Brick Garden Beds

This is where I've been spending most of my time since the snow melted...

Wow!  I didn't even realize just how bad my garden looked until I saw this photo.  Funny how you just get used to ugliness when you ignore it.

Last year I sort of gave up on my garden but this year I was determined to put an end to the ugliness.  First thing to go was all the wooden borders on the garden beds.  If any of you are thinking about making raised beds, I strongly urge you to stay away from wood.  Over time the wood just rots and you end up with a pile like this:

And you'll spend half a season replacing it all again.  Most of this wood has been here since before I bought the house, but I'm sure it was in pretty bad shape when I got here.

I scored a major steal when a friend of mine donated loads of bricks to me.  They've been sitting in his yard for over 30 years so he was happy just to see someone finally putting them to use.  They were from an old building in town that got demolished in the 80's.  So, now I have a bit of municipal heritage right here in my own back yard!

I had to do a lot of weeding and then built small trenches to fit the bricks into.  It was fun because it was like a puzzle.  I wanted them all to fit together perfectly, without mortar, just all sandwiched together.

I also had to get right into the raspberry bushes and thin them out.  They didn't like it but in the end I won the battle.

I'm slowly adding some prettiness back into the space.

I'm still working on this area but I've created a clearing, away from the ants, where I can sit quietly and meditate, or pull out a yoga mat and do some stretches.

I couldn't get the ground completely level so I just used bricks under the pallets to balance them.  When I found my pallets I made sure to grab the ones that had the slates close together.  This whole area is in the shade in the morning and the branch overhead provides some shade in the evening.

I'm just waiting to get my hands on some free gravel to pour over top of the wood shavings.  My hope is that this will add some contrast to the bricks and help to keep down the weeds.  There's landscape fabric or newspaper under most of it but that disintegrates over time.  And the weeds in my garden are pretty relentless, so the more layers they have to get through, the better.

It's all slowly coming along though and I'm happy with it.  I love throwing on a folksy playlist on Songza and just spending the whole entire day working out there.

I've planted lots of veggies, so hopefully in a few months I'll be able to bring you an update that's a little greener~

Do you have a garden that's out of control?  Any tips and tricks for keeping everything in it's place?  Leave a comment below~

In the Garden

Next up on my tour of Pinterest Boards is the one where I collect inspiration for the outdoors, everything from flowers and plants to gardening tips, to inovative and fun projects.

In the Garden

To find the sources of all these beautiful photos (and more) or to get lost in the garden, just head over to Pinterest and check out the board

Old Man in the Garden

I didn't make today's project but I have to share it with you anyway because it's an awesome example of recycling something that was just laying around.

This old guy was a gift from my neighbour who does wood carving from wood he finds.  He guards my garden from unwanted trespassers (the statue, not my neighbour).

Who guards your garden?  Do you have any special friends in your outdoor space?  Leave a comment below~

Hat Head

My plum tree attacked me last night!  It's true!

Have you ever seen plum tree branches?  They look a little something like this:

Mine was totally overgrown so when I got home from work I decided it was finally time to give it a good trim.  It was not happy.

See those gigantic thorns?  Well, it stuck me right in the top of the head with them, not once, but twice!

I had to call my poor mom to come make sure I hadn't seriously injured myself because there was so much blood...and an instant headache!  Once she knew I was OK then she didn't feel so good.  I think it was seeing her baby looking like she just survived a major car crash that did her in.  Poor woman, don't ever do that to your mom!

Lesson learned, from now on, when you're out in the garden...ALWAYS WEAR A HAT!

Preferably a hard hat~

Bead Buster Garden Ornament

I am determined to use up what I have.  I have so many crafting supplies and fabric in my stash that it's a little out of control.

So today's project is a great way to use up all of those left over beads that you don't know what to do with (even the wonky ones!).

 

Here's what you need:



-wire coat hangers
-assortment of colourful beads, all shapes, sizes, and colours
-medium guage wire
-heavy duty wire cutters, jewellery making pliers/cutters

Steps:
1)  Using your heavy duty wire cutters, cut the top of your hanger off.

2) Straighten out your hanger and bend into a shape you like.

Look at the gorgeous blue sky!
I couldn't possibly sit inside crafting today~

3) Cut a piece of medium guage wire about 18" (46cm) long.

4) Make a small loop at one end to make sure your beads won't fall off.

5) String on your beads.  Don't worry about design or pattern, just have fun and throw them on willy nilly.

6) When your wire is almost full, make another small loop at the other end to make sure your beads stay on.

