Our flower bed was a complete disaster. We had mismatched bushes that the builders had planted. They had put 5 of the same bush, 2 of another type and 1 random flowering bush. Random would be the key word. And on top of the randomness we neglected it. So it was weedy randomness. I'm sure our neighbors loved it. I finally have a before pic! Of course it would be the most embarrassing one. Here goes:
This was actually from last April. Horrible. So fast forward a year and we decided to actually do something with it. JJ and I figured since those bushes were so puny we could just move them all around and they would be fine. Nope. Shows you our extent of knowledge on landscaping. We also bought 5 packs of mixed flower seeds. We didn't read until we got home that one package covered approximately 150 square feet. Oops. We still used all five. Again, we are gardening geniuses. Here's the after bush moving picture:
We bought the recycled tire border that looks like mulch. We thought we were doing good. I mean those bushes aren't the biggest or prettiest but hey! that's a biiig improvement from before! While we were moving the bushes around we moved the 2 random bushes to the back beside the screened in porch. It was just bare before.
We're currently trying to grow grass, again not successfully, so that's why there is mulch everywhere. (Anyone have any tips? It's impossible in sandy NC!) The two bushes in the middle are the ones we transplanted from the front. We bought two lilies to go next to them because Harley loves chasing butterflies (He's a dingbat haha) and they are supposed to attract them.
So fast forward again approximately 3 weeks and our little seedies are taking off! Our bushes on the other hand, FAIL! All but 1 and a half died. One that we didn't move and the other was only half alive. The bushes we moved to the back are thriving though! I think it's because they are supposed to be in partial shade.
Look at those green shoots! We for sure thought the little guy wasn't going to make it. And here's a close up of the flowers:
Pretty, pretty.
Ok, but back to the front failure. Our neighbors told us about a local nursery so we decided to hit that up. We were looking for these big flowering bushes that I've been seeing everywhere and found out they are azaleas. They happened to be having a sale on azaleas 3 for $30. Perfeccct! We both agreed that the white would look good with the green siding we have. And the flowers would give it the punch of color and be the stars.
A few months back my mother stumbled upon the best website in the world. That website is knockoffwood.blogspot.com. It has furniture plans that look like Pottery Barn, West Elm, etc and is amazinnng. Handy Dandy JJ was all about it, I was slightly apprehensive because I have never built anything. I figured I would just let JJ do the main stuff and I'd watch and try to be of assistance when possible. We decided to build a console table for the extremely bare hallway. At this point in time, J didn't have too many power tools and we had to hand cut the wood. That was quite a treat. But we managed to get it done and I must say he did quite an awesome job (and yes he gets all the credit for that table!). Don't mind the random tools I had out from hanging the mirror and random stuff on the table - I just grabbed random things to make it look somewhat normal.
So after seeing JJ build that table I decided I could do it too! After selling our kitchen table on Craig's List prematurely, that was what i decided to build. Here's the plan for the Storage Dining Table. A little ambitious but I'm fairly handy so I knew I could handle it. Well turns out the cut list was a little wrong- Dilemma #1. Mind you, we still don't have a miter saw yet (We now have one, I bought it for JJ for our 2 year anniversary), so I was cutting all those pieces by hand! Not fun to have to cut the whole top off, and redo the top portion. But ya gotta do whatcha gotta do. As JJ likes to say, "you can wish in one hand..." haha. Here's the table pre-top-cut-off:
Here's the cut down non-stained version.
Well to fit in our breakfast nook I wanted the tabletop to be around 48 inches -Dilemma #2. A 48 inch round tabletop from Lowe's would cost $220 dollars for pine to have it specially ordered. Dislike. We might as well have bought the real table from Pottery Barn! So we tried our luck on craigslist and bought what we thought was a 48 inch solid wood round table. sike! It was that fake veneer junk again! That was expensive firewood. So we took a couple weeks off because we couldn't find anything cheaper than $200. And then we had an idea! I thought we could just buy a sheet of oak and cut it out but I wanted the edges to look more refined. And thats when J-dawg thought of a router! And kapow! The table got finished! The edges got finished! The kitchen looks finished! WOO HOO!
Well.. the kitchen looks somewhat finished. We still need chairs. And two more place mats.
JJ and I decided to go randomly exploring this weekend. We started out looking at foreclosed homes to possibly buy and flip and wound up at a flea market.
