Category: Outside Stuff

Little Corner of the Yard

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Outside StuffLeave a comment

A while back I had mentioned that I wanted to turn the corner where our sad fire pit sat into something more special. We had the saucer swing which had always been hard to sit in and when it ripped I fixed it with duct tape. The whole project stalled because I just didn’t know exactly what I wanted. I also didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I do believe that sometimes a person can actually speak things into existence.

So here is where this whole project started. Donny and I went to an estate sale our on Gladewater Lake. It was the second day of the sale and I was sure that the item I was wanting would be long gone by the time we got there. I didn’t tell Donny that we were going so I could buy this item. The house was gorgeous and it was owned by a plastic surgeon. He must have traveled extensively because even the things that were left on the second day were pretty amazing. There were two lounge chairs from the Queen Mary that were unfortunately $225 each. That wasn’t what I came for though.

How awesome would it be to have this as your backyard? Anyway, as soon as I walked up the path to the sale I saw it. I told Donny that I wanted to get and he said let’s look around. Uh, you don’t know it but this is what I came for. When Donny walked into the house I told the man working outside that we were going to buy it. It was $30 but since it was the second day I got it for $24 and change.

The paint was chipping in places, but it was sturdy. I was starting to get the vision for my corner. I definitely couldn’t keep it white. Nope, nope, nope. I wanted this corner to be fun and colorful.

I chose Icy Grape Krylon spray paint. One piece of the puzzle was complete. Now to figure out the rest. Because I wholeheartedly believe that if I wait a bit, items will find me. That’s exactly what happened.

When one of Donny’s salespeople needed a house we referred them to our landlords. A house became available on the next street over from us. Donny told the person that we have a very good relationship with the landlords and to please keep the house up since we vouched for her and her husband. Well, after a year they were moving back to the state they were from. The day the moving van left I went over there and looked though the front door window. It was trashed!!! Donny and I had already discussed that if this happened we would clean it out for free. I contacted the landlord and told her our plan. She felt bad not paying me, but there is no way I’d take any money since we were the ones that referred her. She told me that if there was anything I wanted to just take it. There were 2 things I found that I definitely wanted. A small patio set and two wooden boxes. The corner was not coming together.

Of course I couldn’t leave them bare wood. It took at least two coats on every side, but I think they are so cheerful. I keep a supply of oops paint so this project was cheap. I didn’t know if I was going to use them as planters or what, but I knew I’d figure it out.

Last Thursday Donny saw an estate sale and asked me if I wanted to go. I had already checked the sales on the website and didn’t really see anything that caught my eye, but I never say no to any estate sale. When we walked into the garage I saw this.

It’s 6ft tall and was turquoise. I asked it it had already been sold and they told me no. I looked all over it for a price tag but couldn’t find it. One of the workers told me they’d take $15 for it. Sold! When we went to pay for it Donny didn’t have his wallet and my purse was in the car. I ran back out to get it and when I was walking back in I saw this in a flower pot. I pulled it out, brought it in, and asked if it was for sale. I got it for $8 and the only reason I found it was because Donny, who never leaves his wallet at home, did this time. It was meant to be. I went over it with a light coat of the icy grape and now it looks iridescent.

It was also turquoise so I painted it the color scheme I was using.

I spent all day yesterday working on the corner. I think it is turned out exactly as I pictured. I’m still not completely finished but here’s what I have so far.

I had to dig down 12″ to place the spinner. I also got the peacock from the rent house.

The wood 4x4s that we had around the fire pit were rotten. I picked up edging and pebbles to fix it up.

I painted the edging and spray painted the pebbles.

This is the little set I got from the rent house.

I still have some painting to do like this walk way, the chair and the blocks under the wooden boxes. I stacked the boxes because I figured we could use the top as a buffet when we do s’mores or hotdogs. I painted some wooden poles that I’m going to string our solar lights on. I just have to dig down about 6 inches for each one and I am so sore today from hauling everything out there and also carrying the edging and bags of pebbles. I am super happy with how it’s turning out. I just love a good place to hang out and read or just chill. I never thought I’d get this done. Ever. LOL

A Wild Hair

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Outside StuffLeave a comment

Donny and I have been busting our butts in the garden and just outside in general. He went back to work today. Turns out the twang in my ankle didn’t miraculously heal overnight so my day started like this.

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There was one project that I had on my list that I really wanted to get done today. I had already painted one tire and planted my cucumber shoots in it, but since I seemed to have WAY over planted seeds and have about 21 tomato plants I needed another container to grow them in. That meant I needed to paint the other tire. Thankfully Donny had brought it into the front yard and had washed it down so it was ready to go with minimal walking for me.

I thought I wanted to paint it red, but once I had finished painting it I didn’t like it. It was just TOO red. I had a thought and mixed some of yellow and red together. I liked the outcome.

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It was a kind of flamingo orange and was much better than the red.

Ever since I painted our shutters I have not liked the color. Our door is a dark turquoise/teal color and the shutters were a baby/light blue. Every time we went into Home Depot I would gravitate toward the paint samples and bring home the ones I thought would work. Several years of doing this and I still couldn’t decided. After I saw the tire I knew the color I wanted. Not the flamingo pink because it was too “Miami vice” for me, but I had some of the brown exterior paint that I thought would darken the salmon color up to where I wanted it. I dumped the rest of the tire paint into an old coffee can, added yellow, red and a couple of dollops of brown.

I did not plan to paint my shutters, but once I mixed the paint I couldn’t wait to get started and get rid of that horrid blue.

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It is exactly what I had in my mind.

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Can we just take a moment to realize that the blue was in fact awful.

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The blue color clashed horribly with the front door. Now the colors work so well together.

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It was worth every painful step up and down the ladder. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. I also didn’t have to buy any more paint because I just used what we had and was lucky that it was all exterior paint. And yes, I have no patience so when I have a project in mind I need to get it done then and there.

It’s A Beautiful Day

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Outside StuffLeave a comment

Gorgeous, perfect, errand running day. Before we started off I decided that I really wanted another Iced Thai coffee and Donny wanted to go shop a new furniture store that had it’s grand opening on Monday. He wanted to see if they would, in any way, be competition.

We also ordered so shrimp rolls to go so we’d not get hangry.

As it turns out this new store will in no way compete with Donny’s store. The people working there are so nice and extremely helpful, but I have never seen furniture like this.

This is fur and padded. The whole thing is covered.

Need a bed with a fake fireplace. I gotcha covered.

Everything was shiny or disco ball mirrored. It was a bit crazy. BUT, they had one thing that I would have bought on the spot if we had the room for it and I’m not kidding.

This massage chair!!!!! I have never ever experienced a massage chair like this one. When I tell you it was freaking amazing, it was. I did a couple of short massages and did not want to get out of it. I was actually thinking to myself, do we really need all the furniture we have in our living room. We don’t actually need a chest of drawers in our bedroom. I would never get out of it.

When we left they gave us a goody bag. It was sweet and a bit weird. I’m always nosy so I’ll show you what was in it.

I can’t get this to charge so I’m going to throw it away.

This works fine. It has different light settings and is really cute.

These are double walled glasses with rubber bottoms so they don’t slide around. Big Winner of the bunch. Donny has already washed them and poured a beer or two.

The only thing I needed to do was go to Gladewater and hit up Sasquatch’s for some ground beef. they carry the best and it’s such a good price. Of course we couldn’t leave with just the ground beef.

Could not leave without a root beer candy cane. I made it into a sharp point and asked Donny if he wanted to go down memory lane and then I poked him in the hand with it. Didn’t everyone do that in elementary school?

We picked up some staples.

Some crazy big carrots

Had to get some snacks. Not pictured is Donny’s cheese with truffles. I cannot stand the way truffles smell. It makes me physically sick. Donny had some when we got home and I asked him to please take it to work because I just cannot tolerate the smell. I think it’s like people who think cilantro tastes like soap. But no matter what, I can’t have it in the house.

I am under a time crunch to get the garden going. I have a vision for what I want to do. I shared it with Donny and we tweaked it a bit and I started.

We decided to get rid of our grill. It still works fine, we just don’t use it. I know we live in Texas, but the kids and I don’t really like grilled food or BBQ. It was taking up so much space. Since we can’t plant in the backyard due to the chickens destroying anything growing the side yard is precious real estate.

The beginning.

I could have just mowed over it, but I needed to take out these skinny trees that were growing back and I wanted to use my pick axe and hoe to get rid of as many weeds as possible before I put down the weed barrier.

This is where I stopped for the day. I plan on attacking it again tomorrow. I may not be able to walk after this, but there won’t be any weeds and it will look so much better than it did last year. I really do love outside work.

The Little Table That Could

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Outside Stuff, Outside StuffLeave a comment

After the flood in 2016, where we lost almost all of our furniture, I found this little table at a thrift store in Baton Rouge for $3. It has served as an entrance table, Hannah’s desk and an accent table. It started off white with paint wearing away, then turquoise and finally a bluish gray. It now sits on our patio right by the side door that we mainly use. It had gotten quite ugly. It was chipped and stained so yesterday I decided to give the poor thing a makeover.

I used a sander on the top and drawer instead of paint stripper and it seemed like it took forever. I stained the top and drawer in dark walnut because I just love dark wood. I painted the rest of it green. I didn’t do white because I am not a big fan of the farmhouse look and honestly prefer colors over the gray and white that was so popular.

The patio needs to be repainted and Hannah needs to redo her chalkboard art for Spring, but I really like the way the table turned out. I added lights that I already had. I like the way they look at night.

I did more work on the patio, but nothing is quite finished yet. I moved the rooster out from the yard and the plants that we moved inside during the winter have now found their new home outsides.

We still need to work on the outside gardens and will hopefully get that done soon. The weather has been cooperating lately, thank goodness.