A Chalkboard for the Garden

Well, it seems like I'm on a bit of a chalk board kick right now.

But hey, why not...I haven't done much chalk boarding since grade school,

so I guess I'll make up for lost time now!

Hubs and I like entertaining and throwing parties and my favorite kind of party or get-together is the backyard kind. Fire roasted smokies...homemade coconut marshmallows...bush pies...and LOTS of iced tea (I believe that's the same as sweet tea for my American readers!)...makes for good times and easy hosting.

In our last home, once you walked in the gate, you were kind of already in the backyard...hard to explain but it worked out really well for entertaining. Our new home, however, is much more typical with gates at the sides of the house and, unless our guests have been previously instructed,  most people will knock on the door, come in, take their shoes off, walk through the house, out the back door, put their shoes on again and then finally down the deck stairs into the back yard. Quite a few steps just to get to the party!

So I thought it would be nice to have something attractive to hang on the gate to let people know to enter there and I thought a chalk board would do the job perfectly.  

I picked up this frame at a garage sale for 25 cents several weeks ago, with this project in mind!

Last week, we were finally able to cut down a piece of...something...? I'm sorry...I don't even know what kind of material it is! Anyhow, Hubs cut it down to fit the frame. He's not happy about me posting this picture, because apparently one of the sides isn't perfectly straight. Sorry honey!

Anyhow, I gave it about five or six coats of chalk board spray paint and let it cure for just over 24 hours.

I gave the frame a few coats of white paint...

(again...please excuse that embarrassing mess of a lawn! It's a work in progress...)

...then dry rubbed some Burnt Umber acrylic paint over it and then finally sanded it down a bit in some spots.

Funny how us DIY'ers have to change everything, hey?

Then I inserted the chalk board into the frame and tacked it down with very tiny nails. I took a picture, but my non-manicured hands do NOT look nice in a macro photo, so you'll just have to use your imagination!

I also fastened some claw hooks...not sure if that's the right name but we'll go with it...to the top and side

so that I can hang it either way.

Here she is all finished and ready to let our guests know where to go and how to get there (haha)!

Then I decided to have a fun little photo shoot and make up a sign for a party

that I am going to have one of these years...

Standing up on the sidewalk with a few girly props works too...

I'm not gonna lie to ya though. I was just a tad bit embarrassed doing this photo shoot in my front yard with my cul-de-sac neighbors driving by and wondering what was up with their crazy neighbor.

I was desperately wishing they would come over and ask what I was doing, so I could something like...

"Oh! Hi! I have a blog. That's why I twist my body into funny contortions in the front yard while taking photos of lacy umbrellas and chalk boards on the side walk, and then take it all down again and go inside like nothing ever happened. Really!" But, no, they never did, and I'm pretty sure they're still wondering.

Ah well. Let's add a little romance by blurring the picture a bit.

I've always wanted to take a Victoria magazine-esque picture!

I won't be using this on my gate all the time, obviously, so I thought maybe this little corner could use a little more froofing...

I really love how it fills in that little space on the lattice wall...

...especially now that the flowers are filling in and frame it quite nicely...

It's kinda tempting to sit down with that Victoria magazine and have a little lemonade...hmmm...

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A Few Favorite Garden Spots...

Here's a picture of the courtyard garden I mentioned in a previous post about repurposed candle holders. This was at our first home, which we recently sold before we moved to our current location.

 Hubby and I spent countless hours landscaping...growing plants from seed, potting, watering, pruning and deadheading. The yard was a complete disaster when we first moved in, so we poured a lot of love, sweat and tears into everything (okay maybe not tears!). 

I have to admit I really, really miss that yard. I so loved stepping out the door in the morning 

to water and deadhead in the cool morning air.

Heavenly.

Then we moved.

Once the snow melted...this is what we saw to be our new backyard.

Granted this is right after the snow melted and even the most beautiful yard doesn't look nice then.

But still...my heart kind of sank.

Since then, we have done a bit of rearranging, a lot of container gardening and lots of weed killing! There is still a loooong way to go before we have things looking the way we'd like, but I'm happy to say I have come to love a few different areas in the yard. So I thought I'd share them with you too!

Come along for a little tour...

This old bench was sitting all forlorn along the fence, so I pulled it over and plopped it down into a corner of a rock bed and then planted a couple of pots with...what else...red geraniums! Someone needs to remind me every year though, that I can NOT grow sweet potato vines! I love, love, love the look of them at the greenhouse, but every year I plant them I just make them miserable. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I'm positive they just see me coming and then decide to shrivel up and lose all their brilliance.

That bench has a special spot in my heart. If there is anything my momma taught me, it was to pray about ab.so.lute.ly.ev.ery.thing. Nothing is ever too small or too insignificant to pray about.

Well a few years back, still in our previous home, I decided that I wanted a twig bench to put in my garden. I looked and looked at every garage sale I ever saw, and even debated going up to a complete stranger's home to ask if I could buy theirs. (I chickened out) So then I decided to ask God for one, thanks to Mom's constant preaching. But I never saw one again. Eventually I used a different garden bench in the spot I had in mind, wholeheartedly loved it and never gave it another thought.

Then we moved in to this house. A few days later, hubby pointed out, "Guess God answered your prayer honey....you got your bench!" It's true! And I love that bench! Now I'll probably drag it along with me to every new house we live in because I can't ever seem to part with anything sentimental!

My parents gave us this beautiful fountain,

and I've really enjoyed watching the lilies grow up and around it.

