Easy & Beautiful Planter

This turned into one of my favorite planters this summer. It originally held all my herbs, but as the summer sun heated up, most of the herbs started dying off so I replaced them with random plants and just trashed some on the bottom (there were originally 4 down there). On the top from left to right is - orange mint, geraniums, sweet potato vine. On the bottom is parsley and my jalapeno plant. This was taken probably a month and a half ago and since then the orange mint and sweet potato vine are down to the deck, growing towards each other, with the pink still poking through a little. I added a pink bug to give it that pop once the vines started taking over.  The parsley and jalapeno plant are almost up to the bottom of the top part. It is BEAUTIFUL! And the orange mint gives it a nice smell. I will definitely be doing this combo again next year, on top anyway. I have enough jalapenos in my freezer to last me for quite a while =)

Here it is more recently, with my little pink bug. The geraniums are still flowering, just not as much.

My deck flowers- all of which, except the petunias, are toxic to dogs. Keep them up away from your pets!

Alabama Flower Pot

I needed some sort of garden decor to put beside my little Roll Tide flag and since I live in Georgia all I can find around here is UGA stuff (GAG)! This pot cost almost nothing to make and it's super cute!

 

Supplies: gray pot, crimson yard, houndstooth wire ribbon (if you don't want to do a bow and just have a strip of ribbon on the yarn it does not need wire in in it)

 

Use a little hot glue to secure the yarn in one spot on the pot (that will be the back) and start wrapping it around until you get the desired width you want. I had to add a couple spots of glue while I was wrapping, I think 4 total to keep the yarn straight. Once the yarn is on, glue one side of the ribbon in the back and wrap it once, then glue the other side down. Tie a bow and glue it to the front.

 

I think this project cost me all of 3 or 4 bucks. The pot was on a clearance and I keep yarn/ribbon on hand, but even if you don't, you'll have plenty left for other projects!

 

Roll Tide!!

 

 

Colorful Pots

 I started work in the backyard this year. Lots of new plants, when I say lots I am talking lotsssss. Like 50. Easy. Trees, bushes, flowers. There wasn't anything back there before, except grass and the woods behind the grass. I buy most of my plants as "babies" because I am blessed with a green thumb, so it helps a lot on the cost. Doesn't take long for stuff to take off and do well, though I have had a few casualties this summer when it was up over 100 degrees for dayssss.

 

 I wanted to add some contrast and pop to all the perennials in the ground so I decided to add some annuals in pots. I have two big dogs that can destroy pretty much anything so I have to be careful what I put out there. I know what catches their little eyes so I stay away from stuff like that and then try to be as safe as possible... AND not spend much money on anything back there that is easily accessible for them. They do so good though, I am such a proud mommy!

 

I purchased 4 of the orange terra cotta pots from Wal-Mart or Lowes- whichever place I was at when the idea popped into my head. They were probably a buck or 2 each. I keep different colors of spray paint on hand because of random projects, but I do believe I bought a couple other colors as well. I like the orange, but I wanted to go with a different color scheme to go with a birdbath I had just painted. I also bought some sealer that was in a spray can. I should have taken a picture of it, but didn't. It was just a clear glossy spray paint that I believe said sealer on it.

 

I sprayed the clear on first, then a color -- it did take a couple coats. Make sure to spray lightly and do as many coats as it takes. If you try to spray too much at once it will leave run marks all over the pots. Once it's dried, spray with the clear to seal the color in and you're ready to plant!

 

 

And here they are in the bed I made them for :)

 

 

 

Black & White Wreath

I LOVE making wreaths! I think they add a lot of character to your home and front door. I make too many-- (if that's possible) but I do use them all. I just switch them out (with my flags) every month or so.. give or take, depending on what I've made or what new flag I've come across. I am a weirdo, I somehow like everything in the yard tied in together. Not a theme, but I will not put out stuff that doesn't "go" together!

