Gardening Blog

We’re having another Outdoor Air Flea Market this Saturday, July 18th from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Beyond the Garden Gate:

We couldn’t have asked for better weather and a field full of wonderful vendors. What an honor to be included with this group of very talented artists, designers, collectors, inventors…..

The Rubies we brought with us….

Harris Farms, filled with some terrific vintage pieces. Gypsy Lady, featuring all-natural wonderful body scrubs.


We love My Shabby Passion!

The ever talented Voondi.

This is actually a bird bath that Cheryl made, isn’t it beautiful?

Our fabulous treasure hunter, Andy’s Attic.

Oh so sweet, Birdsong.

Beyond the Garden Gate and her wonderful ‘wares’.

We’ll be doing another Flea Market at Beyond the Garden Gate, Battle Ground,

on Saturday, July 18th.

More details to come.

Wind-swept, sloping green hills, a little cottage perched on the crest, surrounded by a white picket fence, with a weathervane atop the pointed, shingled roof. Everyone has envisioned such a breath-taking scene at some point. Weathervanes‘ iconic association with such scenes, and other lovely images of country living, inspires many persons to go about obtaining one of these unique decorations for their own homes, whether they live in the country, in the suburbs, or even in a city. These pieces can be found in many different sizes, featuring many different designs – from doves to airplanes to sailboats to dragons. These objects are so loved that they are sometimes displayed inside people’s homes on metal stands, rather than outside. These pieces, first derived for the functional purposes of agriculture, weather-prediction, and farming, are today used, not only for the original purposes, but also as unique home decoration pieces.

Stools, benches, and stepstools are, out of all furniture, some of the most difficult to choose to fit with the mood and theme of a room. There are certain themes, however, which lend themselves to being outfitted with these pieces. For example, Retro barstools can take us back to the days of ice-cream parlors with gleaming chrome and bright colors. For a sweet and elegant theme, ornate stepstools, modeled after ornamental keepsake boxes and treasure chests, can be the essential finishing touch. For a space that is meant to be both fun and functional, apholstered rolling benches and tiki stools can be used to create a comfy place to sit and to provide storage space. In order to match these items with a room and a set of furniture, both the theme and role of the room must be considered; such items as stools, benches, and stepstools are unique in that they contribute to a room not only in terms of decoration, but also as functional pieces.

What is Fifteenth Avenue Coffee & Tea? It’s Starbucks, making a drastic return to their roots, looking to the past to reinvent what originally made this retailer a stellar marketplace standout – The hipster, neighborhood coffeehouse concept.

Smaller batches of brewed coffee, espresso – handmade from a manual machine, live entertainment, poetry readings, inventive food choices and even wine and beer selections in the evening will be features of this new concept store in Seattle. Starbucks dusted off the idea for this new format, a concept that dates back 15 years, because they couldn’t stop thinking about the “good old days” when they could roast coffee in the morning and have it in a local store by that afternoon. To keep true to that concept, the first three stores will be in Seattle, near one of its roasting plants, so they’ll be able to offer smaller-batch coffees from far-flung locales such as Thailand, and loose-leaf Tazo teas from places such as India and Japan.

News story via: The Seattle Times

Stay with us here on the LIMElight blog all week as we feature brands, companies, retailers and independent designers taking a step back, looking to return to authenticity to reinvent their product and services.

Sometimes, the best place to find unique signage, cool displays and interesting product is by doing a little window shopping. We enjoy reading A Design Affair’s blog because her “Window Wednesdays” always turn up something inventive and intriguing. This week the Starbucks signage made a statement with creative graphics and typography, but we felt that overall the windows of Coffee Heaven from earlier this month had a great artistic vibe. For more window shopping, make sure to swing by A Design Affair every Wednesday!

