BACK YARD

                                    This is a section in my back yard.

It needed a face lift.

So.....

I moved the bench, cleared the weeds, 

and repositioned the bench back a little.

Which left me with this....

Got out my old wood ladder that my husband keeps trying to get me to throw away,

and collected the bird houses around the yard,

 and wired them on.

 Added a watering can, and wheelbarrow....

AUCTION....

 The galvanized buckets are also from the auction.

I have a thing for them and the old watering cans.

  Ok... so it's cleaned up,

but I still wasn't satisfied.

Dug out these old rusty chairs, 

and gave them a spray of apple red.

 What a difference!

Hank on guard duty in the background!

Had this little tiki hut 

Took off the side stools, add a few sticks and some paintNow you have this

Our Fairy House

The tall green balls in the back right 

are what's left of my Allium bulbs.  

I always just chopped them down and threw away.  

I can't believe they are still green.  It's been 6 weeks.  

They are our fairy balls. 

My grandbabies and I had a ball placing everything.

I even had Raegan on Pinterest,

With her own account, mind you!

Pinning Fairy Gardens.

She couldn't wait to come and show which ones she found.

After we got everything just right,

I told them, 

"I really hope the fairies like it and come and visit."

Raegan looked and me and said,

"Mimi, you know fairies aren't real, Don't you?"

I can right back and said, 

"Well didn't the tooth fairy come and visit you the other night?"

She dropped dead in her tracks, and looked at me.

I said, "She's real"

Now they run out to see if anything is moved around, 

and asks if I did it.

Sure enough,

 the fairies have taken up residency!

I painted glow in the dark paint on the stick roof.

Can't wait for them to be over some evening to see that.

And chalk board paint on the hanging signs.

Wired some sticks for a ladder.

Got the fence out of the Christmas village we got for free at, where else? 

Auction.

It's hard to see but the vertical stick to the left of the bird bath, has a piece of string hanging on it with one of Hunters hot wheels tires.

Now I'm much happier.

And I was able to use the wash tub that's at the right of the red chair, also an auction find.

MAY

May was under the covers taking a nap. 

When she came out, there was a little static.

JEWELRY BOX

I had a nice jewelry box, with all the drawers for earrings, bracelets, and rings.  It stored everything, but I couldn't see everything at once because it was hidden away in the drawers. So I would wear the same thing all the time.

I wanted something I could open and see it all. I know they make the ones that have the mirror on the front. 

I got one for my daughter and loved it. 

But I would never spend

 the 200.00 I spent on that for myself.

I knew I could make my own with a little wood and hooks.

Here is what I came up with.

I had this hall tree with the built in mirror and shelves.

See the white heart behind the light on the left.

That was my Valentines card from Ray one year.

He forgot to get me one and took the cover from the chocolates he got for his mother

 and wrote 

"Happy Valentines Day, I love you" on it.

It's a keeper!

 I figured I'd use it for my jewelry box stand.

Perfect fit in my dressing room in between the lights.

 Next I made a box with some salvage wood 

I purchased for 1.60 at Menards.

I didn't put a back on so that the mirror would be exposed.

That was the only cost for this project.

I had everything else!

Yeah!!!

 I had these shutters and painted them a green.  

I don't like the color,  I'll change that later.  

I was anxious to complete so just left it.

I sprayed the frame and screwed the shutter to it.

I know they should have been turned around to hide the hinges, but I didn't want the bars that open and close the shutters to be seen.  I just left them.

Added a couple shelves for support. 

And screwed in a bunch of hooks for my chains.

Rushed home to put on the hall tree.

And if you look you can see there is about 4 inches 

of the shelf exposed.

Using only 3 inch depth for the sides kept the door from opening all the way.

It hit the bar on the side.  

I was not happy.

I walked away for my project for about 2 hours.

I realized I needed to make it deeper.

Went back to my shop and found some wood I had already had, and made a new box.

That gave me room to put hooks on the side.

I would not have been able to sleep if 

I hadn't completed it that night.

It was fun arranging all my jewelry.

Here's a view closed. 

I have been wanting to paint my dressing room for some time. This has motivated me.  