7) Wrap your beaded wire around the hanger wire shape that you made.

8) Repeat all of these steps using your second wire hanger.

9) Hold your two pieces of decorated hanger together and bind together with the medium guage wire.  I bound mine in two places but you can do as much or as little as you want.

And there you go!  Beads used up!  Ugly wire hangers recycled!  And a pretty ornament in your garden to catch the light.

I know, it sort of looks like something that my five year old niece made at day camp but, I love how the beads sparkle in the sunshine.  And...it almost looks like a butterfly, don't you think?!?!

This would be lots of fun to do with kids!  Add beads that hang or glow in the dark! Give it a try and let me know how yours turns out~

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Motivated Monthly: Garden Party!

Before we get to our little Garden party I need to show you a couple of stand out ideas from last month's 3 R party. 

(By the way, some of you have some very funny ideas about what a recycling project is...either that or a few of you skipped right over the post and went straight to the linky.  I encourage everyone to slow down and take a look at some of the projects from your talented 'co-blogger's' and then take just a few seconds to read the 'guidelines'.  It was our first kick at the can with the monthly theme though, so I'm just going to suck it up and move onto some awesome projects~)

I thought this neat window covering idea from Av Susanne was a great way to put all your doilies to good use.

And Angie over at God's Growing Garden had an awesome recyle idea for old newspapers.  Check out how to make these environmentally friendly starter pots on her blog.

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This month's theme is projects for the GARDEN! 

What do I mean by that???

  Well, here's a good example:

These are some garden markers I made recently to place in my garden.  Just link up something you made in the garden, for the garden, or came from the garden.  Pretty straightforward. 

 (If you're looking for someplace to share other crafty ideas just head over to yesterday's

 Make it Great Monday linky party.)

Please:
1) Link directly to your family friendly project, not your blog main page
2) Limit of 4 links/blog please, no one likes a linky hog
3) Link only creative projects that you've created yourself (no round-ups, giveaways, or shops please)
4) For this month please link up GARDEN PROJECTS ONLY~

This party is co-hosted by my good friend Gen over at Cabin Fevered Gem, so your link will show on both of our blogs, getting double exposure! You can link up at either blog and you can feel free to follow both of us if you'd like (we'd be super thrilled), but it's not mandatory. 

This party will also be posted each week, so you'll get even more clicks throughout the month!

We do ask though that you please post our button someplace on your blog where everyone will see it. The more people that join the party, the more fun and exposure it will be for all of you.

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Here's what's coming up next...

July: Handmade Jewellery
August: Oh Baby!
September: Natural Materials

(If you link up you are giving Gen and I permission to tell the world how great you are and possibly post a picture or a link to your awesome project either here, on Facebook, or on Pinterest. Make sure you're OK with this before you link up.)

Are you ready to get down and dirty in the garden?!?  Go ahead, show us what you've got!

(Don't be afraid to turn off comment verification, especially if you link up to lots of parties.  Adding that extra step makes it very time consuming for your hosts to leave a comment at all of the posts.)

Garden Gazing Ball II

Do you remember my Garden Gazing Ball project?  Don't worry, it's highly unlikely that you do.  It was only my second post ever and my very first tutorial that I ever did.

I didn't really know what I was doing out here in blogland but I felt like I really had to share that project for some crazy reason.  And now, almost 2 years and 400 posts later, I'm still here!  Yay!
So, I was motivated by next month's Motivated Monthly party (Garden Projects), a bit of nostalgia, and a larger light fixture and redid my project from two years ago.

Here's all you need:

Steps:
1) Wipe down your light fixture so that it's clean and dry.

2) Paint a small portion of your light fixture with some Mod Podge.

3) Adhere your images, (I'm using leftover butterflies from my Butterfly Overload project) adding a layer of Mod Podge over top as you go.

4) Keep going around your whole fixture until it's fully embellished.

5) And now for the fun part! Add a second layer of Mod Podge using SPARKLE Mod Podge to seal in and protect your images from any cold wet weather, and to add some sparkle that will catch the rays of the sun.

I didn't do this step with my first globe but I sure wish I had~

There you go!  That's it! Once it's dry....set it out in your garden or flower bed!

I haven't done this but if you're having an outdoor get toegether I think it would be pretty if you put a light inside and line up a whole bunch of them!  Maybe those battery operated tea lights?

That's it!  It was easy the first time and even easier this time!  Make sure to check out the original post and let me know what you think.  Am I getting any better at this blogging stuff?

Happy crafting everyone!

This project was featured here: