I'm a Winner

Me!  It's true! 

One of the first bloggers I came across when I discovered this whole world of blogs dedicated to all the things I love is called My Repurposed Life and this past week she celebrated three years of blogging with a Blogapalooza give away and I won a prize! 

I'm beyond excited because I never win anything! 

Check out Gail's blog 
http://www.myrepurposedlife.net/

What did I win you ask?  I won the Gorilla Glue Tool Box Kit and I can't wait to try these products on some future projects.

Thanks Gail!  Congrats on 3 years and thanks for celebrating with this giveaway, it was exciting to see your posts in my Facebook feed announcing each giveaway!  Thanks to Gorilla Glue and all the other sponsors as well.

Two more garden chairs-Project 50

Found another great chair at a yard sale and it spoke to me.  It just had my girlfriend Liz written all over it for some reason...it just really needed to be hers.  Who am I to deny a lonely chair it's final resting place?  Of course, being the novice blogger I am...and general all around don't-think-about-taking-a-picture-till-it's-too-late person that I am, I don't have any before pics!  It was stained a dark brown, probably walnut and it had seen better days for sure.

Liz's chair before the rain

I wanted to paint the chair Burgundy to match the trim on her house but it just looked fushia to me. Three coats of paint later and it still looked awfully pink so I left it out overnight so I could look at it again in the morning and decide to leave it or change the color.  

Overnight we got an unexpected thunderstorm and my chair suffered, well...the trim on the back-piece suffered because it was particle board and not solid wood.  SF saw it that morning and valiantly tried to fix it for me before I got home.  I arrived home to find it glued and clamped together but even spray paint couldn't hide the damage although it glued back together fairly nicely.  Plan B-put it aside and regroup.

This chair was another that I had in my stash that had no real home...till now.  I gave it a quick coat of paint and SF cut a whole in the solid seat to place a pot in and this was a quick birthday gift my daughter gave to one of her adopted mothers...(she has so many that I'm grateful for)

Birthday chair for one of my Daughters adopted Mothers

I used copper wire and some beads and fried cracked marbles  that I made and twisted them all up while SF drilled some holes for me and I made a decorative back for the chair and I'm totally in love with it now!  So in love with it in fact that I almost didn't give it to her but in the end, it was still her chair no matter how much I wanted to keep it!  

Liz's chair in it's new home
(^What the heck happened to my picture up there!  Rookie blogger alert!^)

Now I'm on the hunt for a chair with no back so I can make one for myself!

My Morning Commute

On a recent sunny morning I just happened to have my camera in my purse and since I just love driving through the country on a warm summer morning I thought I'd share my morning commute here.   It was hazy as expected for a late June summer morning but you can still see soybean and corn fields.  My favorite part is all the farms off in the distance.  Of course I try to imagine the family's that live there...

Growing up and then working in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C., I did my fair share of sitting in traffic.  My Mother worked in Old Town Alex. for years then moved downtown to K Street so to me, traffic was just a given and expected.  Still is apparently...which is why my friends who still live in the area have migrated even farther south on 95.  Although there are die-hard career people to whom that commute time is kinda like a badge of honor...I can't even imagine doing that commute anymore.  My morning commute used to look like this!

UGG

 

My anxiety level rises just looking at that traffic...yikes!   Any way...luckily, this mornings commute didn't involving sitting for long periods of time wondering why traffic isn't moving...it just involved the earthy smell of fresh cut hay...the stench, odor, nourishing smell of cows and pigs...and cute little farms with red barns. 

I chose to go straight at the intersection where I usually turn just so I could drive by my favorite little farmhouse and farm in Ohio.  She puts a produce cart out front when they begin harvesting from the garden.  I love that it's a real working farm and those farmers work so damn hard.

I am just in love with this house

And then there's more...you guessed it. 

Corn.

Ok...so I have to confess. 

This isn't my normal morning commute, mine isn't so nice since I live in the city.  It normally involves lots of buildings and houses, and although we have a corn/bean field closer to campus but not nearly this lovely.  We stayed at a friends house about 20 miles south of town so she could travel for some out of town business appointments and still have her new granite counter-tops installed.  They are stunning!

That morning commute was a bit longer then usual but I do believe that morning commute was among my best ever!

Potting Bench-Project 50

We began this potting bench project last year but we built the shelter this spring and didn't finish till after my birthday so I'm counting it in my Project-50!

Last year while doing all my spring planting I decided I needed a potting bench and since we had a pile of wood crap treasure-in-disguise and I figured if I could design something then my wonderful Hubby SF could build it for me.  He's pretty terrific that way!

Pile of scrap wood/junk

 Over the past 2 years or so this pile of junk treasure has been accumulating in the corner of my house and it needed to be gone.  So as I began to think about my potting bench I was trying to use what was in this mess which included an old head/foot-board combo that had been thrown out.  It had seen better days and sitting in this pile for a year didn't help, the particle board headboard didn't survive but the ends did because they are solid wood so they would become my front two legs.  Now I just needed some type of back for it!

Door and almost matching side light door

We went to visit our local Habitat ReStore one day and found an old door and two side lights that matched close enough to say they were all a set.  The whole set cost me $12 which was a great buy cause they were trying to get of things before their big move to the new location.  We always check there first before going to the hardware store.  The side light panels are really cool, the one on the right has a little secret door..  The center panel of glass was cut out of the door so that I could do some type of stained glass treatment with it but I've been lazy I haven;t found my inspiration yet.  Yea...that it.

The hubby put all of our pieces together and made me this beautiful potting bench last year. 

Finished Potting bench

Although I loved the potting bench itself, I wasn't happy with where it ended up, kinda pushed against our not-screen-anymore-room and across from the man-cave.  Not a functional spot at all.  As we cleaned up this spring I cleaned out the back corner of my back yard that's pictured above...yea,, the one with all that crap in it. 

I thought it would be the perfect place for my potting bench so SF and I brainstormed and got busy with more parts and pieces we had paying around.  Some old shingles we bought at the ReStore, the scallops in the front is reclaimed fencing, recycled 2X4's doubled make the posts, recycled signboards make the roof.  A couple of hours and some sweat, a few design flaws and fixes and I had a brand new area to do all my potting and garden stuff in.  I was able to display my collection of galvanized buckets and water cans.

I Love my new potting bench and shelter!