Game On!

That's right, I'm in the middle of a heated battle with...myself.  
I am so competitive that I have convinced myself that there's a gardening contest of some sort going on.  That makes so much more sense than the real reason why I'm up at 1 a.m. plotting out my next attack on the weeds, dead bushes and bare spots in the lawn that I have inherited.  The real reason is I just can't stand to have this house un- or even half-done.  I feel like time's a-wastin' when I still have so much to do.  I cannot relax and enjoy until EVERYTHING is right.  Like this yard.  Wow, it's a real mess.  I'm hoping that an array of pretty flowers will detract from the eyesores that I can't do anything about, like the huge spot in the front yard that is left from removing a tree several years ago.  No one thought that they should maybe, I don't know, PLANT SOME GRASS?  It's light brown, hard and cracked as my feet the Sahara. Okay, so I've seeded it and am attempting to keep it wet, but that's not working out so well.  In the meantime, I've added some color.  I'm doing what I can...

Profusely flowering hanging pots cover a multitude of sins.  And neglect.

    I found a bunch of hideously dirty white plastic chairs.  They were too far gone to clean.  Luckily I always have spray paint!  This turquoise color took amazingly well.  In fact, I've used it before and it has never looked quite this spectacular.  I have decided that it is absolutely made for plastic. 

Definitely doing this again.  I have four more chairs!  YAY!

                                                                                

I had to buy this pot.  It matches the chairs!

On the lower shelf you can see my painted wooden shoes, waiting for their assignment.  I'm thinking herbs...

I even have some pretty light strings and a few yellow poppies planted in the yard where apparently another tree was removed, leaving a huge, misshapen berm-ish lump of mulch right in the middle of the BACK YARD.  Disgusting.  But at least it's pliable.  In fact, in some spots it feels like quicksand.  The Sahara spot has a darker, more evil, twin.  

I promise, one day I'll be done and you're invited to the housewarming.  Bring ice packs and Ben-Gay 'cause this girl is hurtin'...playing against your fiercest competitor, especially when it's yourself, takes a toll on you.