Pretending It's Spring (2/8/26)

The weather is feeling much more like April than February, and we haven't had a winter to speak of, so it's been really hard to fight off the itch to start planting. Sunday was in the 60s, and I needed to go play in the potting shed.

I secured the roof a couple of weekends ago (as secure as it can be until Autobot and Co. come to seal it and put in a ceiling), and I've been itching to do some decorating, so that's what I did. I putzed around in Maggie, and had a grand old time. I've been squirreling away decor for a while, and I wanted to get it put up.

Back in December, I think, I saw an ad from Botanical Interests for their "Goth Garden Bundle" and it spoke to me. By the time I decided I needed it, the bundle itself was sold out, so I looked at their list of flowers, and individually ordered the ones I wanted for Maggie's flower beds. Not that she has flower beds, but by God she's getting two - one on each side of her door. I took a look at the stands in front of one of her windows and decided that if she was going to have a goth flower garden, then those needed to be black. But not just black, shimmery black. After all, Maggie is the Magical Potting Shed.

I forgot true "before" pictures, so here's the "oops I've already painted
one" picture.

The iridescent coating doesn't show in pictures, but
it's really cool in real life.

Last night, I had to put some cardboard in Maggie, and just stopped and stared at the new paint on the plant stands. I really do love them.

My friend Amanda gave me a little garden gnome a couple of years ago for Whimsy, but Whimsy's so blowy that I knew he'd disappear, so I kept him in Maggie. When my work friends and I put on Maggie's roof, one of my friend's son built my gnome a little home in the wall. I had Autobot and Co. build his house into the wall when they insulated and put up the inner walls. One of the things that I've wanted to do was to dress up my little gnome's home (Clancy's his name, after my young friend who built the gnome home).

The dollhouse door I bought was a bit too tall,
so Jay helped me disguise the fact by adding
decorative bark and moss.

I'm not sure why the trim didn't fit around the door
once we'd placed it, since it fit perfectly when I pieced
it together in the house. <shrug>

If you look closely, you'll see my little gnome
is well-read, with a bookshelf full of books.

A bit of sparkly blue "Unicorn Spit" gel stain
makes Clancy the Gnome's house pop.

It looks pretty dark in Clancy's house, so I have some battery-operated fairy lights on order that will help make it look less cave-like. 

With Clancy's house done, and the plant stands outside drying, I got to hanging things I've been saving. One is a mirror that I asked Mrs. Deejo to make for me when I started building Maggie. In case you can't read the mirror, it says:

I made it through my Fuck Off Forties

And I'm halfway through my Feral Fifties

Heading into the Sea Witch Sixties

Swamp Queen Seventies

Eat Me Eighties, and the

Naughty Nineties

The future is looking bright, kids.

I've had that mirror wrapped in it's bubble mailer, hidden in the potting bench since we brought the potting bench up from L.E.'s basement and it feels good to have it framed and hanging.

L.E. framed this puzzle for my birthday last year, said
she thought it would go perfectly in Maggie, and she was right.

Ashinator and I went to on a mother/daughter date
where we painted Tairn and Andarna from Fourth Wing.

Jay gave me the little Potting Shed sign when I started building
Maggie. Candelabra was taking up too much space on the
bench, so I threw up a quick corner shelf for it.

A friend gave me the shelf, that I then painted purple. I got
the dragon for Christmas, and he'll go in with the flowers this spring.
The gaudy wine glass thing was picked up at Goodwill because
it makes me smile.

My Amanda gave me this amethyst geode.

My Harry Potter mini-verse potions also make me smile.

After I was done puttering around, I just sat in Maggie and enjoyed the peace. I love being surrounded by things that remind me of people I love, and by putting little pieces that they've given me into Maggie, it certainly makes her feel magical.