Dumb Daisies and Rusty Gold

As the growing season comes to an end, I want to share a little garden project and thrift victory from the spring/summer. 

A couple of years ago, I found this funky mid century plant stand at my favorite thrift store, Bethesda, near my sister's place in Horicon.  It was half off day, so it was only $2.50 - my kind of deal!  You can find a few of these for sale on Etsy most of the time for anywhere from $60-$120.  I'm no Mike Wolfe, but the rusty iron doesn't scare me.  I like stuff like that in the garden.

 Here's some rusty iron that's been in my garden for many years.  Is that a treble clef?

Anyway, back to the round plant stand that sat buried in the back corner of our shed for several years.  I'm sure my husband wanted to get rid of it.  In fact, I think I remember him saying, "Let me get rid of this thing."  Oh, but I could be confused with so many other times I've heard him say that.  Ha ha.  Cleaning it with brush and suds in the basement stationary tub was the hardest part.

Some spray paint and the job was done.

Of  course it looked better when the flowers filled in... except for the darn daisies which were custom chosen for that spot because of their height.  Anyone know why they never bloomed again all summer?  There were even buds that never opened!

Good luck with all your thrift store treasures, your daisies, and

fending off the discarding desires of your significant other!

Flower Chair Makeover

Ok, back to improving the curb appeal of our old house.

I thought with the age of my house, 

I might be able to pull off quaint and cottagey. 

I had an old chair and decided to make a chair planter.

I also wanted to reinforce my turquoise and lime green color scheme.

Remember my polka dot pots from a post ago?

 

 Here's the ladder back chair that had seen better days.

Time to send that seat completely on it's way.

We got the chair from a bare wood place and stained it ourselves -- at least 26 years or so ago.  That's our oldest son, Lars sitting on it in the first picture and he looks like he's about 2?  Maybe?  On the right is Lars currently and he's going to be 28 in a couple of weeks.  Where did that time go?  Anyway, that's how old the chair is.  And no, he didn't know he was flipping the bird in the toddler picture.  Totally an accident.  By the way, are any of you Elton John fans?  If so, you might recognize what's behind toddler Lars... but I'll come back to that later.

Here's what I did:  since I wanted a rustic look,

I didn't even sand the chair to start with - just slapped

on some craft paint (color mixed to my preference.)

Made sure not to get it into every crevice.

I rubbed the "wear" points until the paint came off

to give the chair a weathered look.

Then I wanted to have words on the ladder back.  I came up with something Emerson wrote that seemed apropos, printed it out on the computer (in outline to save ink) and taped it on the chair, cutting between the letters at intervals to go with the curve of the slats.

Then I inserted graphite paper under the words.  Graphite paper is like a pencil version of carbon paper which may be an old school reference now that I think about it.  Graphite paper is a tissue that has a pencil coating on one side and when written on, leaves graphite on the surface pressed.  And it's pencil so it erases if need be.  Graphite paper is available at most craft stores, drafting supply places and artist supplies.

Then I just painted in the words with a small brush.  You may not see it in this picture, but I also added a shadow on the left side of the letters because they needed to pop a little.  When all the painting was done, I took the chair outside and sprayed several coats of marine varnish on it in hopes of helping it withstand the Wisconsin summer rains.  Ha ha -  this year we are in the middle of a drought and everything is dying or dead.  Our grass is crunchy and yellow.  We need those summer rains pretty badly right now.

It was my goal to keep the chair planter from looking like a potty chair.  Sorry, but that's what I think of when I see some of these... especially if the flower buckets are deep... and show.  I purchased a shallow yet wide wire hanging plant bowl and spray painted it turquoise.  Then I used the chain (with hooks on each end conveniently) from the hanger and connected it across the seat forming a slack chain triangle and rested the bowl on it.  It worked perfectly.  The chair looks like flowers are spilling from the seat not growing from a potty chair bowl.  Yay!  Another thing... I could not find a hanging plant that I liked - colorwise.  Good thing, because all those have those deep bucket bowls.  Anyway, I ended up planting my own because I wanted LOTS of different colors.  As it is, you cannot see the blue lobelia and the orange marigolds.  I wanted tons of color and some ivies to twine up the back - which are headed that way.  

Anyway, I hope you like my chair planter.

And the thing behind little Lars?

