Sprucing Up The Patio!

Hello again friends! I hope you are all having a fabulous week. I have been having such a wonderful summer and have been so thankful of this beautiful weather. Last week was a little too hot for me but this week has been a lot cooler and enjoyable. One thing that we have been enjoying this summer is our little patio that my husband finished last fall. I don't have very many before pictures because he is the type that likes to just dig into projects. He gets in the DIY zone and there is no stopping him and I am not always around to get the before shots. :)  I have a few more things left to do with the patio but I wanted to share what it looks like so far.

I love how it is kind of secluded to the side of the house. 

I wish I had a before picture of what it looked like without the cobblestone pavers. It wasn't this pretty! Anyway, here is what I started with a few weeks ago.

We bought our two chairs and love seat at Lowes. I had a few opportunities to buy some wicker furniture at garage sales but realized that it really didn't cost that much more to buy new furniture at Lowes and not have to fix it up. I did buy the wicker table at a garage sale a few years ago for $10.00. 

I have always dis-liked this telephone box on the house. It is definitely an eye sore and I needed something to hide it. So, I bought a palm tree to cover it up. 

You can still see the telephone box but it looks much better with the palm tree sitting in front of it. I have always loved palm trees because they remind me of warmer weather. We don't see very many palm trees in the Midwest. My biggest worry is keeping it alive during the winter months. I bought the palm tree at Meijer for $10.00.

Here is a close up of what the pavers look like!

I received this flower pot from my great aunt after she passed away. It dates back to the 40's and I believe my great grandma had it before her. I love the pop of blue it adds to the patio.

I bought this Pepsi crate at a local antique mall a few years ago. The red pitcher came from my great grandparents supermarket they owned. 

I bought these glasses at Goodwill a few years ago as well! I love the numbers.

I found the seat cushions at Wal-Mart and made the pillows. The fabric is duck cloth fabric from Hobby Lobby.

Do you remember the solar light basket I made about a month ago?

I love this lantern! I have a citronella candle in it to keep the bugs away. I need to find a bigger candle but it works for now. Also, do you recognize that mason jar light? I have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of light it gives off at night.

Here is side view of the patio.

I still have a few things to do. Maybe an outdoor rug? I have an umbrella but we need to make something to make it more stable so it doesn't fall over when the wind blows. Also, I would like to make something to put above the love seat. It has definitely been great to have this little patio this summer.

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Summer Flip Flop Wreath

Hello again! Wow...I think I have a hit a record  for the number of postings in one week. I don't know how the weather is where you live but it has been so hot and humid here. I love warm weather, but I am not a fan of 90 degree weather with a 100 degree heat index. Also, my hair which is thick and curly is just one hot mess. All I can do with it is pull it back and hair spray it down. I don't even try to style it because the minute I walk out the door it looks crazy.  Hee hee! I guess there could be worse problems to have. Anyway, enough about my crazy hair. I do have a little craft to share with all of you today. 

Yep, it's another wreath. I know another DIY/craft blogger who has made a wreath. I promise it is different then all of the others...O.K. maybe not. ;)  Enjoy!

Step 1: You will need about 1 yard of ribbon, a  12" styrofoam wreath or any wreath and flip flops. I used size 12 children's flip flops. I found mine at the Dollar Tree. The flip flops were flying off the shelves at my Dollar Tree so if you want some you better go soon. 

Step 2: Take your trusty hot glue gun and glue one end of the ribbon to the wreath

Step 3: Start wrapping your ribbon around the wreath. You will need to overlap the ribbon so the styrofoam isn't peaking out.

Step 4: Hot glue the end of the ribbon to your wreath. If you are short on ribbon cut a piece that will cover up the styrofoam. You can use this as the back side of the wreath.

Your wreath will look like this when you are done wrapping the ribbon.

I didn't mind the color of the flip flops, but I wanted a different color. So, I spray painted them with Rustoleum Key Lime Green gloss spray paint.

Once the spray paint dried I then glued the flip flops together and then attached them to the wreath. I also hot glued some bows to the top of the flip flops. I thought about just leaving the wreath like this but I felt like it needed more.

I glue a white ribbon bow on top of the wreath and had some wooden letters that I painted and glued on the flip flops. I  had bought the letters at Wal-Mart a few years ago and never knew what to do with them until now. 

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial on how to make this summer flip flop wreath. Stay cool out there my friends! 

By the way, I would love for you to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram !

I am linking up to:

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My Family Vacation in Wisconsin

Hello to to all of you! I wanted to pop in and share some pictures from our family vacation we took to Door County, Wisconsin.  One of the things that we are trying to do with our daughter is to travel to a lot of different places and create special memories as a family. My favorite aunt who passed away a few years ago always told me to get out and travel. The older I get the more and more I appreciate that advice. Here some pictures I took while we were on our trip.

Looking out at the bay in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. 

Old fire station in Eprhaim, Wisconsin I love the charm of these little towns! 

