Miscellaneous Landscaping Continued...

Yesterday I ran out of time to share all the pictures that I took of my yard so I am finishing up tonight.  Keep in mind that I am not a professional and most of the areas are a work in progress but I am still very proud of them.  My hope is that by sharing what I have done that someone may find inspiration with at least one little detail.

Hammock

This is my little retreat.  Of course I share it with my family but I call it mine.  I bought this hammock last year for myself for Mother's Day.
I had my husband put the poles in the ground and then I planted some clematis on the ends to grow up the poles but they didn't make it over the winter.
Oh, I just read that July 22nd is National Hammock Day!!!  That got me a little excited.  Now I have a reason to relax on it without feeling guilty.
 
Sign

I love this sign!!!  A local lady made it for me.  I had it propped on a shelf for years and decided to finally get after my husband to put it out.  He found the post to hang it on in the woods before we moved into the house we live in now and had it propped against the garage wall since then.  He finally did it...
With the special amount of encouragement (some would call it nagging) I convinced my husband to prepare the post and put my sign out.  We put it by the kids playhouse.  It didn't really look good with our house but since the kids have a log cabin as a playhouse (built by my husband) it looked awesome.  I will share pictures of the playhouse at some point too.  We still need to chink it and put a small deck on the front.  I plan to wait until those are done before I post pictures.


Volleyball Net / Badminton

This is a simple one to share with you.  Some of my kids are at the age now that they like to play badminton and volleyball.  Since they have friends over a lot we purchased a badminton set and put it up.  It was a cheap one but it was great for a start.  Needless to say, it didn't last long before the poles were broken.  I came up with the perfect solution.  We went to Menards and purchased some 4x4 posts.  Cemented them in the ground and bought some hooks.  Then I hooked carabiners to the net and hooks and it works absolutely perfect.
 
Pergola

Okay, this is the last picture I am going to be sharing with you today.
This is, once again, is new this year.  I purchased it in the winter when the stores first began setting out their summer stuff.  As you can see by the lack of landscaping, it was assembled in early spring before all the hostas etc. began to grow.
My gazebo finally broke this winter.  It lasted a long time (about 8 or 9 years).  So, I took that as my opportunity to get my pergola.  I have wanted one for a long time but just couldn't justify it on account of the fact that I had the gazebo.
Since the picture was taken, I have done a little bit of landscaping.  Not much because I want to put patio blocks under it and do not want to have to tear out all the plants that I would be planting.  For now all I have under it is an old rug and the furniture I had for the gazebo.  Next year will be the year that gets finished.  I try to only allow myself so many projects in one year and that one is one that did not make this year's to do list.

Miscellaneous Landscaping

I was going to do a posting for each area of my yard but thought I would do one post and share multiple areas at once.  My yard is still a work in progress but I have accomplished a lot in the last 6 years.  That is why I share what I do.  Plus inspiration can be found anywhere and I would love to think that I inspired at least one person.  Even if that inspiration was from something simple like a sign or a yard sculpture.

This is the front of the house.  I will be removing a couple of the bushes soon.  I really don't want to but the winters were really rough on them.  They are broken in the center and won't stay together anymore.  I have been tying them together but I think they are finally done for.
With this picture I mainly wanted to show off my fairy.  I bought her around 12 years ago (she comes in every winter) and I still think she is beautiful.  I also have a sign with the house numbers on.  I purchased that through a catalog called "Country Door".  It is very sturdy and I am sure will last for a very long time.

This is my patio off the back of the house.  I love this area.  This wasn't even here when we moved in.  We have since added on to it.  It could still stand to be a little bigger but that might be a project for next year.  I would love to add one of those outdoor brick grills too.  I was looking at "This Old House" magazine and saw one in there that would look great right around where the grill currently is.  Maybe someday...
Some new siding would be great too.  Oh and some rain gutters on the house.  I have all these ideas.  I am surprised my husband hasn't taken my computer, tablet, phone, and magazines away from me.  I think I would still find a way to get ideas. lol

This is new this year.  I purchased this arbor at Menards on clearance.  It was last years model.  I was eying it up last year but didn't want to spend $400.  My plan was to put a porch swing, that I have in our shed, on it but it ended up not fitting.  So I bought this bench.  I will probably end up moving the bench to another area and doing something different here.  I am so undecided.  I planted some morning glories at the base but they are still little.  This is the first time I have attempted growing morning glories so I really hope they grow.  I think I am going to have to let this sit this year and plan over the winter.

Here is my little shed.  Can you believe I got this on clearance too???  lol  No surprise there.  I can't remember what the price was anymore.  It was when I was working at the Home Depot and knew when things were going to be there lowest so I snatched it up.  Works perfect for storing the stuff that we don't want to store in the garage.  Off season stuff, etc...
The hostas that are planted along the side of the shed were all given to me.  The yard art (sculptures) were from the local art fairs.  I bought one last year and another one at the memorial weekend fair.  They had a large variety to choose from but I was trying to keep it simple.

I have so much more to share but I am running out of time for now.  My next posting will have more landscaping.  Nothing spectacular but stuff that might inspire someone.

