It was random lamb’s ear growing in my yard….
And now it is flourishing in a pot on my front steps.
That was real yuck….
And is now a little better with paint. I know I still need to do something about that missing door there to my shed (but, it’s still better!). Maybe I’ll dig out our circular saw soon….
And what looked like this…
Now looks like this today, complete with my newly planted vertical garden! Amazing what a little paint and some new soil will do! I made my raised bed with scavenged railroad ties and stones from my yard. Then I bought and added 600 pounds of dirt. I still will need more. This week I planted carrots, snap peas, romaine, and spinach.
And this half-dead pussy willow tree in my yard….
is now gone, thankfully. I think it looks better as a stump! (P.S….A professional team did this….I don’t own a chainsaw. well, yet…lol)!
And my once-vacant, non-inviting porch….
Now is an outdoor living space. I added a rug from Menards, 3 window boxes from Joann Fabrics (clearanced from last fall), a repainted and recushioned bench (my mom found it at a garage sale for me last summer), a black chair (donated from a friend), 2 wooden crates (donated from my sister…thank you!), and a pot with dirt for Nathan to dig in!
I like how my bench turned out. Sorry I was a little lazy to take a picture of it before…but just picture with me: stained redwood and vintage yellow and green vinyl floral covers. This is way better I tell you! I used clearanced outdoor fabric from JoAnns for the front of the covers, and plastic tablecloths for the backings. I mixed 3 paints I had leftover (cream, yellow, and black) to make a gray toned paint, and used it to paint 2 sides of my shed and this bench.
And some other updates from the Hoover household…..
I planted seedlings inside, of which many decided to come up already in just days!
I spray painted a scavenged (out of our neighborhood last fall) ladybug sandbox for Nathan, bought sand at the hardware store, and shovels at Walmart. So, for $21, Nathan has a refurbished sandbox and toys! Now you can’t beat that! Who says ladybugs can’t be a manly blue color? : )
And if that weren’t enough in the last few weeks…. I’ve made a bunny shirt (above) to go with Nathan’s Easter pants, and a fabric Easter basket too. Miffy will make an appearance on his mommy-made t-shirt! More to reveal of all that on Easter!
And what about selfish sewing for me? I’m turning these two patterns…..
And taking this old halter type dress…..
And making something new for summer. As you can see it hasn’t gone perfectly so far (as none of my projects do that I rush through), but it will be done soon. Not sure if this will be my Easter dress, or if I will make time to sew a different one. It all depends on how motivated I get… Haha!
And, my little man has learned to eat with a spoon! Meal time is so much fun now! I do love it! I just want to “eat him up” all the time!!!
The countdown is on!…..Daddy (aka…my wonderful husband) is coming home in a about 45 days! Wow! That’s certainly a far cry from the original 400 days we looked at when he left! We are thankful to the Lord to have him home again soon, and are extremely grateful to all of our friends and family who have been praying and supporting us!!! Love you all!!!
