Valine and I have observed that through the years, our interests have changed dramatically (of course) and can be evidenced through the purchases on our "antique-ing" trips to Roundtop and to Canton. In the early years, we had just discovered our love of this past-time and crafting had become trendy. Enter Phase one: Country-themed clothes and jewelry. Rather than just offering junk and antiques, Canton was filled with crafty booths. We spent our time and a little money on painted t-shirt dresses and chunky wooden teacher-y jewelry and classroom organization things. During this period, our girls were young and we often found cute things for them, too--clothes and wooden things to paint for their bedrooms or even doll clothes. (Luckily, there aren't any photos of these stylish purchases)
Eventually, we moved into the second phase: Things for our house. By this time, country-themed items had become a thing of the past (fortunately) and besides, it had become not nearly as fun to but clothes for ourselves. Our girls were still fun to "dress", but they had their own ideas of what was stylish and things from the flea market generally would not make the cut. We bought baskets and quilts and all kinds of knick-knacks to fill up our shelves.
We've now moved to phase three: Things for the garden. While we still enjoy enjoy finding a treasure or two for inside the house, we all (Valine, Pam, Sandy and Pam included) seem to be searching for things for our garden more now. Is it because the clothes don't fit? And our houses are full? I'm not sure, but I do know that I love looking through gardening magazines and stores for inspirational ideas.
I've pinned all kinds of things onto my Pinterest boards related to the outdoors and gardening and Ron and I have really been enjoying working outdoors together. I have a list a mile long of projects that I want to complete, but have to keep reminding myself to "pace myself"---I certainly don't want to burn Ron out with my lengthy "honey-do" list!
Last night, Tyler helped Ron get the final bags of gravel poured onto the fire pit area and I added a few decorative touches. First up, a simple outdoor tic-tac-toe game board. I bought 9 square pavers and simply buried them in the gravel. I bought a bag of rocks at Dollar Tree and painted X's and O's to use as markers.
I'm keeping my eyes open for just the right container for the stones.
I used some of the table decorations from our wedding, the tree slices, as stepping stones scattered throughout the area. I still had some plain slices left over, so I heated up the wood-burning tool and turned Tyler loose on one.
I sprayed each one with matte finish clear Krylon before placing them in the gravel.
I know they won't last forever, but they are kind of fun to enjoy right now.
Before we went inside last night, I talked Ron into pulling apart the last of the boards of a pallet we had laying around. We'd used it to make the signs for our wedding, but it only had a few boards left. I tried to do it myself, but pallets are ridiculously hard to pull apart---especially without tearing them up. I recently pinned this and wanted to make one for the back of the storage building.
This morning, I laid out 4 remaining pieces and cut the one broken one into 2 pieces and screwed the boards to it.
I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby (well, NO trip to Hobby Lobby is quick for me, but that's another story) to pick up wooden letters.
A little side note---On the way home, I decided to run through McDonald's and texted Tyler to see if he wanted anything. He was quite excited and gave me his order--Cinnamon Rolls and a Mocha Frappe. I pulled up to the drive-thru, placed my order and then waited in line. I began noticing that the aroma coming from Burger King (which is right next door to McDonald's) smelled so good--it was making me hungry. That's when I looked up to see the McDonald's next door---I actually was in line at Burger King by mistake. I really think I am losing it---oh well!!
At home, I spray painted the letters red and then added dabs of turquoise and brown acrylic paint
before gluing them to the pallet boards.
Now, I just need to hang it and all the other goodies we've collected for that back wall.
Oh, and Ron and Tyler were able to install our kayak hangers last night! Nice!
By the way:
Eventually, we moved into the second phase: Things for our house. By this time, country-themed items had become a thing of the past (fortunately) and besides, it had become not nearly as fun to but clothes for ourselves. Our girls were still fun to "dress", but they had their own ideas of what was stylish and things from the flea market generally would not make the cut. We bought baskets and quilts and all kinds of knick-knacks to fill up our shelves.
We've now moved to phase three: Things for the garden. While we still enjoy enjoy finding a treasure or two for inside the house, we all (Valine, Pam, Sandy and Pam included) seem to be searching for things for our garden more now. Is it because the clothes don't fit? And our houses are full? I'm not sure, but I do know that I love looking through gardening magazines and stores for inspirational ideas.
I've pinned all kinds of things onto my Pinterest boards related to the outdoors and gardening and Ron and I have really been enjoying working outdoors together. I have a list a mile long of projects that I want to complete, but have to keep reminding myself to "pace myself"---I certainly don't want to burn Ron out with my lengthy "honey-do" list!
Last night, Tyler helped Ron get the final bags of gravel poured onto the fire pit area and I added a few decorative touches. First up, a simple outdoor tic-tac-toe game board. I bought 9 square pavers and simply buried them in the gravel. I bought a bag of rocks at Dollar Tree and painted X's and O's to use as markers.
I'm keeping my eyes open for just the right container for the stones.
I used some of the table decorations from our wedding, the tree slices, as stepping stones scattered throughout the area. I still had some plain slices left over, so I heated up the wood-burning tool and turned Tyler loose on one.
I sprayed each one with matte finish clear Krylon before placing them in the gravel.
I know they won't last forever, but they are kind of fun to enjoy right now.
Before we went inside last night, I talked Ron into pulling apart the last of the boards of a pallet we had laying around. We'd used it to make the signs for our wedding, but it only had a few boards left. I tried to do it myself, but pallets are ridiculously hard to pull apart---especially without tearing them up. I recently pinned this and wanted to make one for the back of the storage building.
This morning, I laid out 4 remaining pieces and cut the one broken one into 2 pieces and screwed the boards to it.
I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby (well, NO trip to Hobby Lobby is quick for me, but that's another story) to pick up wooden letters.
A little side note---On the way home, I decided to run through McDonald's and texted Tyler to see if he wanted anything. He was quite excited and gave me his order--Cinnamon Rolls and a Mocha Frappe. I pulled up to the drive-thru, placed my order and then waited in line. I began noticing that the aroma coming from Burger King (which is right next door to McDonald's) smelled so good--it was making me hungry. That's when I looked up to see the McDonald's next door---I actually was in line at Burger King by mistake. I really think I am losing it---oh well!!
At home, I spray painted the letters red and then added dabs of turquoise and brown acrylic paint
before gluing them to the pallet boards.
Now, I just need to hang it and all the other goodies we've collected for that back wall.
Oh, and Ron and Tyler were able to install our kayak hangers last night! Nice!
By the way:
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Love the backyard makeover details... can't wait to hang out there when I come to visit this fall.
And, I have to admit, I laughed out loud (at my desk at work!) reading about the McDonalds/Burger King mix-up. Did they let you order a Frappe at Burger King?
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