If You Blow Your Nose...

... and it's pretty, you have a problem with spray paint.

Hey, I'm just sayin'...

Sneak Peek: Water We Doing This Weekend?

Cats understand tragedy. Like when the fountain you've drunk from for years suddenly, spontaneously implodes. And there goes the only source of fresh water in your life. Other than the toilet. Which the humans continuously defile in their obvious lack of good hygiene. Disgusting. Or the water dish. But the dog drinks from that. Equally disgusting.

There will be a new fountain in place by the end of the weekend. Not a prepacked one, but something creative and maybe a little weird. I like weird. And the cats like fresh water. Let's do this on the cheap, shall we?

In Memorial...

Good-bye, faithful painting table. You have served me for years. You started life as a free-cycled picnic table that accidently got paint splattered on it. From there, your three work surfaces were my weekend destination as we together transformed and created project after project. You had rings and squares of colors layered over you through the seasons, and you wore them with pride. I even quipped that it was load-bearing paint. Evidently, not load-bearing enough. Tragedy struck.

The. Workmen. Sat. On. You.



Yes, I came home to the blatant scene. They hadn’t even tried to cover their crime. The table top was flipped up and askew. And the whole structure listed to the left sharply. I knew bulk trash day was coming up, and I resigned myself to losing one more personal space during all of this inactivity renovation.



Wait. Me? Throw something away? Perish the thought!



I dragged that wreckage (okay the teen minions dragged that wreckage) around to the carport, where I was just carving out a workshop for larger projects that would be under cover. And I needed a workbench.



You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

Told You...

 

Fear of color? NONE. That's how I roll.

 

I apologize for the lack of before pictures, but close your eyes and picture this: a free-cycled armoire with good bones you could see from space. It was solid wood, Thomasville, and sheathed in the most God awful peeling cream and gold imaginable. But it was perfect for baby number 3, and it went in her

room, storing tiny clothes...

 

Until tiny clothes became Trips from Hot Topic. Yo. That's when we sanded and spray painted it in Lavender, Grape, and used a little Key Lime for the drawer pulls. The door hardware we replaced with these great surfboard pulls for $5. This project was finished last year, before I was saving receipts. Yeah, I didn't just start this. So I won't quote you the amount, but trust me, this was fun, funky, and came in under $20. And remember THESE? Put the two together for a sneak peek in your mind.

Garden Party, Part I

To kick off this year's garden, first there needed to be some demolition. I had recycled our old patio gazebo into a home for my orchids, but 5 years of South Florida weather had taken its toll, and the structure was now just a rusted mess. When the Tivoli Gazebo went on sale for $99, I snagged it. It's still quite

a bargain at $129.

 

The Teen Minions removed all of the plants, furniture, and the tarp from the frame, and then I let my oldest son have some grunting fun ripping the whole

thing apart.

 

He's single, girls.

...maybe for a reason?

Anyway, then it was my turn to get to work. That bougainvillea had encased the old gazebo and was just going a little too wild. Of course my electric trimmer is in.....wait for it.....STORAGE, so the entire job was accomplished with Fiskars trimmers and a $4 folding saw. Are you impressed?

Savannah and the Hubster were hard at work with the simple snap together

assembly of the new outdoor room.

 

Seriously, I cut all this one snip at a time.

And within an hour we had a new home for my tropicals, and the container garden started to take shape.

The habanero peppers were right at home.

And the new top received swift feline approval, which is key.

I couldn't resist this pot, a Dollar General steal for $8. The sage seemed comfy.

Some of my accidental gardening successes.

The day ended on a lazy note with everyone stretching out to relax. Still to come:

1. Lights

2. Salvaged shelving

3. Propagated plantings

4. Finishing touches

So do stop back by!

Inspiration Point: Crate and Barrel and a Few Random Treasures

 

I sometimes like to see what my children's taste is leaning toward, so I told Savannah to just get some photos of things she thought were cool while we were at Crate and Barrel. Do you influence your children? Sure. Mine aren't shy about color at all. She was in love with this bold purple wall and the

rhythm of the heavy glass lamp.  

 

Although the little sea creature in her then gravitated to the calming colors this room was awash in.

 

And the clean lines here attracted her.

I loved these vases and begged for a couple of pics to get ideas from.

 

 

The grill is the object of the Hubster's lust in that yummy apple green. Hmmm, we do have a 20th anniversary coming up...

 

Before we left though, Savannah found the room of her dreams in this watery duvet cover and combo. She'd like her room to be a calm blue ocean, and this simply screams serenity. Wait, can you scream 

serenity?

 

We had lunch at Cantina Laredo. The food was amazing, sure, but we got kinda stuck on the floral 

arrangements and light fixtures.

 

We headed out to the courtyard to explore some more, and I spotted this uber cool chandelier in a trendy punk clothing store called Rock and Religion. It's obviously a older piece painted in glossy black all over and just awesome. Not for sale, but hey, a quick trip to Good Will and a can of Rustoleum...

 

This is the stage at Playwrites Irish Pub. The whole place is full of salvage from old churches! Do you see the pipe organ? We'll go back with a better camera.

And each still-empty shop has a facade with an artist's macaque, which prompted a predictable spurt of foolishness.

 

.

We caught a little big race pageantry...

...and ended the day with a bargain clearance $3 pinata from Target. Seriously, wouldn't you?