…apparently, about 48 hours ago. Who knew? Not me. Here’s how I spent my weekend:

Last weekend, while I was shopping-til-I-wanted-to-drop, I found this awesome new comforter. Red is my second favorite color, and I love Asian-inspired things, so it was a natural choice. Since I don’t have a headboard on my bed, I ordered this beautiful shoji screen to use instead. I think it turned out pretty.

I also got this wall decal of one of my favorite literary quotes–and one I eventually plan to add to my tattoo collection–by J.R.R. Tolkien. I think it’s a bit angled, but considering the difficulties I had getting it up there in the first place, I refuse to care. I fought with the sticky contact-paper-like stuff the decal came on until I thought I was going to be wrapped up in it! I also got a much-smaller decal for my car that says “Bite me!” (Which may or may not already be tattooed on my posterior…)

Having recently become determined to grow at least some of my own produce, and being both yard-less and balcony-less, I had to resort to other solutions. This is my currently-plantless window garden. There’s a huge tree outside the windows, but they still get a lot of sun throughout the day, so I’m hoping it’ll work out. As Baby Brother says, “This’ll be one expensive-a$$ salad…”

Having been saving a variety of containers for a couple of weeks now, I finally started my seeds today. As you can see, they’ve completely taken over the bar in my apartment (which is really only useful for piling papers and junk on anyway). I planted spinach, buttercrunch lettuce, romaine, basil, cilantro, black cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, and mouse melon. I’m waiting for my white strawberry seeds to come in. I’m also experimenting with green onions–store bought and transplanted–and the top off an onion that started sending up shoots, since I saw something online about that yesterday. Seems only fair to give it a fighting chance…The Starbucks cups have a last-minute addition: pinto beans and black beans. My thought is that, if they grow, I can put them in pots on the window sill and trail the vines up the hanging pots or pins on the walls. It kind of seems like I might have gotten a little over-enthusiastic…

In addition to all the decorating/planting/handyman stuff, I also made a fresh batch of deodorizing disks, so the apartment smells like lemongrass. Yum.

In the midst of all this, I realized something: I love my life. For the first time in six months, I’m truly happy with my life and everything in it. Thank you, God. It’s been a long, hard battle.