Weekend projects

We are closing up the shop for four days. Let's see if I can get some projects done.  Here are the projects I would like to get done.

I want to paint this cabinet that I got at Goodwill and put it on my back porch under the deck.

I got this chair the other day at Goodwill that I will be putting in my craft room.  Not sure if I will get this done since I haven't decided if I am going to paint it or not.  I still need to find some fabric for the seat.  It only cost $7.99.  They had two but I only needed one.  I went back yesterday to see if it was still there but it was gone.  I was going to get it if it was still there even thought I didn't need it.

I will also try to get the deck furniture painted.  The chairs are in pretty good shape but the table is peeling so I will repaint all 6 chairs and two tables. 

One last look at the deck area before the demo begins. They are suppose to demo it tomorrow and get started on the framing on Monday.  We'll see if it happens as they were going to get started on this week.  Please excuse the mess.

Soooo ready to get this done.  I have been wanting to eat out on the deck for a long time now.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.

When life gives you lemons....

When life gives you lemons and limes you make limonade. I found this cute beverage holder at Home Goods and thought that it would be perfect on my kitchen island.  The chalkboard frame was a blue color so I painted it to match my kitchen.  This is the first time I tried to do chalkboard writing.  Not too bad if I say so myself.

It is not easy getting a good picture in my kitchen sometimes.  Our kitchen faces northeast so it doesn't get to much natural light coming in.  If I don't use the flash it looks darker and and if I use the flash everything looks brighter than it is.  These were the best pictures that I could get.

I thought that the lemons would coordinate with my honey bee tablescape.

I have some plans for sprucing up the island. Here is what it looks like right now. If all goes well I will post it next week.

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Stage one

Stage one of our new deck cover was completed today.  They had to demo some of our back patio to make sure the piers underneath the columns were the right size.  So we had been living with dirt for the past two days.  The county inspected it yesterday with their approval.  Today they poured the concrete. 

Ok so these are not glamorous pictures but I am excited about it anyway.

They will be starting on the roof cover on Monday.  I am sooooo ready to get this done! 

One last look at the pergola before it is gone. 

Don't worry Bee happy

I love that song by Bobby McFerrin from the 80's.  This tablescape that I did makes me happy.  I think I might leave it up until Fall.  My inspiration was the teapot.

I just love the little bees flying around on it.  I was able to find some bee fabric and napkin holders to go with it.

I got the honey dippers at Hobby Lobby and painted them yellow.

Sometimes I feel like maybe I should add one more item on the tray.

Or maybe not.

 I showed my husband this when I got done and he said that it reminded him of the 50's because of the black and white. So I guess you could say this is the "bees knees".

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Savvy Southern Style, Our Home Away From Home,Worthington Court,A Stroll Thru Life
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Bye bye pergola

Finally they are going to be working on our new deck cover today.  I don't know how long this will take since they have to cut out the concrete below and install piers under the columns.  I will not be missing this eyesore.

This picture is from the listing when we bought the house.  They were nice enough to have left us this grill that we had to get rid of.  It was a mess. 

I can't wait for this to be done.  I am so ready to get this decorated. 

Baby steps in the backyard

Well, the  landscapers are all done with cleaning up and installing the new pathway.  I am not sorry to see the old pathway gone.  Now it is time for me to get some planting done.  We went and bought a few flowers for the backyard on Sunday.  I still have to get tons more as these will only make a small dent in the yard.  Who knew that you would need so many flowers to replace the old bushes.

Here is the new pathway.

 I  have plans for that pile of flagstone left from the old pathway.  Here is how it used to look. I will warn you know that it is not a pretty picture.

Pretty bad right.  I have wanted this gone since the day we moved in ( actually even before).  It was very difficult to get the mower down this path since the flagstone was at different levels and even more difficult to get it back up.  My next house will not be a walkout.

I wasn't able to get all the plants that I bought planted since I had to help with demoing the master bathroom floor.  I was able got half of the floor done and my hubby put down the backer board so we can walk on the floor.  Removing tile flooring is not my idea of fun.

Here is what I was able to accomplish in the backyard after I got all the mowing done.  I know it doesn't look like much but it is not easy to remove rock, cut a hole in the fabric and dig in clay dirt. I was able to get 8 flowers planted in this area. Here is the west corner of the yard.

I am thinking about thinning out the day lillies by the trees and I still have to work on the east corner. 
Here are some of the plants that I got for that area.

I will need more for the east corner since it is a bigger area and I still have the back section to do.  Here is the back section.  We had all the bushes removed that lined it.  They were in poor shape and were that nice looking bushes to begin with.  I would rather have flowers along the fence.  I like to look at colors not just green as it was before.

 This is the east corner after the clean up.  This was full of weeds. I will have to move some of the flowers around since the previous owner planted some behind the red twig dogwood bush that you can't see.  There are some rose bushed back here so I think I will add some more. I can't wait to get this done.

