Harvest Time

Just another Manic Monday....

15 minutes late for work, forgot my IPhone at home, forgot to make something for the potluck today which led to a quick trip to the store, etc, etc.  Monday stuff.

I swear every time I start to feel a little grown up and like I am getting it together, the universe gives me a day like today to remind me that I am a 30 year- 5 year old and don't have any of my stuff together.

Speaking of crazy 5 year olds, the Fella and I had my twin 5 year old nephews all weekend.  On Saturday we also had my 6 year old nephew for a few hours.  We took them to see Thor in 3D. 

It was great but holy energy Batman.  As in I have none and they have massive quantities.  To just run for no reason again.  No lion chasing you.  No cheesecake in front of you.  No marathon to train for.  Just running to feel your legs moving and to rejoice in the fact that you are able to do so.  Real 5 year olds have it together way more than I ever will. 

Back to that feeling grown-up thing, after we took the twins home on Sunday we came home and did a few hours of yard work.  We had not planned it all.  The weather was just so glorious that we gravitated outdoors and just began to work.  It is an amazing feeling to put love into and to improve something you love, like your home. 

I was weeding and realized that I had fallen behind on acorn patrol.  Acorns sprout little trees easily if not kept an eye on.  They grow fast and deep.  It is really hard to get them out due to the little nut still being attached as they grow.  But look how cool they look when you pull them out intact.

I am so weird, I know, but I love roots.  I think they are so intricately beautiful.

Look at the pods that fell from my wisteria. 

How alien are these?  They grow underneath and hang there for months. They are huge and hard as rocks.  I couldn't even cut one open to see what was inside. They are toxic to pups so I have to remove them once they fall.  They were a beautiful light green this summer.

Our two bushes have minds of their own and would take over the neighborhood if I let them.

With temperatures finally out of the 80's and all the rain we have been getting, my herb/veggie garden is exploding. 

Rosemary

How cool is this pic below?  I didn't even see the bee when I was taking the picture.

Our Bay Leaf tree is getting huge. Anyone need any? Come and get it.

Onion Chives

Onion Chive, Parsley and Oregeno

Curry and Oregeno

The most amazing surprise was our jalapeno tree.  We got one pepper all summer and now there are about 25 jalapenos and jalapeno buds.

We made some great nachos and guac with a few of them last night.  Holy cow, they were HOT!!

What did you do this weekend?

Not so very grown-up,

tbg

A girl and her patio, a makeover story

Don’t you just love a good makeover story??

I know I do. The ugly duckling turned swan story is an aged one. It has been told time and time again.

 

 

That is what we have here today, a story of transformation from rough around the edges to shiny, bright and beautiful!

But what do Eliza Doolittle, Laney Boggs and Gracie Lou Freebush not have in common with the ugly duckling in this story?

They aren’t furniture.

That is right.  This is your standard girl sees chairs on the side of the road, said girl then manages to cram all six chairs into her tiny hatchback while wearing a suit and heels in the rain type of story. 

A tale as old as time, if you will.
 

 

I found six of these beauts on the side of the road one rainy, morning in May. This is not Spain, and the rain does not stay mainly on the plain. (Cheers to whoever got that lame joke.)

I decided to use these chairs in our backyard patio space.  So actually, this is a story about the makeover of an entire space....not just 6 free, lovely brown chairs. 

Moving on, I wanted to pair the chairs with this table....

 

The full makeover story of this table can be read here. 

I bought the outdoor rug at Wal-Mart for $25 at the beginning of the summer. I figured I would just roll with the whole southwestern, hacienda vibe of the rug for the entire outdoor space.

This is what that area looked like on the realtor listing when we bought the house.

And here it is right after we moved in, at my first little dinner party, before I had done anything to the table or chairs.

 

(Let me preface the run-down of this makeover story by saying that I do things, for my own home, the easy way.  I cut corners and I don’t stress out over things being perfect.  For example, I didn’t bother to sand or prime theses chairs before painting them.  They were free.  They are old and beat-up and would continue to get beat up outside.  They don’t need to be the most perfect things on Earth. NOBODY will notice one way or another.  That being said, when I do things for the homes of others, I am much more particular.)

