Potting Bench

 

Here is a more detailed post about my potting bench that I made with a free broken hutch for my Lowe's August project!

 I am a collector of stuff, not a hoarder, (yet), and I love a good bargain, especially if it is nature or garden related! I like to have things on hand when I am ready to be creative or do a project. Other than the Lowe's essentials, (paint, wood, peg board, tools), for the project, I already had everything I needed to decorate.

Here are some close-up shots of the potting bench with a few explanations about my project.

In case you can't read the picture caption it says, "Several years ago I had a large calendar on the refrigerator. Before I threw it away I ripped off the magnets. They were perfect for this project!" I try to reuse and recycle whenever possible!

The decorating items in this project were bought at Goodwill or at garage sales! A few items were purchased on sale a local vendor mall.

My 8x10 butterfly collage was attached to a .25¢ church rummage sale plaque with Modge Podge.

I bought a package of round cork plant coasters at Goodwill for .99¢ and attached one to the side of the hutch. In this picture you can see how long the magnets are! They are heavy duty too!

This sweet little bottle holder and the bottles were purchased at Logan Village Mall, a delightful vendor mall here in Noblesville,

as were the zinc Ball jar lids.

It was very difficult finding enough flowers for my bouquets due to plant damage from the extreme drought this summer.

The window, with the shelf, was purchased for $15.00 from a warehouse sale of a local business last year. I made the wreath from materials I already had on hand. The cute sign was given to be by a dear friend a few years ago!

This cute basket was on sale for $2.50 at the vendor mall and the peat pots were given to me by a sweet neighbor who is also a very dear friend! I am all set to grow a lot of new plants this winter with my indoor growing station.

Here is a little breakdown of cost on some of the items, (that I can remember). Most people probably don't care what I paid for these items, but it thrills me to make something so cute for so little money.

Again, don't forget to stop by  Lowe's Creative Ideas for more project inspiration!

Potting Bench

The Lowe's project for August was, "Address the Mess". We were to pick an area or item that could use a creative approach to organization or storage for gardening tools and accessories. Mess is the correct word to describe my garage! We have a three car garage and no room to park any of our cars! Most of it is my fault too. The garage is where I do most of my projects, and I have plenty of projects waiting to be done before winter sets in.

 This is another project that was labor intensive and the work kept multiplying! Thankfully my sweet husband helped me with some of the cleanup. We had to remove some shelves so all of that garage junk had to find a new home. The wall was a mess so I had to patch the holes from the anchors and then apply a fresh coat of  paint.

In my previous post I mentioned that I had been given a free Drexel hutch which was perfect for this project! I already had all of the items used to decorate so my Lowe's money was spent on paint, wood for the shelves, peg board, buckets, and the peg board tools.

Here is the before and after! This was a project that was exciting and fun to do! I love to take other people's trash and create something useful and beautiful! I also had motivation to be crafty and creative while decorating.

I have hundreds of pictures to condense and edit. Hopefully tomorrow I will have another post of the close-ups of the potting bench, including my craft projects and a cost breakdown of some of my bargains!

Don't forget to stop by Lowe's Creative Ideas for more home and garden inspiration!



Lowe's

Birdbaths

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors is having a theme party on birdbaths and I thought I would revisit an oldie and feature mine!

When we moved into our new home there were no trees in the neighborhood so it took several years before I started attracting birds to the garden. Spring 2007, while cleaning the garage, I saw that I had a lot of bricks and things left over from various projects. I decided to stack them and make a birdbath stand.


This is still my favorite birdbath! It is also the favorite of the birds here at Robin's Nesting Place!


 
It has been here for five years now and even though it wasn't mortared together it has withstood our winter weather and many storms.

  
As you can see it attracts a variety of birds.




  During the heat of the summer I will often fill the birdbath with ice water. The birds will come in droves to sit and cool off.


I have a nice concrete birdbath, but the birds don't use it. The clay saucers filled with rocks are a different story!

