Save Green Being Green Carpet Squares Post

Check out what my daughter did with sample carpet squares.

She made one for her daughter's room and one for theirs

It's pretty self explanatory, but check out how she did it HERE.


While you're at it, check out the rest of her blog. She has some interesting ideas.
Save Green Being Green

Your Blogger Has Been Confiscated!


But only temporarily...not to worry! I will return her in one piece, safe and sound in just a bit. For now you can find her over at my site sharing a fabulous Guest Post with my readers. I hope you will visit her and say a little hello. She will want to know that you are well cared for while She is gone...


Click on the banner below to see what She's up to! Xx Rayan - The Design Confidential

FROM SALVAGE TO SPECIAL - MONOGRAM DECK DECOR

This is a décor item, for the deck, I made from salvaged items. What people had thrown away, I saw potential in. These are glass window blocks, which I “Frugalpaged” and added our monogram to.

!! UPDATE 7/22/2014 !!
After 4 years in the sun, the red has faded to completely gone.  The black letters remain as they were done with a permanent sharpie pen.

So, here’s what I started with:

Some old glass window blocks we had hanging around from taking down a building many years ago, a heart shaped plant hanger someone was throwing away, some leftover chain from a new light we put up, and some strapping from around a cardboard box used to keep it together during shipping.

Here’s what the glass blocks looked like before.

I know pretty gross, huh?

They were piled in a room, which we never go into, under one of our silos.

And here they are all cleaned up. I used some calcium, lime, rust cleaner to get all the dried on grout off after I scrubbed them with soap and water. Then I washed them down with vinegar to clean them good and prepare the glass for better adhesion.

This is the heart shaped plant hanger somebody helped me dumpster dive for. It had a square plate on the bottom, but I asked hubby to change the disk on the chop saw so I could cut it, and do you know what that sweetie did?  He went ahead and just cut it for me. Unfortunately, he did this before I had taken a pic. It was green and had rust spots on it, but it had good bones. The bottom pole is a 5/8” rod. That’s huge as most I’ve seen are only 3/8” or 1/2”.

So, anyway I cleaned it up, sanded  it, and washed it with vinegar. Then I spray it with Rustoleum Hammered Brown paint. No need for primer and covers rust good, according to the can. 

Anyway, it looks good. I also painted 

the chains, which were bright brass colored.

I got the inspiration for this project Here.  The blogger Mod Podged a lantern and I thought it looked pretty cool. I didn't have Mod Podge, so I did a search for the recipe and made my own "Frugalpage"  I wanted something that would be somewhat water resistant, so I use Elmer's Pro Bond. After a test I found out it is not water resistant, even after baking the finish on, so I sealed it with clear enamel. The Pro Bond has some wood fibers in it and this made for a nice texture on the blocks. For this project, I used 2 coats of "Frugalpage" made from regular Elmar's glue and one coat made from the Pro Bond.

        

Photo courtesy of: thehandmedownhouse.blogspot.com

 

I copied some letters from my photo program, cut them out and traced them on the blocks with a permanent marker. This is much neater than trying to paint them on. 

To hang the blocks, I cut lengths of strapping and bent it around the blocks. Hubby helped me to rivet them together at the top. You need two people for this step to get it relatively tight. Next I sanded and painted the straps with some leftover enamel from another project and finally finished the whole block with clear exterior enamel. I put S-hooks from some broken bungie straps on to hang them from the chains. 

I drilled a hole through the top of the deck rail and slipped the pole down through it into a block at the bottom, also with a hole in it. I smeared the hole on the inside with petroleum jelly and that kept the paint from scratching off. I hung  the blocks from the chains, and there you have it. Done! 

FROM SALVAGE TO SPECIAL - MONOGRAM DECK DECOR

Roadkill Rescue Challenge

This is a décor item, for the deck, I made from salvaged items. What people had thrown away, I saw potential in. These are glass window blocks, which I “Frugalpaged” and added our monogram to. You can find the tutorial HERE. 

