A Pretty Garden Chair

I kind of want to call this post my "Un-Craigslist" chair find. I choose to give it that name based on a recent encounter with a Craigslist seller that pretty much left a bad taste in my mouth (& he wasn't the first either). If you want to read an entire post about it, you'll want to go back to my March 27th post. Since I tend to go on & on about things enough as it is, I won't bore you with repeating that story here.

But, I do have some good news! I did manage to have a BEFORE picture of this chair. If you read my blog enough, you know I'm really bad about getting, or finding Before shots of the things I refinish.

There is actually 2 chairs that I found at the curb of the before mentioned Craigslist deal gone wrong, along with some other things you see here.


I just want you to know that I braved the mosquito infestation this morning to take these pictures. I think it was the quickest photo shoot I've ever done.

The one I worked on first is one that had a broken leg brace. So I fixed the break & decided to make it a garden chair. The chair is still pretty sturdy, but I don't want to take that chance with anyone's safety, but it will hold a heavy planter of pretty flowers just fine.

I wanted to make it bright enough that you could see it out in someone's garden or a shady porch (like mine-not shown). 

Using my Silhouette Cameo cutter, I made this design. I've always loved the quote "Time Began In A Garden", because my husband always thought that me having flower gardens was kind of senseless & a waste of time. I felt it was necessary to remind him of where time began. He doesn't say that anymore.

I think this scroll bracket was a freebie from the Silhouette store a little earlier this year. Did you know that they offer one free design each week? They choose the design, but they do pretty good about selecting decent ones. Anyway, I felt this one was perfect for the front of the seat. It fit the curve nicely without getting blocked by having a potted plant or vingette sitting on the seat. 

The blue is more of a teal blue color and I just used a Glidden sample bottle that I got at Walmart. The color is WGB09 Deepest Aqua. The green is an Apple Barrel brand acrylic paint in Pale Green, also from Walmart.

I love those set-back spindles and I wanted to accentuate those by painting them in the green accent color.

If you look closely, really closely, you can see the break in the "cr" letters of the word Scrap in my watermark.

I traced the Petunia/Morning Glory image from clipart I found online, as well as the butterfly, in the Designer software add-on for my Silhouette.

The font is Guttenberg MF and can be downloaded for FREE at Dafont.com.

This is just a close up of the white accent painting I did in the grooves at the back of the chair.

I sprayed the entire chair with Krylon Clear matte spray sealer and called her good and took a day of rest (actually I didn't rest, I have more projects to finish).


This project has been featured at these blogs:

PJH Designs

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Reduse, ReUse, Recycle

I think more & more people are making the conscious decision these days to try to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as they can.

I also think a lot of it has played over into the crafting world with lots of help from Pinterest. There's that name again...it's a good site to go to for ideas, if you actually use what you see on there and IF they work out.

I seen the idea to make plant markers on Pinterest via In My Own Style blog, but that blogger used a marker. However, she had much prettier hand writing than I have, so she could get away with that & it looked nicer than I could do by hand. She also gave them a bit of a Wow Factor when she blinged it up with jewels! Pretty!

I, on the other hand, wanted something with a little bit of a Wow factor also, but without the jewels. The squirrels or coons would probably take off with them, so I needed something that still gave me that factor without the "wasted" work to make it pretty.  I'm not always successful in achieving that, but I try. (disclaimer) If I didn't have critter problems, there would definitely be jewels on mine too!

I also wanted to use another object that so many people are wanting to throw away these days because they're kind of worthless after a short while.

I present to you the vintage cardboard tube & wire hanger. Please ignore my awful 1970's kitchen cabinets that desperately need refinished.

Once you remove the cardboard tube at the bottom of the hanger, you're left with the perfect end to use as a hanger. 

 

Just snip each side off below the curved hanger portion at the top. If you want, you can take a pair of pliers and crimp the curved tip closed once you've added your labeled lid.

Then you need the metal discs to create your label. I use crescent rolls or this.
 

On a side note, I love these Seamless Crescent Roll sheets for making the raw veggie pizzas and Sopapilla desserts. I have to purchase them from our local Kroger grocery stores because Walmart doesn't carry this variety here.

Once you get your metal disc removed from the cans, one end will have some print on it that can be removed with nail polish remover, then you need to wash all of them with warm soapy water to get the dough residue off.


I used yellow and green outdoor vinyl to cut out my designs with my Cricut. I don't remember what cartridge I used for the design, but I used the Botanicals cartridge for the font.

I don't have these herbs planted yet because it's just too cold right now, but I want to give them a try this year! So all I got is some daffodils and Hyacinths popping up.
 

 
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Revamped Watering Can (again)

About a year ago, I shared a simple make over with this watering can

I managed to get the decal off using an acetone based nail polish remover. The remover was old so I don't even think they make nail polish remover with acetone anymore (in the US anyway) but you can buy straight acetone in a can in any paint dept. and you should wear gloves as it's extremely drying to your hands (and very cold too).