Ok, I decided to go with this bright orange color for the chairs.

 

(Just realized, that is my bra, inside my purse, underneath the can, on top of my leg...awesome picture.  I am so good at picture taking.)

I then sprayed each chair with two coats.  Each chair took about a can and a half, total.  it probably would have taken less if I had primed them, but I then would have had to pay for the primer and I just didn’t feel like messing with it.

 

The above picture was after the first coat. I didn’t bother taking the chair seats off because I knew I would be recovering those. 

After the second coat dried, I then painted the chairs with a coat of this stuff I got a Home Depot...

 

This is the same stuff I used to coat the outdoor table and the beer pong table.  It is water and weather resistant and has a great gloss finish.

That being said, it is somewhat pricey and can ruin fabric and paintbrushes. But a little bit goes a long way and the finish is worth the price and the mess.

 

See how the table and chair shine?

Once I was done painting the chairs, I turned my attention to the seats. I had decided to just paint the existing fabric with this tutorial, and then add a coat of the Minwax for durability against the elements. I had no idea if it would work or not but I didn’t really feel like paying for a bunch of expensive outdoor fabric.  I figured it was worth a shot to see if they would last a while with just painted seats.

On a whim, however,I decided to go and see what Joann’s had to offer in the outdoor fabric department before I gave the fabric painting tutorial a go.  I unscrewed one of the chair seats and took it with me for measuring purposes.  Luckily, because I waited so long in the summer to get around to the seats, the outdoor fabric at Joanne’s had gone on super clearance and I got enough fabric to cover all six chairs for $20!

Totally worth it.

I made a few little boards like this.....

To help me compare all the different fabrics with the rug.  I went with the fabric you see above.

The Fella unscrewed the rest of the seats for me.  We then measured six sections of the fabric out evenly to make sure we cut the fabric to correctly cover each chair.

My mother then helped me recover the chairs.  I did not take any pictures of this, which was so stupid of me, but it was soooooooooooooooooooooo simple.  All you need is a staple gun.  We just stretched the new fabric over the old fabric, tucking in the corners like you would while wrapping a present.  We then stapled the fabric down, underneath the seat.

There is a pretty good tutorial, here.  If these chairs were going to be used inside my home, I probably would have done all of the steps in this tutorial mentions.  However, because the chairs are being used outdoors and were not a big (any) investment, I didn’t go to all the trouble.

And voila!

 

I love the way they turned out.  Seriously easy, cheap and fun. (Please excuse all the leaves laying around, my mother would kill me if she knew I didn't sweep before showing y'all this.  Sorry Mama.)

 

Here is the area as a whole.

 

I don’t keep all six chairs out all of the time. I only bust those out when we have guests. Also, I left the other two chairs brown, just for fun.  I did cover those in the Minswax as well though.

The light fixture was given to me by an Aunt who bought a great midcentury to renovate. It is a swag light that just plugs in and has a little switch on the cord. I wound the chain and cord across and down the pergola to an outlet.  It took about five minutes.  It may or may not stay long term, but for now, I love it over this table.

So cute.

Down to the nitty, gritty......here is the cost breakdown:

Table = $5 at a garage sale

Hand sander for table make-over = already had

Outdoor Rug = $25 at Wal-Mart

6 chairs = free

Spray paint = about $16 for 6 cans

Fabric = about $20 here

Light fixture = free

Minswax = already had (but I think it was like $35 at Home Depot)

Staple gun and staples = already had

Table top accessories = already had this stuff around the house and these change weekly

Total for this project = about $60 for a complete outdoor space make-over

I hope this will inspire you to look at objects that may not necessarily strike your fancy, in a whole new light.  Before you go out and buy new look and see what do you have lying around the house, or find on the side of the road, that can be transformed with a coat of paint.  There is something so special about seeing the potential in a discarded item and being the one to bring that potential out for the world to see. You feel a sense of connection to it, to your home and to your surroundings.  

Create the home you want,

tbg

Happy Monday, er Tuesday!

Wow, am I a great blogger or what? Only my fourth post and I am already a day late. My goal was to post at least once a day every weekday....FAILSIES.