Linked To:

HOO ARE YOU TUESDAY

Time for another round of questions on Hoo Are You Tuesday over at Night Owl Crafting. Click on over and join the fun and get to know some fellow bloggers.

Here are this weeks questions!

1. Have you ever broke a bone or anything on your body?

I've broken my hand, but not found out until a couple of weeks later when the doctor said the bones were already mending. I've also broken some ribs from coughing. Yes coughing! There is a lot of pressure developed in the process of coughing and sneezing and if you try to brace your body during either of these, the bones will snap. 

2. What is your favorite drink?

I would have to say my favorite drink is hot chocolate or chocolate milk; although what I drink most of the time is water. Oh.... did you mean alcohol? Then it would be a Sloe Screw. I'm not into alcohol much, so the more sweet and less alcohol the better.

3. When is your birthday! You don't have to tell the year you were born!

January 14. Sucky time to have a Bday, 'cause people are just getting over Christmas and New Years and tend to forget about it. 'Cept my hubby and kids. They always remember, at least by the end of the day!

4. Do you have an allergies?

Allergies?!? Why yes, yes I do. I had eczema as a teenager, related to a nickel allergy. (no cheap earrings for me) Luckily, I grew out of this, the eczema, not the nickel allergy. I then developed hay fever which has stuck with me. Not too bad until I reached the perimenopausal era of my life in which I would develop sinus infections from said allergies. Now that I'm into menopause, the allergies seem to have lessened considerably (that may be one of the few perks of menopause)

5. What is one of your all time favorite movies?

I think Roadhouse is a good one. Hubby and I have a running joke about one of the lines in the movie "I ain't got twenty bucks!" The movie I've watched the most times would be The Wizard of Oz. I remember watching it every year around Christmas time when I was  a child. Now, though I haven't watched it for about 10 years. It's
A Wonderful Life and White Christmas are also ones that get watched very often.

HOO ARE YOU TUESDAY

Joining in at Night Owl Crafting for Hoo Are You Tuesday.

Why don't you pop on over and join in too!

Here are this weeks questions!

1. Do you prefer sweet or salty foods?

2. Name your 3 BEST personality traits!

3. Name your 3 worst personality traits!

4. Do you collect anything?

5. What is your favorite season of the year?

1. Do you prefer sweet or salty foods?
    I prefer sweet foods. I have a terrible sweet tooth.


2. Name your 3 BEST personality traits!
     My 3 best personality traits would be 
#1 sense of humor
#2 creative
#3 frugal


3. Name your 3 worst personality traits!
    Wow, lookin' for honesty here. Well here goes.
#1 judgmental
#2 loud and opinionated
#3 unforgiving
     I'm working on these, and with the help of God, someday I may              succeed.  


4. Do you collect anything?
    Not really. My home is more of an eclectic mess. I do have a cow theme going in my kitchen though.


 5. What is your favorite season of the year?
     My favorite season would be summer, or spring. I definitely like warmer weather, so I can be outside doing things. I do not like the cold, but do like the change of seasons. My theory is it would be great to have snow, but still be 50°!

Filled in all around . No more flowers other than that one.

5/15 5/27

6/8 6/18

6/29

7/11

THE COLOSSAL POTATO TOWER VENTURE - "UPDATE"

It's filled in all around now. Have had no more flowers other than that one.

May15,2010 May27,2010

June8,2010 June18,2010

June29, 2010

July 11, 2010

PLANTABLE PLANT STAND

This was my idea for a plantable plant stand to put my Strawberry Jar on.

And here’s what it would be with the Strawberry Jar on top.

Scroll down to see how it turned out.

I was not real pleased with either the process or the outcome, but it’ll do for now if you don’t look too close.

So, here’s what went wrong:

I thought the half pails would fit as nicely in this as the bottles did on the Strawberry Jar. THEY  DID NOT! There were big gaps on the bottom corners, so caulking was not going to work.

On to plan B. 