After cutting out a label made from chalkboard vinyl on my Cricut, this is what it looked like then. 

I tried to use a stencil made from contact paper to write the word Fleurs, but I clearly cannot line anything up straight. Thank goodness it's written in chalk so it can be redone (just not any better).

And I was quite happy with that little label improvement, but I want to try to sell this, and the nasty looking faux brass accents that had some wear, just wasn't the look I want to offer a customer. I don't mind if the galvanizing looks worn, but not the really shiny fake brass stuff.
 

If you look closely at the finished version, I even added some extra accents that weren't in brass before. I did the bottom banding seal of the can. I thought it just made it look more complete with it. I also painted the underside of the watering head instead of just the front. And finally, I taped around the little handle brackets that attach it to the can and spruced those up too.

I had smeared the previous chalk word pretty bad, so I tried to freehand over what image was left. I'll try to make it look nicer at sale time.

And in case you're wondering what I used to paint it with. It was Krylon Fusion Hammered Copper spray paint, but I used a brown spray paint primer on the bare metal first and then went over it with the hammered copper paint. You want to be careful with the Hammered paint because it has a bit of a shimmer to it, making runs look even worse, but if you just use short even sprays and don't get too close, it looks amazing when you're done.
 
So here is a Before and After shot of my little watering can.

Click on image to enlarge

What a difference a little spray paint and a label makes, eh? It kind of has a bit of an industrial look to it and I think it would look great in a Fall display. If I had some fresh daffodils blooming right now, I would have filled it with some of those. I can't wait for those to bloom!


This was not a sponsored post, I just used what I had on hand for the spray paint.
 
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Need an Effective Squirrel Deterrent?

**UPDATE - We had to put a galvanized tube over the green pipe because after a couple of weeks, one squirrel was able to jump high enough to be able to climb to the top. Now they can't even hang on at all. (wink)

Squirrels at the bird feeder

Are you like me? I know I'm not the only one. Do you have a major problem with keeping the squirrels out of your bird feeders? You feel like you've tried everything? All the expensive feeder gimmicks? Luckily, I haven't gone that route, but don't think I haven't been tempted. I'm just too cheap!

If we lived somewhere that didn't have over 13 acres of acorn producing woodland, this might not bother me. But we do! There are piles of acorns everywhere for them to eat! 

I've tried one method that was effective in the summer, but not so much in the winter. That was slathering up the feeder pole with gobs of Vaseline. It HAD to be Vaseline too. I tried the dollar store variety and they were a different consistency that was noticeably different in texture. It proved to be no match for the squirrels. Vaseline was good for the warmer months, but must get a little harder in the winter time which still allows the squirrels to get a grip on the pole and shimmy up it to a feast of the sunflower seeds that await at the top. Grrrr!

So as we were having breakfast Sunday morning, we noticed that the squirrels were able to jump halfway up the metal pole and make their way up the other couple of feet to the feeder. I just mentioned nonchalantly to my husband that I wonder if the pole was just skinny enough for the squirrels to get their paws around and that's why they had no problem getting up there. 

What if......what if there was a big pipe that we could slip over the pole that was too big for the squirrels paws to wrap around and NOT get a grip on? Hmmm....my hubby was pondering this thought. 

Lucky for me, the hubby is a plumber and there is always pieces of pipe (among other "supplies") sitting around just in case. It just so happens that there was a long enough piece of 4" pipe laying behind the garage. I never had a doubt there was. He did some measuring and went to work.

Of course the pipe HAD to be this vivid shade of green and all nasty from sitting on the ground for who knows how long. A total eyesore indeed. It will surely be a true test, because I'm sure the squirrels wondered what in the world that tall green giant thing was that goes up to their stash of food. 

Shoot! It didn't scare them! 

at. first. 

Oh yeah, they thought they were just going to go scurrying up that green giant like it was just another tree. And they had a pretty good start! I thought to myself, "Oh no, failure again." But as I'm watching them, one by one, try to outdo the other in their mighty attempts to climb that green giant, they could get so far up and then they'd stop! Oh, they'd try to hold on. They'd look to the ground as they begin to slowly slide back down and then they'd have to jump back down to the ground. Each one failed. Miserably. YES!

This is about as far on the post as they can jump up to. He's hanging on for all it's worth. 

So the pipe has to be long enough that they can't jump high enough to reach the top. This one is probably about 6 ft. tall. It's taller than me and I'm 5'2".

Here's the same one, after numerous tries of jumping onto the pipe, he has to jump down each time. He never makes it all the way up. 

  

Now the squirrels all just hang out like bottom feeders, eating only what falls from the diner that hangs above them. Out of their reach. 

The pipe is probably not cheap, but it can save you a bundle over time in the amount of bird seed you buy that goes in the squirrel's bellies & not the birds.  

I don't know if galvanized pipe would be any better since it would get a rough texture over time, giving them something to help them cling onto, unless you want to slick it up with Vaseline also. Just a thought.

I hope this works for the long haul and I hope it works for you if you try it.

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