4th of July Decor....Finally

I finally found the time quit being so lazy to make 4th of July signs for my front step post things, click here and here to see them in the making!

I used a 1x4 for the following project.  I cut a piece 11" long, another piece 4" long and the last piece 7" long.  I set the 4" piece aside and cut the other 2 pieces into thirds.

I didn't really have to cut the boards into thirds, but it made it so much easier to paint the stripes, I didn't have to tape anything off!

After I gave my paint approximately 3 minutes and 48 seconds to dry, I glued it back together using wood glue.  After letting the wood glue sit for approximately 4 minutes, I took it out to the garage and sanded and glazed it.  I kind of wanted it to look dirty and old.

Dirty and old?  Check!  Next I cut a few stars out of vinyl to finish my flag!  The little wood block is supposed to be a firework, I was running out of time before the girls woke up from their nap, but at least it passes the red, white and blue test!

At least my front step is ready for the 4th of July!

Concrete Paver Planters

I finally finished a project and I have only been working on it for a month!  While my husband was gone last month I saw this amazing tutorial from Stephanie Lynn at Under the Table and Dreaming.  So I built and painted my planters and then they sat in the garage for about a month because they are HEAVY!  I finally talked my husband into moving them to the backyard for me yesterday.  Today I made a quick trip to Home Depot and bought some perennials (I am hoping they will come back next year) and finally finished my project!  The pavers were around $1.50 a piece x 10 pavers = $15.00 and the plants were $30.  So hopefully I will have plants that come back every year!

Waiting for flowers....and I really need to power wash the patio!

Perennials

I love the way they turned out!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Outdoor Vignette

I know that I participated in the Decor Dilemma party last week and received some amazing ideas, but it has been too nice to work inside!  Last week I went to a few garage sales and scored some really neat things!  5 picture frames without the glass for $.10 each!  A really neat rusted lantern for $1, cute table/cabinet thing for $5 and 10 spindle/ballister things for $15 (one brand new spindle/ballister thing at Home Depot is $15, I got a 10-fer)!  And because I can't leave well enough alone I decided the other corner of the sidewalk in front of my house looked lonely.  So I prettied it up!

I am in love with spindles and I don't know why, I can't get enough of them!

This is my garage sale cabinet and lantern.  And I actually did not do a thing to the cabinet, I left it alone and did not paint it black, but believe me I am still thinking about it.  See my $1 lantern, love it!  I raided my decor storage and found a few things that are cheap and if something happens to them I don't care to add to the shelves.

I randomly cut the spindles down to different lengths and painted them.  Originally they were stained black but were really weathered.  I sanded them down a bit and used DecoArt's patio paint to add a little color.  When they were dry I glazed with my Ralph Lauren smoke glaze.

Definitely not perfect, but I like the weathered beat up feel to them.  I am not wild about the red one, I am thinking about repainting it but have been testing it out first before I made any decisions.  I hope everyone had a great weekend!