Red, White, and Blue Decoration

I was thinking really hard on what I wanted to put in these little hanging pots.  I have finally made a decision.
I spent a lot of time scouring Pinterest in search of something that would work for me.  I thought about putting patriotic ornaments in them (I couldn't find any I liked). Then I thought about using colored sand but that would be too messy and I wanted something that I could reuse next year.  So I decided on glass stones and flags.
Patriotic Decor

I used:
1 bag of blue stones
1 bag of white stones
1 bag of red stones
1 package of mini flags

These stones weren't that cheap so I used them sparingly.  Two of the colors were about $3.00 each and the other one was $4.00.  I probably could have gotten them cheaper if I really wanted to look around but I had already looked at the dollar store and at Walmart and wasn't please with their selections.  I purchased them at Hobby Lobby...
I have 2 of these holders so I divided the stones equally between the two and placed two flags in each.  When the breeze comes through the window they twirl and the flags move ever so slightly.  I think I made an excellent choice for my decor.

Bedroom Remodel Chevron Stripes

Sometimes a simple remodel is in order...
A couple months ago I took, what I would call, a big leap and added a wall in my bedroom to create a baby's room.  I have a fairly big bedroom. It's not really wide but it is really long.  I figured when the baby is out of my room I would have a nice walk in closet.  Or a craft room if I choose...
I am just sharing the main wall with you today.  I will share more with you later.  When I finish the baby's room I will share that too.  I am planning on using the colors yellow, grey, and teal in the babies room (kind of to keep with the colors that I went with in my room).  I am not sure in what way but I am thinking I would like to do circles on the walls.  Not sure on curtains or any of that at this point either.

Before

When I decided on the colors for the redo, I pulled them from the comforter that I purchased (shown in picture).  I always felt that grey and yellow were a good color combination.
I removed the wallpaper, cleaned, and primed all of the walls.  I then painted the ceiling white and the walls a grey that was suppose to match the grey in the bedding.  It ended up looking a little more blue than I liked but since I purchased two gallons of the paint I was sticking with it.  I highly recommend that you purchase a few color samples before buying the paint.  I really wish I would have!!!  Oh well, it still looks nice.
 After the wall paint dried for a couple days,  I used painters tape to create the chevron stripes.  I was stressing over it a lot because I was afraid to mess up.  I didn't though and I am so happy with it.

After

This picture was taken right after I finished painting and before I even decided on what I was going to do about lamp shades etc.  I have since made that decision.  I ended up going with white lamp shades and I spray painted some picture frames that I had the same yellow as in the comforter.  Then I hung them on the solid color wall to the left of the bed.  I am still contemplating on whether I should take the ceiling fan down and paint that.  Maybe just the blades...

Dresser Redo

It has been one busy morning already.  I got up, got the kids up for school, made lunches, and got the kids off to school.  As if that wasn't enough, I loaded the dishwasher up the rest of way, ran that, made laundry detergent, got a load of laundry going, and made breakfast.  Now I am going to sit for a few minutes and share one of my latest projects.
I bought this desk last year (around late fall) for $10.00 off of a resale site and have been itching to re-paint it.  At first I was all perfect and started patching holes and scratches, gluing loose draws, and sanding it.  Then, I realized where this desk was going when it is finished so I stopped being perfect.  As soon as summer vacation arrives I am going to do a thorough job of cleaning my son's room and replace the desk he has in there with this one.  I have to wait until then because we have an exchange student that will be leaving us in a few weeks.  No use starting until there is less stuff in the room.
Before

This is what it looked like when I bought it.  Complete with a pencil sharpener.  Which does work...
I would say not bad for ten dollars.  Solid wood and sturdy.











After

You are probably thinking, "Why orange???"
Well, about a year ago (maybe longer) I purchased a super cute table off the same resale site and patched, sanded, and primed it.  Then I went on Facebook and took a vote as to what accent color I should paint it.  Orange won...  Since this desk is going in the same room and I already had the paint, I decided to paint it the same color.
I can't wait to put it in the room.  Right now my son has this cheap computer desk that shakes bad when he clicks on the mouse while playing his online games.  You can hear it through the floor to the living room.  It is so annoying!!!

Landscaping with Old Wheelbarrow

I can't believe a whole month has gone by without me posting anything.  Talk about a busy month...
I have been a bit preoccupied with getting the yard in order and working on so many projects (that I plan to share with you) that I haven't had a lot of down time to post.  That will change within the next few weeks though.
I am including a picture of some of my landscaping.  I have a lot more I plan to share but thought I would include this one just because it is always nice to have at least one picture to look at in a post.  Very few people like to read a post without having a picture.
When we moved into this house about 6 years ago this area was just grass and weeds.  I had this wheel barrow that I found about 20 years ago half buried in the ground and wanted to incorporate it into my landscaping.  It has some holes in it but I put some landscape fabric under the dirt so it would not fall through.  I always plant wave petunias in it because they fill out so nicely and are fairly inexpensive.  Plus I let the kids pick the colors so they are different every year.  I think I may have spent $14 total for the flowers.  The rest of the flowers and hostas were given to me or I transplanted from other areas in the yard.
I freshen up the mulch every year (I prefer the red shredded mulch).  There is a few trees that drop all these tiny leaves which you can see in the picture.  Doesn't make for the best picture but I still think it looks pretty.  Normally we have landscape lights around here but my husband has been working so much he hasn't had time to get them out yet.