward the bottom, and then compost on top. K and I have been putting in a lot of effort to save our veggies as we cook and put them in a compost pile (which, coughcough, I need to build into a more practical compost setup so it’s more contained, but it’s not really a priority right now).

Lesson learned: you need a LOT of compost, even for tiny gardens!

After a trip to the supplier for more composted soil, the beds were ready for the seedlings.

Hey, that’s me! I know it’s kinda narcissistic, but I really like that having K around has meant more photos of me actually doing things here on the blog. Bothering with tripods and timers is a pain in the ass to remember… so for many years, I’ve mostly done without being present in my tutorials. But, I also think that makes things a little more impersonal. “No more disembodied hand tutorials” is a new goal.

At least, not just hands …

(Quick reminder, there’s a separate tutorial about these seedlings if you want info on those. I used this growing kit and bought individual seed packets to grow them.)

But anyway, isn’t she pretty? The garden is such a fun new thing to have! I’ll be posting the first few veggies as soon as they are ripe enough to try. This one side has mostly tomatoes, and I planted marigolds because I read they are a natural companion plant that helps repel garden pests (I do think I should add more though)…

And the other has mostly peppers…

There are also onions and carrots that have just recently started popping up, so there will be lots of new pics for the next garden update.

I wound up building another, skinnier bed for cucumbers with a trellis… which was a little tougher since the landscape in that spot still has roots from the tree removal. If anyone is struggling with that and would like a separate tutorial with some tips on getting a garden bed to work (somewhat) level on an uneven landscape, please let me know!

Spoilers!

Ready for some sneak peeks of things? As I mentioned, this new garden has been in place for a couple of months now, and nearly everything around the bed has been changing. So, that means from just about every photographic angle, there are some crazy updates going on right next to this that I haven’t shared fully yet.

There are a ton of things coming this month, and it’s full-steam ahead with lots of building (which is how we’ve gotten into this pattern of no updates, then a giant swarm of them, and then another quiet period while I continue building… I think a nap is in my future). The new deck is now done, so I have at a minimum of two more posts coming for that. The pub shed, as you can see, is underway, and we’ve been grilling out every night for the last week. It’s a lot. A lot of a lot.

At the end, I’m hoping to also give you guys an update on the travel trailer (it has a name, I’m trying to come up with a pretty piece of art for its new name, and we should be starting on the restoration — coughcough gut job — very soon!).

My vegetable garden also has a small little deck thanks to some extra decking materials left over. It’s been great during these crazy rain storms this spring. I’ll have a separate tutorial for you on that (should be by next Thursday)!

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here in a nutshell. What have you been building/growing/DIYing lately?

Pin for later:

The post DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) published first on https://bakerskitchenslimited.tumblr.com/

[georgeycowell]

DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update)

My vegetable seedlings popped up quickly this spring, which meant I needed a garden bed — FAST! Check out how I made this cheap & easy L-shaped raised garden bed out of cedar fence pickets. In just a few hours, I had a vegetable garden ready for growing!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Got a new backyard update for ya today: my L-shaped raised garden bed, completed and growing strong with veggies! Since I’ve been putting some effort into doing more video this year, I have a both video tutorial and a post below about it, so you can pick your poison.

DIY L-Shaped Vegetable Garden Bed

I say “new” because they’re new as of 2018, but in truth, they’ve been in the yard for about two months now. I’ve been scrambling with the deck build and getting the shed underway, but I think it’s probably best to share the garden build before the new veggies — which are starting to grow in, so I need to get a move on with this post!

If you recall from my seedling post, I was in a rush to build some new garden beds in the back yard. I was crazy-surprised how quickly the seeds popped up and were ready to be transplanted. Luckily, I’ve already been through this whole garden bed build experience thanks to the gardenia garden beds I built along the fence a few years ago. My experience from those gave me a few things to keep in mind:

More 2×4 posts (I used mostly scraps last time, and the 2x4s simply needed a few more to make for better reinforcement spacing along the bed)

All cedar this time

Maximize the amount of beds I could build with as little wood as possible (budget-conscious build as always!)

Use wood glue as well (I didn’t last time, but some outdoor wood glue seemed like another way to keep it solid for as long as possible)

Like last time, I bought dog-eared fence pickets, but went with cedar for a way to change it up. Cedar has natural oils in it that resist rot, so they’re great for an application like this. I also picked up cedar 2x4s and cut all the pieces down.

Wood:

14 – cedar fence pickets

4 – cedar 2 x 4x (8ft length)

Cuts:

Cut off the dog-eared parts of each fence picket and line them up to make sure they are the same length (my preferred method that avoids measuring: stack them and tape them together with painter’s tape, then cut them together in a batch)

Cut 2x4s to 18-inch lengths (roughly 5 per 8-ft board)**

Each rectangular bed needs 4 full-length cedar picket boards, then 2 more cut in half to create the sides

** You can make these longer if you have to concern yourself with frost or whatever (in Georgia that’s not really a thing I think much about), but I know my friend Kit from DIY Diva cuts hers to 19 inches and lives in freezing cold Michigan, if that helps!

Supplies:

Wood glue

Painter’s tape (for cutting)

Miter saw (I recently upgraded my saw to a bigger and badder one, and I LOVE IT)

Drill and drill bits (if you have one available, it’s faster to use one drill for pre-drilling, then an impact driver for driving all the screws… they’re often sold together in combo kits so if you don’t have these, I highly recommend them!)

Exterior wood screws

Shovel (boy howdy, did I ever do some digging!)

Landscape fabric

Be sure to pre-drill the boards; they risk splitting if you try to screw into them without!

I screwed the sides in panels and eyeballed the spacing of the supports along each longer side (see above for a visual example). Since I was installing on unlevel ground, I used some of the not-yet-installed pieces to create a more level surface for stacking.

For the corner bed, I didn’t actually build an entire other bed; instead, I used 2 boards, cut each in half, created the corner, and screwed it to the other two beds to form an L.

Once it was all flipped over, it was ready for digging.

A.

LOT.

OF.

DIGGING.

