Free Porch Bench

As an avid KSL buyer, I love it when I find something great under the "Free" section.  Last year I picked up a free garden bench that needed some TLC but had potential.  Yes, it took me a year to finally do something with it but the important thing is that I did  it. 

Here are some shots of the bench when I picked it up.

 As you can see, it needed some serious wood glue and one slab of wood was missing that my sweets cut to size and replaced for me.

I wanted this bench to still maintain its aged, weathered look. I used some of the leftover paint samples I had from painting my Master Bedroom and brushed on one light coat, allowing the wood to still shine through.  It was the perfect shade of light gray.

Lastly, I brushed everything over with a mixture of Annie Sloan Clear and Dark waxes.

The dark wax can be overwhelming when it's used alone, but when mixed with clear and applied to the high points, it creates the most perfect weathered look. 

I could hardly wait for the wax to dry long enough for me to set the pillows I sewed together in their new place. 

The bright and modern design on the pillows was exactly what I wanted against the aged and faded looking bench. 

The pillows were made from outdoor canvas material I picked up at Joann's.  The striped print was on clearance for around $4/ yard, and the floral print was a splurge for me at around $30/ yard, but I was willing to buy it on sale at 50% off, and purchased a very small amount by only using the expensive print on one side of each pillow.

With the addition of a new window flower box and my cute rug I told you about, my front yard is starting to look bright and summery. 

Now if only I had something like this to show for the back yard, I'd be really happy.

I'm sharing this makeover and tutorial with these inspiring beauties:

Don't doubt your man!

Did I catch your attention?  Please tell me that I am not alone in doubting my husband all too often in our marriage.  I am such a worry wart and while I know my sweets is a stud and so good at everything he does, I question his plans all too often. 

Some of you may recall that we have been working over the past month or so on our back yard of dirt.  We have a huge property and I've been overwhelmed with how much work needed to be done to prepare for our sod.  My sweets never seemed to be phased by the amount of work.  I asked him daily how the progress was coming along, and gently reminded him okay maybe I pestered him ever hour of our due date and the amount of work he still had to do.  His daily hourly response, "It will be ready Jen".

Just so that you all don't think I'm a nagging crazy wife who needs to back off her husband, please check out the status of our backyard as of yesterday afternoon.

 Please note the ridiculous amount of weeds covering our truck load of top soil (and everything else in sight), huge 2 foot deep trenches open all over the yard, and completely uneven/ level ground

See why I was freaking out? 

When I saw this arrive this afternoon, my blood pressure really started racing.

Let me now remind you that the message and moral of tonight's post is "Don't doubt your man!"

Well, he pulled it off.  Don't ask me how, but he did.  Here's a sneak preview of our fabulous friends helping lay the sod a few hours ago.

We have a bit more work to do tomorrow, but all in all today was hugely successful and I owe it all to my amazing sweets.  I don't know why I ever doubted him in the first place.  Trust your man, ladies, and he will become the talented, handsome, handy, sensitive, and kind man that you tell him he is.

Xoxo

~PW

Front yard transformation

Hello, friends.  I am so sorry for my cyber absence lately.  We had our year end recital at the dance studio where I teach on Friday, and you can't imagine the amount of work and time that went into making this weekend a success.  I am so pleased to say that it really was such a success.  I am so proud of all of my students, and how much they have grown as dancers and individuals this year.  I felt like a proud momma bear when I watched them each take the stage on Friday.  I feel so blessed to have found the best kept secret of the county where I live. 

On top of preparing for that recital, my sweets and I have been hard at work over the past few weeks in our yard.  The home where we live is our first, and we built it so we have been cursed so fortunate to landscape it all ourselves.  I never really grasped how much work is involved in creating and maintaining a nice yard, especially for the DIY'ers like ourselves with small pocket books and big dreams.  OY!

Last summer, we successfully installed a rock wall, did all of our trenching and sprinkler installation, laid sod, poured the rest of our driveway and RV pad, had curbing laid, planted trees, shrubs, flowers, etc. etc etc.  We made huge progress last summer, but there were lots of finishing touches that still needed to be made.  Also, several of our trees and shrubs died this winter, so we had to replace almost all of them.  I can happily now say that we transformed the front yard from this:

to this:

The finishing touches we've been working hard on lately of adding flowers, colored mulch, shrubs, and beautiful trees have really made the yard pop over the past few weeks.

 My goal as of lately has been to beautify our front porch area.  I used some chalk paint to spice up a plain Jane Terra cotta planter, and a few hits of my fave cream spray paints on a $5 planter I found at the DI to add some color with pretty flowers to the front steps. 

 I think they turned out pretty cute.  They share the steps with my gorgeous arrangement of begonias that my sweets gave me for Mothers Day (from Costco).

I am working on repairs to a free bench I picked up last summer that will adorn the front porch with some darling outdoor canvas pillows I just sewed together.  Here's a sneak peak...

 

Do you get as excited and overwhelmed as we do about yard work?  Does it ever get to the point where you feel like you can truly say it is "finished" and you get to just sit back and relax in your yard?  If not, please, pretty please, just lie to me.

We are currently preparing to trench, lay sprinkling and sod for the back yard of our 1/2 acre lot.  If you don't hear from me for a year, hopefully you'll know why :)

xoxo

sharing this transformation here: