Hello Spring

Awake, thou wintry earth -fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn

 

After the winter we had here in Ohio I think it’s fair to say that even the biggest snow fan would be very excited to see those first signs of spring!

Some of the first signs for me is the Phoebe’s song (which I hear right now as I’m typing ), the first little tree frogs, that we call spring peepers, who have such a lovely chorus, the first tints of green on the willow down by the pond, and the smell of wonderful earth as it’s thawing…just to name a few.

 

 

When things like this start to happen…

 

it’s a sure sign that it’s high time for spring to arrive!

 

Spring for us means more nature walks…

 

 

Fishing…

 

 

Blooms…

 

 

                                              

 

Green…

 

 

 

Spring is always a great time for people to start a new project (for me, it’s year round ).

 

I have a deck project going on that I will share with you before too long. I host outdoor garden parties on the back deck and have been trying to come up with a thrifty way to provide some shade for the ladies as they dine. I think I have finally figured out one way to do it and as promised, I will share it soon! Here is a picture of how it looked before I started… (note the peeling paint on the floor) For those of you that saw my post last summer on following no rules on painting a deck floor, this is how it turned out after one winter… I can’t say I’m surprised, but now I know for sure. It did look the same way though, with using expensive wood stain, after one winter. I don’t believe those boards are finishable! But needless to say, I came up with a solution, for now, and hopefully it will work!

 

 

Hubby has a project going on under the deck that I’m really excited about too. It will take a little more time but it will be worth it, I believe!

 

 

The other day Kenny and I gave his garden tractor a makeover. We were amazed what paint can do! As we were working Kenny would say “Mom, this is so exciting, this is the best day ever!” It made me realize I probably don’t do special things like this often enough with my boys. It did feel good and I want to make a point of doing it more often.

 

Before…

 

 

After…

 

 

 

 

 

My mom gave me this beautiful Azalea that I want to plant outside sometime… for now I’m enjoying the cheery color in the kitchen.

 

 

I did get the porch swing up a few weeks ago and yes, it did see a little bit of snow, of course. We had a few lovely evenings that were comfortable to sit outside though. I took a picture of some blue faced creatures that I found lurking about…

 

Here are a few links if you are interested in seeing more of the swing…

http://porchswingsnhoneysuckle.blogspot.com/2011/09/our-country-porch-swing.html

http://porchswingsnhoneysuckle.blogspot.com/2013/05/home-sweet-home.html

 

Thanks for visiting and I hope you are having a wonderful spring!

 

-Mary

Whitewashed Wood

 

This is a very simple post on white washing which is something you all probably have done or know how to do, but I thought I’d post it anyway incase you are like me and enjoy seeing other people’s techniques.

 

When I think of white washing my thoughts go to Tom Sawyer and all that fence he needed to paint as a punishment. I’m sure I had more fun with my little project earlier this week than he did with his seemingly endless fence!

I sorted through my stash of old wood and quickly made this little wren house…

 

 

 

Next I mixed white paint and water, equal parts. The trick is to get it really thin.

 

 

I applied it using a bristle brush. After the first coat dried I gave it another. The amount of coats is optional. It would really have looked okay with only one coat but I wanted it a little whiter.

 

 

 

I added some grapevine using staples to attach. There’s other vines that can be used, like bittersweet or honeysuckle. I thought about taking a walk in the woods and looking for a vine with berries but didn’t get around to it. ( my luck I would have ended up with poison ivy vine since it actually looks great :\ )

 

 

I fastened a pipe holder of some kind to the roof and attached rusty barbed wire as a hanger.

 

 

The house can be hung outdoors and hopefully provide a haven for a wren or chickadee or set indoors for decoration…

 

 

 

 

I’ve used this method of painting for anything you want to look old and weathered. For this birdhouse, the wood was a dark, weathered gray - perfect for a base, but when working with new wood you can paint it a dark gray first to get that weathered look in the end.

I hope you enjoyed this little touch of spring! Thanks for visiting and good night!

 

-Mary

 

What I’ve been up to…

If you are looking for perennials, garden décor, furniture, hand painted signs, or a little of everything, mark your calendar for May 1st! We (my mom, sis & I) are having our annual plant/garage sale May 1st, 2nd & possibly 3rd. I purposely haven’t scheduled any tea parties until then so I have plenty of time to prepare for this event!

I have a decent accumulation of crafts, furniture, etc. waiting for me in the shop where I store any bargains I find throughout the year and have been working on giving some of these items makeovers.

Here are a few of them in “before” and “after” pics…

 

 

 

I didn’t get a “before” picture of this but here’s the after..

 

 

 

 

 

I spotted this hutch at a local thrift store and saw some character with the beaded back and minus the railing…

 

 

 

 

I painted a French sign for my sister’s kitchen.. It says something like “toasted butter custard”. I thought it sounded yummy!

 

 

My niece had a birthday just recently so I painted this bench, which was black, and added the French wording…

 

 

 

I am very excited to have tried a new technique to transfer this writing onto the bench using wax paper.  I saw this on a blog post by Lena Schlabach at Relaxnchic. She also redid a little bench using this method. Here is the link to it. For me this is quite a break through since I’ve always used the carbon paper, hand painting method. You can read about that here. I’m sure I’ll still use that technique at times but I really like how this turned out!

It was really quite simple. I got the wording from the graphics fairy. (It needed to be backwards for this technique.) I cut wax paper the size of copy paper (8.5”x11”) and ran that through the printer, printing off the backward lettering. I then quickly taped it onto the bench, inky side down and used the cap end of a marker to rub it off. It did smudge a little but I thought that just added to the effect. One thing I did notice was after I sanded the bench, I wanted to wipe it with a damp cloth and the ink did want to come off. I gave it a good coat of clear spray paint. I would have used polycrylic but didn’t have any on hand. Any clear coat would probably work. That will protect it from coming off.

Whew! I didn’t want to make that so long but I can’t help myself; when I discover something new like this, I need to share with you all!

 

Spring weather has still not hit Ohio, unfortunately, but we are trying to stay patient and still getting a breath of fresh air (although cold) every now and then by going on walks, etc.

 

 

I was surprised at the willingness to pose nicely for a shot.. but then things quickly went back to normal…

 

 

 Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog! I appreciate all of you!

-Mary

Springtime Center Piece

 

I had to share my simple kitchen table centerpiece with you all since it’s the first day of spring today. (even though it feels far from spring here in Ohio ) I felt an urgent need to remove the snow globes that resided on the table all winter…

 

 

Spending only $4.88 on the flowers in Walmart I replaced the globes with this…

 

 

It makes you smile just to look at these cheerful flowers, doesn’t it?

After the winter we’ve had this is truly a blessing to look at! I couldn’t stop taking pictures, trying to capture every colorful angle…

 

 

 

I took Ball quart jars and painted them white with a semi gloss spray paint. After they were dry, I used a black paint marker to distress them…

 

 

 

 

The wood box I basically just slapped together a few pieces of wood.. nothing fancy!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this simply put together display and are possibly motivated to make one of your own! I do warn you.. it brings on the spring fever more than ever!

Good night, everyone!

 

-Mary