Georgia red clay is no joke. But after wrestling with the shovel for a good while, the bed finally succumbed and sunk into the ground. Then, I added some landscaping fabric to help block weeds from the bottom (a MUST if you have a weed-prone yard like mine).

Then, I began layering in organic material, similar to how I layered in the raised garden beds for my gardenias. This “lasagna” method helps to get a good layer of weed-blocking matter toward the bottom, and then compost on top. K and I have been putting in a lot of effort to save our veggies as we cook and put them in a compost pile (which, coughcough, I need to build into a more practical compost setup so it’s more contained, but it’s not really a priority right now).

Lesson learned: you need a LOT of compost, even for tiny gardens!

After a trip to the supplier for more composted soil, the beds were ready for the seedlings.

Hey, that’s me! I know it’s kinda narcissistic, but I really like that having K around has meant more photos of me actually doing things here on the blog. Bothering with tripods and timers is a pain in the ass to remember… so for many years, I’ve mostly done without being present in my tutorials. But, I also think that makes things a little more impersonal. “No more disembodied hand tutorials” is a new goal.

At least, not just hands …

But anyway, isn’t she pretty? The garden is such a fun new thing to have! I’ll be posting the first few veggies as soon as they are ripe enough to try. This one side has mostly tomatoes, and I planted marigolds because I read they are a natural companion plant that helps repel garden pests (I do think I should add more though)…

And the other has mostly peppers…

There are also onions and carrots that have just recently started popping up, so there will be lots of new pics for the next garden update.

I wound up building another, skinnier bed for cucumbers with a trellis… which was a little tougher since the landscape in that spot still has roots from the tree removal. If anyone is struggling with that and would like a separate tutorial with some tips on getting a garden bed to work (somewhat) level on an uneven landscape, please let me know!

Spoilers!

Ready for some sneak peeks of things? As I mentioned, this new garden has been in place for a couple of months now, and nearly everything around the bed has been changing. So, that means from just about every photographic angle, there are some crazy updates going on right next to this that I haven’t shared fully yet.

There are a ton of things coming this month, and it’s full-steam ahead with lots of building (which is how we’ve gotten into this pattern of no updates, then a giant swarm of them, and then another quiet period while I continue building… I think a nap is in my future). The new deck is now done, so I have at a minimum of two more posts coming for that. The pub shed, as you can see, is underway, and we’ve been grilling out every night for the last week. It’s a lot. A lot of a lot.

At the end, I’m hoping to also give you guys an update on the travel trailer (it has a name, I’m trying to come up with a pretty piece of art for its new name, and we should be starting on the restoration — coughcough gut job — very soon!).

My vegetable garden also has a small little deck thanks to some extra decking materials left over. It’s been great during these crazy rain storms this spring. I’ll have a separate tutorial for you on that (should be by next Thursday)!

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here in a nutshell. What have you been building/growing/DIYing lately?

The post DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); from Home https://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/diy-l-shaped-garden-bed-vegetable-garden-update/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[lowmaticnews]

DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update)

My vegetable seedlings popped up quickly this spring, which meant I needed a garden bed — FAST! Check out how I made this cheap & easy L-shaped raised garden bed out of cedar fence pickets. In just a few hours, I had a vegetable garden ready for growing!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Got a new backyard update for ya today: my L-shaped raised garden bed, completed and growing strong with veggies! Since I’ve been putting some effort into doing more video this year, I have a both video tutorial and a post below about it, so you can pick your poison.

DIY L-Shaped Vegetable Garden Bed

I say “new” because they’re new as of 2018, but in truth, they’ve been in the yard for about two months now. I’ve been scrambling with the deck build and getting the shed underway, but I think it’s probably best to share the garden build before the new veggies — which are starting to grow in, so I need to get a move on with this post!

If you recall from my seedling post, I was in a rush to build some new garden beds in the back yard. I was crazy-surprised how quickly the seeds popped up and were ready to be transplanted. Luckily, I’ve already been through this whole garden bed build experience thanks to the gardenia garden beds I built along the fence a few years ago. My experience from those gave me a few things to keep in mind:

More 2×4 posts (I used mostly scraps last time, and the 2x4s simply needed a few more to make for better reinforcement spacing along the bed)

All cedar this time

Maximize the amount of beds I could build with as little wood as possible (budget-conscious build as always!)

Use wood glue as well (I didn’t last time, but some outdoor wood glue seemed like another way to keep it solid for as long as possible)

Like last time, I bought dog-eared fence pickets, but went with cedar for a way to change it up. Cedar has natural oils in it that resist rot, so they’re great for an application like this. I also picked up cedar 2x4s and cut all the pieces down.

Wood:

14 – cedar fence pickets

4 – cedar 2 x 4x (8ft length)

Cuts:

Cut off the dog-eared parts of each fence picket and line them up to make sure they are the same length (my preferred method that avoids measuring: stack them and tape them together with painter’s tape, then cut them together in a batch)

Cut 2x4s to 18-inch lengths (roughly 5 per 8-ft board)**

Each rectangular bed needs 4 full-length cedar picket boards, then 2 more cut in half to create the sides

** You can make these longer if you have to concern yourself with frost or whatever (in Georgia that’s not really a thing I think much about), but I know my friend Kit from DIY Diva cuts hers to 19 inches and lives in freezing cold Michigan, if that helps!

Supplies:

Wood glue

Painter’s tape (for cutting)

Miter saw (I recently upgraded my saw to a bigger and badder one, and I LOVE IT)

Drill and drill bits (if you have one available, it’s faster to use one drill for pre-drilling, then an impact driver for driving all the screws… they’re often sold together in combo kits so if you don’t have these, I highly recommend them!)

Exterior wood screws

Shovel (boy howdy, did I ever do some digging!)

Landscape fabric

Be sure to pre-drill the boards; they risk splitting if you try to screw into them without!

I screwed the sides in panels and eyeballed the spacing of the supports along each longer side (see above for a visual example). Since I was installing on unlevel ground, I used some of the not-yet-installed pieces to create a more level surface for stacking.

For the corner bed, I didn’t actually build an entire other bed; instead, I used 2 boards, cut each in half, created the corner, and screwed it to the other two beds to form an L.