Love.

These lilac bushes were already here, but we decided to add another garden bench in front to create a little focal point along a long stretch of bare fencing.

Hostas are my other plant crush. I just can't have enough of them!

You've already seen this spot in this post. Those trees were in desperate need of pruning this spring, with their branches all the way down to the ground.

We're looking forward to tasting the cherries and apples later on in the season.

I used some of my courtyard garden furniture and pots to create a quiet little corner to sit.

The kids play area is right across from here, so it's nice to have a place to soak up the sunshine

while they play...err...fight...no play.

The petunias are finally starting to fill in nicely now

(not so much when this pic was taken).

And lastly, the deck right off our kitchen.

I did not like this spot at all for a long time...too small...too hot and not enough privacy.

But the addition of an outdoor rug and a big umbrella has turned it into a spot where I now love to enjoy a morning cup of coffee and listen to the breeze blowing through the trees!

I think my candles sat out in the sun a little too long! Recognize them?!

More geraniums! My salute to my Swedish heritage, where so many of the homes have beautiful red geraniums growing in the sunny windowsills.

I absolutely adore them.

I like adding palms to my potted plants for their tropical touch...much appreciated in this Alberta climate!

That's about it for this year, but next summer we have lots of plans for a pergola, a rock patio

and maybe even a fountain. I can hardly wait!

Thanks for walking through the garden with me today!!

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A Little Cush for the Tush!

We have two very weather worn Adirondack chairs that found their home

 between two little fruit trees in our back yard.

This is the only shady spot in our entire yard.

Lately we've been getting a lot of sun (woohoo!!), so these chairs in the only shady spot in our yard, have become a favorite place for me to sit and watch the kiddies play. The chairs are pretty weathered though, so there are quite a few flakes and chippy pieces that make sitting and relaxing a little...uncomfortable.

So I started looking around for some nice outdoor throw pillows, thinking that would improve the comfort factor a bit and make things look a little more cozy and inviting along the way.

I really wanted something stripey...stripy?...stripey. And preferably with some fresh, crisp black in it.

I looked and looked for weeks. Nothing, nada, nope.

Then I took a trip to a fabric store in the closest city, dug through the remnant bin and look what I found!

A nice, crispy, fresh, stripey (stripy?) black and brown outdoor fabric for $9!! Score!

Yum. I snapped it up like nobody's business.

I already had lots of indoor throw pillows that I'm not using in this house, so I pulled the inserts out of a couple of them. They felt a little floppy and not as firm as I wanted, so I cut out some batting and very quickly (and sloppily...don't look!) tacked them together in a few spots around the pillow form.  

That did the trick and helped to plump them up nice and pretty!

One of my pet peeves is throw pillows that don't have a tight cushion cover on them.

So I measured the pillow and gave myself very little seam allowance, just to ensure that they would be tight!

I know...issues.

I just took this picture cause sewing makes me happy and I heart my sewing machine.

And voila!

So here they sit. I like them. And I like to day dream about sitting out here with a cool glass of club soda and fresh squeezed lime (it's yum in a glass, try it!) while watching the kids play nicely together and never, ever fight about who gets to play with the green shovel or ride the tricycle or go down the slide....

Hmm. The kids are napping right now...maybe I could steal a couple minutes....

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Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Repurposed Candle Holders

In our last home, I had a lovely pair of outdoor candle holders that I really loved, and used every year in our courtyard garden. Can I just take a moment to weep and wail over the loss of that garden? If I miss anything from our previous home, it is most definitely, without a doubt, the courtyard garden. And the old elm trees. And the hammock hanging between the old elm trees.

 *tear*

Okay, before I get all hysterical here, let me get back to the point of this blog post.

My apologies for the crummy picture, but it gives you an idea what they used to look like.

I really loved them.

Then...we moved. Hubby's company paid for movers and when all was said and done and I started going through my gardening items this spring...this is what I found...

Those glass balls? They weren't supposed to come off.

Apparently the movers were determined that they would  come off and shattered the glass in the process.

Trying to burn candles outside without a glass hurricane of some sort is rather useless, so I sort of expected these would end up in the trash. But because hubby and I are both self proclaimed procrastinators, I left them laying around for a long time and then eventually threw a couple of pots of top just for kicks.

I have LOTS and LOTS of these leftover from the courtyard.

I kind of liked the general look of the two together.

But obviously the colors were completely different and that looked...weird.

So...I thinked and I thunked and then decided that I could try the same painting method that I used on

 these candle holders. (Apparently I have alot of candle holders too.)

So that's what I did. I sprayed a solid coat of black paint, then went over the black with a mottled coat of aluminum. Then I gave it a really blotchy coat of cream to calm down the shine of the aluminum.

After that, I layered on fairly thick coats of dark green and burnt umber acrylic craft paint.

The final step was to highlight it with an olive green acrylic paint, until I felt I had achieved a mossy and aged look.

The green is not showing up really great in the pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it, I guess.

They are actually pretty mossy looking.

I considered using silicone to attach the pot to the stand, but in the end decided against it,

 as the pots need to have some drainage, and it's worked out fine.

I did wonder how the acrylic paint would hold up to rain and moisture, and believe me, we have had ALOT of rain and moisture so far this spring, but they have done just great.

My poor plants, however, have hardly had enough sunshine to recover between the rain and crazy hail storms. These pictures were taken immediately following yet another big rainfall!

Hey - did anyone pick up on my red geraniums?!!!

Love.

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