This and That This Week #4

Last weekend was a bit busy- we made the trip to Grand Rapids and delivered the lawn furniture and grill to our daughter.

As I explained last week had the dining set painted yellow at her request and brought the cushions from our old patio set.  The glider, tables, and chaise-lounge was part of a set we had for 14 years.  She didn't really want such a big grill but my friend had this available and the price was right!

This is a little arbor with a gate to her back yard.  The clematis vine has taken over here.  I chopped at it and tried to clear a better path.  We showed her some ideas on how to remove the weeds that have cropped up.  I wish we were closer so I could help more often.

After you come through the arbor this is the backyard.  The previous owner had made this large patio/deck area.  It needs a cleaning which she has been working on since we left.  The big umbrella stayed with the house when she purchased it.  It's nice a large and provides some needed shade.  

She sent this selfie to me a few days later.  She loves sitting outside now :-)

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Last Saturday Dan decided to get the deck staining done.  We don't have eaves troughs or gutters if you prefer, because we get so much snow it tends to rip them off the edge so there's a heavy drip line across the deck.   With all the snow we accumulate here the deck get's shoveled off pretty much daily through the winter so it get's a lot of abuse.  We even use an all plastic shovel to reduce the wear and tear.  

We stained all of it in 2009 and touched it up in 2012.  This time the decking was stained but not the railing since it's doing just fine.

About 2/3rds of it was done first.  

Tuesday night it was finished.  We'll  let it cure and then move everything back in place. Our deck is approx. 25 years old now.  We did discover that have a board to replace.  We've been using a solid stain madeby Cabots on it which works well for us- very durable!  We get ours at Lowe's.  They mix it to any color you like.  

 I was browsing at Pier 1 and these canisters stopped me in my tracks.  they look so close to the ones that I have in my kitchen (see below).  Mine were by Chris Madden called Corvella from JC Penney but they stopped making them a while ago.  I just checked and these are on sale now and this is the link incase it's of interest to you "here"

I was contacted a while back by someone wanting to buy mine and I thought of him when I saw this.

I thought this was cute with the seashells and starfish lining the vase and hiding the floral stems.  If you had a small vase that could be centered in a large glass dish like this you could have natural flowers in the center.  It would be a lot work to get the seashells to look this good so I wouldn't want to be changing it very often!

Ugh….Cracker Barrel has Halloween and Thanksgiving out already.  I spotted this vase filled with wheat and realized how easily you could replicate this.  I've seen the wheat at Michael's and of course that's just a simple mason jar.  Since this is the time of year for corn on the cob- saving corn husks should be easy!

Here's a backside view of it.

I don't do fall decorating until mid September- that's plenty early for me.  Even though the stores are selling and pushing the seasons early I don't succumb to it.  I may pick something up for the future but I don't display it until I'm ready.  We truly have 4 seasons here and I want to experience them for as long as possible! 

I'm working up a later summer look for the black tabletop and plate rack.  Haven't been able to get to the finish line with it just yet!

My boots got booted off the deck while it's being re-stained so of course I set them on the path to go for a walk!  

I have a cute little video of a chipmunk visiting my fairy garden if you'd like to see it click "here"

See ya next week!

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