Once it was all flipped over, it was ready for digging.

A.

LOT.

OF.

DIGGING.

Georgia red clay is no joke. But after wrestling with the shovel for a good while, the bed finally succumbed and sunk into the ground. Then, I added some landscaping fabric to help block weeds from the bottom (a MUST if you have a weed-prone yard like mine).

Then, I began layering in organic material, similar to how I layered in the raised garden beds for my gardenias. This “lasagna” method helps to get a good layer of weed-blocking matter toward the bottom, and then compost on top. K and I have been putting in a lot of effort to save our veggies as we cook and put them in a compost pile (which, coughcough, I need to build into a more practical compost setup so it’s more contained, but it’s not really a priority right now).

Lesson learned: you need a LOT of compost, even for tiny gardens!

After a trip to the supplier for more composted soil, the beds were ready for the seedlings.

Hey, that’s me! I know it’s kinda narcissistic, but I really like that having K around has meant more photos of me actually doing things here on the blog. Bothering with tripods and timers is a pain in the ass to remember… so for many years, I’ve mostly done without being present in my tutorials. But, I also think that makes things a little more impersonal. “No more disembodied hand tutorials” is a new goal.

At least, not just hands …

But anyway, isn’t she pretty? The garden is such a fun new thing to have! I’ll be posting the first few veggies as soon as they are ripe enough to try. This one side has mostly tomatoes, and I planted marigolds because I read they are a natural companion plant that helps repel garden pests (I do think I should add more though)…

And the other has mostly peppers…

There are also onions and carrots that have just recently started popping up, so there will be lots of new pics for the next garden update.

I wound up building another, skinnier bed for cucumbers with a trellis… which was a little tougher since the landscape in that spot still has roots from the tree removal. If anyone is struggling with that and would like a separate tutorial with some tips on getting a garden bed to work (somewhat) level on an uneven landscape, please let me know!

Spoilers!

Ready for some sneak peeks of things? As I mentioned, this new garden has been in place for a couple of months now, and nearly everything around the bed has been changing. So, that means from just about every photographic angle, there are some crazy updates going on right next to this that I haven’t shared fully yet.

There are a ton of things coming this month, and it’s full-steam ahead with lots of building (which is how we’ve gotten into this pattern of no updates, then a giant swarm of them, and then another quiet period while I continue building… I think a nap is in my future). The new deck is now done, so I have at a minimum of two more posts coming for that. The pub shed, as you can see, is underway, and we’ve been grilling out every night for the last week. It’s a lot. A lot of a lot.

At the end, I’m hoping to also give you guys an update on the travel trailer (it has a name, I’m trying to come up with a pretty piece of art for its new name, and we should be starting on the restoration — coughcough gut job — very soon!).

My vegetable garden also has a small little deck thanks to some extra decking materials left over. It’s been great during these crazy rain storms this spring. I’ll have a separate tutorial for you on that (should be by next Thursday)!

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here in a nutshell. What have you been building/growing/DIYing lately?

The post DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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[petraself]

DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update)

My vegetable seedlings popped up quickly this spring, which meant I needed a garden bed — FAST! Check out how I made this cheap & easy L-shaped raised garden bed out of cedar fence pickets. In just a few hours, I had a vegetable garden ready for growing!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Got a new backyard update for ya today: my L-shaped raised garden bed, completed and growing strong with veggies! Since I’ve been putting some effort into doing more video this year, I have a both video tutorial and a post below about it, so you can pick your poison.

DIY L-Shaped Vegetable Garden Bed

I say “new” because they’re new as of 2018, but in truth, they’ve been in the yard for about two months now. I’ve been scrambling with the deck build and getting the shed underway, but I think it’s probably best to share the garden build before the new veggies — which are starting to grow in, so I need to get a move on with this post!

If you recall from my seedling post, I was in a rush to build some new garden beds in the back yard. I was crazy-surprised how quickly the seeds popped up and were ready to be transplanted. Luckily, I’ve already been through this whole garden bed build experience thanks to the gardenia garden beds I built along the fence a few years ago. My experience from those gave me a few things to keep in mind:

More 2×4 posts (I used mostly scraps last time, and the 2x4s simply needed a few more to make for better reinforcement spacing along the bed)

All cedar this time

Maximize the amount of beds I could build with as little wood as possible (budget-conscious build as always!)

Use wood glue as well (I didn’t last time, but some outdoor wood glue seemed like another way to keep it solid for as long as possible)

Like last time, I bought dog-eared fence pickets, but went with cedar for a way to change it up. Cedar has natural oils in it that resist rot, so they’re great for an application like this. I also picked up cedar 2x4s and cut all the pieces down.

Wood:

14 – cedar fence pickets

4 – cedar 2 x 4x (8ft length)

Cuts:

Cut off the dog-eared parts of each fence picket and line them up to make sure they are the same length (my preferred method that avoids measuring: stack them and tape them together with painter’s tape, then cut them together in a batch)

Cut 2x4s to 18-inch lengths (roughly 5 per 8-ft board)**

Each rectangular bed needs 4 full-length cedar picket boards, then 2 more cut in half to create the sides

** You can make these longer if you have to concern yourself with frost or whatever (in Georgia that’s not really a thing I think much about), but I know my friend Kit from DIY Diva cuts hers to 19 inches and lives in freezing cold Michigan, if that helps!

Supplies:

Wood glue

Painter’s tape (for cutting)

Miter saw (I recently upgraded my saw to a bigger and badder one, and I LOVE IT)

Drill and drill bits (if you have one available, it’s faster to use one drill for pre-drilling, then an impact driver for driving all the screws… they’re often sold together in combo kits so if you don’t have these, I highly recommend them!)

Exterior wood screws

Shovel (boy howdy, did I ever do some digging!)

Landscape fabric

Be sure to pre-drill the boards; they risk splitting if you try to screw into them without!

I screwed the sides in panels and eyeballed the spacing of the supports along each longer side (see above for a visual example). Since I was installing on unlevel ground, I used some of the not-yet-installed pieces to create a more level surface for stacking.

For the corner bed, I didn’t actually build an entire other bed; instead, I used 2 boards, cut each in half, created the corner, and screwed it to the other two beds to form an L.

