In His Grip

Painted Christmas Trees

Last year was the first year that I had acquired enough pink Christmas things to make part of our home pink for Christmas, click here and here to see what I did last year.  It has been mostly contained to the dinning room, but with the front door once again a great shade of pink, the porch has become a very fun pink winter wonderland.  I wanted to change up the look and really wanted some sliver trees but could not justify buying anymore trees, let alone explaining that one to Jeff. 

 
So I figured, I have some silver spray paint in my studio, why not try a little on the small trees on the front porch.  I tested it first on a small piece of greenery to make sure the spray paint did not melt the plastic or do anything crazy.  And it worked, so I went to town with the painting.

 
Once I saw the transformation, I absolutely love it and knew that it would be the perfect change to the front porch and make those pink accents pop.

 
The end result truly looked like the vintage tinsel trees from back in the day.  I not only paint my two trees but a wreath as well.

 
Who knew that spray paint could change a Christmas tree?  Again, Jeff doubted the outcome of my shenanigans with spray paint, and once again he is shocked that it really did work.

 
Next year I just might be brave enough to tackle the giant wreath above the door.

I am linking to the following link up parties: Its So Very Cheri, The DIY Showoff, The Girl Creative, Cross My Hooks, Between Naps On the Porch, Keeping It Simple, Dittle Dattle, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Today's Creative Blog, Centsational Girl, Somewhat Simple, Blue Cricket Designs, All Things Heart & Home, Nikkis Nifty Knacks, Trendy Treeehouse, Sew Woodsy, Fine Craft Guild, Creations By Kara, The Thrifty Home, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Life as Lori, Tales from Bloggeritavile, Wildflowers and Whimsy, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Paisley Passions, The Shabby Nest, Truly Lovely

Bleached Pine Cones

Some time ago I had this idea of bleaching pine cones.  We have trees in our yard that drop pine cones every year and I have used them for many different projects.  But I wanted to see if I could get the pine cones a lighter color so that the pink glitter I wanted to put of them would show up better.  Heck, the pine cones are free and bleach is cheap so why not give it a try.

 
I gathered a bunch of pine cones to fill this large plastic container that I had and then poured bleach over them, enough to cover them all.  Now here is where I should have done a little more research.  When the pine cones and bleach were mixed the bleach not only heated up but the bleach expanded and started seeping over the top of the container.  You guessed it, Jeff was not happy.  I quickly moved the whole thing to the sink.  I had no idea that anyone else had ever bleaching pine cones before.  After Jeff suggested I Google bleaching pine cones, there are a bunch of sites on how to's, they recommend a bleach and water mixture as opposed to straight bleach, oops!

 
When the pine cones absorb the bleach they close up.  I left them in the bleach for 24 hours and was disappointed that the did not lighten up a much as I had anticipated.  Darn. 

 
However, I put them in the oven at 250 degrees to speed up the drying process and as they opened and dried, they came out this beautiful light tan color.  Score!  This is exactly what I was hoping for.  Perfect to add a little pink glitter.

These are going to be a great addition to this year's pink Christmas. Oh, yeah!

I am participating in the following link ups:  Between Naps on the Porch, Its so Very Cheri, The Girl Creative, The DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, Skip to my Lou, Coastal charm, Domestially Speaking, Today's Creative Blog, All Things Merry & Brite, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Just A Girl, The Shabby Nest, Simply Sweet Home, Finding Fabulous, Its Fun to Craft, Thrifty Tickle, Tidy Mom

Pink Jack-O-Lantern

Last Halloween, my sister, Lori, told me about how she took the traditional jack-o-lantern buckets and covered them with dictionary pages.  As I have just recently come into a huge box of old sheet music at an estate sale, I thought it would make a great cover for my jack-o-lantern.  And of course, I wanted to bring a little pink into my halloween decorations and what better way than to add a little bit of pink glitter to the mix while I'm at it? 

 

 

 
I started with two typical jack-o-lantern buckets from K-mart for $1.49 each.

 

I spray painted them both white so that they would be easier to cover with the white music pages.

 
There is no real reason to post this picture, other than to prove that I was doing crafts outside in the sun by the lake in Northern Minnesota in mid-October.  The weather was beautiful that day. There was absolutely no wind as proved by the fact that my strips of music are not blowing all over. 

 
Using Mod Podge I covered the jack-o-lantern with the strips of sheet music, being sure to overlap and pressing out the wrinkles. 

 
Once the Mod Podge was completely dry, I used glue to paint the face and then sprinkled with pink glitter. 

