4 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Backyard & Get Into The Summer Groove

The weather is warming up, love is in the air, literally (Venus is transiting the sun)…and the thing on everyone's mind is spending time outdoors.

Now, what's the state of your backyard?

If it's anything like mine, it's time for a friendly reminder about how easy it is to makeover your outdoor space using craigslist. What does your heart, or garden, desire? Here are some ideas...

4 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Backyard & Get Into The Summer Groove

1. Clean up.
Hire a guy to power wash your deck or patio (http://neworleans.craigslist.org/hss/3028881337.html) and team to clean your gutters and windows (http://spokane.craigslist.org/hss/3022876426.html).

2. Grow baby grow.
Have garden mulch delivered to your backyard (http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/fgs/3012827831.html), get worms for your garden or compost (http://ocala.craigslist.org/grq/3001165841.html), and score a free planter box (http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/zip/3057372086.html) and trade seeds and plants (http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/act/2966928312.html).

3. Decorate.
Replace your rusty patio chairs with a lovely teak furniture set (http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/fuo/3050360761.html), create your own stepping-stone path (http://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/grd/3059334432.html), and set the nighttime mood with an outdoor fireplace (http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/for/3040332009.html).

4. Get your grill on.
Find yourself a mint condition weber grill (http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/for/3057726144.html), grill accessories—hat, mitt, apron—with your favorite sports team logo (http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/art/3007833009.html), and tips to make the perfect hamburger (https://forums.craigslist.org/?SQ=hamburger&act=RSR&forumID=22).

*It's very important to take the same common sense precautions online as you would offline. Read all of the craigslist safety tips (http://www.craigslist.org/about/safety and familiarize yourself with common online scams (http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams).

Happy Summer,
Beth

Beth Cook
Best Public Relations
www.bestpr.net
@bethalicecook


Thanks, Beth, for all the great tips and ideas!  I've been browing Craigslist a LOT in the past week or so looking for inexpensive ways to dress up our back patio and our front porch.  Have you ever found an amazing deal on Craigslist?

Updating an Old Bistro Set with Rustoleum

I have this area in front of my house that the previous owners used to have a bench in.  I'm not a big fan of the area, and eventually I'd like to just extend the porch.  However, until then, I just have to live with it. 

It's not such a bad little area, I just don't really care for the design in the rocks without there being anything in there to make it look like it has a design for a reason...and, my husband put in fresh mulch on the other side of the house, so the bright red mulch kind of clashes to me with the burgundy rocks.  What do you think?

My husband LIKES the rocks, so I can't just change them out yet.  It's not often that he voices any opinion on decorating or home improvement projects (he usually just lets me have free reign and if I'm happy, he's happy) so I'd like to respect his wishes when he does.  I was thinking of maybe scooping out the burgundy rocks and adding more red mulch in just those areas and keeping the grey rocks.  Compromise, right?

I had a little wood and metal bistro set that we got as a gift about eight years ago.  It was definitely showing it's age.  It didn't really fit out on our current back patio, so for now I decided to give it a little update and put it out front so that area wasn't just empty.  Eventually I will get a bench to go there instead, and further on down the road some rocking chairs or a porch swing once we extend the porch.  When that happens, the bistro set will just go in the back yard.  It needed updating either way.  :o)

Our shutters are black so I picked up a can of Rustoleum in Satin Black so it would coordinate.  I figured it would be durable for an outside project.  I purchased this at Lowe's, and while I was there, I was picking up some spray paint for another project and saw this!

Rustoleum's Universal Hammered spray paint in black.  I thought it might be fun to try out and use on the metal parts of the bistro set.  I didn't even tape off the wood first, since I was going to paint it black anyway.  I sprayed all the metal with with this stuff.  It was so fun to spray it on and watch it "hammer" up!  Very neat.  I love the look.

After I let that dry, I used a brush to paint the wood.  This project took only one day to paint, super fast and easy.

I let it dry over night, and in the morning I gave the whole set a quick coat of clear poly (used a spray paint form I already had one hand).

While I had the brush and the paint out for the bistro set, I decided to update this old picnic table a little too.  I grew up with this picnic table, my dad built it when I was a kid.  I couldn't find the sander to smooth it out before I started, but oh well!  :o)

I need to take a finished picture of this picnic table and of the bistro set out front, haha.  Sometimes I forget to do that! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Roses from my sweet husband!

From my girls, beautiful cards, hand crafted flower magnets, homemade pots with flowers to plant, and even cakes they decorated themselves!

My husband's mom came to spend the day with us, my husband picked up Chinese food for dinner so I didn't have to cook, and we spent the day lazing around, chatting, and watching movies.

What a great Mother's Day!

Yes, I back-dated this.  It's my blog, I am allowed!  :o)

Tooth Fairy Gets to Come Again!

She's getting so big!  :o)

Living Room Photo Collage

I have been on a mission to get my living room decorated.  I love the look of photo collages hanging up, with mismatched frames. 

I also knew I wanted to tie in more blue, green, and white to brighten up the newly painted beige walls and the brown couches. 

So, I took a quick trip to the craft store where I found some pretty scrapbook paper, and decided I liked having the letter "M" around as well, since that's what our last name starts with. 

I shopped the house for frames that weren't really being used, and sat down on the floor to play around with layouts that might work.  I settled on one and then got to work painting my frames.  I did most of them with a quick coat of white spray paint.  They are NOT perfect, as I was going for a bit of a shabby chic look. 

I decided to paint the glass in the biggest frame with chalkboard paint, as well as the glass in a smaller frame.  I was thinking of doing the "M" Family, and "Est. 2004."  Love the way it turned out!

So, I knew it was going to be tricky to hang up all of these frames without poking a million holes in my newly painted wall...and I really didn't want that.  So, Pinterest to the rescue!  Found a great tip that was originally posted at Blissfully Domestic. 

I took an old roll of wrapping paper and traced everything!

I made sure to write which frames I had traced since some are similar sizes and I wanted them if specific places.  I poked in the holes where the nails would go on the frames too.

Then I got to work putting the traced papers up on my wall with some easily removable tape. I put all the nails in right through the paper once I got everything where I wanted it, then just pulled the paper off the wall right before I put the frame up! So easy! 

My helper is pretty cute, huh? :o)

Almost done!  My last touch was to change out all of the pictures in the frames to sepia toned photos of our family!  I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! 

And there is my "finished" (when is it ever REALLY finished?!) product! 

Also, who knew how hard it would be to find white chalk?!  I looked all over, Walmart, drugstores, grocery stores...I found plenty of colored chalk, but no boxes of just white chalk.  I finally found a box of sidewalk chalk that had a stick of white in it (which I really like, actually, because the tip is "sharpened" like a crayon, haha, really nice to use!).  I want to get some chalk markers, but I was too impatient to wait for them if I ordered them from Amazon or somewhere else online.

Our First Lost Tooth!

So exciting!  :o)

What does the tooth fairy leave under the pillow at your house?

Painting Laminate Furniture

Since we moved into this house, I have been on a mission to decorate and have just been so ready to have a GROWN UP house where everything matches. 
Unfortunately,  I just can't run out and replace all of our old furniture. 

The bookshelf on the left hand side here.  I just put the picture frame and other random things over the areas where the paint chipped for now.

I painted a laminate bookcase white, simply using a roller and a brush.  I didn't prime it, or sand it, or anything.  I really didn't know anything about painting at that point.  It was a learning experience.  It looks okay, but a few spots have paint that peeled or got scratched off and I need to fix them.  It's such a big bookcase that I will probably just sand down the small areas and use spray paint to fix them.  I'll probably wait until I'm about to paint C's room so I don't have to carry the whole bookshelf downstairs, I'll have drop cloths on the floor so a little spray paint won't be a big deal.