Once it was all flipped over, it was ready for digging.

A.

LOT.

OF.

DIGGING.

Georgia red clay is no joke. But after wrestling with the shovel for a good while, the bed finally succumbed and sunk into the ground. Then, I added some landscaping fabric to help block weeds from the bottom (a MUST if you have a weed-prone yard like mine).

Then, I began layering in organic material, similar to how I layered in the raised garden beds for my gardenias. This “lasagna” method helps to get a good layer of weed-blocking matter toward the bottom, and then compost on top. K and I have been putting in a lot of effort to save our veggies as we cook and put them in a compost pile (which, coughcough, I need to build into a more practical compost setup so it’s more contained, but it’s not really a priority right now).

Lesson learned: you need a LOT of compost, even for tiny gardens!

After a trip to the supplier for more composted soil, the beds were ready for the seedlings.

Hey, that’s me! I know it’s kinda narcissistic, but I really like that having K around has meant more photos of me actually doing things here on the blog. Bothering with tripods and timers is a pain in the ass to remember… so for many years, I’ve mostly done without being present in my tutorials. But, I also think that makes things a little more impersonal. “No more disembodied hand tutorials” is a new goal.

At least, not just hands …

But anyway, isn’t she pretty? The garden is such a fun new thing to have! I’ll be posting the first few veggies as soon as they are ripe enough to try. This one side has mostly tomatoes, and I planted marigolds because I read they are a natural companion plant that helps repel garden pests (I do think I should add more though)…

And the other has mostly peppers…

There are also onions and carrots that have just recently started popping up, so there will be lots of new pics for the next garden update.

I wound up building another, skinnier bed for cucumbers with a trellis… which was a little tougher since the landscape in that spot still has roots from the tree removal. If anyone is struggling with that and would like a separate tutorial with some tips on getting a garden bed to work (somewhat) level on an uneven landscape, please let me know!

Spoilers!

Ready for some sneak peeks of things? As I mentioned, this new garden has been in place for a couple of months now, and nearly everything around the bed has been changing. So, that means from just about every photographic angle, there are some crazy updates going on right next to this that I haven’t shared fully yet.

There are a ton of things coming this month, and it’s full-steam ahead with lots of building (which is how we’ve gotten into this pattern of no updates, then a giant swarm of them, and then another quiet period while I continue building… I think a nap is in my future). The new deck is now done, so I have at a minimum of two more posts coming for that. The pub shed, as you can see, is underway, and we’ve been grilling out every night for the last week. It’s a lot. A lot of a lot.

At the end, I’m hoping to also give you guys an update on the travel trailer (it has a name, I’m trying to come up with a pretty piece of art for its new name, and we should be starting on the restoration — coughcough gut job — very soon!).

My vegetable garden also has a small little deck thanks to some extra decking materials left over. It’s been great during these crazy rain storms this spring. I’ll have a separate tutorial for you on that (should be by next Thursday)!

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here in a nutshell. What have you been building/growing/DIYing lately?

The post DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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Quick Patio Patch

Going for Gold

4 Easy Tips for Growing Hydrangeas

How to Make Your Patio Look New Again for Less Tha...

.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) published first on www.uglyducklinghouse.com

[garagedoorsbrighton]

DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update)

My vegetable seedlings popped up quickly this spring, which meant I needed a garden bed — FAST! Check out how I made this cheap & easy L-shaped raised garden bed out of cedar fence pickets. In just a few hours, I had a vegetable garden ready for growing!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Got a new backyard update for ya today: my L-shaped raised garden bed, completed and growing strong with veggies! Since I’ve been putting some effort into doing more video this year, I have a both video tutorial and a post below about it, so you can pick your poison.

DIY L-Shaped Vegetable Garden Bed

I say “new” because they’re new as of 2018, but in truth, they’ve been in the yard for about two months now. I’ve been scrambling with the deck build and getting the shed underway, but I think it’s probably best to share the garden build before the new veggies — which are starting to grow in, so I need to get a move on with this post!

If you recall from my seedling post, I was in a rush to build some new garden beds in the back yard. I was crazy-surprised how quickly the seeds popped up and were ready to be transplanted. Luckily, I’ve already been through this whole garden bed build experience thanks to the gardenia garden beds I built along the fence a few years ago. My experience from those gave me a few things to keep in mind:

More 2×4 posts (I used mostly scraps last time, and the 2x4s simply needed a few more to make for better reinforcement spacing along the bed)

All cedar this time

Maximize the amount of beds I could build with as little wood as possible (budget-conscious build as always!)

Use wood glue as well (I didn’t last time, but some outdoor wood glue seemed like another way to keep it solid for as long as possible)

Like last time, I bought dog-eared fence pickets, but went with cedar for a way to change it up. Cedar has natural oils in it that resist rot, so they’re great for an application like this. I also picked up cedar 2x4s and cut all the pieces down.

Wood:

14 – cedar fence pickets

4 – cedar 2 x 4x (8ft length)

Cuts:

Cut off the dog-eared parts of each fence picket and line them up to make sure they are the same length (my preferred method that avoids measuring: stack them and tape them together with painter’s tape, then cut them together in a batch)

Cut 2x4s to 18-inch lengths (roughly 5 per 8-ft board)**

Each rectangular bed needs 4 full-length cedar picket boards, then 2 more cut in half to create the sides

** You can make these longer if you have to concern yourself with frost or whatever (in Georgia that’s not really a thing I think much about), but I know my friend Kit from DIY Diva cuts hers to 19 inches and lives in freezing cold Michigan, if that helps!

Supplies:

Wood glue

Painter’s tape (for cutting)

Miter saw (I recently upgraded my saw to a bigger and badder one, and I LOVE IT)

Drill and drill bits (if you have one available, it’s faster to use one drill for pre-drilling, then an impact driver for driving all the screws… they’re often sold together in combo kits so if you don’t have these, I highly recommend them!)

Exterior wood screws

Shovel (boy howdy, did I ever do some digging!)

Landscape fabric

Be sure to pre-drill the boards; they risk splitting if you try to screw into them without!

