Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I was featured at Remodelaholic!! Sqeeeal!

Squeeeeeal! I've been featured by Cassity at Remodelaholic!! She featured my Ceiling Medallion Turned Wall Art.   If you been hiding under a rock (kidding :) and don't know who she is...you really, really need to! She and her hubby have done amazing house remodels, and she features the best projects from around the blogosphere. If you're looking for tons of great inspiration...she can link you up with amazing craftswomen and their projects.  Thank you Cassity for the feature...I'm very honored!





I've been a bad blogger lately. Sorry I haven't been posting, but I've been so covered up with other things right now. I am stripping the wallpaper in my youngest son's room and I'm almost finished. Then I'll have lots of spackling and sanding to do before I can actually paint. I have a fuzzy vision of what his room will look like...it will come together as I go.

We also finally set up the pool, been trimming more flower beds and spending time with out of town company.  Nothing glamorous.  Sorry to be so boring...but I will soon have more fun stuff...I really, really hope! 

Soil Sifter

I told you I would share my homemade soil sifter in my 'Gitter Done' garden post. It was super simple to build.



First build a frame of 2 x 4's to fit the size of your wheel barrow.  Mine is a little narrower than my wheel barrow is wide, but it works fine.  Because I was using scraps that I had, I only used blocks in the corners, but one of them has split and had to be repaired.  I'd recommend a full frame all the way around.

Then cut two 2 x 6's to screw to the ends.  These will sit down over the top of your wheelbarrow to hold the screen from moving around.



As you can see in the pictures, your frame needs to be just long enough so these side pieces will fit snugly to the front and back of the wheel barrow.  Once your frame is built, cut some 1/4 inch hardware cloth (I believe that is what this screen looking stuff is called.  It's very heavy duty.  Cut it about 1inch larger than your frame all the way around.  Turn under 1 inch (as if you were hemming), then hammer in heavy duty bent staples.  I don't know what they are called,  I don't think a staple gun would work, unless you can get one that does very heavy duty staples.  You can get these at the hardware and they are very strong.

I love this sifter for sifting out roots and other junk from my soil when I renovate a flower bed.  It works nicely to sift sticks from compost too.  The soil is so nice and aerated when you are done.  Add in some compost as you are going and you will have the best garden soil you can imagine!  Your flowers will absolutely go nuts and will stand up and salute you!

 

Monday, July 12, 2010

Gitter Done - The Garden

I'm linking up to Funky Junk Interiors Gitter Done Volume 2 party.  I hinted that this was an outdoor project that wasn't glamorous, but necessary.  It is broken into two parts. 

Part 1

Ooooh...my aching...everything.  My Gitter Done project was the garden.  Actually the garden itself wasn't too bad.  It's the raspberry patch that about did me in.  Thought they'd have to dig a 6 foot hole right there under the raspberries.  It had become a little...ahem...overgrown.  This project has taken several hours of several days!




We pause this program for a commercial break.  Please note the very cool barrel, on a stand, in the background of this last picture (never mind the weeds).  It is a rotating composter, manufactured by ComposTumbler.  It retails for well over $500...and it is not mine.  My neighbor lent it to me for the summer...can you BELIEVE it???  Sorry, didn't mean to shout, but it is so awesome!  It makes compost in 14 days.  You do have to give it two turns once everyday, which is why she is not using it this year.  I have no problem with that.  It produces black gold!   In one more week, I will have my first batch of lovely compost.  Okay...only a gardener can appreciate my excitement, but I had to share.

Now back to our regularly schedueled program.  Where were we...oh yes...the raspberry patch was seriously overgrown.  I just haven't had time to tackle it until now.  When I had time, it was always raining.  In fact I had to race a thunderstorm the first day I worked on it.  It was a tie...I got half the patch weeded before the storm hit.  It wasn't much of a storm...kind of blew past us...with just a little rain.  But I realized that I'd better quit for the day if I didn't want to be 6 feet under!

Let me tell you it was a jungle in there!  I spent about 3 hours just in the raspberries and only made it about half way down the row.  I was so well hidden that my son rode past me on his mini bike and didn't even see me.


I sat on my tush on a little cushion and scooted along, yanking weeds left and right.  This is what surrounded me:


I repeat...it was a jungle in there!  I also weeded the carrots.

 Before weeding
After weeding

My husband tilled between the rows.  He also tilled the corner of the garden where I had thrown some old flower seeds.  Nothing came up, so it's going into cover crop...or maybe we will just keep tilling the weeds under ;)

Here are some more after shots of the garden:






Part 2

"Take that you animal!"  "I will destroy you!"  "Give it up now...cause you're going down!"

Anyone who might have walked up my driveway, would have probably backed away quickly and called the police.  Not to worry...it was just me tackling this overgrown mess:


These are weeds to me.  I do not like the color orange (my sincere apologies to orange lovers).  So why do I have these orange lilies?  And why such a lot of them?  I can't even remember where I got them, but I thought they were yellow lilies when I planted them.  When they bloomed orange, I had good intentions of digging them out, but never quite got around to it.  They. took. over.

Can I just say, if you don't like a flower, and it spreads rather quickly, just dig it out now...or you will regret it!  Oh my what a job.  After digging all that out, the soil was still full of root fragments and tubers.  I had to use my soil sifter to sift out all of that, or the darn things would just grow back.  I made the sifter myself, but I'll show you that in a later post.

If your squeamish you might not want to look at the next pictures.  

The Carnage


I did not plant anything there yet, as the window above it is going to be replaced soon.  I'll wait until after that's done so my new rose doesn't get trampled!  I did add compost into the sifted soil, and it is good to let that rest and settle a bit before replanting anyway.

After tackling this mess I needed a shower badly.  I was covered in dirt, hot and sweaty.  


Oooooh...A shower never felt so good!


FJI's Gitter Done! challenge


Friday, July 9, 2010

It rained off and on all day yesterday, so my outdoor plans were foiled once again. So I headed upstairs to my son's room to strip wallpaper. Between pulling weeds all day the day before, and scraping wallpaper yesterday, my hands can barely type this!

I'm in the middle of several ongoing projects with nothing to show right now. I did wander about my flower beds yesterday evening and took some pictures that I can share.

Someone (a man) once commented on seeing all my flower beds something like "Unless it grows food, I don't see the point." I responded, "Flowers are food for the soul."
Here are a few of my soul feeders in bloom right now.

These pots have filled out nicely since I planted them.






These fill the tummy and the soul!




Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Gitter Done Volumn 2

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors did it again. She issued another challenge...Gitter Done Volumn 2. Because of the extreme heat the past several days, I've procrastinated not been able to tackle my Gitter Done Project until very late in the game. She has given us 8 days to post...my project is going to take at least 2, maybe three days. Once again, it's not glamorous, but necessary. This time it is outside...and that's all I'm sayin. Stay tuned.


You still have 8 days to join me in this challenge.  Pick a project or anything you've been putting off and jump in.  Then post it and link up to the Gitter Done party.  Lets all see how much we can get done.  I promise you, you will feel terrific afterwards...maybe tired, but terrific!

I think I'm starting to side with Elmer Fudd. He was forever after that Wascally Wabbit! Well I've got some Wascally Wabbits of my own! This is what they've been doing to my broccoli!



@#%&* rabbits!  Sorry, but they chomped down my entire row of broccoli to nothing.  My good neighbor came to my rescue.  She had tons of broccoli to thin, so I got her thinnings.  I replanted Monday afternoon after a light rain.  I intended to get a row cover on them too, but we had a downpour shortly after they were planted.  And I mean I got soaked running from the garden to the house!  It kept on raining and the garden was too wet, so I crossed my fingers and went to bed.

The next morning, sure enough, those creatures from hell dumb rabbits had been at it again.  They only chomped the smaller broccoli on the end this time.  Yesterday I got a row cover on them.  I hope the term "dumb bunny" is accurate, and they won't find their way under or chew through the row cover!



Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Attention all Etsy owners or Other Craft Sellers

I just found out that Rory, over at Tools Are For Women Too, is hosting a link party for anyone who has an etsy shop, or who sells their handmade items from their own blog. Rory is a very generous guy who supports all of us ladies who like to build and craft.


toolsareforwomentoo

The theme of the party is Times are Tough.  Rory is doing this to help all of us out in this tough economy, to hopefully boost our sales.  Gotta love that guy!

You can post up to three seperate links to items in your store.  Head on over to Tools Are For Women Too, to read the details.  The party opens tomorrow.  See you there!

Update:  The party starts Thursday, not Wednesday...oops!

Shabby Chic Paperweight

My daughter came home yesterday all gaga over a new consignment shop in our neighborhood. It's not on my regular route, so I hadn't noticed it. So she "dragged me" (not) down there to have a look-see.

Can I just say thank you Jamie! I found quite a few little treasures that I will post later. But my favorite was a snowflake crystal paperweight. I immediately came home and started rummaging through my scrapbook paper, but didn't find what I wanted. So I went online...story of my life...and headed over to tatteredvintage at etsy. She has the most amazing digital downloads of gorgeous, vintage wallpaper patterns she's collected for years. I found one...some...okay, several that I loved!  I bought me some yummy goodness, then waited impatiently patiently for the download to arrive in my inbox.  She says to allow 24 hours, but it only took an hour or so before they were sitting pretty in my email.

I printed out my favorite, used a circle cutter to cut the perfect size circle, then mod podged it onto the base of the paperweight.  I'm in love!  The exciting part is, the consignment shop has 8 more paperweights and she will give me a deal if I buy all of them.  I begrudgingly...because I love it...put this one up for sale in my etsy store.


 I love it sitting on my copy of Shabby Chic by Rachel Ashwell!

Now I need your opinion.  Should I go back and buy all the others?  I priced it at $15.  If you weren't inclined to make one yourself (as most of us diy'ers are), would you pay that for it?  I googled crystal paperweights, and they run from about $25 on up, for nice ones.  Thanks for your input.  I'm itching to make more :)

Saturday, July 3, 2010

VBS, Coasters and a Pretty Box





I'm baaaaack! I know I was AWOL there for a while. The last two or three weeks really knocked the wind out of my sails. As VBS director I was responsible for planning, purchasing, and orchestrating our annual VBS, which we hold at our church camp every year. So we camp all week long, and every morning, from 9:00 - 12:00 we hold VBS. The teens have their own program in the morning and afternoon activities...and no that was not my responsibility...I'd be 6 feet under if it was!

 Our theme was Lava Lava Island
A couple of our crew leaders incognito

We set up and decorated Sunday afternoon. All week long I had one thing after another with sick workers, one who slept in, and our preschool leaders grandmother and her dog died on the same day. I felt so bad for her, but it left me without a teacher for about 15 preschooler and kindergarteners.  Can you say YIKES!  With all the staffing problems I had this year, praise God, he sent people out of the woodwork to show up just when I needed substitutes.

 That's me, way in the back, with my hands full of papers.

 Zulu was a popular character that visited us each day

We had up to 54 kids per day, and I ran nonstop up and down stairs all morning, then usually had things to prepare for the next day, in the afternoons.  It liked to kill me!  I do it for the kids, and love them dearly, but I'm thinking I'm getting too old for this.  It laid me out for most of this week.  I've done the basics to keep us alive and clothed this week.  Finally, Thursday I did clean house...oh my...it really needed it!


Yesterday I felt my creative juices starting to stir again.  Maybe it was my first Etsy sale that did it.  Actually I've had any Etsy store for awhile.  The name of my shop is Time Turner.  I made several watches and listed them to see if they would sell.  Nothing happened, so I just left it up and kind of forgot about it.  Well...what do you know...yesterday morning I sold one!  I was doin' the happy dance...albeit a stiff one...but the happy dance none the less.


At the same time I opened that shop, I decided to open one under the name Green Willow Pond, thinking I might make some home decor items.  This was before I had this blog.  I registered it, but never listed anything...until now.  My little sale spurred me on, and I decided to make a couple of items and list them. 

First are my number coasters.  I still have to get either adhesive back cork or felt or rubber feet to put on the back, but otherwise they are done.  (going to town today to get the backing)


The other item I made is a little covered box.  This took a lot longer than I thought it would.  I don't think I'll be making lots of these!  It's a one of a kind anyway...I used a gift box I had, some pages from an old book, ribbon, beads, keys...everything I had on hand.  I like the way it turned out though.



So if you like what you see, come visit me at my etsy shop.  I don't have much there yet, but I'll be working on some more things to add.  Even if you don't want to buy anything, come visit, so I won't be lonely over there LOL!

This post is linked to the following parties.  Go check them out for tons of great ideas!






For Sale By Owner Shop Link-up at Remodelholic






Funky Junk Interiors






















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