How to Make A Fire-Pit on the Cheap

(yes I know the shutters do not match, and the black plastic pipe-thing is ugly...just give me a month or two)

I have been wanting a fire-pit area in our backyard since we moved into the house two years ago. I knew right were I wanted it too, and it just so happened that, that spot in the yard did not grow grass well and had tons of weeds...Bonus. This year I sneaked it into my budget by racking my brain on how to do it cheap without compromising the look or the long-term durability of everything.

In this post I will give you a step by step tutorial of what we did to make our fire pit and fire pit area.

Mail Box Area Clean-Up

I decided to clean up our mailbox area awhile back. It is one of those awkward places that you do not know if you or your neighbor is in charge of. I guess I was feeling in charge that day. 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I was looking back through past garden posts and realized I have failed to post about buying and planting everything in my garden. We have had some weird weather here in Utah this spring. In-fact a week or so after planting everything the weather hit freezing and it snowed, but I am happy to report that it looks like all my tomato plants have survived.

The Fence is Done!

Peony Love: Bloom II

Another one of my Peonies bloomed today and I just had to share.

This one is a "Pink Dawn". It is a single Peony meaning that it only has that one layer of petals.

Peony Love

I am in love! My first Peony bloomed today.

It is a "Bowl of Beauty"Peony and I just love it. It was actually one that I was not sure about planting because I love the all pink ones so much, but after seeing it I want more. I got all my Peonies at Bland's Nursery in West Jordan Utah by the way. It is only my favorite nursery, and the ladies are so helpful.

I'm Still Here!

I swear I am still here! This weekend has been crazy we worked last week on getting everything to start our fence project. The husband took Friday off to start on it and he just finished this afternoon. Thanks to the help of his brother who we use as a workhorse on the weekends. Devin your the best! 

Utah Home Remodeling Show

Friday night the husband took me out for a little date night. He knows just what I like to do and took me to a Utah Home Remodeling Show. It was a nice night out, but I wish the show had been better. It was mostly heating and air companies, roofing companies, and randomness. I wish there would have been designers, decor items and ideas, wallpaper, and fixtures etc, but to my disappointment there wasn't. I did run across a few things I loved though.

Like these guys! 

Garden? Check!

Well I got one big "To Do" off my list and I have the bad tan lines to prove it. We pretty much finished up everything with our garden area this last Saturday. 

Kids Picnic Bench: Finished and Painted

I finally finished painting Jaynas picnic bench. My husband thought I was crazy to do two coats of paint, antiquing, glazing, staining, and two coats of top coat on an outdoor kids picnic bench, but I love how it turned out.

I am hoping this will be one of those items that Jayna will want to pass down to her kids someday. I built it well enough and treated it well enough that it could be. That is if I can part with it and the memories it will hold by then of her being a little girl playing in my backyard.


For Painting Technique How To Click the Read More Button Below...

Backyard Progress: Looking Like a Garden

This weekends weather finally gave us a chance to get working on the backyard again.

Knock Off Wood

If you have not heard of the Blog Knock Off Wood you need to get with it. In my opinion it is the biggest thing to hit the DIY Blogging world in a long time.

Ana of Knock Off Wood an Alaskan mommy and wife to a carpenter handy-man took things into her own hands one day when her husband wasn't getting around to fixing some porch steps, and just fixed them herself. Ana has been doing woodworking ever since and now her passion for knocking off high end furniture lines (hmm hmm Pottery Barn hmm hmm) has spilled over into the blog world and is inspiring everyone. Ana has full how to plans for beds, dressers, dining-room tables, office systems and more available on her blog, for get this... FREE!

My list of things to build off her site is a mile long. Starting with all the furniture for my soon to be craft-room of my dreams. However I did see this cute little kids picnic bench on her site and had to build it for Jayna.

It was a great starter project to get my feet wet, and went fairly well. I only needed the Husbands help to cute four pieces, and am sure that what I learned while doing this project will just make me better on the next. It is all about not underestimating yourself or your abilities, and that could be the single reason why Ana's blog is so popular.

I have already ordered my Milk Paint and Exterior Top-Coat in Buttermilk Yellow for the picnic bench, and with the help of Jayna have already distressed it a little. I didn't know a two year old could do such damage banging an old hinge on wood. Oh-well.

