Fence - Part 2

Until recently there has been no progress on the fence.

In case you missed the fence project and all the drama and lessons learned, check it out here, here and here.


I know, it's hard to believe there have been three other posts about my fence, and yet this post is called Part 2.  Yeah....it's been that kind of project. ;)


Last month I had a huge yard sale to raise funds for the rest of the fence panels. And it was such a success I was even able to get the pergola I wanted!!!  Unfortunately, it needed to be assembled.  Every. Single. Little. Bitty. Piece!!!


So everything has sat for the last several weeks.  BUT...last weekend while I was at my booth doing some tweaking, my ex-husband and my Doodle assembled my pergola!! Talk about a surprise!  


And it is GORGEOUS!!

You may be wondering why I chose a wood pergola when I have a vinyl fence.  Well, one, it was cheaper than a vinyl one.  This cost $189 on sale at Menards.  The vinyl pergolas started around $300.  But more importantly, this one is GORGEOUS (did I mention that?)!  All the vinyl ones I looked at were very plain...nothing special.


I plan to paint this white to match the fence.   

Once I get this painted...once I get the money to buy paint, LOL...then I can finally get the picket fence installed on either side of the pergola. 


Of course, the pergola will be centered, it's not it's proper place at the moment...but this is progress for sure! :)

And you've probably forgotten (how dare you, LOL)  but I was working on this paver border earlier in the spring.  I finally finished it!  Well, I finished it up to as much as I planned to do this year....where the picket fence will be installed.  I'll pick it up again next spring.  This is what it looked like last time you saw it.

And here is what it looks like now.

It took me for.ev.er to complete.

Not so much because it was hard, because it really wasn't.  It was somewhat time consuming, but not hard.  No, it took forever because we've had a VERY hot summer!   I'm not a big fan of H O T.  So, I stopped working outside during the dog days of summer recently.  But I finally pushed through and got it done a few weeks ago.

I mostly used plants I already had by moving them from other, not so clean, locations.  Or finally planting potted plants in the ground!  Can you believe I had a catmint plant that lasted two years in the pot I bought it in! 

I do need to put more sand in the "joints" and put some topsoil and grass seed in the areas I overshot when I was cutting the beds out with my spade.


I guess thinking I'm "done" is overrated. LOL


But considering when I bought this house two and half years ago the only landscaping were the boxwoods and white rocks...I'm pretty pleased with my progress....and so are my neighbors.

Hopefully I can show the final fence photos soon. But for now, I am completely in love with my pergola...and my finished border project! :)

Recycled Yard Art

The first Saturday of every month, our Goodwill has everything for half off.

Since I couldn't find any yard sales this weekend, I popped over for the big sale and picked up a bunch of random glass pieces.

Let's take a step back...there is a booth at The Emporium, where my booth is, that has a few if these really awesome yard art sculptures made from recycled glass pieces.

I always stop by and stare at them! They charge $15 each, which I think is completely reasonable...I just haven't been able to afford that right now.

So.....when I was at the Goodwill it occurred to me that I could make one or two myself and save some money.  I already had the glass glue on hand.

The best part of all this, Doodle actually was excited to help!!!!!  As any tween girl's mom knows....this is a HUGE deal! ;)

So, we grabbed pieces like this old light shade....

and little juice glasses....

And some colored glass, that ironically was a bonus!  I was just buying the container...had no idea we'd end up using the beads inside! :)

And this is what we ended up with!  This one is mine....

And here is the Doodle's....

How stinkin' cute are these?!?  We are both pretty proud of how these turned out.

They sparkle so pretty in the garden!

You can insert a wooden dowel into the ground and into the vase portion for stability if you need to.

I'm not actually displaying them together like this, I plan to spread them out...but I wanted to get a shot of them outside to show them side by side.

Of course, the price is dependent on your glassware choices. These came in at around $3 each.  Not bad, huh?


