They’re Baaaack!!

Well, you knew it had to happen…the mice are BACK baby!!

Technically, I think they’re called rats:

That’s what Martha Stewart calls them anyway. Or maybe they are mice? Who knows.

I just LOVE THEM.

I know they give some of you the heebs, but I’m quite taken with them. Look away my friends, look away.

I got a little, teensy more creative with them this year…a couple of them are checking out the kids:

And a few are rocking some sparkly witch’s hats:

I cut the hats out with my Silhouette, but they’re looking a little more like floppy beach hats then witch hats. Oh well. I still dig ‘em.

A few of you have asked if our stairs match the new floors:

No, not well. :)

The stairs are Bombay Mahogany (red) and the floors are Jacobean (brown). But I’m not complaining! I still love them both so much it hurts. ;) Someday I’ll have the stairs sanded down and restain them, but for now, I’m good.

Of course, I wanted to add a little glow to the fall stairs, so I added some DIY votives. I had picked up some cheapy light covers at True Value this summer to do an outdoor project, but the warm season got away from me.

Since I already had them, I decided to make them work for this season:

They are the glass covers that go on light fixtures and they cost $2-something each. They’re nice and lightweight, which gave me another idea, so I got a few more today for an upcoming project. We’ll see how it goes. :)

I filled them with cutie acorns I picked up at Meijer weeks ago:

They look like acorns roasting on an open fire, but the candle is really just an LED light. I’m obsessed with these things. I love how they flicker like real candles. (You can find them just about anywhere anymore, but I’ve gotten most of mine at the dollar store.)

I still say, for $50, this stair redo was the best DIY project I’ve ever done:

Cause now I can put rats mice on our stairs and that makes me silly happy. I love these little buggers.

I was going to put little teeny pumpkins by their little mice holes (like it’s their front porch…get it???) But I decided I should probably calm down and reel it in Sarah!

The sparkly witch hats are plenty:

(The pumpkins and votives are tucked under the railing so they aren’t a trip hazard.)

I can’t wait to get them all dressed up for Christmas!! (Don’t freak out. I don’t keep 12 rats mice on my stairs at Christmas. Just a couple.)

If you haven’t seen – the Dollar Tree has a TON of silhouettes this year – mice, crows, owls – bunches of them! The Martha Stewart mice are only $5 at Michaels (for 12) and I think I got mine on sale for even cheaper.

Can you even BELIEVE it will be November next week? I feel like it was June just yesterday. Crazy.

 

I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

Winners, Haven and Q & A!

Well hey there! I’m back with a quick post to announce a few goodies!

First of all – the winners of the last three giveaways! The lucky winners are:

- $75 to Attiser:  Samantha at Samanthacwatson (at) hotmail (dot) com
- $100 to Pick Your Plum:  Teri at kleinsmith5 (at) charter (dot) net
- $100 Lowe’s gift card from Hometalk:  Susan at splw222 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Congrats ladies! Please send me an email and I’ll get you hooked up with your fabulous stuff!

Next up, I wanted to let you know that this week I’ll be answering all of your burning DIY questions over at the True Value Facebook page:

When you get over there, just click that little “Ask the Blog Squad” button and ask away! It’s a great opportunity to pick my brain…which can be a very dangerous thing. :) You can also see questions and answers from other Blog Squad Q and A’s as well!

Finally, we’ve got some awesomesauce stuff going on with the Haven Conference next summer:

 

We’re SUPER thrilled to welcome some of our latest sponsors, like a little place you may know of:

The Depot! Whoo!

We’ve secured a few other sponsors as well, and you can see them here. Many more are coming and we are so thrilled with the response!