 
I used pink wire to make and curly handle and topped it off with a pink bow.  Now I am ready to fill this puppy with candy, and ready for the trick-or-treaters.

 
On the other jack-o-lantern I used a black sharpie to fill in the face and then add glue and black glitter (sorry no picture).  I kind of like him too!

Pumpkins From Up North

With the days as beautiful as they were when we were up north, I was inspired to do some crafts that required things from the good old outdoors.  There are lots of birch trees around in the woods and beings as it is Autumn how about some birch pumpkins?  Now this was something that I had thought up in my head and really wasn't sure how it was going to work out.  So the first course of action was to peel some birch bark from the trees around my Mom's property. 

 
Birch bark peels easily right off the trees and it is a light orange on the inside and an ashy white on the outside.  It will peel off in strips that can range from the thickness of tissue paper to hearvy cardboard.

 
I soaked the bark in hot water to help make it pliable and bend the way I wanted it to bend.  I found that this also loosened up the layers of the bark and I was able to make the pieces that were too thick much thinner by stripping away some of the layers.

 

Using handy dandy hot glue, I just started covering the artificial pumpkin with the strips of bark, overlapping as I went to make sure I had good coverage. 

 
Once the pumpkin was covered all of the pieces came together on the bottom and did not look very good so I cut a round piece of bark and glued it down.

 
Next, I drilled a hole in the top and glued in a birch branch.  Taking some thin bark, I cut some leaves and made some curls for vines and glued them next to the the stem.  

 
These turned out way better than I ever expected.  I love them.  Now my mind is going crazy as to what I can cover with birch bark next time I am in the north woods.

 

 I am participating in the following link ups: Its So Very Creative, The DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, The Halloween Scene, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Life as Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Paisley Passions, Tales from Bloggeritaville, Its a Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest

Felted Acorns

I found some great felted acorns on a blog a couple weeks ago and thought "I can do that".  I began a search for some acorns so that I could use the little caps, I put a post out on Facebook for anyone with acorns in their yard and I would come by a pick them up.  My friend Nancy responded that she had recently found a giant acorn while on a walk and brought it by to me.  This nice big acorn was awesome, now just any acorns would not do, I needed the BIG ones.  While at K-State for family weekend, we were visiting Anna at the Pi Phi house and what did I see but giant acorns all over their front yard.  Score!  I had all the BIG acorns I wanted.

I began by taking the nuts out of the caps and cleaning them up a bit.  Some still had their leaves attached so I decided to just keep them and see how they will fair over time.

Because I am just a sparkly kind of gal, I decided to spray paint the caps with a metallic gold spray paint.  What nature makes, can always be made a little more sparkly with some gold paint,right?

I chose to use wool roving to make the felted nuts, thinking the roving would be easier than Kristi used over at The Speckled Dog.  Using roving would also give me the ability to make my acorns mutli colored by mixing the colors together.  To add a little more colors I found some 100% wool yarn that I added in as well.

 

Taking a wooden bead and a hunk of roving large enough to covering the bead, you dunk the whole thing into the hottest water that your hands can stand, working the roving into a ball around the bead.

 

Then you add a drop of liquid soap and continue to work the ball of wool.  I am not sure why you need soap, but just trust me you do. Lightly roll the ball around in your hands dunking it down into the water again and again, putting it a side for awhile and starting another will allow the water and soap to soak in and help the felting process.  This takes a lot longer that I anticipated, but as you work it into ball it will continue to get smaller and smaller and will dry even smaller than that.  This being said, be sure to start with a little bit bigger ball of wool than you think you are going to need. 

 Once the felted balls are dry, just hot glue them into the caps and you have some fun acorns for your enjoyment.  I am not sure what it is about acorns but I love the way they look.  Maybe, its because they are the only nuts around that come with their own accessory, hats.  Love it!

I am participating in the these link ups: Its So Very Creative, The Halloween Scene, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Showoff, Skip to my Lou, Coastal Charm, A Silly Little Sparrow, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket, Paisley Passions, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Frieflies and Jellybeans, Finding Fabulous, Its A Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, Life as Lori, The Shabby Nest, Vintage Suitcase, Tidy Mom

Plaza Art Fair

I have never been to the Plaza Art fair before, so I was very excited about going this past weekend.  The Plaza is one of my favorite places in Kansas City.  We have a lot of memories there starting way back when we had no money and would just walk around pushing Ryan in the stroller for our entertainment.  There were many years we have ventured to the Plaza for the big turning on of the Christmas lights on Thanksgiving Night, and our all time favorite tradition of going to Winstead's (the only restaurant we could afford back in the day) for Jeff's birthday in December.  The Plaza has great shopping but also has the midwestern feel to it and I like that.  To see so many true artist in one stop is nothing more than inspiring.  It always makes me feel like "I can do that".  Now, I am not delusional enough to really believe "I can do that", but it is those fancy artists that always give me ideas for the down to earth things that I really "can" do. 

Look at these dresses.  I absolutely loved them, the red one is made out of bottle caps, and the other is metal as well.  How fun are they?  $3000 worth of fun that is.

Here is another one.  I think of all the things we saw this artist was by far my fave.

These whimsy statues made out of re-purposed things were a big hit and there were a lot artist with their own style on them.  I love how interesting they are and fun to see everyday things in a different way.

I highly recommend the Plaza Art Fair, the food was from any restaurant you can imagine, the people watching ranks right up there with the art, and the creativity of artists from all over the country makes  this a great Fall outing.
 
 

A Sparkly Start to Fall Decorating

When I began my Fall decorating this year, I realized that there was no sparkle in my fall decor.  I knew that I needed to change that because who wants anything without a little sparkle to make it that much better.  Searching through my craft supplies I found an large jar of gold glitter and my creative, sparkly, ideas started flowing.

Here is a bowl of some artificial pumpkins and gourds that I found in my fall decoration tubs.

Using some Elmer's glue that I watered down a little, I painted the top of the pumpkins and gourds allowing some of the glue to run down the sides.

This is the part that I love, sprinkling the glitter over the glue. I put a plastic container under where I am working to catch the excess glitter so that I can collect it and use it again.

 
Then I found some large leaves that had started to look bad, as they were tearing and probably 15 years old, but I figured a little glitter couldn't hurt them.

There were also a couple of these sad pumpkins, also very old and starting to crack.  See the  large dent in the side. I figured they could use a makeover as well.

Because this pumpkin was so bad, I decided to cover the entire thing with glitter and wow, it turned out smashing.

As you can see, I also had some grapevine pumpkins that I added a little sparkle to as well.  I found some other old, very sad looking things, like some ears of corn, and other gourds that were not worth keeping until I totally covered them in gold glitter and now they too can proudly take their place amongst the other fall decor in my home.  I will post more of my finished fall decorations later this week.

I am participating in these link up parties:  The DIY Show Off, Its So Very Cheri, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to My Lou, Today's Creative Blog, Fireflies and Jellybeans , Finding Fabulous, Its a Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, It's Fun to Craft,  The Shabby Nest, Thrifty Tickle

$3 Pink Hall Table

With the girls moving out and the fact that this empty nest is need of some sprucing up, I have been haunting garage sales and estate sales.  I spent one weekend just sweeping out all of the "feathers" left behind by our little chicks.  But now I am motivated to make this new space somewhere that our kids want to come "home" to.  Here is my first project for the empty nest sprucing.  

I purchased this little table at an estate sale near our home for $3.  I thought that it would look great at the top of the stairs between Lindsey and Anna's rooms.  With both rooms having pink in the color schemes I wanted to bring something out into the hallway that would bring the rooms together.

 
Picking up my handy dandy pink spray paint, I covered the table paying more attention to the grooves and details so the the paint would settle into them.

Taking my electric sander, I worked on taking off most of the paint leaving the paint in the details behind.

 
To have this worn pink table at the top of the stairs between the girls' rooms will be just the right touch to bring the pink and brown from Lindsey's room together with the pink, silver and black of the room that is Anna's.  Now I cannot wait to start on the new rooms.

Link up parties I am participating in: Between Naps On the Porch, Its So Very Creative Very Creative, DIY Showoff, Mad Skills Monday, The Girl Creative, Keeping It Simple, Skip to my Lou, Making the World Cutier, Coastal Charm, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket, Nikki's Nifty, Knacks, The Thrifty Home, Its a Hodpodge Life, Its a Blog Party, Finding Fabulous, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest, Paisley Passions, Alchemy Living Fine 

Vintage Hankie Scarf

I have a collection of vintage hankies that have been folded up neatly in a cupboard for years.    Every so often I would take them out and admire them and think of the stylish ladies that once carried these in their pocketbook. Some of these old hankies I remember both of my Grandmas carrying.  I love the floral patterns and scalloped edges and have never understood how someone could blow their nose into something so fancy. Not only that, but then nicely folding it back up again and putting back into a purse or pocket, yewh.  I prefer to use a tissue that I can immediately dispose of.  Anyway, I decided to make a scarf out of them after being inspired by the latest copy of "Where Women Create". 

