All of our Decorated Porch and Garden

Okay…I finally sat down and got a great roundup of our porch and garden photos for on here! While watching the Olympics I have been sitting on my computer getting some of the ‘best’ photos that showcase our hard work on the porch and outside the best! I hope everyone is enjoy the Olympics as much as we are!

Our flower garden mid-summer

Back in April, our family constructed another garden but this one is right below our porch.

Close up of some of our flowers

Now for the main showcase: our porch. We kept our bistro table a bit spaced from our new ottoman bench that we built, so we have 2 different ‘sections’ on the porch. Everything just seems to go together and compliment one another. As pictured is our painted rug.  Here is the DIY post for the painted rug that we did.

Ottoman that we built and our painted rug

Bistro table set and our 'Love' sign we made

As for our house door, we have our Moss Covered Letter, which ended up being added to an unused spray painted picture frame. Here is the post from when I made the Moss Covered Letter. The ‘welcome’ sign was one of our best purchases off of etsy! This sign is just so simple but neat looking that we just had to buy it.

Moss Covered Letter on our front door

Welcome sign we bought off Etsy

Now on to our collection of old looking things. Our Pepsi-Cola wooden crate was a yard sale find (my first yard sale experience I have ever been to). The silver star on the top is something my oldest daughter and I basically just threw together. We gathered some sticks up and hot glued them together, then spray painted them. The mason jars are still a work in progress but I am sure you get the picture.

Pepsi-Cola crate we got at yard sale, and the DIY star

Mason Jars that aren't quite done yet!

Finally we have our plants that sit on the porch. During cold months these plants do find a way into our home, but for now while it is really nice out they can stay there! The hats hanging on the wall were an cute idea that my mil told me to do a few weeks back.  The lights that we have strung all over the porch are my favorite outdoor lights ever.

Plants and the hanging hats

Outdoor lights that we l-o-v-e!

This week is flying on by and it is August already which means Back-2-School time is rapidly approaching. On the next post I will show off my Household Binder that for months I have been trying to get together and finally finished it! I will also little by little start to show off our office reno!

 

Just wanted to also include we were featured in a treasury on Etsy and just wanted to include the link to see our 'Teacups' Flower Girl Ivory Tutu Dress' in it!!!

To send this post off, here is a photo of our cat "Cupcake", while we were taking the photos of the porch!  

A sleeping "Cupcake"

Hope you enjoy!!!

The DIY Summer at our House

I am so thankful that this chaotic week is finally over.  I have been catching up on my orders while trying to piece my house and office back together!  And to top off this week, last night we got a massive storm so we are really thankful we had a generator to power our home!

The storm is coming!

The new floor came on Monday…preparing for that was far from fun!  Never again do my husband and I want to take staples out of the subfloor in over 600 sq. feet again!  Cramming all of our belongings into our office and each of our children’s rooms…priceless!  Needless to say everything in the end turned out picture perfect.  Now we are in the process of doing a quick floor change on our office.  Yay!  More staples to pull out of the subfloor but when the wood is down and finished we will be happy!  I cannot wait to jumpstart on the office.  We are keeping the wall color (peachy coral-ish) the same but lots of sweet touches to it after the floor is done.  This should make my “To Do List” for the summer completed!

One of the empty rooms with our new flooring!

The other week we painted a rug…well this past weekend we built an ottoman for the porch.  My oldest daughter and I also made matching throw pillows.  We absolutely love how everything turned out and how the colors all seem to go together.  My oldest daughter really enjoyed getting to learn how to use some basic tools, while having fun.  She also seemed to have a sense of pride after everything was finished and put in place on the porch!

All of our DIY projects together and looking great!

Last week we started to work on a mercury mirror glass jar.  Here is the one jar (not mercury-ized tho) finished.  My daughter and I both agreed for this one jar to do it in a metallic sort of way.  As we get more caught up around the house we will finish up the rest of the jars that we have. 

The metallic Ball Jar

 

In another week we are going to start getting ready for the big back-to-school prepping around the home.  Honestly I cannot wait for school to start and to get back into that routine of a super busy schedule!

The original jars that we found in the attic

 

 

Hope you enjoy!!!

 

Paint, a Rug, and a Roller

I finally got time to do the painted stripped rug that I wanted to make!  Super excited and my children had a blast helping with this project!  I have had tons of inspiration with finding enough, beautiful painted rugs on Pinterest and finally decided to leap in and do one. 

The finished rug!

My oldest picked out the color paint, which happens to be her favorite color.  We used approximately a half gallon of satin floor paint.  You need a tight woven, flat rug…basically not a piled/shag rug.  We bought a cheap, $15 rug that measures 5x6.  We placed 2” wide painters tape about 3” apart.  I had a little help from my husband with making sure the lines were ‘straight’.  

After getting all the tape down

 When painting each of the stripes, it does take time while applying it, so you may need to pace yourself!  I was so tempted to peek at the stripes but made myself wait.  That was hard.  After the first coat was completely dry, I applied a second coat.  

Painting the stripes

 After everything was completely dry we took all the painters tape off!  We sprayed scotch guard on the whole rug, with the hopes that it will ‘hold’ up better/longer.  We are still a bit uncertain as to where this rug is going to be ‘living’ at, but I am so proud of it, we may just make another!

Done and finished!

Later today I am going to try my hand at some antiqued mercury mirror glass jars.  After leaving the library today I decided to buy some of that Krylon looking glass spray.  Very excited to try that in a few!

Hope you enjoy!!!