I screwed the sides in panels and eyeballed the spacing of the supports along each longer side (see above for a visual example). Since I was installing on unlevel ground, I used some of the not-yet-installed pieces to create a more level surface for stacking.

For the corner bed, I didn’t actually build an entire other bed; instead, I used 2 boards, cut each in half, created the corner, and screwed it to the other two beds to form an L.

Once it was all flipped over, it was ready for digging.

A.

LOT.

OF.

DIGGING.

Georgia red clay is no joke. But after wrestling with the shovel for a good while, the bed finally succumbed and sunk into the ground. Then, I added some landscaping fabric to help block weeds from the bottom (a MUST if you have a weed-prone yard like mine).

Then, I began layering in organic material, similar to how I layered in the raised garden beds for my gardenias. This “lasagna” method helps to get a good layer of weed-blocking matter toward the bottom, and then compost on top. K and I have been putting in a lot of effort to save our veggies as we cook and put them in a compost pile (which, coughcough, I need to build into a more practical compost setup so it’s more contained, but it’s not really a priority right now).

Lesson learned: you need a LOT of compost, even for tiny gardens!

After a trip to the supplier for more composted soil, the beds were ready for the seedlings.

Hey, that’s me! I know it’s kinda narcissistic, but I really like that having K around has meant more photos of me actually doing things here on the blog. Bothering with tripods and timers is a pain in the ass to remember… so for many years, I’ve mostly done without being present in my tutorials. But, I also think that makes things a little more impersonal. “No more disembodied hand tutorials” is a new goal.

At least, not just hands …

But anyway, isn’t she pretty? The garden is such a fun new thing to have! I’ll be posting the first few veggies as soon as they are ripe enough to try. This one side has mostly tomatoes, and I planted marigolds because I read they are a natural companion plant that helps repel garden pests (I do think I should add more though)…

And the other has mostly peppers…

There are also onions and carrots that have just recently started popping up, so there will be lots of new pics for the next garden update.

I wound up building another, skinnier bed for cucumbers with a trellis… which was a little tougher since the landscape in that spot still has roots from the tree removal. If anyone is struggling with that and would like a separate tutorial with some tips on getting a garden bed to work (somewhat) level on an uneven landscape, please let me know!

Spoilers!

Ready for some sneak peeks of things? As I mentioned, this new garden has been in place for a couple of months now, and nearly everything around the bed has been changing. So, that means from just about every photographic angle, there are some crazy updates going on right next to this that I haven’t shared fully yet.

There are a ton of things coming this month, and it’s full-steam ahead with lots of building (which is how we’ve gotten into this pattern of no updates, then a giant swarm of them, and then another quiet period while I continue building… I think a nap is in my future). The new deck is now done, so I have at a minimum of two more posts coming for that. The pub shed, as you can see, is underway, and we’ve been grilling out every night for the last week. It’s a lot. A lot of a lot.

At the end, I’m hoping to also give you guys an update on the travel trailer (it has a name, I’m trying to come up with a pretty piece of art for its new name, and we should be starting on the restoration — coughcough gut job — very soon!).

My vegetable garden also has a small little deck thanks to some extra decking materials left over. It’s been great during these crazy rain storms this spring. I’ll have a separate tutorial for you on that (should be by next Thursday)!

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here in a nutshell. What have you been building/growing/DIYing lately?

The post DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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How to Make Your Patio Look New Again for Less Tha...

.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); from Ugly Duckling House https://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/diy-l-shaped-garden-bed-vegetable-garden-update/

[bespokekitchesldn]

DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update)

My vegetable seedlings popped up quickly this spring, which meant I needed a garden bed — FAST! Check out how I made this cheap & easy L-shaped raised garden bed out of cedar fence pickets. In just a few hours, I had a vegetable garden ready for growing!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Got a new backyard update for ya today: my L-shaped raised garden bed, completed and growing strong with veggies! Since I’ve been putting some effort into doing more video this year, I have a both video tutorial and a post below about it, so you can pick your poison.

DIY L-Shaped Vegetable Garden Bed

I say “new” because they’re new as of 2018, but in truth, they’ve been in the yard for about two months now. I’ve been scrambling with the deck build and getting the shed underway, but I think it’s probably best to share the garden build before the new veggies — which are starting to grow in, so I need to get a move on with this post!

If you recall from my seedling post, I was in a rush to build some new garden beds in the back yard. I was crazy-surprised how quickly the seeds popped up and were ready to be transplanted. Luckily, I’ve already been through this whole garden bed build experience thanks to the gardenia garden beds I built along the fence a few years ago. My experience from those gave me a few things to keep in mind:

More 2×4 posts (I used mostly scraps last time, and the 2x4s simply needed a few more to make for better reinforcement spacing along the bed)

All cedar this time

Maximize the amount of beds I could build with as little wood as possible (budget-conscious build as always!)

Use wood glue as well (I didn’t last time, but some outdoor wood glue seemed like another way to keep it solid for as long as possible)

Like last time, I bought dog-eared fence pickets, but went with cedar for a way to change it up. Cedar has natural oils in it that resist rot, so they’re great for an application like this. I also picked up cedar 2x4s and cut all the pieces down.

Wood:

14 – cedar fence pickets

4 – cedar 2 x 4x (8ft length)

Cuts:

Cut off the dog-eared parts of each fence picket and line them up to make sure they are the same length (my preferred method that avoids measuring: stack them and tape them together with painter’s tape, then cut them together in a batch)

Cut 2x4s to 18-inch lengths (roughly 5 per 8-ft board)**

Each rectangular bed needs 4 full-length cedar picket boards, then 2 more cut in half to create the sides

** You can make these longer if you have to concern yourself with frost or whatever (in Georgia that’s not really a thing I think much about), but I know my friend Kit from DIY Diva cuts hers to 19 inches and lives in freezing cold Michigan, if that helps!

Supplies:

Wood glue

Painter’s tape (for cutting)

Miter saw (I recently upgraded my saw to a bigger and badder one, and I LOVE IT)

Drill and drill bits (if you have one available, it’s faster to use one drill for pre-drilling, then an impact driver for driving all the screws… they’re often sold together in combo kits so if you don’t have these, I highly recommend them!)

