My Garden Cart

Today I am going to share with you my cart that was given to me by the same people we received the chicken coop/playhouse materials from.

I love this cart! There is just something about it that I can’t put into words (because I am not a wordy kind of person :)), that made me want to fix it up and use it for serving outside meals or whatever else there is a need for.

These were the before pictures of it. The paint was peeling and had areas that needed to be filled in with wood putty. The top was also broken.

I sanded it down, filled in areas with wood putty and sanded some more. I had to replace a couple of boards on the top and put in new screws. I painted it white and with my cricut machine, I cut out designs from different colors of vinyl and put them on the cart. I added a couple of coats of clear sealer to it, then painted the tires a copper color.




This is just another thing that I was able to recycle/upcycle and I am pretty happy with my cart!
If you had this cart, would you have done something different? I would love to hear others ideas!

Make it a great day!
Mrs T 

The Play House!

You know the playhouse that I have mentioned several times in my posts??? Well here it is!!

The first 3 pictures were taken after it was finished. The last picture shows how it looks now. The front benches have been removed  and replaced with a couple of little chairs and a footstool. We also extended the porch so there is more room for chairs.

It has a loft in the front and back so if the kids want to sleep out in  the summer time they are able to.   There is room below for them to play. We received a few things from Craigslist that we are planning on turning into a fridge, stove, etc. play set. Haven’t gotten that far!   There is a bench on the back wall and the wall has a port hole that the kids can open and look out. The wall was taken from an old houseboat that was being demolished. In fact a lot of this came from the houseboat or wood from the chicken coop/greenhouse projects.

The picture below shows how it looked this fall. We added a walkway made of logs cut to walk on.  We also added a ground cover around the wood that hopefully will come up this year.  We put two bushes  in the front of the walkway and flower boxes on the front porch wall.  Flowers were also planted  around the playhouse along with more grass. Hopefully we will be able to get the play set done this summer as well  as put some chalkboard paint  on a couple of the walls so the kids can draw on them.

Almost everything we made the playhouse with was recycled.  Do you have a project you want to do but don’t have the materials to do it? We have found many things on Freecycle or Craigslist and sometimes just in someone's yard with a free sign on it.  It pays to recycle/upcycle as it keeps things out of the landfill as well as gives you something you can use.

Have a great day!

Mrs. T

List of 101 things to do in 1001 days! Update!

I went back and looked at my list or 101 things to do in 1001 days.  I did accomplish a few things but never finished the list and don’t expect to.   I will try to accomplish some more of the things I listed though.

These are the things I have completed and I am actually proud that I got these things done.  

6  Make a list of all family and friends Birthdays and Anniversaries  - I just actually finished this a couple of days ago on a web calendar that will send me reminders. Technology can be good!  

8  Take one photo a day for a month  - That wasn’t too hard as I photographed our animals, the weather, flowers, family, items I made, etc..

9  Open an Etsy or other online account to sell things I make . -  I opened an account with  Meylah back in March of 2012.  I had 4 items left on my site and none sold, so today I took the items down and may look into Etsy.

13 Pay it Forward  - That is my secret!  Wish everyone would pay it forward and this world would be such a nicer place to live in.  A few years ago I was at the coffee stand getting coffee and when I went to pay for it, the girl told me that the person before me bought my coffee and to just pay it forward.  That was one of the nicest things someone has done who didn’t even know me. It made me feel good and when I pay it forward it makes me feel good too!   Have you watched the movie, “Pay It Forward”? It came out in 2000 . “In this gentle drama from director Mimi Leder, young Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) responds to a school assignment with a plan to help three people who will, in turn, help three more, and so on, in an ever-widening circle. But Trevor touches more people than he expected, including his abused mother (Helen Hunt), his physically and emotionally scarred teacher (Kevin Spacey) and a journalist (Jay Mohr) who's investigating the plan.” If you haven’t seen it, it is worth watching!!

20 Build a playhouse for the grandchildren (hopefully my kids will help me or I can help them) ha-ha - The playhouse is done, has been done for quite awhile. I still am going to try to get a post done on it. I am really happy with how it turned out. My sons, son in law and husband all had a hand in building it.

33 Surprise someone with an unexpected gift. – I actually made a scarf for our post lady. She always looked so cold when she was delivering the mail. I decided one day to make a scarf and surprise her with it when she opened the mail box. She left a note in the mail box thanking me and telling me she loved it. That made my day!

49 Take a photo of a place through all four seasons. - I took photos of our pear tree through all 4 seasons. May have to post pictures of those soon.

43 Have a sleepover with my grandchildren. – Had a sleepover with 3 of our grandsons, ages 3, 9 and 12 years.  I always look forward to seeing them!! The 3 year old has lots of energy and it didn’t take long before he wore me out. It was a good thing Papa  (grandpa) was here to help!  Papa took him  with him to the garbage dump so he could see the trucks.  He loves garbage trucks and buses.

