Snow family -since its freezing cold here right now.... where did spring go?

We took our snow family down last weekend. We made them out of recycled 1 x 4's, and other recycled objects. I did buy the snowflakes and star shapes, but everything else is recycled, and repurposed. The male stands 7' 2" tall at the top of his hat. We displayed them standing in our arbor, with snowflake lights hanging overhead, and white lights wrapped around the arbor. We enjoyed making them, and enjoy seeing them when we come home from work during the winter. I hope you like them.

Red bird in the daisies

I decided to paint our recent yard bird red. I have "planted" him in the daisies, where he will soon be perching among a sea of yellow. I think he'll look cute there.

My new gazebo

Those who know me personally, know that I love to re-purpose, recycle, and give new life to existing items that have outlived their usefulness. When I bought my house 28 years ago, I was a newly divorced mother of three little girls. We didn't have enough money to pay basic expenses, let alone buy things to make our house or yard more inviting. I had to be creative. When I see things that appeal to me, I figure out how I can create something similar using "junk" and little or zero money.

A couple years ago I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to find an old corncrib to convert into a gazebo for my yard. Her husband is a farmer and knew of one that needed to be torn down. But then I went to europe for the summer (for work) and didn't get it. She said they were going to tear it down.

My friend’s husband called me one night last week. He said he had a corncrib for me, and wanted me to come look at it. I went and looked at the corncrib Saturday afternoon. It was about 20' tall, and he wanted to keep the bottom half. So we decided we would cut if off just above the doorway, and I would take the top. Don't you know he called me Saturday night, said he had it cut apart, loaded on a hay wagon, and wanted to deliver it Sunday morning. I said you're kidding! I thought you were going to call when you were ready to work on it....

So, Sunday morning the corncrib arrived. My friend's husband's father followed him pulling a trailer with a tractor.

They had to trim my 129 year old weeping willow tree in order to get the crib under it. Darn it. :) That thing has been plaguing me with several low hanging dead limbs for a couple years and our chain saw never wants to run when I get in the mood to trim it. So, don't you know, the dad who is late 70's - early 80's has his chainsaw with him, and HE goes up on the forks and trims large limbs out of the willow. While, all the youngsters stand BACK and watch. He was amazing.

They had trouble maneuvering the tractor around my trees, so we ended up pushing the wagon across the yard, then a couple people pulled the wagon out while the rest of us picked up the corncrib and sat it on the ground. Thanks to my daughters, their men, my sister, her husband & my nephew, we had a large crew and were prepared to "man" handle the corncrib as needed.

I felt like it was Christmas thanks to my friend’s husband, his father, and my friend’s son. I can’t thank them enough for taking the time, and spending their day so I could finally have my unique gazebo.
I'll post more pics in the coming weeks as we level it, repair the roof, install some sort of flooring (either stone, brick, gravel or wood) and start enjoying it as a functional gazebo.

I’d love to hear what you think of my idea, and welcome any ideas you have for finishing it. I can always use ideas.

Oh yeah, these are our found object birds. Soon they will be knee deep in hosta and ferns. They look really cute then.

new gazebo

I've been soooo busy. I'll try to post on my new gazebo in the coming days. It's very unique. Check back for an update.

style on a budget - before and after chandelier

Hi,
I've been wanting to update my kitchen chandelier for quite some time. Everytime I find something I like, I either can't afford it, or I can't see spending that much money on it. So, here is my solution.
I found this brass chandelier at our local Habitat for Humanity restore. I liked the shape, but not the shiny brass. As you can see the price was within my budget, ($15.00) and the dust was free.

I took it home, took off the bulbs and white collor things that simulate candles, and taped the sockets so they didn't get clogged with paint. I purchased some flat black paint, hung the light in the garage, and sprayed numerous very light coats of paint. Once I was confident I hadn't missed any spots I added some finish.

Now I have to get it installed. Once I do, I'll post a picture of it in my kitchen, so you can see how good it looks with my decor. I think it looks great, and it conly ost me $23.00 total.

Thanks for stopping by.

Folk art lamp - need help

I need some help. Hubby and I made this lamp out of an old windmill my father had. I don't know how to do the lampshade to compliment the base.
Question: Is the copper section between the base the light too long?
What would you suggest I do to the shade? Does the shade need to be longer? This is just an old shade I had laying around, and I'm not happy with the shape, size,.... Help! I need ideas.

Pleaes ignore our ugly carpet. Now that the dog has died, I plan to rip it up as soon as the weather warms up and refinish the wood floors underneath.

Dreaming of warm weather

found object dragonflies

Here are pictures of a few of my found object dragonflies. I make them out of found objects, so each one is unique.














This is how some of my dragonflies begin. As a broken chair spindle, or chair leg.