Exterior wood screws

Shovel (boy howdy, did I ever do some digging!)

Landscape fabric

Be sure to pre-drill the boards; they risk splitting if you try to screw into them without!

I screwed the sides in panels and eyeballed the spacing of the supports along each longer side (see above for a visual example). Since I was installing on unlevel ground, I used some of the not-yet-installed pieces to create a more level surface for stacking.

For the corner bed, I didn’t actually build an entire other bed; instead, I used 2 boards, cut each in half, created the corner, and screwed it to the other two beds to form an L.

Once it was all flipped over, it was ready for digging.

A.

LOT.

OF.

DIGGING.

Georgia red clay is no joke. But after wrestling with the shovel for a good while, the bed finally succumbed and sunk into the ground. Then, I added some landscaping fabric to help block weeds from the bottom (a MUST if you have a weed-prone yard like mine).

Then, I began layering in organic material, similar to how I layered in the raised garden beds for my gardenias. This “lasagna” method helps to get a good layer of weed-blocking matter toward the bottom, and then compost on top. K and I have been putting in a lot of effort to save our veggies as we cook and put them in a compost pile (which, coughcough, I need to build into a more practical compost setup so it’s more contained, but it’s not really a priority right now).

Lesson learned: you need a LOT of compost, even for tiny gardens!

After a trip to the supplier for more composted soil, the beds were ready for the seedlings.

Hey, that’s me! I know it’s kinda narcissistic, but I really like that having K around has meant more photos of me actually doing things here on the blog. Bothering with tripods and timers is a pain in the ass to remember… so for many years, I’ve mostly done without being present in my tutorials. But, I also think that makes things a little more impersonal. “No more disembodied hand tutorials” is a new goal.

At least, not just hands …

But anyway, isn’t she pretty? The garden is such a fun new thing to have! I’ll be posting the first few veggies as soon as they are ripe enough to try. This one side has mostly tomatoes, and I planted marigolds because I read they are a natural companion plant that helps repel garden pests (I do think I should add more though)…

And the other has mostly peppers…

There are also onions and carrots that have just recently started popping up, so there will be lots of new pics for the next garden update.

I wound up building another, skinnier bed for cucumbers with a trellis… which was a little tougher since the landscape in that spot still has roots from the tree removal. If anyone is struggling with that and would like a separate tutorial with some tips on getting a garden bed to work (somewhat) level on an uneven landscape, please let me know!

Spoilers!

Ready for some sneak peeks of things? As I mentioned, this new garden has been in place for a couple of months now, and nearly everything around the bed has been changing. So, that means from just about every photographic angle, there are some crazy updates going on right next to this that I haven’t shared fully yet.

There are a ton of things coming this month, and it’s full-steam ahead with lots of building (which is how we’ve gotten into this pattern of no updates, then a giant swarm of them, and then another quiet period while I continue building… I think a nap is in my future). The new deck is now done, so I have at a minimum of two more posts coming for that. The pub shed, as you can see, is underway, and we’ve been grilling out every night for the last week. It’s a lot. A lot of a lot.

At the end, I’m hoping to also give you guys an update on the travel trailer (it has a name, I’m trying to come up with a pretty piece of art for its new name, and we should be starting on the restoration — coughcough gut job — very soon!).

My vegetable garden also has a small little deck thanks to some extra decking materials left over. It’s been great during these crazy rain storms this spring. I’ll have a separate tutorial for you on that (should be by next Thursday)!

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here in a nutshell. What have you been building/growing/DIYing lately?

The post DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); from Ugly Duckling House https://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/diy-l-shaped-garden-bed-vegetable-garden-update/

[purplesurveys]

205

What is the title of the strangest book you own? I know I have an old book somewhere entitled Sing a Song of Tuna Fish, which I got when I was I think 8. Enjoyed quite a bit at the time and reread it a few times too. That’s the weirdest one I have. How often do you actually wake up in a good mood? Kind of rarely these days. I hate 6 AM call times EVERY DAY. What can we usually find you doing on a Friday night? Friday nights are always reserved for Gabie, whether we’re staying in or eating out. We mix up the itinerary every week, so there’s no usual. What would you say is your guiltiest pleasure? Right now that title belongs to Charlie Puth, but I don’t necessarily feel guilty about enjoying his music... Tell me all about your special lady/gentleman. She has just the prettiest, the purest, and the sweetest soul. She has this vibe about her that makes her loved by everyone; even all of my orgmates love having her around. She’s great at reading and making poetry, and is the smartest person I know.