I wasn't able to get everything done this weekend as planned since it rained Saturday afternoon and of course I had to run into a few problems as usual.  Hopefully next weekend will be better. 

Kitchen topiary makeover

The other day I was in Goodwill and saw these containers.  I thought that they would look good in my kitchen.  I have two topiaries by my kitchen window but have never  really liked the color of the containers that they came in.  I don't care for the stark white.  So I thought these would be a good replacement.  All  I have to do is remove these and put them in the new containers.  Easy right.  Wrong.  Little did I know that these are cemented in and the styrofoam was only at the top. So much for those plans. Where is that easy button when you need it?  So what  do I do now?

 

Well, I had to take out my trusty hammer and destroy them.  I would have never been able to get these out as they had cement all the way down.  I was wanting to keep these and use somewhere else, but no such luck.  I would have to say that 99.9% percent of the time my ideas don't go as planned.  Something always seems to go wrong but nothing major.  Here is the before picture.

Now for the after.

I love the way these turned out.  They look so much better. My counter tops are a little messy right now so I didn't show the full view.

I got this cute container at Hobby Lobby that was on clearance.  I was thinking about putting it on top of the island to hold a flower arrangement but I decided to put it on the shelf instead.  I will probably move it onto the island when I decorate for Fall.

I am still working on decorating the kitchen table so I will have to post that later.  I have so many things I want to do this weekend.  My weekend begins at 2:00 pm today  when we close the shop until Monday morning so I might not get everything done.  In between all my projects I am also doing demo on the master bathroom floor.  Wishing everyone a happy weekend.

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Changes on the front porch

Have you ever decorated an area and then go back a few weeks later and change it?  I just can't seem to get the front porch exactly the way I want it to look.  I thought that I liked it this way.

 But now I am thinking more this way.

 I am still not sure which I like better.  Of course most of these cannot stay on the porch otherwise it will blow away.  Here are a few more pictures.

Still not sure which way to go.  I will probably change it again one more time before I will decorate for fall. I just can't help myself.

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From My Front Porch To Yours
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Katherines Corner
Posed Perfection
Between Naps on the Porch
Imparting Grace
The Charm of Home
Redoux Interiors
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Craftberry Bush
The Shabby Nest
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The Pin Junkie
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Craft Dictator
The 36th Avenue
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The Dedicated House
Just Us Four
Rooted In Thyme
Jennifer Rizzo
French Country Cottage
My Romantic Home
Pieced Pastimes
Be Different Act Normal
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Life on Lakeshore Drive
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Thoughts From Alice
Finding Silver Pennies
Three Mango Seeds
Boogieboard Cottage
Dwellings The Heart of Your Home 
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Coastal Charm
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Worthington Court
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Creative Country Mom
Elizabeth and Co
A Stroll Thru Life
Cozy Little House
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My back yard and goodwill finds

I usually don't like for anyone to see my back yard.  We will have lived here for two years in August.  When we first looked at the house the landscaping is what made me not want to buy this house but once I went inside it was a different story.  I knew that I could make this house work for me.

I love to garden but lately I don't have much time.  I dug out everything in the front yard last year and replanted.  This year I just don't have to time to do the back yard.  It needs to have all the rock removed, cleaned, new fabric and then replace the rock.  We decided to hire this out.  Of course I will be doing all the new planting myself.

I forgot to get some before pictures of the bushes along the back fence so here is some photos from the original listing.  This is the front of the house.

Back porch blues (and greens)

I know that I said I was going to wait to decorate underneath the deck but I just couldn't resist.  It looked so bare yesterday I just had to see how part of  it was going to turn out.  I still need to decorate the end tables and the back corner.  I have most of the stuff I am envisioning will look good there and need to revamp some items.  I also want to get some outdoor curtains for this area and probably on the upper deck too.

Here is what I did this afternoon on my lunch break.  I had to put everything back in the house after I took pictures as it was getting windy.  That is one downfall of living near the foothills.

I have also had a red color or rust color for my cushions but I am kinda liking this green and blue.  It seems so relaxing.

Here is a peek of what my furniture looked like before I painted it.

This looks much better.

 I can't wait for the roof to put on our deck.  They said it would take about two weeks to get the framing done.  Some how I have heard that before. Ah yes, from the movie The Money Pit.  They were always asking when it would be done and they were told two weeks.  I hope it doesn't drag on.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

I might just work on the items for the corner and the end tables and get some pictures even though I can't keep them out.  They will be cutting out the cement by these columns and pouring piers and new concrete so I don't want any of these near to get splashed on.  Any suggestions on the color of curtains I should put out here?

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Ivy and Elephants,Green Willow Pond,Easy Life and Party Planning,The Style Sisters
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The Dedicated House,Between Naps on the Porch,Rooted In Thyme,French Country Cottage
Redoux Interiors,Shabby Art Boutique,Craftberry Bush,Craft Dictator,The Pin Junkie
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