I'll be posting this project at these linky parties! :)

 

It's a Sign

I made my very first sign!!

I see so many signs in blogland and I have been dying to try my hand at making some for a long time.

I found these signs at the Dollar Tree.

I primed it with spray paint first to cover the stuff that was on it.

Then, I used several different kinds of craft paint to make the lovely gray color it turned out with.  Painting it gray, the watering down some white and wiping it over the wood.  Then, some watered down light gray and mixed that with some black....basically I just layered on colors.

Now, onto the stencil....

I've been talking to Mel from Junkin' Junky (if you don't follow Mel, go check her out, she is super mega talented and not to mention a sweetheart too)  about sign making and how she goes about making hers.  We talked about how she uses her Cricut to sometimes use vinyl to make the words and sometimes she uses vinyl to make a stencil.

We both agree that vinyl is so stinkin' expensive!  So, I was looking for any alternative before resigning to using vinyl.  I asked her about freezer paper, she said I could use that or I could use shelf liner. 

I tried using freezer paper first because it's what I had on hand.  It cut on the Cricut just fine.  But it is so flimsy I didn't feel like it made a good stencil.

I forgot to pick up shelf liner at the store and being desperate to make a sign...I tried using some glossy photo paper I had on hand.  It worked like a DREAM!!!!

Now I can't wait to make more signs!!  Seriously, it might be my new craft addiction. :)

I took this one to the booth/boutique/wall. ;)

I also took some plaques to the booth today.

I really do think my "No Soliciting" sign is working!  I haven't had a solicitor in a long time.  :)

 

The Booth is Open!

Yesterday was the day!!  Opening day!! 

I enjoyed setting up my "wall" so much.

I took Doodle with me to sign the contract and show her the booth.  Standing in front of my new wall, the conversation went like this...

Doodle - "So, you aren't getting one of these big ones, you just get this wall with holes?"

Me - "Yes, for now.  I might get a bigger, open booth down the road."

Doodle - "Hmmmm."

On the way home....

Me - "I'm going to come back later to set everything up and decorate my booth."

Doodle - "It's not a booth...it's a wall."

So much for support from my kid. LOL  

So.....being the smarta$$ I am (wonder where my kid gets it, LOL), I am now referring to my wall booth with grandiose terms such as "My Boutique", "My Shop", "My Storefront", etc. :)

These are not the greatest pictures, I had to use flash and it was closing time,  oh yeah, and there's the fact that I don't take the best pictures under normal conditions. LOL  But I was able to snap some pictures really quick to show you.

I was not loving the red when I agreed to this space.  I figured I would ask if I could paint it in a month or two....but for now, I'm kind of liking it.

I need to cover that wonderful, plastic opening at the bottom.  I'm thinking some burlap or something along those lines...a curtain anyway.

And I'm going to make a burlap pennant to hang at the very top of the "wall" to give it some texture and fill in that space.

Some of the items I have for sale are leftovers from my last craft show...which, oh yeah, was EVERYTHING. LOL  

Some of them are things I used to use in my own home.  And many others are my creations or upcycles.

I used old barn wood my friend gave me for my shelves.  And I painted some old Goodwill shelves.  And like this one, I added trim and embellishments.

I upcycled things like this small cabinet....which someday I will show you the before, but I'm working on my brand new laptop today and am too lazy to get didn't have access to my old pictures for this post.

 I started from unfinished wood on pieces like these little boxes.

Painted old ugly brass lamps to make cute new lamps.

Assembled and painted wood picture/recipe holders.

And glued and painted other upcycled Goodwill finds.

Just a reminder, for any locals.  My new "boutique" is at:

County Line Emporium

1285 N. State Rd 135

Greenwood, IN 46143

I'm so stinkin' excited about this opportunity, I think I've got a perma-smile on! :)

And thank you so much to all you and your support!!  Without some of you, I probably never would have built up the courage to make this step!!!