What is the highest outdoor temperature you've ever had to endure? Malaysia was pretty hot and dry, but I was never able to note the temperature. Here in the Philippines, the worst was probably 36-37ºC. The humidity made it worse too so technically that would increase it to around 42ºC. And the lowest? That belongs to either Japan (too cold I couldn’t even speak and stayed clinging to my dad so I could walk properly) or Sagada at 4 AM. Japan at the time had a one-digit temperature in Celsius, and Sagada was 10ºC. What is the funniest thing a child has ever said to you. I don’t actually know...Filipino kids aren’t all that witty. I just remember being entertained by my godson one time, who genuinely cared for ants and thinks they should be left undisturbed. It was even funnier the way his eyebrows were knitted so much in concern. Do you let your pets on your furniture? Sure, the only exception being the dining table. Can you usually tell when someone has feelings for you? The fact that I don’t know anything right now means I probably can’t, haha. I had no slight clue Mike liked me the way he did and how serious he was about it, that’s another case. I can read people very well, but I’m just very oblivious when it comes to this. Do you know what things your pet(s) prefers to eat? My dog loves his rice and his meat. In other words, human food. That’s what he grew on and that’s what he ended up loving most. What would you plant in your dream garden? Please don’t trust me with plants. Do you believe in fairies, gnomes, or elves? .....No? What does your wallet look like? Filled with pieces of paper that I know I have to throw out but just can’t be bothered to. Some bills in it too, and tons of coins. What is your favorite thing to cook for someone else? I can only make instant noodles for Gab but thankfully she never gets tired of it. Tell me about the last book you read. It talks about Asian imperialism and touched on how the Japanese basically became the bully in the entire continent. It was annoying to contemplate on it in the first place since I definitely knew what my country had to go through under them, come to find out even more of their atrocities in China. Apparently they liked raping women and either cutting children in half or burning them, so that was an absolute joy to read. Who was the last person to leave you flustered? Haven’t felt that recently. What's the last thing you ate that was made with phyllo dough? I’m not sure. Have you ever bought underwear simply because it made your underwear drawer look nice? I guess, yeah? Describe the outfit that makes you look and feel your best. I have a variety of those that I just whip out whenever I want to have the feeling that I know I look good. A tight black tank top and ripped jeans usually does the trick most times though. What can you see from where you're sitting? The entire dining area and part of the kitchen. I would also see the guest bathroom from here but the door is closed. When you have a chance at happiness, do you allow yourself to take it? Yes, but most of the time I can be wary at first; and generally I don’t let myself wallow in being happy for too long because it’s always taken away from me harshly at some point. What are some bands others would be surprised to find in your music library? I never let anyone know about my punk taste to begin with so I’m sure they’d be most surprised if I suddenly tuned into my Misfits or Cro-Mags discography. How do you feel about kettle cooked chips? I’m not familiar with the name. I might know what they are as chips, but I never bother learning about what they are called most of the time haha. Tell me something about yourself that you're most proud of. I study in the top university in the country. What do you like to dunk in your coffee, if anything? I dont dunk my food in it. What was the subject of the last documentary you watched? Haven’t sat down to view a docu in so long but the last one was probably about the feral child, Genie. What sort of things do you do when you have the entire evening to relax? Surveys, call my girlfriend, watch YouTube videos, sometimes sleep early. Are there any books I should check out next time I'm at the library? Yup, not really the person to go to for book recommendations. Opinions on cold pizza? The only way to eat pizza. Do you have a favorite brand of tea? I don’t even drink tea. What's the last stupid question you were asked? (Besides these.) Hahahaha good save. Gabie asked me who Gianina (an org-mate) was even though they have met each other like five times. Her memory is so bad but sometimes it’s just asking for an eyeroll from me lol. What's been on your mind lately? How I’m going to see Paramore up close in three months. Tell me about the best thing you created with your own two hands. A pot! I made one from clay on my trip to Ilocos last August. I’ve wanted to do it since I was maybe 5 and was sooooo excited to get my hands on the wet clay. Definitely not as easy as it looks on screen but I loved how mine turned out. I couldn’t take it home though since it had to be baked and everything for a week, but I was only staying there for two days :( How strong do you like your coffee? Not strong. I want milk in my coffee. Do you feel like you need to get something off your chest? Not right now. Describe your morning routine. Sluggish. Always lazy. Always grumpy. What strange food combinations do you thoroughly enjoy? I would experiment mayonnaise on anything edible. What's your favorite Elvis song? I don’t have one. Are there any songs you wish your favorite band would cover? Welp not really into covers, so. Paramore’s Fleetwood Mac and Drake covers are all a solid 12/10, though. Do you enjoy talking on the phone? Only with my girlfriend. Otherwise, it’s dreadful. Are you currently waiting for something to come in the mail? Nope. Would you rather see someone of the opposite sex naked or nicely dressed? Away from me. What makes your best friend the best? They are patient with me. That’s all I’ve always asked for. When was the last time you felt incredibly stupid or embarrassed? Ughhhhh fuck, awhile ago because I’M THE WORST. I was at a buffet and this waiter guy is making small talk, being super friendly. Unfortunately my ears decided to be the biggest pricks right at that moment and when he asked, “Have you been seated?” I couldn’t get myself to understand him and had to ask ‘sorry?’ FOUR. TIMES. Four times to repeat the freakin’ question. I couldn’t believe my guts. I suck. Made up for it by being just as friendly after that slipup. How do you go about cheering someone up? Depends on the person because they all have their own solutions. Others want to be left alone, some want to be hugged, to be listened to, to be given advice, need a shoulder to cry on, or just need a companion to stay silent with. I do all of those with or for my loved ones. How would you react if someone told you they had feelings for you? Yikes. Serenade me with some lyrics from the song currently stuck in your head. “If I smile with my teeth, bet you’d believe me / If I smile with my teeth, I think I believe me.” What is the last thing you wrote down? (continuing this from last night) Notes I’ve written on my readings for history class. Tell me something great about the day/night you're having. ...I had just woken up. Get back to me with this question later on in the day.

Would you ever participate in a suspension? Of? What was the last thing to annoy you? My schedule doesn’t work with everyone else’s today. :/ Name five things that begin with the letter C. Cactus, coconuts, credit card, claw, cane. What's the title of the last book you bought? Yeah about that... Would you ever consider visiting Texas? I would, actually; but mostly because I have family living there. One of my second cousins that I’m really close with, Ate Joelle, urges me every year to come hang in Texas so I probably would once I’ve the money to. I don’t know much about the state though except Christianity is kind of huge. Where do you go when you need to escape? My room, Skywalk, or the college library. How big is your town's library? Ask that to our government, who never allots enough money for institutions like that :----) We don’t have any local libraries, nor parks, nor memorials, nor a museum save for one. Which bands would play in your dream concert? My favorites won’t merge well in a concert so meh. Do you know of any home remedies that work surprisingly well? No. If you could make a movie, what would it be about? I’ll leave that to my girlfriend, the bigger film major between the two of us. Tell someone something they need to know. That they’d have to be a huge dick to wake me up the way they did earlier. What's something you've never been able to live down? When I sang for a hundred or so party guests on my 7th birthday party. My parents definitely would never let me forget it–the entire thing is on CD. What's something that's been on your to-do list for awhile? Hahahahaha ughhhhh the mockery of this question. I guess do the stuff that I’ve been needing to do in Filipino. How do you take your mind off things? Surveys usually. YouTube videos sometimes. Tell me a joke. Eh, all the good ones I know of are in Filipino. Do you own a battle jacket? Nope.