Next up, the session topics have been ironed out and we are so excited to be able to share these with you! The conference is open to bloggers and DIYers alike– it doesn’t matter if you’re one or the other, (or both!) we think you’ll find it worthwhile!:

DIY track:

• Brave it Off Auto: Photography Workshop
  Pimp Your Photos: Photo Editing and Styling
  Laminate, Wood, & MDF, OH MY: Furniture Painting Tips for Beginners
  Beyond the Basics: Advanced Furniture Painting Techniques
  Go Ahead & Let Your Slip Show: Basics of Slipcovering
  Frugally Fabu-less Decorating: Introduction to Thrifty Shopping
  Power Tools for Divas: An Introduction to how to properly and safely use power tools like a pro.
  Just Build It: Introduction to Carpentry and Woodworking with Ana White!
  Build-a-Room: Basics in Room Design

Blogging track:

• I Like Big Blogs: Tips on Growing your Blog
  Meet Me at the Water Cooler: The Importance in Using Social Media
  Hobby Gone Wild: How to Take Your Blog from a Hobby to a Business
  Walking the Tightrope: How to Achieve Balance in Family & Blogging
  Show Me the Money: The Ins, Outs, and Ethics of Blog Advertising

We’re also pleased as punch to announce some of our speakers for the event! John and Sherry from Young House Love will be joining us, as well as the lovely Ana from Ana White and the dashing Rashon from Mr. Goodwill Hunting! I can’t wait to see them all myself. :)

We are SO excited and of course can’t wait to see all of YOU there as well!

Tickets are still available – click this box to find out more:

Whew! So much fun I can barely stand it. ;)

I’ll be back later tonight to show you the return of some of my little friends…any guesses?

Our new backyard!

Well, I’m kind of cheating. I’m not really showing a fall mantel for Layla’s party. Just a fall fireplace.

An outdoor fireplace. ;)

I figured I can show you the indoor mantel any time – but the final touches on the backyard and the new patio were made today, so I just couldn’t wait to show you!!

Is this allowed Lay? :)

I hope so! Cause it rocks my world!!!

OK, there are a serious amount of pics on this one, so bear with me. (And I thought the deck post had a lot – HA!)

Let’s start with the piece de resistance – the outdoor fireplace:

We almost didn’t add this – at first it was just going to cost too much. But our landscaper worked with us and we figured out a way to make it happen.

And we are SO GLAD we did. It just makes the whole space – it’s the focal point, no doubt!

They used a travertine stone on the hearth and for the details on the front, instead of the brick on the sample we saw. He wanted to pull the colors from our house, and it does just that!

The stone works with the house too, and has some bits of grey and red tones that work with the patio:

It’s been raining on and off for days, and finally today it was just beautiful! As soon as I pulled out the camera, the sun went behind the clouds, again. (Some of the stones on the patio are wet – that’s why they are darker.)

Let’s check out the before and after shall we?:

  

AWESOMESAUCE!!! ;)

We got all of the furniture on clearance at Menards and I LOVE IT:

I think it looks SO much more expensive than it was – all four chairs and the sofa (we have a outdoor SOFA?!), were less than $800:

We got the fire pit at Menards as well (on clearance – notice a trend here?) a couple years ago.

All of the pillows are placemats from World Market – I also used them as placemats (who would have thunk it?) on the table set on the deck:

I adore the colors and the designs – and that I can flip them around for a different look.

Here’s a little tour of the backyard – the before on the left, the after now:

 

We are trying to bring the grass back – it was covered with the deck furniture (while they stained) for so long, it pooped out. We had the drain spout put under the ground – which makes hubby VERY happy. He moved that thing every single time he mowed. ;)

They planted a winding row of burning bushes, which I LOVE, between our trees, and then a couple large arborvitae at the end for privacy. They are so tall and thick – I love them!

You can see how the patio looks from the yard from this angle:

I love all the thought they put into the design of the walls – it could have easily been a plain wall and we would have been happy. But they look so custom with the bullnosed detail around the bottom.

We planned all along to put the grill down on the patio, but in the end hubs wanted to keep it up on the deck. So I put the DIY potting bench there instead and now I think it’s the perfect spot!:

That big black bucket is actually for fireplace ashes, but I keep my potting soil in it. :) Hopefully it will hold up outside – I may spray it with some kind of sealer.

Have the potting bench there couldn’t work better, because my plan all along was to use it for entertaining as well – now it will be a great spot for food, drinks, ice buckets, whatever.