Starbucks:
Coffee Heaven:

**** Don’t forget to enter my big giveaway in my previous post! ****

I know a lot of you are prayin’ people, and love to support the missionaries from your church, a child through Compassion Int’l, a ministry, or a loved one serving far away in the military. Here’s an idea of how to keep those faces in sight to remember to pray for them:Put a photo in a decorative little medallion. Whether you have a vase filled with fresh or dried flowers, a simple pot you can dress up, or a kitchen canister — you can make your version of this idea!

First, dig through your paper, ribbons, and memory-keeping goodies. Pull out some supplies that match the decor in the room and play around with them. I loved this little oval cardboard medallion thingy – it came on a sheet with a bunch more from the dollar store! I went with a wide white ribbon that I layered over a scrapbook paper band. For the band I had to glue two 3″ strips together. I simply knotted the ribbon in back:
I cut a photo of a missionary couple right out of our church bulletin. If you’re doing this for your Compassion child or serviceman/woman you probably have a nice color photo (although personally I love the black and white effect – or black and green in this case!)
Right now this vase is holding some gorgeous fresh flowers my kids picked out for my birthday, but usually it’s filled with seasonal dried something or other. So, I can change the photo ribbon look seasonally, too!

**** Don’t forget to enter my big giveaway! See my previous post for the scoop! ****

Ideally, after the weekend, I would love to show you some progress of Just a Girl.  Unfortunately, I’m just a girl who isn’t getting anything done.  Well, nothing to post about anyway.  Wanna see a beautiful stack of folded laundry? Probably not.

I’m almost done with so many things, but now I wait.  Until it all comes together, here are a couple of things I’m waiting for my mailman to bring me…

I ordered this fabric bundle from pinkpandafabrics at Etsy.  If you know you’re going to have some smaller fabric projects, but you want some variation in your material, THIS is the way to go.  I got 6 different patterns, but they come in 18 x 22 squares.  PERFECT for some throw pillows, right?

I’m also waiting on my new calendar to arrive.  Sayitwithstyle  from Etsy is the only place I could find this.  No complaints though!  It’s perfect! You know that mudroom that I said isn’t quite done?  Well, it will be when this comes in.  Can’t wait.

Lastly, this is taking up my time. Kathryn and Melissa over at Nannygoat have got me all excited over this new menu planning idea, and it involves these…

and this… And yes.  I am just shallow enough and quite honest enough to tell you that the #1 reason I’m using it is because it’s so darn cute.  #2, of course, is because of convenience.

This post is about following your dreams. Doing what you love. Being happy every day. And No More Mondays. I love that phrase. I first heard it about a year ago from the evil great financial guru Dave Ramsey. A man named Dan Miller wrote the book with this title, about following your dreams and making your career what you love, not what you love to hate. That way there is no more dread on Sunday night. No more waiting for Friday to arrive. No more Mondays.

For me, it started when I was pregnant a few years ago. Many of you know how getting that news completely changes your focus. All the things you say you’d never do — you want to do. I always said I would work full time after I had a child, but all the sudden, when it was real, I felt differently. I loved my marketing job so much. I loved the people I worked with. I was just getting bored. When I had started my position was brand new — and I had built it up and was proud of it, but realized after a few years that it didn’t need to be a full time position. So when I found out I was pregnant, I was hoping they would work with me on a part time/work from home plan. We talked for months about it and in the end their response was simple — NO. I was devastated.

There are usually bigger plans for us that we just aren’t aware of. I wasn’t aware of mine.
Then our squishy-face-so-cute-I-could-die-I-love-you-more-than-the-moon son arrived. And as we all know, babies change everything. During my leave, I told my husband I wanted to do something different. My heart was calling me to something I really wanted to do — decorating. I had tried for years to get into the business. I even got my own Web site, made business cards, talked to many interior designers, and it went nowhere. The only response I ever got from the professionals was I had to go back to school for another degree (this time in design) to make my dream a reality. I had just done another few years of masters classes, so there ain’t noooooo way I was going back to school folks.

But it was still calling to me — and I was determined. Right before I went back to work, I made one last ditch effort to make my dream a reality. I e-mailed every. single. person I had known, knew or cared to know and told them my dream. I wanted to decorate. Did they know anyone? Could they help?

