Naked Yard Party

We moved into Blessings House in the middle of the summer.  The yard was my husbands every dream come true.  In  his estimable opinion a yard only needs one thing to be perfect with a capital P.  NICE GRASS.  And nice grass we had.  Little else.

In faith, dreaming of a lush garden of Eden, minus the snake, I had used my birthday/anniversary/Mothers Day money to have a flowerbed cut into the front side walkway and driveway.  It looked like this.

I'm sure those dandy concrete planters caught your eye.  I rescued from the curb of an ancient victorian house being stripped.  The pair were a wee bit chipped and black, but a round or two of spray paint froofied them right up.  They now stand guard at the steps of the front entryway.  Those babies weighed about a thousand pounds each.    You just gotta love strangers who will help fetch and carry for you when you need it.

Then I threw a Naked Yard Party.  I sent out a whiny pitiful explanation of my naked yard and invited folks to dig up a piece of something they had plenty of, in exchange for food and non-inebriating libations.  Some folks did just that.  Dug up some green leafy things.  Others grabbed a pot of something from the store.  All were welcome.

Next spring/summer we welcomed this.... the blue and white planters are my version of treasure.  They are stinking hard to find so if you see any snatch them up for me.  Pretty Please with sugar on top.

Ordered bulbs from ebay that fall and was thrilled and delighted the next summer with this

 

Never one to be hindered or hampered by conventional rules, I planted tomato, lettuce and carrots right there in the front along with the flowers.  It was lovely to walk out and pick our salad fixins fresh while cutting flowers for the table.

There was one hitch... Miss Reagan accidentally transplanted one of her Russian Giant sunflowers into the front flowerbed.  It looked like a TREE.  Seriously.  People would slow down and stare at the monstrosity of a sunflower growing up into the heavens like a modern day Jack's beanstalk.  Brent is 6'4 and it dwarfed him.

I will not go into horrifying detail  concerning my removal of the evergreen bushes near the front porch.  Lets just say that Honey Pie said it couldn't be done.  I proved it could.  Unfortunately their removal resulted in water coming in through the window well.  Something about roots sucking up rain water and when the roots were no more the water had to go somewhere else.  Who knew? Let's just say the pleasure of being RIGHT, for once, was overshadowed by the water ruining stuff in my sewing room.  Urggg. 

So if YOU have a naked yard of your own..... have a Naked Yard Party and fill 'er up.

The Art of Frugality

Use it up, wear it out.  Make it do or do without.  Old words that ring truer than ever in these days.  Coming from my red-neck, mostly-second-hand-everything childhood I am a born repurposer.  I am sure that I cut my first teeth on someones garage sale table while my mother found a treasure for our home.  I have a long and proud heritage of second handing and repurposing.  


Today I want to share with you a repurposed thrift store find.    It was a leather coat that had seen better days, frayed edges and worn seams.  It's days as a coat were over, but it had plenty of wear yet as ... drum roll please....shoes!

I love the Bobux & Robeez boutique leather  & cloth soft shoes.  They are comfy, they fit Baby G's chubby little foot like a glove and they are so stinking cute.  I have several pair, cutsy ones for wearing to church and around town.  But, more is more girl that I am... I wanted more. 


So I found (free) patterns for them, cut up the  thrift store suede jacket and viola!  Baby G has some run-around-the house shoes. 

I experimented a bit on these two pair, adding in some blue ultra suede and pieces of an old leather skirt.  They are a little cuter than the first pair... but still woefully unbeautiful.   Hopefully I'll get better with practice and he'll have some cuter ones soon.  

Check out the free pattern and step by step instructions at  http://www.tackyliving.com/article.php?id=121
and try your own hand at it.


For AMAZING photos of other peoples BEAUTIFUL work look here   http://www.flickr.com/groups/bittybooties/

You are going to have to live with it.

Hubby is one of THOSE people.
He measures everything.
I eyeball it.
His way is right.
My way is right.

He gets HIVES when he sees a new, gasp in horror, nail hole.
I figure that the offending hole will soon be covered by my project!


He came home one day to discover my newest domestic endeavor.
A a faux antiqued mirror to go over the mantle.
Nailed to the wall.
Eyeball measured.
He might near fainted.

It looked good to me.
It just could NOT be perfectly centered.  He was sure.
He measured.
It was 1/16th of an inch off.

He grimaced, in actual mental distress.
Then told me with firm conviction...
"You are going to have to LIVE with this"and walked off,
He was right.  I am happy.

Imperfection, imitations.
These are good enough for my house,
but not my heart.
May I always be able to know the difference between
what is real
what is just for show.

May I always remember that some things
done imperfectly
I will have to live with
forever.