I thought I would use expanding foam. Says it’s paintable, so it should work, right? WRONG! It was nice and smooth as it expanded, but when it got trimmed off, there were many airholes in the stuff. Maybe I should have followed with the caulk, but this was getting too labor intensive, not to mention costly if I did that, so I didn’t.

Sprayed it with primer for plastic and this step seemed to go ok. Next I followed with a coat of Rustoleum textured spray paint. BAD CHOICE! This did not cover well or even enough for the whole project.

On to plan C. 

I brushed on Rustoleum hammered paint that I had left over from another project. This looks good at the moment, but not sure how it will hold up over the plastic primer. Time will tell.

So, if you look from a distance it appears ok, but on close scrutiny it doesn’t meet muster.

Final thought on what I learned; I’m going back to brush on painting, for several reasons:

#1 Spray paint is more expensive.

#2 Spray paint doesn’t go as far or cover as well without many coats.

#3 Spraying hurts my finger; even the trigger kind or adapter is not comfortable after awhile.

So, there you have it, one of my failures less than perfect experiments.

Today I’m BLOG HOPPING over at The Girl Creative.

Why don’t  you “hop” on over and join me?

LEAF CASTING PATIO

Last summer we replaced our old patio with this Leaf Casting one. It used to be made of flat ledge stone, but it was overgrown with weeds and grass, so I wanted something different. 

This is how I accomplished the look:

My son was putting up a shed and having concrete poured, so we had them order a little extra for our project. First, I laid out my plans on paper. Then, Gary and I framed up the slab with 2x4’s in a sort of pentagon shape. I say sort of, because we worked the tree in the back into the design. To finish out the frame, we used flexible landscape edging around the tree. [I later put that part back in to keep the dirt and plants from encroaching onto the slab.]

When they got done pouring Al’s concrete, they came over and poured our slab. We had to work fast, because they had put an additive in to make it dry faster. Anyway, once it was poured and smoothed out, I quickly placed all my previously cut leaves in the places I had set forth in my plan. The leaves I used were: rhubarb, burdock, ferns, cattails, and some leaves I found along side the road. The leaves had to be pressed firmly into the concrete and I lifted them up a little just to see if they were impressing well. 

It was a windy day, so the ferns did not work out well, but you can still see the impressions somewhat. The cattails were disappointing, which surprised me, but I guess they weren’t stiff enough, so I just “drew” in the cattails with some kind of handle. Being that there had been an additive in the concrete, we were able to take the leaves off within a couple hours, so they did not dry into the concrete and came off nicely.

We let the concrete cure for 21 days and then painted the slab first with Rustoleum Concrete Stain in Burnished Gold. The color came out way too yellow for our liking, so I sponged brown acrylic paint over all except the leaves.  That looked much better. On the leaves, I sponged 2 different colors of green, and used brown for the top of the cattails. When this dried, we sealed it with concrete sealer.

I made stepping stones for the side by creating a form with landscape edging. To do this, I just bent the edging into a “circle” and fastened with a couple of bolts. It naturally formed a teardrop shape, which is what I was looking for. I place the forms on a bed of sand and filled with concrete I had mixed up from a bag. I made this kind of stiff and then placed a leaf into each form to cast my leaf. After these cured, I painted them in the same manner as the slab.

I also made Leaf Casting Planters by using an old plastic pot that was cracked and using spray adhesive to adhere leaves to the sides. Here I used cedar leaves and various smaller leaves. I placed an old pail in the center and filled in between the two with concrete.I used a plastic wand from old mini blinds that I cut into smaller pieces to place for drainage holes. Again I painted them in the same manner as the slab. They turned out rather well, but heavy as the dickens!

The leaf rug is cut from a piece of indoor/outdoor carpeting. I did use some Gorilla Tape just to reinforce the stem and tip, to keep them from curling. It has stayed on through one winter well.

It has gone through one winter and still looks good; maybe better, ‘cause it has some age look to it from dirt and such. The only problem is the willow tree it is under. Willows are very dirty trees, dropping leaves and branches all the time. Oh well, you gotta have shade!

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