Wouldn’t you know it. We had a close connection that we didn’t even know about. She owned a home decor shop and design firm. I called her that night and fell. in. love. I met with her a week later and she made my dream come true. She hired me on as her assistant to learn the ropes. I did it, I loved it, I thrived on it and I learned a lot. I got my first client just a couple months later.

For more than two years now, I’ve been working with clients part time, helping them decorate their homes. I have loved it, learned so much and had so much fun. It has sparked my creativity, made me better, broadened my horizons. But now, something else has been pulling at my heart.

I guess not something. Many things. Many people. YOU. I am so in love with writing this blog, I enjoy it so much I cannot tell you. I have met so many wonderful people, made so many new friends, and been more inspired through you then anywhere else in my life. I LOVE IT.

Lately I’ve had this urge — this desire to focus just on this blog and put all of my attention to it and really make it all it can be. So I’ve decided to do it. For the time being anyway, I’m not doing design work anymore. I’m going where my heart is telling me to go and that’s here. I want to put more effort and time into it, I want to inspire you even more.

I am so excited people. I am loopy!! Like, adrenaline rush, excited. YAY!!

So to kick it off, I wanted to share a few of the changes and new things coming soon:

Consultations:

I’ve been offering these for a while now and will continue to do it. For $10, you send me as many pictures as you want of your space or large project. I’ll give you a long list of my suggestions on furniture placement, paint colors, accessory ideas, molding projects, painting furniture, etc. All with your budget in mind. But now, I’m hoping to get new software so I can offer you a little more in the consult — like using your pictures to show you what I’m talking about. I think this is so exciting, it’s just going to be a learning curve for me. I haven’t used a design program in forever. Any suggestions? Photoshop? Something different?

Facebook and Twitter: I’ve been doing both for a while now, but my I’ve been neglecting my Crackbook page badly, sorry about that. You can find me on Twitter here. I have been loving Twitter like I never thought I would people. I used to make so. much. fun of it. Swear. But in the future, I hope to offer even more updates on both — while I walk through Goodwill I’ll take a picture and share how I’d make it fab. (Many of you say you need help with the creativity part.) If I spot a deal, I tweet about it. It’s fun. And on Facebook (search Thrifty Decor Chick), I’m going to start highlighting some of your projects from the Linky parties. I’m giddy at the potential folks, I hope you’ll join me.

Blog design: Ummmm…I’ve been a total slacker on this — it’s been in the works for MONTHS. I’m finally getting serious about it now, and we hope to have it up in the next few weeks. I’m so excited I could pee.

Advertising: As you know, I offer this now, but I’ve added some options. If you are interested in finding out more about them, let me know. And with the new blog design, your ads will be more prominent than before.

Getting the word out: I need your help you Web gurus — how do I go to get my blog out there more? Do I need to register it somewhere? What the heck does “feed” mean? What is my url address (I thought it was my Web address)? I’m clueless folks. Do I need to improve my domain or whatever the heck that is? I have no idea what that is. Help. Please.

More projects and more FUN!!: Do you have suggestions? Ideas for parties? What do you think? Tell me!! Fall is going to be here before we know it, so if it’s going to be anything like last year, I’ll be posting fast and furiously. What do you want to see here? I want to know because I want you to be inspired and entertained. YOU are the reason I’m here.

Thanks for putting up with my excitement folks. I know it’s not a big deal to you, but I am so happy with this decision. It didn’t come easily and it took weeks to make it happen, but I’m really happy I’m following my heart. I hope I inspire you to do the same — whether it’s in in your home, life or work.

OK, well if it tells you anything, it’s midnight and I’m just now posting because I’ve spent the evening on the deck again. One of my best friends came over tonight to chill outside with us and we ended up spending three hours out there. Ahhhh…heaven.

