The B Farm

So, some time back, Tania invited 5 of us to participate with her in a Thrift it, Gift it, Facelift it challenge. She gave us each a name and we sent them goodies to facelift.

Donna sent me mine and some gave me a little bit of a scare - I had no idea what I was going to do with them! Here's what she sent me:

Those shoe stretchers had me stumped. All I could see were hooves no matter how I turned them. So of course, I took one apart. hm, that's better. There is a big piece and a small piece to each one plus the handle. I painted them. Then I took another apart and painted those pieces. Now to put them together in an interesting way.

How about a card holder? Yes! I took the two smaller pieces, glued them together, then wound some twine about 1/2 way up. Stuck a fork in the top and voila! It can hold cards or recipes.

The larger pieces reminded me of wings. Let's see...an angel, a bird? I love owls so that's what I decided on. I used a wooden platter I had plus other odd…

Our city home has a nice backyard with a great back porch.

I was in the process of getting a puppy when we lost Lucy so I decided to get two Border Collie pups.  (you know, get the puppy stage over with at once. heh) What with the drought, the trees maturing and creating lots of shade, plus two rambunctious puppies, we lost most of our grass a couple of years ago.

It was a little disheartening; the yard being all brown (i.e., dirt). On top of that, I put fencing up to protect my potted plants and flowerbeds (they thought everything was their chew toys).  When it rained, we had a big muddy mess...yard and dogs. (We fixed that by putting hay down as mulch just washed away),
Don't get me wrong, I love my dogs! But it all added up to an ugly  uninspiring backyard. *sigh* 
I kept reminding myself and Bruce the dogs would grow up and eventually learn not to chew everything in sight. And guess what? They have (mostly)! Yay! Time to reclaim the backyard!
Since we had a break in the heat (…

Ok, I may have passed the line from "Canton Market Days are fun; to "Canton-obsessed". You see, my twin sister and I decided to go to Canton a couple of weekends ago in spite of the 100+ degree forecast that day. We got there early, went into Laurie Annna's and found this for the guest room:

then we drove over to the Market Days grounds, parked close (but not close enough by the end of the day...we were so hot and tired!), and away we went through the flea market area.

I knew I wanted more wire baskets for the bathroom and I knew where that vendor was (in a building) so we started outside knowing we could swing by and get the baskets last.

It heated up fast. We looked through the first stalls. Mm, I found a wall pocket to use with my found roadside bike. I'll be attaching it to the handle bars for a planter/basket:
 and a  pretty bluebird plate to add to the guest room:


It got warmer...we saw a vendor with hats so stopped, bought one and laughed, saying we'd…

I'm slowing making progress on the side yard but let's face it - it's way too hot to do much. I have gotten it weeded in front of the deck and have started further down the side of the house but it's slow going. I refreshed the gravel along the stepping stones and got some of the rock mulch down.

I need to go buy some more so I'm waiting for Bruce to be able to come with me so we can load it up in his truck.

I went yesterday and bought my succulents - I got them planted and I put a few decorative touches out also.



I put my little fairy in the succulent garden. I have a few other touches I'll add too:


My angel found a home under the rosebush:


And then some cute metal art:


Anyway, the bike will go against the fence as soon as I get the rest of my rocks down. Then it will be all about getting the deck restrained and the rest of the side yard tamed. Those two things may have to wait until cooler weather though. I'm pleased though with the progress I've made…