I had a couple of chains I hung on the hooks 

and put all my dangle earrings on.

Behind the chains, is a T bar to hold some of my bracelets.

Below the chains, I had an old display 

that was used for the post earrings.

The black background is metal, so magnets will go there.

I have some precious things my children made me when they were younger.

Here's another T bar that's shorter on the top shelf.

Check out the surprised look on the Santa pin my youngest made me for Christmas one year.

 She threatened me if I threw it away. 

You should see some of the jewelry I found.

I was embarrassed!

I'll post it later.

My Troll beads on little dowel rods, with rubber stoppers I got from the plumbing section.

I need to finish off the edge of the wood.

The shelf on the bottom has a clear sewing case Ethel gave me for all my pendants. And the round glass votive,

 houses all the extra backs to my earrings.

And that my friends is my homemade jewelry box.

All I have left to do is the raw edges of the box, 

and a pretty knob.

BAD SQUIRRELS

If you remember last year I posted all the bags I had collected from feeding my birds.

Well, I also take care of my squirrels in the winter.

But they are walking on thin ice!

I put their peanuts in this plastic tote, to save myself from going back and forth to the garage.

It was latched down and had two 5lb. weights on top.

I had peanut shells everywhere!

I can't believe they ate threw this container!

They are being punished,

 NO PEANUTS FOR YOU!

They better remember where they have been hiding all the ones they have already taken.

Christmas Present

My Husband got be bungee cords for Christmas.

Wasn't that nice of him?

Sad thing is,

 I look pretty excited about it don't I?

And this is another gift he got me a few years back.

If I remember correctly, it was for my birthday.

Come on Ray, 

dangle a diamond necklace off the handle for crying 

out loud.

He does know me though, I wanted this light.

And the wheel barrel was a gift from my son.

When it's summer, I'm outside. 

Love to work the land!

 I think it's the mexican in me, 

and we are known to be pretty good at landscaping.

My neighbor had of crew of my people 

do a clean up around his yard.

There were like 15 of them, I watched in amazement.  

It was an ant farm, in motion, they were everywhere. 

Two hours later, lickity split, they were gone,

all in one pickup truck.

True story!

Well, maybe not 15....

but there were about 7

Basement

Here is another little project we got into a while before the holiday season. 

Ray insisted on painting the basement we are never in.

And of course we hired it out because of all the rafters.

$$$
No, the cost was very reasonable. I just have a hard time paying out, because I'm a DIY kinda a gal.

But I must say, it was quite a transformation.

This is a before.  

Yes those are black walls!

Our son decided he was going to make this his room at one point, and went through his dark phase. 

 Why he only went half way around the room I'll never know.  

But I have to give it to him, he had a vision, 

it had all black and white art work on the walls. 

 It looked rather modern.

Painting crew.

Sad to see the hop scotch I painted on floor for MY children go though.

Ray was more a clean up guy.

Tim the painter is great and very reasonable.

I never had to pick up a thing.

First thing he did was the rafters,

What a difference. 

Then he patched the holes to paint the walls.

Then the floors

The dark hole on the far end 

is a crawl space under the sun room. 

We ended up putting a neon Chief Wahoo light. 

Perfect fit! 

It's in the last photo.

Here's a couple of rockers we had down there. I applied some stain I already had.

 Again, a perfect match for the room.

There is a small half bath.

Love the pipes                

We went to Ollies and got these 2' square carpet pieces. They didn't have enough of the same so, 
I made a quilt on the floor.

God forbid we get any water down there.
 But if we do, all we have to do is remove only what's wet.

Our son brought home his Danish Modern furniture. 
It completely comes apart.
A regular couch would not make the turn to get down the stairs.  
We went and picked out the fabric to recover.
I'll post that project down the road.


This is an area outside the room. Grandbabies took it over. They love playing down there.

WERRRRE BAAAACK!

Happy New Year!

We went awol for the holiday season.

Very busy!

But now we are back, 

and hope to be a little more attentive to our little blog.


Here's a picture of my back yard. 
Perfect winter scene.

Ethel sent me one of you yard too.
She'll have to add it to this post. It was also perfect.