53 Find something positive about each day. –  There is always something that is positive about each day even if I am having a bad day. I am just thankful to wake up each day.  Thankful for my husband  as he is wonderful and is always there for me!  Thankful for our children and grandchildren,  they are my world! Thankful for Dudley, Suzie and Charlie, our animals that keep me company during the day. (UPDATE: Our wonderful dog Dudley crossed rainbow bridge on October 28, 2015. We miss him so very much! He was like one of our children.)  Thankful when I can get out of bed, when I have better days than others and can get things accomplished.  I could go on and on. I have learned and am still learning to adjust to a lot of things and  am learning to look at the good and think positive.

There is one other thing that I didn’t have on my list because I never thought I would do it.   We have a pear tree that gets lots of pears on it and last year I froze some of them.  We gave lots away too. A couple of the gals we gave them to came back this year for more. They told me how to can them an easy way.  My dear husband went out a purchased a canning setup and helped me peal lots of pears as well as some apples my friend/neighbor gave to us.  We canned them!!

We used frozen apple juice that we made as directed on can.  After sterilizing the jars, we put pears and apples in separate jars, added apple juice and added cinnamon sticks to some of the jars. We put them in a hot bath of water in the canner and left them there as directed.  I was so excited when I heard the noise they made as they were sealing.  Everyone of them sealed and they are so good!  If only I had known how easy it was many years ago, we would have had more home canned food.  I think this was one of my greatest accomplishments !!  If you have never tried canning because you were worried about the outcome, you may want to try it. I may try canning something else now…would love to do tomatoes but that is another big step for me as I don’t think they would be as easy.

This is what I accomplished in 2011. Did you make a list or have you made a list for the New Year of things you accomplished or would like to accomplish?  Do you have a bucket list? I have still yet to make one of those…ha-ha  I do have an ongoing list of things I would like to do, mostly consists of sewing or craft things. I just keep adding to it , so I am sure it will never all get done. I would love to hear about your accomplishments and lists!

 

Have a great day!

Mrs. T

A New Year and Some of my Craft & Sewing Projects

It has been quite a while since I have posted.  It is a New Year and I am going to try my best to post to my blog as often as I can.

I also want to thank everyone who stayed with me, subscribed to my blog, came to visit my site and posted comments on my blog!

I want to show you some  items I made several years ago. I put them on Listia and auctioned them off.  I have put a lot of items on there and auctioned them off. It doesn’t cost money. You earn credits and bid on items with your credits.  Some things I made and some things are just items I no longer needed or wanted. I was able to get a lot of gifts for my family for Christmas and Birthdays by using Listia.

This Valentines box started out with a wood box I purchased from Michaels.I started out by taking the latches off and painting the inside. I  then covered it with scrapbook paper, added 3D stickers and ribbons. I cut  out some cardstock to look like small file folder inserts and covered them with paper, stickers and ribbons. I left room for a picture or a place for someone to write something.

This little beauty also started out with a wood box. I removed the latches and painted the inside. I drilled two holes in each side of the box  near the top of the bottom part of the box.  I also drilled holes in the front, top and bottom portions to attach a bead and elastic to hold the box closed..  I then got out my polymer clay and mixed some black and white together, rolled it out smooth and glued it onto the box. I made a little pocket for the front and glued it on as well.  I baked it in my oven till it was hard, let it cool and  then  I sprayed it with a couple coats of clear spray. I glued ribbon around the top and bottom, made a bead out of polymer clay for the front of it and attached black elastic to hook the button.  I added ribbons on each side for the handles which I attached with some brads that looked like screw heads.   I never got around to using it so after sitting in my cupboard for a couple of years,  I decided it needed to go to someone who would use it. I posted it on Listia  and auctioned it off.

This purse is another I never got around to using so it was auctioned as well. I had some jeans that weren’t suitable for wearing any longer, so I cut them off to the length shown. I made some triangles out of a bandana and sewed onto the bottom, made handles out of a bandana and a tie that I put through the loops on the top of the jeans. I also made a lining for the purse. I got out some  red beads from my stash and sewed them around the outside of the pockets. I also put a wood horseshoe and a wood horse on the back pockets.

These 2 purses/bags were just an idea in the  making. I started out by doing some scrappy quilting, then decided to make them into purses/bags. I lined both of them and they went to auction as well.

Most of the items I make start out as an idea and usually end up as something entirely different than I envisioned.  I seldom use patterns and even if I do, the items still  usually don’t end up like the pattern.  I normally just start something and work on it until I get something I like. If I don’t like it, then it gets recycled.

I take one day at a time and do what I can and hopefully accomplish something. I am going to try really hard to work on my blog and  maybe you will come back to visit me. Would love to hear from you!

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year with lots of good things happening in your lives!! 

Have a great day!!

Mrs. T