Fill in the Blanks

So the past four months I have been very busy taking care of my Mom with the help of Hospice. I am delighted to say she has improved remarkably, thought her diagnosis remains the same. We are relishing in the good days while we have them.

I have been confined to home as well and have been trying to stay creative.  This past month all of our children and grandchildren were here for most of that time.  Our youngest and her family have relocated to Taipei Taiwan and everyone was home  'celebrating family and saying bon voyage', until next summer.

Whenever our grandchildren are here or we visit them it is always "Oma what is our art project?"

Did I have a surprise for them.

Our trex deck is old and a mess with stains and just "blahness"  I have been looking at it all spring/summer and decided it had to change.

I washed it down, let it dry and then primed it with a Kilz exterior primer.  I then drew some designs on it.

I bought Valspar exterior paint in order to find the bright cheerful colors that replicate the colors in our backyard and around the pool. Each of the grand daughters donned a paint shirt grabbed a brush and picked their designs.

I was so excited to see the colors show up.

I only had to clean up a few spots and added some highlights to a few  designs.

I took  Behr exterior house paint in Black and applied two coats and was so happy with the results.  The black background makes the colors pop and everyone who sees it loves it. It does show dusty foot prints but it is sooooo much nicer than the old deck top I don't mind.

The most special part is that the grandchildren helped to create it and will always feel proud to make Oma and Opa's deck beautiful.

When Is A Door Not a Door?

 

So you all know we have been busy in the yard.  I love to repurpose junk "found objects'.

(John says it isn't fair when you have to hunt them down to be called 'FOUND").

 

Last summer I painted two old doors that were part of our house since it was built back in the 50's and added planter boxes and loved them.

 

This year I wanted to add to my 'door' collection and whet my artist's soul as well as camouflage the car lot that went in next door after 40 years of garden and families there. (sighing big time).

 

The fence and landscaping will help but the arbor vitae will take a few years to grow together.

 

 I found these doors when I put out an ad for old doors on Freecycle.org.  We thought we were getting three but came home with four....SCORE.  Of course they were brown wood and grungy so I painted them with Krylon enamel.....like the outdoor furniture in the previous post.

 

 

                    

                                  I bought a variety of plants and pots and made baskets to hang

 

 

 

  
                         Went through more junk found objects and started attaching those on the doors.

                    I had fun picking out my own flower combinations as well as the junk stuff.

 

      This was part of a railing we had no use for so I had John turn it sideways and added pots.

 

One just never knows what you will find in the junk pile!

 

 

 

For some reason we have a large assortment of horse/oxen yoke harnesses but we love them.

 

 

 

I love the bright colors and the flowers.  John was skeptical at first but always loves the end product.

He is so sweet when I say   "Hey I have an idea........." He might roll his eyes when I am not looking but he is always my 'go to guy'.

 

Here is to 'bright ideas' in your neck of the woods.

Yard Art and Frustrations

 

So here I am minding my own business.  I am thrilled that for exactly one month I have been wearing a matching pair of shoes!  For the previous 14 months, I have been in and out of an air cast, walking boot, slippers, one shoe and one slipper, etc due to problems aggravated by my RSD.  So fusing my great toe on the right foot eliminated all the pain and swelling I was experiencing with the combination of rsd and aggravated arthritis.

 I have advanced to this pair of shoes---not able to wear anything else yet---but HEY they match!

 But one day last week, I stepped off our foot high porch---no problem right?  Wrong.....I landed wrong on my left foot and my ankle snapped and I went down crying in agony.  I thought I broke it but it is just severely sprained.  I am now back to one tennis shoe and this walking cast for the next 6 weeks!!!  I am trying to remain positive and find the humor in it all.  forgive me if that escapes me for the moment.....but any remarks are welcome!!! Yesterday I actually stubbed my bare right foot and broke my little toe......so am not sure I can even wear my tennis shoe for now.....sighing-----John says he is going to put me in a straight jacket......only so I will sit STILL and mend safely!!!!  HEE

Before all of this, I have been working in the yard and want to share some of my long awaited projects.

These two doors were pulled from the house fire we had years ago and have been patiently waiting for some respect ever since. This is the back door to the garage.

This door is the garage door to the patio.  I scrubbed them both up with a scrub brush and soap and water.  Then grabbed some out door paint and brushed on leaving raw and painted wood exposed underneath.

 

 

This is the first one.  John put them up against the fence and then they are secured with a bungee cord around the fence for support so they won't fall over on someone or by the wind.

                             I purchased plastic planters which were pretty inexpensive.

                               I spray painted them white with a white primer/coat of paint

                          John drilled holes in the backs and screwed them into the wood.

 I then bought some flowers and planted them in the planters.  They are placed where the automatic sprinklers will water them daily so that eliminates the chore of daily watering.

 This old window was salvaged from the neighbors wood pile.  I scrubbed it up and painted it much the same way as the doors but added some white spray paint to highlight the darker wood and painted areas.

 We had lugged this window across the patio three or four times and then brought it out to hang on the fence.  When John picked it up to hang it on the fence, the entire thing fell apart and the window panes all fell out.  Lucklily none of them broke but we decided to leave them out and nail the parts up.  I had a small metal tin to use for a planter.

I am off to work on more projects for the fence.  Hope your thinking of new ways to repurpose things in  your yard.