I arranged the hankies end to end moving from pinks on one end to blues on the other end.  The final measurement should be around 72" to 74".  This will vary as the hankies are not all the same size.

Overlapping the edges, I topstiched the hankies together. Because the sizes vary, I centered the hankies so that both edges would be similar.

The finished project is this fun, lightweight scarf that can be worn with all kinds of things and match most any color.  I get to wear this great accessory and be reminded of my Grandmas all at the same time, how fun is that?

I am participating in these link ups:  Its So Very Cheri, Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, Mad Skills Monday, The Girl Creative, Making The World Cutier, Skip to My Lou, The Graphics Fairy, Coastal Charm, A Silly Little Sparrow, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Nikki's Nifty Knacks, Tales from Bloggeritaville

Lamp Rescue

I have been looking for a new lamp for our family room.  Not just any lamp will do, I wanted something that I could not only re-purpose but be fun and creative as well.  One night when Jeff and I were on our way home from working on Lindsey's house, I saw a heap of garbage at the top of someone's driveway and laying on top was an old brass lamp, and some other treasures I knew I wanted.  So after begging Jeff to stop, this trash diving embarrasses him in a BIG way, I loaded up the back seat and was thrilled with my new finds.  After checking the lamp to see if it worked, I knew that this would be my new lamp. Yeah!

This is the lamp before it transformation.

I used this Rust-Oleum antique hammered finish spray paint.  I have used it on several things in the past and knew that it would work great on this project.

I love the way the hammered finish gives a slight texture to the surface.  

Next came the lamp shade, this is where the creative fun begins.  I took this old lamp shade apart that my mother-in-law gave Lindsey.  Lindsey decided she wasn't using it right now so she let me have it.  I am thinking she is going to want it back after she sees what it looks like now.

I started to Mod Podge pages for an old dictionary to the frame of the shade. 

You have to be careful with the pages once they are wet with the Mod Podge, they become very fragile and tear easily.  Go slowly, draping the pages over the frame.  As the pages start to dry you can work out the wrinkles and repair any tears that may have occurred.

When the Mod Podge was dry, I glued gimp along both the top and bottom edges to not only add interest but to help finish the edge.

Using my Cricket machine, I cut out flower shapes to make the flower embellishment for the shade.  I cut three flowers in graduating sizes.  I started with a 2 1/2", 3", 3 1/2", and 4", so in the end I had 12 cut shaped.

I group the flower shapes together and sewed some buttons through all the layers and then using a pencil I curled the edges of the petals.

This is what the paper flower ended up looking like when it was done.  I really like the way this turned out and think I just might figure more things I can use these paper flowers on.

Considering I had everything on hand to do this project, it looks like this one is free.  You can't beat that!

 
Here is what the shade looks like with the light on.  I am really liking the way the light shows where the pages overlap.  Gosh! I can't tell you how much I love, love, love making something out of nothing.

I am participating these link ups: Between Naps on the Porch, Its So Very Creative, Keeping It Simple, Mad Skills Monday, The Girl Creative, The DIY Showoff, Skip To My Lou, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Me and My Bucket,Nikk's Nifty Knacks,The Thrifthy Home, Blue Cricket Design, Creations By Kara, Fine Craft Guild, It's a Blog Party, Trendy Treehouse, Fireflies and Jellybeans,Tales from Bloggeritaville, It's a Blog Party, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Thrifty Tickle 

Featured On Blue Cricket Desgin

Becca at Blue Cricket Design 
has featured Lindsey's Goodwill sofa.  How fun is that?  This is so exciting to get this kind of exposure not only for the great sofa transformation, but for "In His Grip" as well. Blue Cricket Design is a great place for inspiration and DIY projects of all kinds.  I go to this sight often to see what is out there in the world of DIY and just for plain fun.  I mean look at her blog banner, who would not want to spend some time at this web sight?  Go on over and see what Becca has going on beside this great sofa!

What a "Deer" House

To say that my daughter, Lindsey, has a personal style goes without saying. She began her love for all things deer a couple of years ago when she started picking up small deer figures at junk stores, garage sales and where ever she could find small deery things.  This interest in deers began with her favorite Bible verse: The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like that of a deer, he enables, me to go to the heights. ~Habakkuk 3:19~  She began her search for her mantel piece as soon as she realized she would have a mantel.  The quest for a deer head began back last March.  She soon realized that people who have deer heads are quite proud of them and are none too ready to part with the precious catch.  Besides the cost was way out of her price range.  But she did not give up that easy.  Jeff and I happened to be in Paola, Kansas with the little red truck at a car show and I just happened to go browsing along the square when I came upon a store front for an auction house and what did I see in the window? But a small deer head that would be the perfect piece for Lindsey's fireplace.  The shop owner gave up the "old thing" for a mere $60.

 

This is the fireplace before we were done painting.

 

I know bad picture, but here is the fireplace with the new hearth that was added.  Thanks, John.  Who can have a fireplace without a mantel?

 
Only can a young single gal take a deer head and paint the mount bright pink.

 

This is to the left of her fireplace. The table was a find at a garage sale for $7.

Once again, she has brought her own style here too, with her button confetti.

  
This lamp is an "as is" garage sale find in all of its retro glory.

 

Just add a chunky, spray painted aqua frame and a string of beads and this deer head could hang in any "stylish" young women's home and it goes super great with the Goodwill sofa.

Link ups I am participating in:  Between Naps On The Porch, The DIY Show Off, Its So Very Creative, Keeing It Simple, Making the World Cuter, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to My Lou,The Girl Creative, Costal Charm,Today's Creative Blog, Me and My Bucket, Blue Cricket Design, The Thrifty Home, Life As Lori, Tales Form , Fireflies and Jellybeans, Trendy Treehouse, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Domestically Speaking, Creations By Kara, It's A Blog Party, Finding Fabulous, It's Fun to Craft

Daily Reminder of the Great Commission

In my studio I have a wall above my cutting table that has been blank for a long time.  Recently, I decided to fill it with reminders of what I want my life to represent, where I have been, and what Stitches By Sturman supports.  The pictures are from the several mission trips I have been on.  The quilted cross was made by the women of The Mashia Foundation.  The women live in Nigeria and help support their families by making quilted items and selling them.  Since my first trip to India in 2006, Stitches By Sturman has purchased at least 4 sewing machines a year for women in India to start their own sewing business to support their families.

I bought all the frames at garage sales for .25 to .75.  They were not in the best condition and really did not match.

Using some black spray paint, it did not take long for all of the frames to look a lot better and like they all went together.  I then picked some of my favorite pictures and printed them in black and white and placed them in the frames.  I now have a daily reminder that this is what it is all about and Stitches By Sturman is God's way of providing me with a way to support women 1,000's of miles away doing the same work I do and giving me a connection with them through His love.

I am linking up to: Between Naps on the Porch, Its So Very Cheri, Keeping It Simple, Mad Skills Monday, The DIY Show Off, The Girl Creative, Skip to My Lou, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Me and My Bucket, The Thirfty Home

Wall From the Thrift Store

This is another installment of how Lindsey's house is really coming together.  This wall is literally from a thrift store.  She purchased most of the items from one thrift store earlier this summer for less than $10.  Then came out the spray paint and she made all of these things come to life in a new way.  The pink owl was a weird brown color and was picked out of the free box they always have right outside the front door of the store.  I love her style and the fact that she is using things that have been cast off and making them totally work in her favor.

Here is the wall before anything was on it.

 
 
We arranged it on the floor in front of the wall first and then the fun part begins.  I love hanging things and watching the transformation take place.  It is amazing what a trip to the thrift store and some spray paint can do for a room.

Participating in the following link ups:Its So Very Creative, DYI Showoff, Keeping It Simple: Motivate Me Monday, It's A Blog Party, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Mad Skills Monday, Coastal Charm, Mad Skills Party, Blue Cricket Design,Fine Craft Guild, Life as Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Tidy Mom, It's a Blog Party, Finding Fabulous, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Just A Girl, The Shabby Nest, Thrifty Tickle,

 

Goodwill Sofa Made Fabulous!

With our daughter Lindsey moving out into her own home, the last couple of months we have been on a quest to find furniture on a bargain budget.  Just because we had little money to spend did not mean that we had to leave fun design at the door.  Lindsey found the pink flower fabric on sale and knew that this was the fabric she wanted for her sofa.  As a single gal, she knows that if she is going to ever have a pink sofa the time is now before other opinions have to be considered.  But she did not even have a sofa to cover yet.  Off to garage sales and thrift stores she went.  She found the jackpot one evening at the Goodwill.