How hilarious is that commercial? I couldn't stop singing it while we were there. But it was not just like a mini mall like Flea Market Montgomery (which I happened to have driven by on my way up from spring break in Florida a few years ago, but no one would stop- biggest regret of my life!) This one was way sketchy, JJ was not allowed to leave my side.
This was the beautiful outside part. The inside was scarier looking but I don't have a picture cause I thought someone might steal my camera haha. Look at that sweet computer though. The flea market was actually pretty big, but literally garbage. JJ and I have thrown away better stuff -no lie. We went inside first to check the scene and were greeted with stripper clothes, a bunch of dragon statues and random dogs running around. JJ then informed that this place was busted before for selling drugs and illegal guns. Cooool.
As we were walking around I spotted this beaut:
Yeah, not really a beaut, looks like an old grandma, but I saw some potential in it.
POOF!
Talk about potential! We brought it home and I dropped off the ol' ball and chain (can that be used for guys? haha) then headed straight for the store to buy fabric and new foam for the cushion. Three stores later and some burgers for dinner I made my way home and got to work.
Words of Wisdom: Avoid cutting foam at all costs. It sucks. No matter what I tried I could not get the cut line to be smooth at all. I even tried sanding it and got nothing. It worked out though because I just pulled the fabric tight when reupholstering it and you can't really tell.
For the bottom I started out sanding it all down. I was considering staining it the same color as the table we built for the hall (more on that in a later post) but realized the top part had that fake veneer stuff (pardon my technical terms) on it so painting it was the only option. Here it is all sanded and waiting for its beautiful transformation.
The top part was easier than I thought it would be. I just glued the foam to the original board and then stapled a corner of the fabric to the board. I worked from the four corners and then went back and forth, side to side stapling.
Wham Bam, Thank you ma'am and its done!
Whatcha think? Now I just need to find the perfect space for it!
I have been searching EVERYWHERE for a garden stool that is reasonably priced. Big Lots, Target, Walmart, Lowe's, and online at every store imaginable. The cheapest I have seen was at Target about a month ago on sale for like $59. I mistakenly passed it up thinking I could find a better deal. NOT (Borat voice)! UNTIL NOW! Me and J-dawg were just strolling around Ross and.. BOOM! What do I see? Oh yes. The Garden Stool of My Dreams:
<3
Can you guess how much we got it for?? $29.99! Score! Talk about awesome. Here's the ones I just happened to be looking at before our shopping trip from Target:
(source)
Do you see that price tag? $189.99. Can you see a difference?? Yeah, not so much! Here's a picture of our awesome stool on our screened in porch:
Our laundry room is finalllly done! After weeks of JJ perfecting the storage he built from scratch, it is hung!!--with help from the new neighb! (They now have a bromance haha) I forgot to take before pictures of the room, but i assure you, it was nothing special what-so-ever. What sparked the redo was buying a new front loader washer and dryer on a whim. Well, not a complete whim, the old washer would leave spots of laundry softener all over so it was "necessary" haha. This of course led to a complete overhaul. I wanted the laundry room color to be light and crisp feeling so I thought yellow sounded nice. I recruited ol' J to help with the exact color choice. He was so excited (NOT). But regardless of his lack of enthusiasm we decided on a color named "Lemon Meringue". Sounds nice, eh? Turns out it looked like teacher chalk.
Not exactly the look we were going for.
So back to Lowe's we go. We average about 3 trips there, on a good weekend. This time we went with something I knew I would love because it is on the same paint sample page as our office color.
Boom.
The name of this is Arctic Blue. Muuuuch better!
Theres a some what close up of the pictures I made. We had bought a table runner and it ended up being too long so I had to cut it. The extra ended up being a perfect fit in the frames!
Here's a better picture of the storage JJ built:Talk about handy.
Voila. There's our laundry room. Too bad I forgot to take before pictures.. Next time..
Well J convinced me to start a blog (I think because I told him some blogs actually make quite a bit of money ha). We've been quite busy the past couple of months and I should have started this when we first began all of our diy projects. oops.. We've been building tables and storage, completely redoing the laundry room, making the flower beds look pretty, and running in our first 5k race together! We also might be slightly obsessed with our golden retriever, Harley -- or as we like to call him happy Harley.
This picture's from the very first day we got him! Notice the blue painters tape in the background- I started painting before I even moved down here haha
I'm not sure what i am trying to accomplish with this blog, but it at least will keep the fam up-to-date with our random projects we like to start. If I decide to tell anyone.. haha
