Weekend Roundup: Landscaping, Gold Leaf Painting, and Pioneer Jane

We often spend the weekends trying to knock out multiple projects, but rarely do we finish one in time for me to blog about it by Monday morning.  The end result usually being that I don’t tell you about it, because I don’t want to blog until a project is finished, complete with pretty little before and after pictures.

In an effort to change that, and give you a more realistic portrayal of how things are accomplished here at the Borrowed Abode, I’ve decided to start a semi-regular Monday morning series: Weekend Roundup.  I’ll use this Monday morning spot to share status updates on whatever it is we tackled during the weekend – even if the projects aren’t completed.

This past weekend the focus was on finishing up projects that had stalled out thanks to my overwhelming preparation for Art on the Avenue.  “I’ll get to that after the show, I promise!” was a comment I made way too often to Ryan – and I’m trying to stay true to my word.

I got a little distracted on Thursday evening with some gold leaf paint.  It started with a vase project but quickly morphed into “PAINT ALL THE THINGS !”  Results were less than stellar.    I’ll show you the end results just as soon as my ego has recovered.

This weekend I finally tackled the reupholstery of the vintage wooden Knoll chairs that are slated for the dining room table.  This reupholstery project’s going to be a bit trickier than I realized, but I still hope to have it done by Saturday.

The project that hogged the weekend was massive work on the back yard. 

It’s our biggest focus, while the weather is still good – and so what if summer is over?  The usually-moderate climate in Virginia should still give us several good BBQ & firepit weekends with friends, so let’s try and burn things in style.

Although we cleaned up the beaver dam months ago, a few late-summer storms left us with another brush pile.  Saturday, while Ryan was out with friends, I went all Pioneer Jane on the tree limbs.   With only a old-school hand saw, and three hours of chopping, I broke the wood down into manageable logs.  I’m feeling the pain of that upper-body workout now.

Sometime I should make a video to demonstrate my barbarian approach to wood-cutting. 

 In the process I discovered some royal blue fungus growing on a log.  How pretty is that?  I swear there is no photo editing at work here.

On Sunday Ryan helped me with assorted projects, such as Home Depot treks and hanging cafe lights. We also squeezed in some patio furniture refinishing and grass seed planting, and by Sunday evening the backyard was much improved – though not yet ready for a “before and after” reveal. 🙂 

On a less DIY note, my camera is on accidental vacation out of town, so I’m borrowing a friend’s DSLR and taking way too many photos of the pets.

Last week I gave the dogs a nice new Janery dog bed, but the cat seems to think it’s for her.  Never mind that all sofas, chairs, and bed are hers . . .

When Aretha isn’t busy hogging a dog bed, she’s often found winding back and forth around the dog’s heads, head-butting them and purring.  I was warned, when I found my dog Charlie,  that she would probably kill my cats.  Eleven years later she’s still proving that wrong.

Don’t even get me started on this clown.  Doctor has been exceedingly friendly and cuddly this weekend, to the point of annoyance.  Really, he doesn’t understand that head-butting a swinging hammer or a moving saw is not ok! 

 This shot, though scary, is just me catching him mid-yawn.  After all, guarding the little dish of hardware is tiring.

And that, my friends, is what’s up around this Abode.  Just another weekend in project paradise.  If you’d like to see more timely mini-updates, find me on Instagtram as @borrowedabode