A Place For The Big Pool Toys
#7 on my 10 Tasks In 10 Days Challenge. Create something to hold the big pool toys.
We have a deck box for outside toys, but it’s not big enough for the water noodles, float rings and kick boards.
I’ve been trying to think of a way to keep them all contained and I needed something with holes in it for drainage. I went to Family Dollar today and saw this hamper (I think that’s what it is). It was only $6 so it came home with me.
I used my Cricut to cut out some vinyl letters. It had to be labeled, right?
And I picked a pretty pool blue color.
I didn’t measure to find the center, I just counted the holes. I love when I don’t have to measure or use math.
When I space letters, I always start in the center and move to the right.
Then I go back to the center and move to the left.
And there you have perfectly spaced letters.
Here it is in front of the deck box. Yay, now they won’t blow all over the yard or clog the pool skimmer. Zach’s looking for something to throw at his sister and her friend. Great!
Two down, Eight to go!
I’m linking to:
Market Yourself Monday at Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
Show Me How at It’s A Blog Party
Filed under Outdoors, Storage | Comments (5)
Getting The Front Porch Ready
It’s still raining. It’s still not warm. But I can’t wait any longer, I have to get the porch ready for warmer weather. So I did it today instead of working in the yard, because it kept sprinkling on and off anyway. This is the sad “before” picture. Helloooo bench, you look lonely down there.
I usually just sweep the porch off a few times a week during the Summer, but before I decorate it for Spring and Summer I like to hose it down to get all the Winter grime off.
To start with, I made the rug last year by duct taping 6 small rugs together. If I remember right, they were $1.50 each, so only $9 for the whole rug.
Then I added tables and chairs. A small table by the bench to hold cool drinks.
And a larger table to hold breakfast, magazines or drinks and snacks. I spray painted the chairs last year and they’ve held up pretty well.
Next I added some accessories to make the space pretty and welcoming. I spray painted the terra cotta pots yellow last year too.
The tray is actually the lid of a galvanized box (the one the windmills are in). The coasters are because the table is a little uneven and they make the glasses stable. The candleholders are from that great sale I went to a few months ago. They were like .50 cents a piece. There’s no flowers in the pots yet because hubby and I are going on a trip and I don’t want the kids to be stressed over having to water the flowers. Or I don’t want dead ones when I get home.
The hose box needed something to make it look a little better. Adam made the birdhouse in scouts about 11 years ago.
These candleholders are perfect for this end of the porch. There’s not a light down in this area. Plus I love the colors.
Just a little added interest to the small table.
And this welcome sign was .50 cents because the front was falling off. I just glued it back on. Maybe they didn’t own any glue. It’s in the small window by the front door.
Then came the soft stuff. I need to make a cushion for the bench, but for now these chair cushions will do. I made the pillows last year.
I need to make new cushions for the chairs too. Probably the same fabric as the bench.
The flower boxes were added to the railing.
And porch columns, but no flowers yet. Plan on them about June 3rd or 4th, afterI’ve had a day to catch up from our trip.
So here’s the almost finished porch. I still need to paint the bench, make new cushions and make drop cloth curtains for the end by the bench. The morning sun can blind you from that angle in the Summer.
And here’s the front door area. Oh, and we’re making shutters for the front windows too. I’m now ready to sit on the front porch with Ammon and guess the color of the next car that drives by. He always wins! I think he cheats.
I do have one dilemma. What would you do? The bottom of the picture is my beautiful lawn and the top is my neighbor’s. I’m going to have a hard time keeping that out of my yard. The dandelions have already gone to seed and started blowing. So far we only have them in our flower beds, but I’m worried I’m not going to be able to keep them out of my lawn. So what should I do, short of tilling their whole yard for them? Oh, and the backyard is worse. Another good reason for curtains.
I can’t wait for our first breakfast on the porch this season. Think happy warm thoughts! (I’m sorry for any misspelled words. My spellcheck is not working.)
