Mulch Better

I didn't take any pictures last week during my wallowing, so I don't really have proper before photos for you of the never ending landscaping project that we've been working on.  Here's a very old picture that shows the area we've been working on.  Look how young SB and the Princess are!

Those shrubs up against the house blocked the view and had to go.  Plus the hill had crept up onto our house over the years with the dirt now 8" above our home's foundation.  Our yard needed regrading, and the weeds had gotten out of control.  Check out the craziness behind the hostas.

CG & WD spent countless man hours digging out our yard, one shovelful at a time, and built a new retaining wall using stone from our neighbor's yard that she wanted hauled away.

An afternoon was spent weeding(I cleaned up about 15 sq feet before the mosquitos chased me inside,) and  we picked up a couple of vans full of mulch.  We were lucky enough to find several busted open bags that were only $1.50 each.

And here's where it stands right now.  I found boxes of solar landscape lights clearanced at Lowe's, and they now light up the pathways.  We still need to seed our lawn, but we're getting there.

Thanks for popping in and working in the yard with us(mostly CG & WD, but I kept them well fed.)

Scrub a Dub Dub - More Outdoor Sprucing Up

*It's not to late to enter my Picture Letter Art giveaway here*

It's been blazing hot lately, and hot on the east coast means humid, heavy, drippy, sticky hot air.  This means we've been getting a ton of pool use.  Snuggle Bunny and the Princess have been spending hours in the pool during the day, and Whirling Dervish has been using it in the evening with his friends.

We love seeing all the kids using the pool, because there have been years where we've spent several hundred dollars on pool chemicals and maintenance only to use it a couple of times all summer.  The water has been crystal clear, and high 70s because of the solar heater, and the sound of the diving board has been pretty constant.  Unfortunately the diving board base was looking pretty scary.

Eek, right?  It was looking like we should have a tetanus booster shot at the ready, and the yucky outdoor carpet surrounding it was covered in a carpet of moss.  Yuck.  First thing I did was pull up that yucky carpet, and pull out the sandpaper for a good sanding to get all the rust and bits of flaky paint off.

I then taped off the top of the board, and pulled out the spray paint.  1 coat of primer, and 2 coats of white.

Here it is all shiny and new again.  No more need for tetanus waivers.

Thanks for popping in and painting with me.  Don't forget to come back this Thursday for my Before Blogging party you can read more about it here.

Using Your Noodle

Happy Thrifting Day Everyone!  I won't be attending one of the big group thrifting events, because my cousin is getting married today.  Still in the spirit of Thrifting Day, I thought I'd share a thrifty DIY project.

The boys have been getting good use out of the pool this year.  SB has actually been going in and swimming. 

For those of you who don't know us personally - this is huge.  SB has never been comfortable in water.  He was born with such bad eczema, that we never put him in a tub.  We'd sponge bathe him, but he was never actually in water until his skin had started to be less dry.  We still need a prescription cream, but his skin is doing much better.  This has led him to never be the fish that WD was until this year.  He's now enjoying the water, and it's just about time to pull the swim vest off of him, but for that we need to keep him in the shallow end.  The pool I grew up with at my parent's house had a buoy line between the shallow & deep ends.

I googled buoy lines, and was shocked at the prices.  $120-$150 for a couple of pool floats on a rope?  What?!

I was stumped.  Obviously the kids' safety is my utmost concern, but staying on budget is always a concern too.  That's when I came across 20 ways to use Pool Noodles over at Design Dazzle.  Toni didn't have 'make a buoy line' as one of the ideas, but as soon as I saw some of the creative projects, I immediately thought buoy line.  So I grabbed a pool noodle from the pool shed and a pair of scissors.

I threaded it on some utility line from the garage and knotted it at intervals to keep the buoys in place along the width of the pool.

And here's my line stretched out across the pool

dividing the shallow from the deep.

Hopefully SB will be swimming floatie-free soon, and the improvised buoy line can be packed away.  I had all the materials on hand, but noodles can be bought for $1 and the rope can be found at the dollar store, too.  Not a bad way to save over $100.

Thanks for stopping by and DIYing with me.  I'm linking this up to Home Stories of A to Z's Tips & Tutorials Tuesday.

A Little Mood Lighting

I love HomeGoods.  I may not buy something every time I'm in there, but I do love to hunt for those extra good bargains, and they have them by the buckets full. 

I'd been searching for some outdoor mood lighting.  I wanted some kind of hanging pendant for our gazebo seen here.  It needed to be candle powered because I didn't want to be running extension cords, and most of all it needed to be cheap, because I hate to separate from my money.  So look what I found red-tagged the other day.(Ignore the bungee cord, I'll find a better solution.)

Isn't she purty?

And all lit up for evening.

Magical isn't it?  Love the light & shadows it throws off.  Loved the $8 price tag even more.

Thanks for popping in and checking out my newest thrifty purchase.

Outdoor Tea Time

It's officially summer.  I realize the summer solstice was last week, but summer doesn't actually start until both kids are out of school.  Yesterday was the first day of having SB home on what would have been a school day.  Summer means entertaining outdoors, so I made a simple runner down the middle of the table with some bamboo placemats, and put out some fun fruit plates.  I love these bavarian dishes that used to belong to CG's great aunt.  Underneath them are some ironstone dishes that I snagged from HomeGoods.

When it's hot, our tea of choice is iced sweet tea & lemon.  I served this in my amber cut glass pitcher last seen filled with peonies here.

The iced tea glasses were these collectible Pom glasses.  I loved the glasses so much, that I had to buy a Pom juice everytime I was at the grocery just for the glass.

You can't have a high tea without some tea sandwiches.  These are served on a Limoges tray.

There were also fresh homemade doughnuts,

blueberry muffins, and chocolate doughnut holes.

I kept this tablescape pretty simple, because this is who was enjoying the high tea:  SB

and his best friend, the Princess.  Yay, to the first day of summer and 2 more months of swimming, playing, and goofing off.

Yes, she has lettuce in her teeth, but she was also very appreciative of the "fancy" meal.

Incidentally the Princess asked what I was doing when I was taking pics of the iced tea, and I responded, "I'm taking pictures for my blog."  SB piped in with, "Yeah, she does that a lot."

Thanks for popping in and having tea with me & the kids.