Category: Our Projects

Insta-dump

I’ve been Instagramming, but not blogging…again. That’s why I set up the tweets to import a weekly post, so those Instagram photos are available here as a post instead of just in the sidebar. Do we like this, or notsomuch?

Would you rather I perdiodically post the photos as a recap on the blog, or is the weekly tweet recap good enough? This is a poll, without my having to activate a poll plug-in, so I’ll be looking for some piping up from you fine people.

Here’s just a very little of what’s been going on…some have been on Instagram and some never quite made it.

We had another evening of treehouse glamping, where there might have been a jedi lightsaber show.

I don’t know anything about editing and resizing video, or I’d show you some moves, but the file is too big to upload here.

The lightcube glowing through the treehouse window was our nightlight.

Otto spent half an hour staring down this deer one day, and will watch them as long as they hang around. He seems cool with them, and doesn’t bark often. It’s the chipmunks that seem to piss him off.

 

These are two projects currently in progress.  The CC is building a firewood shelter/shed which will also hide our ugly air conditioning units when finished.

I am working on a pair of Keller chairs. The CC doesn’t think I am we are ready for the living room chairs yet, since the bottoms might be a bit complicated for newbies like us.

Otherwise it’s been cooking, digging, mulching, weeding and hanging by campfires. Y’know,  springtime stuff.

One of our favorite farmers markets opened today, so that makes us happy…but the humidity started to roll in this week, which makes us sad..and sweaty.

Don’t forget to let me know what you think about my attempts to integrate the different media. If you want to follow me on Instagram, I’m @modfrugal, same as Twitter.

 

Becks and Bieber

They’re done, and they have attitude.

Let’s take a step back to see where we started.

If you remember, the frame was broken, so the CC cobbled it back together like a pro.

How many celebrities have furry chair namesakes?

You’re welcome, David Beckham and Justin Bieber.

Becks

…and Bieber

Otto photobomb!

They are for sale here. Once it gets too hot to work outside much, we’ll get started on those other chairs.

UPDATE: I have heeded your advice and re-shot he chairs in the dining room…and raised the price to $300. It was a LOT of work, for the CC especially.

Craigstweeting

While Craigstweeting today, I found something I couldn’t resist.

 

WHAT?! More chairs? Ummm…Yes.

*holds head in shame*

As for rehab- it’s mostly surface rust, so I brought out my trusty and crusty friends to help.

 

Once I got to work, I found a few spots that required the cola treatment. Sigh. That just added another hour to the job. The not-leather, but pleather had only one tiny nick on the backside, so yeah for that!

 

They cleaned up pretty well!

Currently, they are in the dining room heading up the table. I’ve now got my Burke/Saarinen knock offs as side chairs ever since the galvanized ones have moved outside.

 

I’ve been hunting for the perfect set of 8 Baughman beauties for almost 2 years now, but those don’t come cheap, so patience is been a virtue I must pretend to have.

Have a great weekend!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that while I was in Brimfield last Summer, I fell for a pair of these, but they were $495 for the pair.

 

 

 

Things I Did While NOT At The Flea

I failed you this month…I didn’t make it to the flea market, thus no round up for you. I had school commitments on Friday, and Saturday and Sunday just flew by before I knew it. Melissa has a nice round up, so if you want to peek at the flea through her eyes..check it out here.

So why was I dragging my ass and not taking care of your vicarious shopping needs? It’s Spring people, and that means I get overwhelmed with the one million things that need doing outside this place of ours.

I finished painting inside the treehouse this week, but these are some of the only snaps I have. I planned to take some proper ones yesterday, but the place got trashed with mud over the weekend, and no one wants to see that yuck. Here’s the only picture I took via Instagram after moving some of the stuff back in. Sadly, I think ALL these pics were taken with my phone.

We have turned one wall into the chalkboard panels previously requested.

The Things and I worked at the local state park Saturday morning removing exotic, non-native plants from the forest floor so that there is less wild honeysuckle and more of this.

Then, there was pressure washing to be done, or should I say started. I still have the back decks to do, and that will take ages to finish.

Even though it can be tedious work, I have to admit that pressure washing all that gunk away is a satisfying job. Now I’ll need to go back with some deck stain to touch up some spots once it’s dried out.

I replanted my rootbound and pitiful looking junipers. I found these white planters at Target and am loving how light and easy to move they are…win!

I also started to topdress the pine straw patio, but only after retrenching the sump pump drainage creek. This time we laid plastic down so that we don’t have to retrench it every year. I’m headed to the stoneyard this morning to get more river rock to fill in the deeper creek. It had started flowing all over this end of the yard creating a swampy mudpit, but now we are nicely channeled. You won’t see the plastic when we are done adding more stone.

We also plan to build a proper bridge since the hose access is off to the right, so stepping over the creek is frequently required.

We put together our new Ikea Äpplarö table, and, of course, we have had 2 meals there already.

Sunday was a spectacular day..I snapped the dogwood in bloom before it’s gone.

So, while I missed the flea, we got a lot done, but there’s lots left to do…onward!

 

Lightcube

While ogling the garden section in Lowe’s a few weeks ago, I happened across a little item that will be making our summer much groovier…the solar LED lightcube.

I always wanted a Toto, or those amazing Oluce glowing stones for the yard, and this combines both functions for $50 rather than $500.

The CC is quite cynical about ALL solar lighting. He was secretly thinking that I had just made a really stupid purchase. To look at it, you might agree and think it’s just a smallish white cube with no hope of doing anything.

It has a solar charger that plugs in underneath.

Charge it for a few hours, and when night falls….you punch the little button underneath and…..

…. IT WORKS! Such a nice bright glow from the LED…there is some light love afoot my friends. How do I know the CC has forgiven me, and might even approve of this purchase? He brought it up to the treehouse for our sleepover Saturday night. You worked your way into his solar hatin’ heart Mr. Cube, and I think we will all enjoy each other very much.

For those who prefer a more rotund lighting friend, might I suggest Ms. Sphere, or their cousin, Master Planter/ Ice Bucket.

Happy patio planning!

Mini Tour Outtakes

Thanks again to all of you who left such lovely comments on the mini tour…you really made this Nervous Nellie feel so much more at ease, and I’m grateful to have such awesome friends on these here interwebs.

I thought you might have fun checking out a few of the snaps showing some of the changes around here that didn’t make the cut!

I’ve purposely not shown much of the kids rooms because I feel like it’s invading their privacy, but I relented since we were doing a post about living with kids…they have to live somewhere, right?!

For this tour, I didn’t declutter as much as I usually do..I kinda let it be, especially in the kids rooms.

You can tell I was “keepin’ it real” here…the cluttered bulletin board etc..was not cleaned up …probably should have been!

The blue horses have moved to the dining room for the moment, but you know me, they’ll be somewhere else in a couple of months.

Can you believe it? No Otto photo bombs! Only because he was here while I was shooting…

 

He finally got tired of my shooing him behind me and decided to take advantage of my preoccupation by sneaking up to the boys rooms. Luckily it only cost us a pair of socks.