Graffiti on a building by the lake...I loved reading what other people wrote and the years they were there.

I love the awning on this little restaurant. We sat outside and there were the cutest little red bistro sets.

Visited a petting zoo for retired animals! Aren't these beautiful animals? I love their hair and that little girl carrying her feed bucket sure is cute. ;) 

I took this on my phone during a sunset...it makes my heart melt to see my husband with our little girl! This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. 

Another photo taken with my phone. I love this idea of the Hershey's can planters. These were hanging outside an ice cream shop. How adorable?!?! I want to copy this idea someday.

Another picture taken with my phone. I love old cars and would love to have this one.

My daughter met Miss Door County and got to try on her crown. Um, I do not have a shy daughter! 

I will leave you with this picture of my little girl and myself looking out on the water. 

If you are ever in Wisconsin you should visit Door County. It was a great family vacation spot and there were plenty of things to do there.

By the way, I would love for you to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram !

The Month of June in Review

Hello, I hope you all had a great weekend! I had a fabulous weekend, it was filled with family and time on the lake. I don't have a new craft or DIY craft project to share, but I thought I would do a look back at what happened on my blog in June. Also, where has July gone? We are already half way through...I think I say this every month but I wish time would slow down.

In the beginning of June, I thought I would try to grow my own herbs this summer and created this Topsy Turvy Herb Garden. I am also proud to say that all of my herbs are still growing and I haven't killed them yet. :)

I also created these Color Block Plant Stakes to go in my herb garden. I love the pop of color it gives the plant stake. 

The Outdoor Pallet Sign is one of my favorite projects of the month. I can't believe how much work goes into taking a pallet apart. Whew! I think the results were worth it though. 

And finally the last project of the month was my Solar Light Basket! I love sitting out on the patio at night and having these cute little baskets all lit up.

I hoped you enjoyed my posts for the month of June! I appreciate each and everyone of you for taking the time to read this little old blog. :)

By the way, I would love for you to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram !

 

Custom Architectural Portrait Giveaway

Giveaway is now closed...the winner is Teresa Cox. Thank you to all who participated!

Hello sweet readers! I have teamed up with some awesome bloggers to offer a giveaway for a

Custom Architectural Portrait by Sketchy Styles

To enter this one of a kind giveaway just click on the rafflecopter in this post and follow the steps!

The giveaway runs from 8am EST on July 10th and ends at 11pm EST on July 17th. The winner will be announced on July 18th.

Your chances of winning increase with each entry you make! Good Luck!!!

** This offer is open to US and Canadian Residents

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Easy Chalkboard Lettering Tutorial

Hello friends! I feel like it has been so long since I sat down and wrote a blog post. I hope you all had a great 4th of July! I had a wonderful week with my family. We took a much needed vacation to Wisconsin and stayed in the cutest lake town. I hope to show you some pictures soon of my little vacation. I did  want to share a little tutorial with you today on how to transfer any type of font onto a chalkboard. 

Way back in 2010 I bought this frame from Goodwill! I painted the back of the picture with chalkboard paint and flipped it around to the front of the frame. I have been using it to decorate for all of the different seasons and it usually stays on top of the fireplace mantel.

I really love chalkboards, but I have always had a love/hate relationship with mine because of my handwriting. You would never guess this from the girl who got the handwriting award two years in a row in elementary school. Hee hee! Anyway, you wouldn't think writing on a chalkboard would be any different. Well maybe for some people it's not different but for this girl it is!

I have really been trying to think of a way to make the lettering on the chalkboards look better. I just could not do another post with my crappy writing so in the words of Oprah I had an "Ah Ha" moment. Let's go back in time (ok not too far back) let's say a few months ago. Do you remember my library book wall tutorial? Well, I decided to use the same method on my chalkboard. 

The first thing I did was print out my saying for my chalkboard and laid it out on the chalkboard.I used the same font that I used in my Neverland sign from my book wall. I just love this saying "It is Well with My Soul". Here is a little history on the saying if you are interested in where it came from, it is actually a lyric to a hymn. 

After I had my words laid out on my chalkboard and marked where they were going I flipped over the paper and started rubbing the chalk on the back.

I then flipped the paper back over (words facing you) and placed it on the chalkboard. I then took a pencil and started tracing the letters onto the chalkboard. You might have to go over the letters a few times to make the chalk transfer.

(I apologize for the quality of this picture, I am a mom who has to craft after the babe is in bed)

After I had the letters traced I then started filling the letters in with chalk. A good tip is to sharpen your chalk, it will make your life so much easier.

Here is the final results. I think it turned out fairly well! The perfectionist in me wanted to go back and fix a bazillion things, but I then thought to myself I think chalk looks better with a little imperfection.

Please come back and visit me tomorrow for an awesome giveaway!

You can find me on... Facebook, Pinterest &  Instagram if you would like to follow more of my projects.

 
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