Amazing what a little trial and error will do for you though!  Now I know to prime first.  :o) 

Thrown together.  It just wasn't working for me. 

So, while working on the living room, after having it painted beige I decided I wanted to paint all of the furniture in that room to match.  Use what I have and just...make it work!  I have a large entertainment center that was handed down to us by my parents (free!) and two shelves (one made for CD's and another made for DVDs) that were made for us by my grandpa.  These are actually real wood and very nice, they mean a lot to me since he made them for us.  I debated between using black or dark brown.  Finally decided I wanted to go with a dark brown, but so dark brown that it was almost black. 

So, the entertainment center is laminate.  I know my parents got it at Walmart.  It's nice, but when we were moving it to our house, it got a little banged up.  I used some wood putty to fix a big knick that was taken out of the side of it, and any small holes or scratches, and then sanded those down. 

Then I used Zinsser Cover Stain Oil Based Primer to prime all of the furniture.  The laminate, since I couldn't really just sand it all down without messing it up, and the shelves because they had a thick coat of poly on them and I was just plain feeling too lazy to sand those down.  This primer is AWESOME!  I just put it on with foam brushes.  I did two coats, just to make sure I didn't miss any spots.  No need to sand at all when you use this stuff.

I had a lot of trouble trying to find THE dark brown.  I looked a lot of swatches and brought them home to hold them up in the room, but just wasn't finding anything dark enough.  I was walking through the paint aisle at Lowe's for something else when I spotted pre-mixed Satin Java Brown (satin enamel), by Valspar.  The brown strip around the can to show the color was exactly what I wanted!  Super dark brown, almost black, but not so dark you couldn't tell it was brown.  Turns out, the can must have been really old and faded or something, because the paint looked more like chocolate brown to me once I started using it.  I kept going, thinking maybe it would get darker as it dried.  Nope.  I finished my shelves and they were definitely CHOCOLATE.  Darn. 

Chocolate!

So, I let them dry and took them inside to live with it for a couple days and see if it grew on me.  I was pleasantly surprised once I was in  the house that the paint color looked just dark enough to satisfy me.  So, I went ahead and started the entertainment center. 

It looks much darker inside.

I used about a quart and a half of this paint, I had to run out and get another can (it's about $10 a quart).  The newer can that I bought, had a more correct shade of brown on the strip around the can, that's what made me think maybe the first can I bought was really old or something.  I don't know. 

I used a foam roller for larger areas, and a foam brush to get into corners.  I did all the edges and corners first, then painted the entire thing with the foam roller.  Let it dry, and did the edges and corners again with the foam brush, and then went over everything again with the foam roller.  It made for a really smooth finish and no brush strokes. 

I'm not really sure I will use enamel paint again.  When you brush your hand across it, it leaves a residue and if it does get scratched, it's white.  And it did scratch a little when my husband slid the TV across it.  Oh well, I took a foam brush to it and fixed it, no big deal.  I should probably have put some poly-crylic on it, but I didn't really want it to shine.  I thought about maybe some wax to protect it?  I've never waxed furniture before though.  Next time I paint furniture, I plan to just use latex paint.  The only reason I went with the enamel was because it was premixed and looked like the color I wanted.

I keep going back and forth but I think I want to cut a piece of wood or maybe beadboard to fit in the back of the entertainment center to cover up the lines that let you "punch it out" to make room for bigger TVs.  I don't know.  I'd paint it to match.  Either way, free entertainment center that cost me less than $20 to make over to fit my space!  :o)

So far, it's holding up really well, and I like the direction the living room is going in.  I started out with burgundy accents, and I like brown and burgundy together, but I thought it was just too dark and I needed to brighten things up a little.  I decided to bring in some blues and greens, and that morphed into bringing in white and cream as well.  Funny how decorating sometimes just takes off and has a mind of it's own, almost!