I wanted to show you some of the details of the transformation so maybe you can grab some of these deals while you can. This is the only good thing about the summer stuff disappearing in July — clearance baby. Run! Don’t walk!!

The first deal was the lights I got for the pergola. They were in the Smith and Hawken section at Target, on clearance for $10 a set:

What kills me is I’ve had a set of these for years, but took them apart and don’t know where I put the lights. (I used the twine balls for filler inside.) Ah well, $10 each isn’t too bad.

I hid the extension cords down the columns by spray painting the cords (ummm…is that allowed??) and then using little bits of cord covers I spray painted as well. No one will never notice them:

I have to take care of the little details like this. It will drive. me. mad. otherwise.

The lighting on the table is simple, 50 cent Ball jars from Goodwill, filled with sand:

They had to be Ball jars — in homage to my alma mater Ball State University! (Double pound to the chest.)

My little jars were in the dollar spot at Target a few months ago. Oh, how I love you dollar spot:

Kisses to you dollar spot. Hugs. Smooches.

The deck box is double the size of our old one and was another Goodwill find for $30. That’s a lot for a Goodwill purchase for me, but this would be more than $100 in the stores:

Can I mention how perfectly it matches the brown paint? I mean, it was meant to be folks. I did a little happy dance when I found it. Over a deck box. Issues.

The rug was $13 (I think) at Lowe’s — love it! It was my color inspiration. Just wish it was a tad bit bigger:

The pots I already had and the flowers were clearanced out because they were about to die. (Look for these — they just need water!) Did you know you can use stain on plastic? You can!:

I stained these years ago to make them a bit deeper and they’ve held up perfectly. Took about five minutes each.

The new light was from Lowe’s and was $22:

Adorable!

These shutters were so easy I promise any of you could make them:

AND unbelievably cheap. I wanted them to match the cottagey shutters we have on the front of the house so they needed to be uber rustic. I found the perfect materials — fence posts!:

They were something like $1.68 each and were six feet tall, just slightly shorter than what I needed. I used three on each side for the double windows and two on each side for the single window:

I just cut pieces of the posts to the size I needed and measured one foot from the bottom and top:I used liquid nails and a nail gun to attach the slats, but you could use nails and hammer them together. If you make your measurements, Lowe’s or Home Depot would make your cuts for you. I love the detail at the top:

The planters were from Goodwill. Surprised? No? They were $2.99 and started out like this:I spray painted them with outdoor paint and they ended up like this:

I don’t know if I’ll plant anything in them this year or not. I may go ahead and do it because I know flowers will completely finish off the space. Loverly.

I hate when I love Walmart. I really do. I can’t stand that place, but always find something I must have. Ugh. These were TEN BUCKS each on clearance:

Can you even believe it??? I’m sure I’ll find a great spot for them inside during the winter too. Adorable. For now, I’ve just put tea lights in them:

Our “summery” pillows were from Wally World as well, for $10:

Just don’t go buy any at my Walmart — I need to go get a couple more. Back off!! Please.

Our tables are really plant stands. I didn’t want to spend much and I didn’t want them to be huge. These are perfect at $12 each:

I bought the cork thingamabobbers to put inside for a flat surface and they work great! I tied them down to make them a little more sturdy:

And for entertaining outside, you need plastic that looks like glass to drink cool beverages out of. These perfectly ca-uuute glasses were on clearance at Meijer for $1.25 each!:

No evening outside is complete without Summer Beer (at least for me this summer) — it’s soooooo good people! Equal parts Diet Squirt, light beer, tequila and one can limeade or lemonade concentrate. Amazing! I hate anything diet and detest beer, and this is my most favorite drink ever!

Many of you asked about the furniture and the pergola — the furniture was from Craigslist and the seller got it through Amazon.com I believe. The pergola was from Menard’s, but we only found two left and had to call two stores. So if you have one nearby, call NOW!!

Have a great weekend! I’ll be back later with a big announcement I can’t wait to share with you all! It won’t be a big deal to you, but it is to me. And NO, I’m not pregnant!