You can see the fireplace from the back here:

It’s hard to see, but on each side of the fireplace are pee gee hydrangea trees. I got them for half off at my local True Value and I’m SO excited about them. Hopefully they will look something like this eventually:

(source)

Isn’t that gorgeous??

Next summer they will frame out the fireplace perfectly. Can’t wait! :)

We especially love how the landscaper used the natural stone throughout the space – like in the landscaping above, and the stepping stones through the mulch:

And the “steps” up to the patio are large stones:

They make it feel like everything has been there forever!

Here’s a before and after from the other side:

You’ll notice the garden is gone. It was a very, very sad day. I’m not kidding. They had to rip the cucumbers from my clutched fists.

OK, OK, it wasn’t that dramatic, but it was hard.  ;) I don’t know yet where I will put it next year, but I have a couple spots in mind.

You’ll also notice that there’s not many plants in the ground. That is simply because we just had to stop! (Our bank account was starting to freak out a little. OK, a lot. ;) ) We’ll budget for that next year. I can’t wait to plan all of the landscaping – I think the plants will make it even more of an oasis!

At first I wasn’t sure how to set up all the furniture on the patio, but I searched “outdoor fireplace” online and noticed most of them had the chairs set up like this:

I didn’t want the back of anything to be facing out, so this works great. 

And there’s still plenty of room to get around them, to the potting bench on one side, the firewood on the other:

The lovely folks at Wuslu.com sent these baskets too me, and this one was the largest. It’s just LOVELY as a firewood holder. :)

The massive mums were a STEAL – my BFF and I found out one of the local fruit farms offers $5 mums if you dig them up yourself. We got HUGE plants for so cheap – usually this size would cost (at least) $30! I plan to plant them later and we’ll see how they do next year.

I just love mums. I just love fall. Sigh. :)

Today the landscaper came out and cleared out a TON of the brush in the back – we didn’t think he would do that till next year, and it opened up our backyard SO MUCH:

I mentioned here that our next phase will be to clear all of this out, plant more trees along the back and mulch most of it.

This land is why we built our house here and it’s one of our very favorite parts of our home – if not our favorite. We have been so spoiled by all the green space and privacy. I absolutely love it, and now we have another 20 feet of yard to explore, now that we can get back there!

Since the last minute touches were finished up today, we celebrated by lighting a fire this evening:

It’s no surprise that the evening is the best time to enjoy this space. :)

We grab cold drinks, warm blankets, light the fire, listen to the crickets and look up at the stars:

And it really does not get any better than this.

I feel so lucky I could burst. I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but I sure do appreciate it. :)

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our new backyard! And I need to give a HUGE shout out to our landscaper and his staff – Bill at Eagleson Landscape did an incredible job. They did such an amazing job and took such pride in everything they did – especially the guys who put the stone on the fireplace. We were so pleased with every bit of it! If you are in the Indy area and need anything done outdoors – give them a call!

Be sure to link up your fall fireplace (mantels?!) at Layla’s – I can’t wait to see all the goodies! 

I’m such a rebel. :)

 

I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

DIY Potting Bench with Dad

Well hello there! Thanks so much for your excitement over our patio project. ;) Today they finished installing and mortaring the fireplace. (It was dry fitted before.)Tomorrow they start applying the stone. YIPPEE!! I think the landscaping may start as early as Thursday or Friday.

SO. EXCITED.

Because we are on an outdoor roll lately, I got some mojo up in here and tackled a project I’ve wanted to do for years.

I’ve always wanted a potting bench…you know, for all the plants I can’t keep alive. ;) I wanted it for planting, but also for entertaining. A separate spot to put ice, drinks, food, whatever, sounds awesome.

So the potting bench was the perfect answer. And my Dad said he’d help me build one. GLEE!!

He came over and I showed him my inspiration photo from Pinterest:

That would be the Abbott Island from Pottery Barn (of course) and it is pretty awesome, yes? The price is pretty awesome too – as in I’m pretty awesomely going to pass out, $1000.

Dad’s response? “We can totally do that.”

OK, I added the totally…he didn’t say that part. But he knew we could do it!

We took a trip to my fave True Value (Pendleton, IN) and looked through the HUGE lumber yard:

(That’s only half of it.)

We talked about what type of wood I wanted to use. Initially I wanted cedar (because it would hold up best outside) but it is a bit more expensive. Then Dad asked if I’m good about putting outdoor stuff away or covering it for the winter and my response it was a quick and definite NO.

So we went with cedar. :)

We got our supplies – 4 x 4’s, a few 1 x 4’s and a bunch of 1 x 6’s. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll show you those in a video below.)

We cut the 4 x 4’s to 36 inches, then stood them up to start our design:

We cut the 1 x 4’s to the length we needed (more on that in a bit), then attached them with screws to the top of each 4 x 4 and about a foot from the bottom of each as well (for the bottom shelf I wanted):

You can see here how the 1 x 4’s (the long horizontal boards) go off the edge of the legs a bit:

That’s because we created a “frame” around the whole thing, on top and bottom:

No mitered (angled) cuts – just simple, straight ones. The best kind. ;)

For added support, we put a couple more boards on the inside of each leg as well:

See in that upper right picture, how basic this is? It’s just boards screwed into boards. If you have tools, YOU can do this. I mean it!! Yes, I am yelling at you!!

We added a couple more boards to the middle, again with screws – just for a bit more support:

More support never hurts. ;)

Then we cut 1 x 6’s to the depth of the table (about 25 inches) and laid them across the bottom. Yet again, we just screwed them in. No glue, no nails. Just screws.

Easy peasy. I swear.

We cut more 1 x 6’s to fit the top, this way going with the length of the table. Our cuts were a bit off and we were getting a little tired and a lot hot, so we just installed them, then Dad cut down the edge with the jigsaw:

 

It worked like charm!

And then…we were done. Start to finish, it took us two hours. TWO HOURS. Yes, I am yelling at you! ;) I can’t believe how fast it went!

We were both in a groove, because this whole thing went like buttah. Not one issue -- we couldn’t believe it.

I found some basic, low profile hooks at True Value as well and attached those to the sides:

I have no idea what I’ll hang on them but they look FAB!

I love it so much!! (Yelling!):

I did a quick video to show you the details up close, just in case this isn’t clear. It really is a basic as it looks though – it came together easily.

Here’s the video and I cannot believe I put my face on here, seriously. I had been sweating profusely for two hours straight. And I say “um,” “basic,” and “just” an awful lot. I’m no TV star people:

 

You can see on the video that the bench is placed over our fireplace vent right now but the fireplace is not on and the pilot light is not lit. It will be moved over. Do not put anything near your vent!

So here’s the PB version:

And ours:

The PB version is 50” wide, 28” deep and 36” high. Mine is 60” wide, 28” deep and 37” high. I didn’t even plan on the dimensions matching up so much, it just worked out that way. :)

The cedar wood cost about $130 – not a cheap project, but considering it’s $870 cheaper than my inspiration, I’m thrilled. And mine is even wider than theirs!

I’m trying to decide if I’m going to add some wheels – I found these super cool casters at True Value:

I just don’t know if they’re chunky enough. I may put them on just to see – it won’t hurt!

Now…the BIG question! What to do now? I had planned all along to stain or paint it. When I mentioned that to my Dad I think he may have had a small conniption. ;) He said the cedar will age beautifully over time and he would just leave it.

And when I hosed everything off, it was even more gorgeous – the water brought out all the beauty in the wood:

So now I’m leaning toward just a coat of poly or Tung oil, to bring out the tones of the wood.

What would you do? Paint it? Stain it? Leave it as is? I know what my Dad would do. ;) Once I figure that out, I’m going to start using it and I cannot wait!

Speaking of my Dad – HE IS AWESOME!! It thrills me to no end that we can DIY together like this. I love that we continue to make father/daughter memories, even as I get older. And he reads this blog, every day.  :) Thanks Dad, I love you!

 

I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.