Truth is I was swamped yesterday. Sorry. To myself. Since nobody else is reading this.

Ok so, I promised a little rundown of our home buying experience, here she blows.

People always told me that the right house would find us and that any previous let downs or realty heartbreak we may suffer would all make sense once you find “it”.  They were so right.
We came into the market at a very interesting time.  For years we kept thinking that we need to hurry up and decide to buy before the economy recovered and we miss out on the tax breaks for first time home buyers and the great deals a buyer could find at that moment in time, etc.  Still, we never pulled the trigger.  We worked as independent contractors for a few years, and while there are many perks to being your own boss, it is also a very terrifying concept to purchase a home when both of your livelihoods could disappear in the blink of an eye (at least in our line of work that can happen).  Once we had both made the transition into more stable career paths, we began to dare to let ourselves dream.  For the next year or so, I asked a million questions of a million people about neighborhoods, schools, commutes, grocery stores, you name it, and I asked it. 

Next, after deciding what general area of the city that we wanted to settler in (we live in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area so that was no easy fete); we began looking at homes in our price range.  We started to notice a trend in the area that we chose as well as within the price range we were looking.  Houses were being gobbled up by investors, flipped and then put back on the market out of budget’s range.  Basically, we chose to enter the game right as the market turned upward and exploded in our area.  Figures. 

(This is what is considered to be the DFW area by the way)

All of the sudden there was a frenzy in the DFW area of all sorts of realty shenanigan: bidding wars, prices jumping up, incredible lack of inventory, prices being marked too low to entice bidding wars, etc.  Names were slurred and faces were punched.  JK.  Long story short (too late for that, huh?), we lost a house we thought we were in love with for $60,000 over asking price! There was something like 9 bidders.  Cray cray. 

We got the next one though.  The right one.  The “it” one.  I randomly stumbled across this baby and called a random realty company listed online because our realtor had blown us off that day.  Don’t worry, we hadn’t signed anything with the other realtor.  And I must say I am not proud of this, but when you have strike while the iron is hot, right?  I am not the type of Gal who sits back and says “ok person, it is ok that you canceled on us the night before.  I will just sit back and wait four more days for you to show us our future even though I know in my heart it will be gone by tomorrow.” I get shit done.  Sometimes aggressively…but almost always politely.  I am Southern after all.  Anywho, the new realtor had a showing set up within thirty minutes of speaking with him.  He gets shit done too. 

Ok this is where it gets cool.  We were earlier than our showing but knocked on the door anyway.  The sellers were who actually showed me the house!  I knew within moments it was our house.  We had an offer on it within hours.  By the next day there were six offers.  And although some people offered more money, we go the house!  We became friends with the sellers through the process and they later told me that they knew if we got the house they could rest well knowing it would be well taken care of and loved.  So cool right?  Luck?  Serendipitous?  Fate?  Divine intervention? 

Whatever it was, I am so grateful.  We are right where we were supposed to be…..
Our house found us and thank goodness we made sure it didn’t lose us. 

 

Tomorrow I will have recap of the Fella's birthday weekend and the new brewery I told y'all about.

Far thee well,

tbg

Changes for the good......and bad.

Yesterday I mentioned that I would like to use this blog as a way to organize my thoughts.  This past year has been jam-packed for me.  Many bad, really bad, good and really good things have happened and change the landscape of my life.  Although I am sure I will mention a few of the bad from time to time, this is not a pity page and I want to focus on the positive.  Among the many good and the many really good are these: a big change in the direction of my career, my husband and I decided to try to start a family and the most exciting of all….we bought a house.

Ever since my husband and I met, we have been dreaming about owning our first home together.  Six years later, our dream came true.  We got our own little 1960’s, updated slice of Heaven.  We call her our “Heavenly Grass”. 

Here are some pictures that were posted on Realtor.com when the house was for sale. We will call these the befores:

 

 

 

I am so in love. 

 

Finding a house was much more difficult and emotional than excepted.  Tomorrow I will write a post about the process of finding our perfect, heavenly grass.

 

Of course we will be making changes, decorating, etc.  I hope to keep track of all of that on here. 

 

Have a great rest of your Thursday!

 

Over and out,

 

tbg