Watering the grass (indirectly)

I'm not going to lie. My husband is more of the botanist than I am. I buy the plants, attempt to stick them in the ground, and hope he remembers to water them (which he does, way to go Mr. Green Thumb!).

He also maintains our grass, and the lawn has done really well this spring despite last year's incessant drought. It looks great, as long as you don't compare it to our neighbor's lawn. They spend more time watering their grass than I do reading and writing blogs - and as Andrew can tell you, that is a lot of time. Austin is still in a Stage 2 water restriction, which means that sprinklers can only run one day a week. However, hand-watering is allowable every day prior to 10am and after 7pm. Unlike our diligent, green-grass growing neighbors, we hardly ever hand water....because we are a) trying to conserve water, b) are lazy, and c) don't want to spend our salaries on the water bill. Ok, so it sounds like we conserve for self-serving purposes, but nonetheless we do our part in not wasting water.

The same sort of mentality holds true with the cleanliness of my junk purchases before they go to the booth. I know what you're thinking - you mean you buy it and Andrew takes care of it, too? No - neither of us do any cleaning on my treasures. I tend to not do much to the items I buy so as to not disturb any of the natural patina or rustic charm. That often includes a few layers of dirt and a maybe an unsuspecting cobweb or two. Sometimes an item looks better in its aged state; the new owner can easily clean an item to their liking, but it is nearly impossible to redo that dirt-caked-on-by-sitting-outside-for-twenty-years look. I made the mistake of cleaning up a few small glass bottles and I removed all appeal that the items had. I like to give the future owners some options.

I am doing a great job with my goal of patina preservation. Today when fixing up the booth, I looked down at my hands and they looked like I had been playing in the dirt. That is some serious charm I have going on with my inventory! I have learned to wear dark clothes when I work at the mall to camouflage all the dust and dirt I accumulate. My filth got so bad that I took a break to wash my hands - while scrubbing I noticed streaks of dirt all over my face too. Nice! Guess I am glad the mall was pretty dead at that early hour.    

But back to the watering - it's pretty sad when your sweet neighbors are outside for their evening grass primping, maintaining their beautifully lush lawn, and I am (for once) out there with the hose in hand - watering some old window screens. I thought about saying, "Y'alls grass is looking great!" but what would their response be? "Your ratty old window screens are really cleaning up nicely, too."

It was one of those awkward moments when I wonder if they think I am a hoarder. They do know that I am a teacher, but I am not sure if they know I have this little side business hobby. I bet they have seen me lugging around furniture and junk, and they most definitely have seen inside the garage to see stacks of stuff piled to the ceiling - so yes, they probably have already called TLC.

I'm happy to report that my efforts last week paid off- I sold my new display on Monday so I brought in even more new stuff today. Here are some pictures of my 77 square feet crammed with fun (and semi-filthy) finds:

Well, I may not have contributed to water conservation tonight, but at least I placed the screens on the part of the lawn that is most dead.

May my grass be greener and my screens be cleaner in the morning.

~Sarah