The larger birds even enjoy the deeper plastic saucer with a few rocks to sit on. It is a great pleasure to provide fresh cool water for my feathered friends.


 http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/2012/08/sns-149-bird-baths.html

 

Busy, Busy, Busy

 Very little time has been spent this summer enjoying nature.  Between the excessive heat and adjusting to working outside the home again, there has been little desire or time to be outside with the camera.

 I finally had some leisure time Saturday morning to sit outside on the patio. I read, watched the birds and took a few pictures. Three hummingbirds fought over the feeders in the backyard. This juvenile male was determined to have all four of the feeders to himself!

 Because of the excessive drought there isn't much blooming right now. I kept the patio planters watered and even with the excessive heat and drought my lantana is thriving!

 The verbena bonariensis survived without being watered and I am seeing a little butterfly activity!

 I have been busy working on my Lowe's project for August. Our assignment for this month is, Address the Mess: Pick and area or item that could use a creative approach to organization or storage for your gardening tools and accessories.

This project really had me stumped and I just couldn't get inspired by ordinary garage organizational tools!  One day I walked into work and saw this fabulous Drexel hutch with a free sign on it! Someone had dropped it while stocking their vendor space! I felt bad for them, but I was thrilled!

As soon as I saw it my mind started thinking of all of the possibilities for the project! The glass was broken and the top was busted, but it was perfect for my garage project.

I am almost finished and you wont believe the difference! I am off work tomorrow and plan to complete the project and reveal the end result!

Stay tuned! :-)

 Don't forget to check out Lowe's Creative Ideas for more project inspiration!
/http://www.lowescreativeideas.com/

Craft Room on a Budget

Things are changing here at Robin's Nesting Place. One of my own has just flown the nest! I have been very blessed to have both of my children stay in the home longer than most. My 24 year old daughter chose to continue her education close to home so she never left for college as many do. It will be very odd not having her here. 

I knew she was planning to leave soon, so I had been collecting some things for her and also things to place in her empty room. My craft room was the place to hold all of the stuff. It was a mess and you could barely see the floor. 

Once her plans were firm, I got to work doing many of the projects that I had been putting off and getting my craft room in order. It was a nice distraction and kept me busy.

As hot as it was, I spent many mornings and evenings in the garage painting.

I am a huge fan of Pinterest and there were many things I had "pinned" that I wanted to implement in my own space.

The glass-top desk had been in my kitchen for several years. I got it at Goodwill for $25.00! It was redwood and a pain to paint! I had used three coats of primer and the tannin was still bleeding through. I went to Lowe's to ask for a recommendation and they suggested a shellac based primer. It worked! I only wish I had tried that first! It would have saved me so much time!

I purchased very little for this makeover, other than paint and a few supplies, most of the things I already had! This dresser belonged to my mother-in-law and the top piece was purchased at an antique vendor mall a few months ago. One of these days I will paint them.

We had home schooled for many years and we love books, so we have book shelves in every room! I love having things organized again. I don't feel very creative in chaos!

The room has no overhead light and it can be rather dark when I work at night so I decided to use lamps that I have collected over the years from Goodwill and garage sales on top of the bookshelves. This was an idea  from Pinterest. I love the added light!

This area is where I make my cards! The table was purchased several years ago at a garage sale for $7.00. I paid about $6.00 for the shelves at Goodwill. A fresh coat of Valspar white paint on both and they look so much better! I can't believe the difference a little white paint makes!

The pink lamp was bought at the antique vendor mall. The vendor was going out of business and the lamp was in her dressing room. I got it for about $10.00. This hot pink lamp became my color inspiration!

I really wanted a dry erase board for the craft room and had patiently been waiting to run across one at Goodwill. My patience paid off a few weeks ago when I spotted this one for $2.99. I was very pleased when I discovered that it was magnetic! I didn't care for the original  frame so I spray painted one from the stash I have in my closet! I rarely get rid of old pictures because you just never know when you might need frame!

Over the past six years we have faced being unemployed or underemployed. I know there are others in the same situation. Here is the partial breakdown to show that you don't have to spend a lot to have a beautiful place to create! 

Later I will show some before and after shots of individual projects!

http://www.lowescreativeideas.com/

linking to:


http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/2012/08/frugal-friday.html