It's a giant (at least six foot square) replica of an Elton John

album cover that we got from the front of

a local Peaches record store back in the 80s.

(Hubby has been a huge EJ fan since high school.)

UPDATE:  Here's how the chair looked about a month later.

From Lilacs to Lilies

Hi.

It's been a while.

My biggest gap in 18 months of blogging.

 In the meantime,
my lilacs, wild roses, peonies, hollyhocks and daylilies
have all bloomed.  

Have you given up on me?

 

 I don't really want to talk about it,

but there has been a lot of turmoil in my life and in the lives of

many Wisconsinites involved in education and/or politics.

I am involved in both.

Partisan politics has stampeded into our local level like never before. 

Civility is dead in Wisconsin.

Even our supreme court justices are at eachother's throats... literally.

There is such division.  It's depressing.

I've missed my blog, but it's true that I blog less
when I'm unhappy, stressed and worried.

Serving out the remaining 8 months of my 4th+ and last term on the school board will be difficult, but I'm sure I will get through it with the help of wonderful people, good friends, and my amazing family.  By then I will have served 13 years on the school board trying to do my best for Menomonee Falls.  Maybe that 13th year has proven to be quite unlucky.  Perhaps I should have resigned last summer as planned (to get going on my shop), but I felt sure this would be a calm, quiet year.  I could not have been more wrong.

Anyway... enough.

I am more than ready to try to get back to what makes me happy

and there my efforts will be applied before my fall flowers start blossoming.

I have been getting busier and busier in the sewing room.  You'll love the new patterns and fabrics I've gotten my hands on.  I now plan to devote every possible moment to getting as much vintage yardage stitched up into very fun clothes for my Etsy shop conversion.  Here is where you will hear about those exploits and as little as possible about being president of the school board.

Tro-lo-lo-lius

Yellow shade blooming flowers seem rare... but I'm no expert.

That's why I love my little trolius  or globe flower.

The little blooms are sunny and brighten up the shade

in my lily-of-the-valley garden.

p.s.  Yes, the title of this post is a nod to the Tro-lo-lo guy on YouTube.  Now that the entire family  (including 5 people between the ages of 15 and 25) is back under the same roof, I'm surrounded by youth and they think this guy is funny.

And when you're done watching him, watch the Tro-lo-lo cat. 

Laughter -- the best medicine. 

Stop and Smell the Lilacs

Oh my gosh!  If my sister thinks I have an obsession with fabric, my daughter KNOWS I have an obsession with lilacs.  I can't go on a drive this time of year without breaking out in raptures every time I see a bank of lilacs in bloom.  "Oh look at those!  You could bring in a huge bouquet every day and never put a dent in them!!!"  That, of course, is my dream.  A fresh armful of lilacs every day for the duration of their way too short blooming period.   Sigh... I love spring.   I LOVE lilacs - their gorgeous color and incredibly perfect scent!   It's a stab in the heart when I start to see the brown tinge creep in as they start fading away.

When we moved into this old house there was one mangy white lilac plop in the middle of the back yard.  All by itself dead center.  It had probably been there for decades.   I worked on improving it for years.   I put flagstones around it.  I mulched it.   The poor white lilac looked better but was still spindly and the leaves got dusty and black on the edges. The blooms were weak.  I tried spraying it.  I pruned carefully.  Nothing helped.  Finally, my oldest son removed it one day with a shovel and an axe.  It was a sad but necessary day.  I couldn't watch.

 Eventually I planted a new lilac.  

I fell in love with it's tiny purple petals trimmed in white when I saw it in the nursery: "Sensation" lilac - a French hybrid.

 Now it's grown enough that I can bring some bouquets into the house... 

but not every day.

And every year, it never fails that there is one rebellious sprig on the bush that insists on being white.  Probably the exception to the hybridization - the recessive sprig...  or maybe it's the ghost of white lilacs past.

Signs of Fall

 It's been chilly and rainy all week.  Here's a little reminder for myself and everybody else that autumn is a beautiful time of the year.  P.S.  If you have any ideas what to do with all the concord grapes, leave a comment.  P.S.S.  No, I don't know how the jack-o-lantern totem pole came to wear the viking helmet, but it's been his favorite hat for years... and this year with Brett Farve on the Vikings it's especially questionable attire in Wisconsin.