I’m linking to:
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Remodelaholics Anonymous Meeting at Remodelaholic
Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello
Shop The House Sunday at Finesse Your Nest
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch
DIY Project Parade at The DIY Showoff
DIY Day at A Soft Place To Land
Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie
Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage
Porch Party at Poppies at Play
Home and Family Friday at Home Is Where My Story Begins
Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest
Filed under Outdoors | Comments (29)Snowy Day
This is what our house looked like yesterday. Do you see Amanda in the window of Emilee’s playroom? I’ll give you a closer look.
Oh, there’s Emilee too. This was after church and they have their jammies on. It was so cold, they just wanted to get warm and cozy. I didn’t know they were in the windows until I got closer to the house. Silly girls!
Hubby cleared the driveway and sidewalks 4 times yesterday. But with temperatures being in the single digits last week, it was actually a welcome sight and chore.
The kids are excited for snowboarding and sledding this year. Emilee and a friend already went sledding on Saturday at a local hill. Amanda went snowboarding on Saturday and Zachary is having his first snowboarding experience with the school tomorrow. Amanda has a pass to a local resort and Emilee got a special school pass to several resorts in the area. This is going to be a great winter for them. But this is what we do on Sundays after church, when it’s snowy.
Sing songs on the couch together and take pictures and videos with our new phone:
And watch golf on TV and wish we lived in a warmer climate (hubby doesn’t love the snow):
Here’s our backyard:
Picnic anyone? At this time I’m imagining what fun my parents must be having on the beaches of Hawaii right now.
And here’s looking out our front door. That house across the street is over 100 years old. Don’t you just love old homes and all their charm? Especially when they’re covered in snow.
I’m thankful for my:
Warm Home
Cozy Blankets
Hot Cocoa
Toasty Fireplace
and Sunday afternoons!
Filed under Family, Outdoors | Comment (0)Autumn in Utah
The last few days have been so beautiful. I love Fall! I loved it growing up in Indiana and I even love it now in Utah. Hubby struggles with Autumn because that means Winter is right around the corner. He’s not a Winter lover (that’s why he misses living in Florida so much). I kept hoping he would take some time to enjoy the beautiful Fall weather and he finally has. He went golfing after work today and I know he’s enjoying every minute of that. I love being able to have the windows open and the light breeze coming through the house, being able to get some yard work done when it’s not 100 degrees outside, taking the kids on outings and going for a jog in the morning when the air is crisp. But this is what I love most about Autumn in Utah:
I can’t resist the beautiful scenery that surrounds me here. I find such joy looking at it everyday and sharing it with my family through drives and walks in the canyons and around the neighborhood. How can you not love Autumn in Utah?
Sharon at Good True and Beautiful is having a Just for the Joy of It party, so I decided to join in. What are you joyful for and what brings joy to your life? I’m also linking to Beautiful Life Friday at The Inspired Room and she has some great news to share with you.
Filed under Outdoors | Comments (7)Giveaway and Fall Colors
I am in sunny Southern California with my family enjoying a wonderful long weekend. But before we left Utah we took a beautiful drive thru the mountains to enjoy the Fall colors. And it’s a good thing we did, it snowed up in the mountains the morning we left. Here are some pictures to enjoy:
These are some of the leaves Ammon brought home:
This is what the mountains looked like as we left our home for Cali. What a difference 3 days make:
So beautiful, but I’m not ready for snow yet. I love the contrast though, winter in the upper mountains and autumn in the lower mountains. It was 92 degrees where we’re at today. I’m linking this to Hooked On Fridays at Hooked On Houses. Click on over there and see what others are hooked on this week.
Tuesday was my 300th post. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway I have going on right now to win one of these awesome bags/purses from PURSE-N-ALITY.
How cute are these! Go here to get all the details on how to enter and Good Luck! Have a Beautiful Weekend!
Filed under Giveaways, Outdoors | Comments (3)Garden Neglect and a Surprise
I have neglected an area of my garden this summer. I started out with good intentions, but other things got in the way. I had cleared out an area except for one small tree, because I had decided to plant perennials there. No more annuals to plant there every year! I kept meaning to go to the nursery and I even had some coupons, but never made it. So I just ignored that area, never really looked at it much, because I knew it was an eyesore. So after being gone for about a week and a lot of rain later, imagine my surprise when I noticed my neglected area.