[endlessarchite]

DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update)

My vegetable seedlings popped up quickly this spring, which meant I needed a garden bed — FAST! Check out how I made this cheap & easy L-shaped raised garden bed out of cedar fence pickets. In just a few hours, I had a vegetable garden ready for growing!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Got a new backyard update for ya today: my L-shaped raised garden bed, completed and growing strong with veggies! Since I’ve been putting some effort into doing more video this year, I have a both video tutorial and a post below about it, so you can pick your poison.

DIY L-Shaped Vegetable Garden Bed

I say “new” because they’re new as of 2018, but in truth, they’ve been in the yard for about two months now. I’ve been scrambling with the deck build and getting the shed underway, but I think it’s probably best to share the garden build before the new veggies — which are starting to grow in, so I need to get a move on with this post!

If you recall from my seedling post, I was in a rush to build some new garden beds in the back yard. I was crazy-surprised how quickly the seeds popped up and were ready to be transplanted. Luckily, I’ve already been through this whole garden bed build experience thanks to the gardenia garden beds I built along the fence a few years ago. My experience from those gave me a few things to keep in mind:

More 2×4 posts (I used mostly scraps last time, and the 2x4s simply needed a few more to make for better reinforcement spacing along the bed)

All cedar this time

Maximize the amount of beds I could build with as little wood as possible (budget-conscious build as always!)

Use wood glue as well (I didn’t last time, but some outdoor wood glue seemed like another way to keep it solid for as long as possible)

Like last time, I bought dog-eared fence pickets, but went with cedar for a way to change it up. Cedar has natural oils in it that resist rot, so they’re great for an application like this. I also picked up cedar 2x4s and cut all the pieces down.

Wood:

14 – cedar fence pickets

4 – cedar 2 x 4x (8ft length)

Cuts:

Cut off the dog-eared parts of each fence picket and line them up to make sure they are the same length (my preferred method that avoids measuring: stack them and tape them together with painter’s tape, then cut them together in a batch)

Cut 2x4s to 18-inch lengths (roughly 5 per 8-ft board)**

Each rectangular bed needs 4 full-length cedar picket boards, then 2 more cut in half to create the sides

** You can make these longer if you have to concern yourself with frost or whatever (in Georgia that’s not really a thing I think much about), but I know my friend Kit from DIY Diva cuts hers to 19 inches and lives in freezing cold Michigan, if that helps!

Supplies:

Wood glue

Painter’s tape (for cutting)

Miter saw (I recently upgraded my saw to a bigger and badder one, and I LOVE IT)

Drill and drill bits (if you have one available, it’s faster to use one drill for pre-drilling, then an impact driver for driving all the screws… they’re often sold together in combo kits so if you don’t have these, I highly recommend them!)

Exterior wood screws

Shovel (boy howdy, did I ever do some digging!)

Landscape fabric

Be sure to pre-drill the boards; they risk splitting if you try to screw into them without!

I screwed the sides in panels and eyeballed the spacing of the supports along each longer side (see above for a visual example). Since I was installing on unlevel ground, I used some of the not-yet-installed pieces to create a more level surface for stacking.

For the corner bed, I didn’t actually build an entire other bed; instead, I used 2 boards, cut each in half, created the corner, and screwed it to the other two beds to form an L.

Once it was all flipped over, it was ready for digging.

A.

LOT.

OF.

DIGGING.

Georgia red clay is no joke. But after wrestling with the shovel for a good while, the bed finally succumbed and sunk into the ground. Then, I added some landscaping fabric to help block weeds from the bottom (a MUST if you have a weed-prone yard like mine).

Then, I began layering in organic material, similar to how I layered in the raised garden beds for my gardenias. This “lasagna” method helps to get a good layer of weed-blocking matter toward the bottom, and then compost on top. K and I have been putting in a lot of effort to save our veggies as we cook and put them in a compost pile (which, coughcough, I need to build into a more practical compost setup so it’s more contained, but it’s not really a priority right now).

Lesson learned: you need a LOT of compost, even for tiny gardens!

After a trip to the supplier for more composted soil, the beds were ready for the seedlings.

Hey, that’s me! I know it’s kinda narcissistic, but I really like that having K around has meant more photos of me actually doing things here on the blog. Bothering with tripods and timers is a pain in the ass to remember… so for many years, I’ve mostly done without being present in my tutorials. But, I also think that makes things a little more impersonal. “No more disembodied hand tutorials” is a new goal.

At least, not just hands …

But anyway, isn’t she pretty? The garden is such a fun new thing to have! I’ll be posting the first few veggies as soon as they are ripe enough to try. This one side has mostly tomatoes, and I planted marigolds because I read they are a natural companion plant that helps repel garden pests (I do think I should add more though)…

And the other has mostly peppers…

There are also onions and carrots that have just recently started popping up, so there will be lots of new pics for the next garden update.

I wound up building another, skinnier bed for cucumbers with a trellis… which was a little tougher since the landscape in that spot still has roots from the tree removal. If anyone is struggling with that and would like a separate tutorial with some tips on getting a garden bed to work (somewhat) level on an uneven landscape, please let me know!

Spoilers!

Ready for some sneak peeks of things? As I mentioned, this new garden has been in place for a couple of months now, and nearly everything around the bed has been changing. So, that means from just about every photographic angle, there are some crazy updates going on right next to this that I haven’t shared fully yet.

There are a ton of things coming this month, and it’s full-steam ahead with lots of building (which is how we’ve gotten into this pattern of no updates, then a giant swarm of them, and then another quiet period while I continue building… I think a nap is in my future). The new deck is now done, so I have at a minimum of two more posts coming for that. The pub shed, as you can see, is underway, and we’ve been grilling out every night for the last week. It’s a lot. A lot of a lot.

At the end, I’m hoping to also give you guys an update on the travel trailer (it has a name, I’m trying to come up with a pretty piece of art for its new name, and we should be starting on the restoration — coughcough gut job — very soon!).

My vegetable garden also has a small little deck thanks to some extra decking materials left over. It’s been great during these crazy rain storms this spring. I’ll have a separate tutorial for you on that (should be by next Thursday)!

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here in a nutshell. What have you been building/growing/DIYing lately?

The post DIY L-Shaped Garden Bed (& Vegetable Garden Update) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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