Sunday, April 15, 2018

That did not take long......

I was prepared to spend the next several months looking for the fourth Hazel Atlas "alphabet" tumbler, call it luck, but one popped up on Ebay right away! And I grabbed it FAST! 

And I love it!


Love having a set completed, now what to go after next?


And I sort of scored at my favorite indoor flea market. These Esso mugs have been sitting at my favorite indoor flea market for months, as a matter of fact. I bought the bowls that were sitting with the mug set months ago. Every time I went back to the flea market they were still sitting there and I stopped and looked at them, then passed them by because they were selling as a set and I did not want six mugs. I suspect  that may have been why they were still sitting there months later, no one else wanted all six mugs either. Well, I finally just bit the bullet and bought the entire set. Works out to 5.00 each which, based on my research is pretty much the going rate, so, not a bargain, but not a bad price either. And my husband and son like them as well, win/win I say.


And we finally (almost) finished our front porch update. I still need to stain the main posts, (if it ever stops raining) I am really happy with how it turned out. It was in desperate need of an update.



And finally, what is going on in the workshop? Well, I did get a bunch of new herb markers hammered out and delivered to the Basement. And, I decided to make a couple new boxes. Only one has sold so far, so it is not like they are flying off the shelves. But I wondered if it was because they were stained and not painted, or if it was because they had specific herbs attached. So, I am making two more, bigger, square, painted (soft ivory) and probably with a handle of some kind attached, making them almost basket like. I plan to put more general spoons on this set like, flower garden or kitchen herbs, maybe that will be more like what people are looking for, not everyone loves the look of stained wood as much as I do. 



Sales at the basement have been ok,  but we have had such a cold wet spring, I don't think anyone is getting out as much as they usually do, and no one is out gardening. Hoping as the weather starts to warm up we will see sales pick up with the temps!

Until next time, hope you are having a great week!

Monday, April 9, 2018

Knocking those Spring projects out....

We are not having the prettiest Spring. But looking at the weather channel, is anybody having a pretty Spring?

I have decided that this is not a bad thing because since it is so cold and nasty, we are having no problem throwing on our coats and working outside on yard cleanup and projects. I am sure that once it does warm up, I will be so happy to have my front porch complete and my she shack back together. 

First project to finish up, the address blocks!

Leftover wood from our front port column project, I just thought they would be fun as address blocks. Love how they turned out! I think they are just a fun kind of funky addition to the porch.


Originally I had painted our front porch shutters as part of the make over, I was not thrilled about painting them because I really wanted new wood shutters, but I was not willing to spend the 500+ to buy them. But once I painted the shutters what turned out to be a painful garish raspberry color (oh so NOT the Oxblood I had picked out~bad paint mixing I think) my husband decided, yup, he can build wood shutters. The style I wanted was very simple, and he was able to make them very quickly and easily for a grand total of 50.00. Much better than the original price estimate. I stained them this past weekend and we should have them up this week. Cannot wait. All that is left is staining the columns and a good pressure wash and I will be able to do the fun decorating part and the front porch will be finished and ready for Spring!


Surprisingly, the continued cold weather has not really bothered me for some reason. I am still content wearing my hoodies and baking muffins. But what is bugging me is that my poor violets are taking a beating. They keep trying to come back, but after two nights of hard freezes, I counted myself lucky to be able to salvage a nice little bundle. I like to get at least one good violet picture each Spring!


And my poor tomato seedlings.....they are surviving and looking pretty good, but, they are looking pretty wild and squiggly, they need some good sunshine so they will stand up straight! But I am excited at the prospect of having some beautiful tomatoes this summer!


The other thing about the weather staying cool, I don't feel bad spending time inside at my favorite indoor flea market, made a couple trips......more on that soon!

Hope you are keeping warm and looking forward to when we finally get some nice Spring weather!