Where did those come from? Isn’t it beautiful? Not an eyesore anymore! There were marigolds planted there 2 years ago. I guess they liked it there, because they decided to come back and I couldn’t be happier. It makes me want to rethink planting perennials there now (at least for this year). They are going to look beautiful there as we go into Fall. Don’t you just love nature and how God designed everything to replenish the earth? Okay, maybe not the spiders that have decided to replenish in my house. I am having those taken care of today.
Filed under Outdoors | Comments (3)Completed Front Porch
I realized that I never posted about my finished front porch. Well, almost finished. As finished as it is probably going to get this year. So here it is:
The chairs were faded and worn looking, now I think they look great. It did take 4 cans of spray though. Here’s what they used to look like:
I painted the flower pots yellow. The bird house was build by one of my son’s in cub scouts about 8 years ago.
I painted the wire flower baskets black. They used to be a faded red. I made the pillows in the background. There’s a better look at them in the first picture. See the small table in the background. I painted the top of it the same yellow as the flower pots.
I made the candle holders out of old jars, wire and beads. I still have more I need to make.
The rug was made from 6 smaller rugs duct taped together. I wrote a post about that on June 5th. I still want to find material to make a pad for the bench and I have enough material to make a couple more pillows. It’s time to repaint the bench too, but I’m not sure what color yet. Hubby and I love sitting on the front porch, especially in the evening when the kids have gone to bed. Here’s one more look: Can you tell I love it?
After School Pool Fun
Yea, the pool is finally up and running. The new pump arrived, the weather’s finally warm and the kids are more than ready to get wet. They’re still in school but as soon as they walk in the door, their clothes come off and their suits are on. Hubby even jumped in the other night after mowing the lawn.
Look, they even use the towel hanger and they’re not on the grass anymore. Ta-Da!
Bird Towel Hanger
This was one of those why didn’t I think of that moments. I was browsing through blogs and came across Melissa’s at 320 *Sycamore.
She had some awesome ideas, but the one that caught my eye was on June 16. She had bought a cute hanger at a yard sale for $1.50 and snazzed it up with some green spray paint, then she hung it on her fence to hold pool towels. What a great idea! Mine are usually spread out all over the yard with grass stuck to them. So here’s my version, for our backyard. I didn’t mean to copy the color though, I wanted to use spray paint I already had and was deciding between blue or green. And green won because it’s my favorite color.
I bought this at the Rod Works clearance center a few weeks ago. They built a new building about a year ago because they had outgrown this one, but they use it as a clearance center now. Lucky us! Things change weekly, which is great, but they’re only open on thursday and saturday to keep the costs low. Anyway, everything in the store is 50% off with some items 75% off. What a deal! This bird hanger was originally 8.95, so I got it for 4.47. It’s heavy metal so I thought that was a good deal.
I love it painted green and hung on the fence by the pool. Thanks for the inspiration Melissa. Visit her site at 320 *Sycamore.
Filed under Outdoors | Comments (2)A New Outdoor Toy
I love gardening, but where I live it can get hard as the summer goes on. My soil has a lot of clay in it and if it hasn’t rained for a while it turns to cement. It’s not really fun when you have to soak the soil for a few hours just to dig a hole to plant a tree or bush. Weeds are hard to pull too. They break off before the roots so they just grow back again. I’ve added sand and soil pep throughout the last few years and it’s getting better, but I’ve always had to try to till it in by hand with a shovel and rake. Ugh! I have a wonderful neighbor that has helped out a couple of times with his tiller, but I hate to keep asking. Look what my awesome hubby bought me for a late Mother’s Day present. I love it! Do you know how much easier this is going to make gardening?
It’s small, but powerful and it’s easy to start. It breaks up the soil and turns it over so easily. It’s small enough to get around my already planted perennials and also has an edger attachment. I just can’t describe how excited I am about this new toy of mine. Don’t you just love the look of freshly turned dirt? It’s so perfect. Now this area’s ready for new perennials and I’m also going to have to plant some new tulip bulbs I accidentally dug up.
Hubby loves it too. We’ve been fighting over who gets to use it next.
Filed under Outdoors | Comment (1)