 

 

I ordered a really cute flag that had black and white zebra print last fall, for this summer (always cheaper to get yard stuff off-season!!). So I needed to make a wreath to go with it. No not a zebra print wreath, but something with some black in it because in all my wreaths, not a single one had black. Well, except for the Halloween one, but that would look a little silly.

 

So below is what I came up with. I bought a regular grape vine wreath (with a coupon of course) and spray painted it black. I rummaged through my materials looking for anything black and white to use on a wreath. I luckily had quite a few things but did purchase a few others. Here is what I used:

 

black and white feathers

black and white felt

houndstooth fabric

black and white beads

white flowers

 

(All of my supplies for this wreath came from Hobby Lobby)

 

Stuck the feathers and white flowers in the wreath then made some flowers/leaves from the felt and houndstooth fabric. There are tutorials all over the internet for making flowers like these! I glued these down to cover the stems and added some beads to the centers and wah-lah!

 

Loved this wreath so much, I left it out throughout TWO different sets of flags! =)

 

 

And just because, here it is with some of the flags! I think it turned out great, but I might be biased because it's my yard =)

 

 

 

 



Fall Wreath

I am in the middle of a huge project around the house (turning a "junk room" into my craft room YAYYY!)so things have been a little off with my crafting lately. I started buying supplies for my fall wreath a few weeks ago. I refuse to pay full price for crafting supplies when there are so many coupons out there. Sometimes it takes a little time to gather all my supplies. =)

 

Anyway, I sat down the other night and pulled out the randomness I had bought over the past few weeks and started to play. This is what I came up with and do have to say I am pretty pleased. I didn't use everything I bought, but hey, I'll have that stuff readily available for my next creation!

 

 

Everything I used came from Hobby Lobby on this wreath. Fall stems, burlap ribbon, acorns, and of course, a grapevine wreath.

 

I played with the stems until I got them how I liked and used a little hotglue to keep them in place. I used to burlap ribbon to cover the unsightly stems that didn't poke nicely into the wreath.

 

 

To finish it off, I cut some of the little reddish flowers into little bunches and glued them to the opposite side of wreath. Then to each bunch I added an acorn.

 

Easy peasy!

 

 

And here it is on my porch!

 

 



 



 

 

 

 

 

Outdoor Fall Decor

Wow! It's been a long time since I have posted. I forgot all about my 'blog' life, apparently! As I was setting up my fall display the other day (in the 90 something degree heat) I was wishing I could remember how I had it set up last year to help speed the process along. Of course I added a couple things this year so it wouldn't be the exact same but it still would have been helpful. I decided I needed to start keeping up with some of my favorite craft/decor/project ideas to help myself in the future for reference & maybe inspire some of you to take an idea and run with it! :)

 

Since my fall display in the front yard inspired me to start blogging again, I guess it's appropriate to start with that one. You can use any fall decor you want to make personalize your display if you chose to do one. I bought a lot of stuff in mine last year on clearance because I already had an idea of what I wanted to do. My dogs (you can laugh if you want, but they are my babies!) got me a wagon planter for Mother's Day last year that I used all summer and then figured out in the fall it went PERFECT with my decorations last year. Look at it down there, so cute! I put it away after the fall last year and just pulled it back out, still LOVE it! So anyway, here it is for this year. I have already changed a few things but I am slightly OCD and it will continue to be tweaked all season:)

 

This year I did A LOT in the yard with new plants and flowers (might blog on that later) so I was happy to only have two pots of flowers out in the front bed for a while. I bought some yellow zinnias in August to use for "fall flowers" though they won't last once it gets cool out. I spent 10 bucks (record for me!) on my fall flowers - got a few mums and added some snapdragons in a pot together. I buy flowers just budding, not blooming usually so you can't really tell. Hoping for a pretty pot in a few weeks though. (Also excuse the crazy bushes, they got a trim after this picture was taken)

 

 

 

There it is upclose! Easy!

 And yay for me, pretty cheap for decorations that will be the base decor for the next 3 months!

 

This post is long enough, so I'll just add two more pictures of other decor in the yard & be done! =)