I encourage you to check out her blog, but only if you are ready to triple your to do list.

Grass Terrarium

I spotted these grass terrariums over at Monkey See - Monkey Do and just had to post about them. They look so fun and easy to do if I can figure out where to buy the wheat berries. Anyone know where? What a fun spring / easter craft to do with kids, and they only take about 5 days to sprout. I am all about instant gratification, so this is something I can handle. I am afraid I will make tons of these and put them everywhere though. They just look so fresh and beautiful.

For the full how to head over to Yolanda's blog.

Expensive Accessories Are For The Birds

These cute birds have brought a little feeling of spring to my home, and these birds sing "cheap, cheap, cheap", instead of "chirp, chirp, chirp". At a dollar each from the Dollar Tree you can't beat the impact they make on a table arrangement like this one.

I am crossing my fingers and hoping my bulbs (also from the Dollar Tree) bloom shortly so I can enjoy them in the front room.

What says Spring to you?

Iron Man!

No I am not talking about the Iron Man in the movies your husband wants to watch. I am talking about my Iron Man, or at least I want him to be my Iron Man someday.

There is a house in my neighbor-hood that I pass often that always has really pretty wrought iron work, like arbors and trellises in the front yard for sale. I have always wanted to stop and look at them more, and or call the homeowner to find out how much everything is and if they do custom work or not. So the other day when we finally had a sunny afternoon here in Utah Jayna and I went for a walk to that house. I called the Iron Man and left a message and then later talked to him and setup a time for him to come over and give me a quote.

I have a basement entrance on the side of my house that is currently fenced with (cringing) chain link fencing. I have been dreaming of the day that it will be fenced with looping wrought iron and have a cute little gate that has an even more adorable little latch. So I was crossing my fingers that the neighbor-hood Iron Man would be able to come to my rescue.

He is the nicest man, and funny enough ended up being the man who put in our attic insulation last summer. He does all the work and fabrication himself and I love his work. He has this arbor that has a double doored gate that would make any respectable housewife or gardener drool.

So moral of the story is if you are looking for any fun wrought iron work to add to your house, yard or garden this is your guy. He has pot holders he has made, garden boarders etc. Wrought iron is never cheap, but this is your local "Pop" welder that would be great to support and wonderful to work with.

His name is Roger, and you can reach him at 801.372.2460. Tell him Jill sent you, or if you would like you could contact me and I can have him call you. Heck, I need a deal on my work people!

I think Roger needs a new business card though, and I am not sure that I can resist coming up with a logo and making them for him.

Hopefully I can save my pennies and buy his stuff for my yard!

A Thrifty Garden

I was so excited to run across seeds at the dollar store yesterday. I was even more excited that they had seeds for some beautiful flowers that I have always wanted to try and grow.

I bought all these seeds for less than $15.00. The little packets were four for a dollar and the bulbs were a dollar each. I need to go back and buy more. I am having flower seed anxiety.

So hopefully I can get my act together this spring and at least plant some flowers from seed. I have three tiered planting boxes leading down to the basement french doors that I want to plant nothing but flowers in. I have visions of sitting in my front room and gazing out the bay window to see peonies, cosmos, zinnias, and ranunculus. I wanted to be really select about the flower colors, but these seeds were just too good of a deal to pass up. I am afraid my peony bulbs will not be as cheap, but I just have to have them. I cannot wait to go out into the backyard and pick fresh cut flowers to put in the house. Dream come true!

My other hope is to have three growing boxes in the backyard against the fence so that I can plant vegetables, fruit, and herbs. Down by the basement I also want to plant blackberries and raspberries so that they can grow up the wall down there. I hoping I can get some starts from my Sister-in-laws garden. She also has some clematis which she got from our first house we ever lived in together in Provo. So I for-sure want to plant some of that so we can have a little piece of our past her at this house. The only thing that may hold all my plans up is that we also want to put a fence in sometime. We are still debating on when to do it though. So I have to figure out what is top on the list. A fence would be so nice so that we do not have to heard the dog and child as much, but if we spend all are money on that there will not really be anything back there anyways. I really want to get started on planting things too, since it takes a couple of years for everything to mature and get just right. So we will see.