Playhouse Makeover

A little over three years ago (when I was pregnant with Carolyn) our neighbors across the street decided to get rid of their old playhouse, and gave it to us for FREE! My favorite word! Weeellllllll, there was a reason it was free, it was very much weather/sun beaten and needed some love. We had full intentions of fixing it up, but a certain little lady entered the world and we forgot all about it. Happily she doesn't mind what it looks like and has loved playing in it, but we decided we'd waited long enough, time for a playhouse makeover!

Carolyn's Garden

I love tending to my garden, and so does Carolyn! I think this is so sweet, until she digs up my freshly sown seeds or starts picking under ripe fruit. It's just so adorable the way she wants to do everything that I'm doing and I hated having to exclude her from helping me in the garden. Then it hit me, why not give her her own very distinct garden space, a nice little toddler garden area! On our next trip to the hardware store the plan was hatched.

Making the Swing

We decided the old tire swing was too tiresome to hold onto.  Literally, it was exhausting trying to swing on it.  That's why we took it down and in it's place built a nice traditional swing!

How to Build A Composting Bin from Pallets

This weekend Ben and I built a composting bin for our future garden from recycled pallets.  It was important for us to build this first, as it can take several months for the compost to be ready to use and we are still working out the details for our garden beds.

Flowers

Right as I was packing up the last of our belongings at our rental home the peaches began to ripen and the magnolia tree began to bloom.  I'm so glad I was able to enjoy this, if only for a day or so.

An Almost Spring Sunday

Is it spring yet?  Almost, and you can tell!  The flowers are blooming and my seedlings are sprouting!  The past two Sundays Ben, Lucy and I have been enjoying lots of crafting (which you will see soon) and hiking in the nearby regional park!

How to Hang Globe Lights

Garden Table

Analog Farmville is what my husband fondly calls our "Garden Table."  Last spring we decided that we wanted to grow our own plants but didn't want to do it strictly in buckets.  Then I remembered a Martha Stewart show where they had made what they called a lettuce table.  

We decided to try it, and it was the best decision!

BBQ Stand

Our apartment complex has a regulation that all BBQ's must of course be propane (no charcoal allowed) but also that they must be camping size - not full size.  Placing the BBQ on the patio table was not working for me, so we built a BBQ stand!

Ben drew up some plans and we collected the lumber and tools for the project.

He was also in charge of construction of the stand.

I was responsible for sanding all edges of the cut lumber.

 The stand was now built, but not very weather resistant.

 Therefore we stained it with a nice outdoor stain.  The little BBQ fits quite nicely on it!

After the project was completed, we decided that our stand resembled an actual BBQ, I guess that's what we wanted all along!  It is no wonder we've actually received a citation notice for having an incorrect BBQ, of course when I explained they understood and let us off the hook...