This Moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo-no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."SouleMama". 

Lawn Furniture Makeover

I'm skipping posting about our secret project this week to show you this project instead. I have often dreamed and drooled over new fancy lawn furniture sets in garden magazines, but we can't justify dolling out enough to buy a new car just for chairs that sit outside.. So I dream on.

This is what our patio furniture looked like. Two different colors of stained plastic. Ugly and boring.. But functional. We also have a rocking love-seat and table made out of extremely silver and weathered wood. ( I forgot to take a before picture of those).

After some new paint and cushions (Made out of a patio love-seat cushion we bought on clearance last fall), our patio now could fit in quite nicely in any garden magazine. The red pot is actually a bubble pot fountain that retails around $80, but we snagged it at a local thrift store for $4! They thought it was a strawberry planter of some sort. Now I can listen to the sound of running water again ( I miss our pond and waterfall).

Just one last view. Everything looks so fresh now. I love our new/old patio furniture. Even the gazebo was a thrift find. Our gazebo was crushed under the weight of an ice storm followed by a blizzard the night our son was born. I found a replacement on Craigslist cheep. I needed to sew the canvas and create a new top piece, but it turned out rather well. A new Patio set for under $40!

Be well and thrift on!. 

Morning, Noon, and Night

Playing along with Mothering With Mindfulness today.

Three little windows into our day

 Morning: Homemade Dairy free Chai Tea, strawberries, gluten free toast, and Scrambled eggs with sauteed Morel mushrooms (found on a nature hike Sunday), topped with fresh chives from the garden. Heaven!

Afternoon: Work in Progress...

Night: View out our dining room window.. Flowers in the rain.. All you can see is blossoms and all you can smell is Apple blossoms right now (crab apple that is). The trees are so thick and mashed up against the house. I love it!

Thanks for visiting. Be well. 

A Letter to my Son

Dear Son,

This was such a beautiful weekend I'm not even sure where to begin. You went on your first Morel Mushroom hunt. It was your Poppy's birthday. We had many MANY gardening projects this weekend. We filled a kiddie pool for you and you tore around the back yard giggling, naked as a Jay bird, going anywhere but in the water, and you were happy and exhausted at the end of each day. This sweet picture was captured by your Poppy and I'm so glad he caught it. You love to imitate and shadow me. This morning I went to fill your little watering can up and when I turned around you were struggling to bring me my watering can (which is almost as big as you are) to be filled. It was such a sweet moment. One that I never want to forget. So I guess that is what I am choosing to share with you in this letter. You are such a sweet soul. I am so proud and honored to be able to call myself your Mum. I love you, shine on,

Love, Mum~

Stage 3: Mushrooms!

Stage 3 of fixing the scar in our yard. In the corner of the fence where our waterfall used to be is a jumble of rocks and a broken birdbath. I liked the way the sedum grew up around the rocks, softening, and enhancing them. I also knew that there had to be a use for that broken birdbath. 

I saw a neat trick on Pinterest, and gathered up some bowls from my son's kitchen. He has other wood bowls so I knew he would not miss these. I found them at a thrift store several years ago when I was living in an apartment. 

 I painted them up....

And using wood glue and screws I attached one to the bird bath and the others to logs of birch... And we have Giant Mushrooms. Already they have met with the neighbor children's approval. Can you guess what we are doing with this scar yet? More coming next week.....

Be well. 

Morning, Noon, Night,and Letter

Playing along with Mothering With Mindfulness today.

Three little windows into our day with a letter to my son because I was unable to type his weekly letter yesterday.

Dear Son,
Every morning I watch the Sun dance along your cheeks as you wake. Today as I watched the Sun on my Son I made the choice to soak as much of that golden light up today as we could.

In the afternoon you picked the "pretty yellow flowers" by the fistfuls out of our lawn. You have a fascination with flowers right now. Of all the flowers in my garden you are the most beautiful and graceful one dancing in the breeze; arms outstretched to the Sun. 

And tonight as the Sun started to lower in the sky we munched on finger sandwiches in the gazebo. I think the Sun is staying up a little longer tonight just to see you glowing a little longer. So now we must begin our evening rhythms so the Sun remembers it's time for him to lower his golden head for sleep for the night. Tomorrow you will play with the Sun once more. Good night my darling, sunny, golden boy. I love you. Shine on.

Love, Mum~

Stage 2: DIY Plastic Butterflies

Here we are. Stage 2 of our plan to fix the scar in our yard. Chain length fences are ugly. They are. It's a fact. The only thing you can do is tear them out or decorate them. So I've opted to decorate them. I used floral wire to attach butterflies made from plastic bottles and acrylic jewels to our fence. They catch the light so beautifully. I thought up this neat idea last week... But as my mother was so happy to point out, other people have already thought of this, Oh well. So I've posted below several links on how other people made their butterflies and how I made mine.

I cut the flat sides off of a water jug/milk jug (and recycled the rest). Any plastic container will do, this is just what I had on hand. 

Next, Draw your butterfly shapes.

Cut your shapes out and then use sand paper to rough them up a bit in circular motions. Whenever painting plastic it's a good idea to sand the plastic a bit first to give it a bit of grit for the paint to hold on to. 

Then paint your butterflies. I used acrylic paint and then sealed them with a thick diamond gloss finish.

That's it!

Below are some links to show how other people made theirs:

http://www.thecraftycrow.net/2012/04/plastic-milk-carton-butterflies.htmlhttp://alphamom.com/family-fun/crafts/milk-jug-decorative-window-crafts/

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/recycling-crafts/recycled-bottle-butterflies.shtml

http://childcentralstation.com/2010/07/laundry-soap-bottle-butterflies.html
Sorry for the weird font and color thing. I was having a hard time fixing it with blogger. The last link has a neat 3D butterfly that I am tempted to make. I want to cover my whole fence with these. As for other people having this same idea.. Well I guess it's true what they say.. Great minds think alike. hehehe.
Have fun, Be well, and Shine on!