This is what we found that night at the Goodwill for, get this, $19.99.  Yes, score!  The cushions are not shown in this picture but they were in good shape other than the fact that this white canvas was filthy.  The piece was sturdy and had a good shape so we knew that it would make a great pink flowered sofa.

First I took off the white canvas cover and found this other upholstery fabric underneath which was like new.  So the transformation began.

 

 

 Lindsey made the cushion covers in my Stitches by Sturman studio.

 
The finished project was all that we expected and Lindsey is over the moon with how great it looks in her new great room.
 

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Garage Sale Book Shelf

Since I updated my studio last year, I have been looking for some shelving to go a the bottom of the steps.  I considered doing a custom built in but then the cost became prohibitive so I started to keep my eye out for  something that would work from a garage sale.  I found the perfect piece about three weeks ago for only $10.  Awesome, right?  It works just perfect for my space.  Of course it did not start out looking like this.  I painted it red and then sanded some back off.  With the speed of the internet here in the north woods at Camp Grandma, I am unable to post more that one picture per blog entry.  But the process was the same as I did with this and this.  I love my new garage sale find and always keep my eye out for something old that I can make new again.

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Herb Basket

One of the things that I love about this time of year is having fresh herbs to use in cooking.  My favorites are chives, cilantro, and sweet basil.  However, I have learned my lesson and I no longer grow herbs in my garden along with everything else.  They tend to take over and become unruly and quite frankly, spread like wild fire. I have started to grow them in baskets or pots.  They are then placed in the garden so they too can get the sun and the rain along with everything else but are contained and are better behaved this way.

Here is the basket that I have been planting my herbs in that last couple of Summers.  But this year I wanted to jazz in up a bit. 

 
Once I again, I grabbed my berry pink spray paint and gave this basket an new coat and color.

Using the moss that I collected in Minnesota last Fall, I soaked it in water and lined the inside and the bottom of the basket.

Using my favorite Miracle Grow potting soil I filled the the basket and planted my herb plants, then covered the top of the soil with more moss.  Putting the moss on the top of the soil helps hold in moisture and keeps the basket from drying out in the Kansas wind.

Now the rest of the Summer and into the Fall I will have fresh herbs without the worry of them spreading into unwanted parts of my garden.

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My Garden Bench

This holiday weekend has been one of yard work, pool time, and a couple of fun garden projects.  When I took the bench off of the front porch that had been there for years, I just could not bear to get rid of it just yet.  Who cares that it is rotting and grows mushrooms in its cracks, I love it.  I am pretty attached as it has been on our front porch for about 20 years and also Jeff and his Dad made it for me.

This is how my bench started out the weekend, but I wanted to give it a new fun garden look and what better way then to paint it pink!

So of course I picked up Rust-oleum Berry Pink spray paint and went to town.  I did not pay too much attention to getting a full coverage of paint as I wanted to end up with a weathered look anyway.

I wanted to add a "gardeny" type quote to the back of the bench so I Google searched garden quotes and found this one and painted it on with a bright yellow.  Although, I couldn't have made this painting perfect if I tried, but I really was going for a more whimsy look. 

Next came out my handy dandy sanded to weather up the paint a bit and make it look like this bench has been in my garden for a while.  I think I love my bench even more now that it is pink.  Now I just hope that it will last for a couple of more years before it completely disintegrates.

I love the pop of color out on that side of the back yard.  Now it needs a big basket of flowers sitting on it.

 

 

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Best Vintage Store!

Friday we left Lake Vermilion with the clouds rolling in.  I hate leaving the lake on a beautiful day, so clouds were good.  Our friends went one way, and the girls and my sister, Janet went the other.   We had a mission at IKEA to get Lindsey set up in her kitchen in her new home.  Once our mission had been accomplished we were on our way to find the Goodwill Outlet, which was not really worth our time, but that is a whole other story, when we came upon this store hunt & gather.  This has got to be one of the best vintage store I have ever been in.  Not only was the merchandise unique and old, the way that it was displayed was great.  I will defiantly be coming back here on our way through Minneapolis in the future.  Or maybe again in July.

 

Front Door Decoration

This is my update to my front door decoration.  I am still working on making the front porch a great mix of pink and black.

This is what it looked like on my old pink door, but I wanted it to look like it went with the pots that I painted earlier.  

I started by painting it black and then applied the same dry brush technique that I used on the pots to help bring out the detail of the pocket. Then spruced it up with some new pink and white flowers and a new bow and a totally different look for my pink front porch. The porch is coming together, as soon as it is complete I will post pictures.