Yard Art - Totem Pole For Mom

I saw this in another magazine and I am almost sure it was a Birds and Bloom but it could have been a different book.Anyway I just knew I had to make one so I went to the thrift store to look for pretty glass  before I went to Mom's 

This jar was at my sisters in their garage ,I use a wooden pole for the base.turned the jar upside down and use 100% silcone sealer to keep it in place .

This is what I used for Mom's I had several shapes and she liked this ,so I used silcone sealer to keep them together I made sure I used lots of it.

Not quite done yet

this is with a large plastic tray ,Mom was worried about water getting into it ,that is a candle holder on top.

She opted out for this smaller glass tray said it looks better to her

Then she wanted something inside the glass but we did not have any thing except these purple flowers ,at one time we talked about waiting till we went to town again to get some glass marbles  but we was not sure when that would be as she lives 20 miles from Live Oak, but only 7 miles from Mayo , we went there twice but they don't have lots to chose form there.

In this photo we found the wooden balls at The family Dollar Store for only a dollar and thought they looked good on top . I don;t like the red an purple together , we was going to change the flowers out but I could not get it apart with out breaking it so maybe someone will paint it purple or it can wait till I go back in July.
 I made one for myself but will post it later.

Outside Yard Art -Bird Feeder & Planter

Got this idea from Birds & Bloom Extra 

Mom's neighbor Don was going to a used parts shop ,Mom asked if he could find a hub cap. he said he would get 2 of them ,Notice it is perfect for this .where the small hub is the magazine said to use a coffee filter from an old pertculator coffee pot , this was already there so we opted out on the filter .and had Gary drill a hole to fit ,the lamp was perfect for this !

On top of the hub cap is one of Mom's old candle holders she did not want anymore, the dangles were already on it ,the base of the feeder is an old chimmy flue, came out of mom's heater that was taken out and I put that over an old floor lamp , I used most of the lamp to put this together with, the bottom and the very top plastic is from where the lights used to be ,so on top of the candle holder I made it so she can have a flower pot on top and feeder on the hub cap but it can also be used for water.

There are all kinds of metals and etc hanging from the hub cap with copper wire ,We had the bowl on there ,Mom liked it but Tina said no use the bowl for one of the wind chimes you saw yesterday.

I have the hub cap for me one, but need to find the rest either around my house or at the thrift store , or any  place where things are being thrown out ,I like the saying" One man's junk is another mans treasure" !

Wind Chimes and Rustic display

Mom's 

Tina's

Rexa's

Cheryl's

Mom had this log from the Evergreen tree that was removed a year ago ,she wanted it for a display of rusty items .Kind of plain.

Found this metal birdhouse (Flower)

Looks lots better here with more bird houses on it.

As for the wind chimes ,we had found pictures of them in a Birds and Bloom magazine .

Mom had saved it for quite some time and we decided they were going to get made when I went up there this time . they were fun to make , we sure had Gary busy drilling the holes though. I used thin copper wire so they would last longer, when we had a breeze Mom said they were making pretty sounds ,then when we had a bad rain storm last sat. the silverware on mine was spinning  straight out and spinning really fast .

 In the mean time we were waiting for Mom's neighbor Don to bring us some hub caps for a bird feeder that I will show tomorrow.

Day #2 at Moms on Friday

For a long time now Mom and us girls have been 

wanting these bushes and the front walkway taken out , the tree's were causing the 5 inch thick 14" x14"  blocks to pop up in places where we were afraid Mom or anyone would trip and fall from them ,the bushes were in the way of mowing the right side of the yard as Gary could not get to it from the back with his big mower .So they all decided we would get it done  ,.Gary used his new John Deere Tractor to pull up the bushes, which left big holes in the ground .

Gary's new Tractor 

This picture is of the walkway from inside ,I showed it yesterday .

Gary now using the front end loader to get the blocks up

See this Red Brick ! there is a tree root growing in one of the holes this is what kept me from getting it out of the way , therefore caused me to lose my balance and stepped into one of the deep holes where there used to be a bush, then I was trying to use the shovel to keep my self from falling more and made a big gash on the shin of my right leg ! Ouch !!!

Had to treat it everyday while there ,hurt for a long time .

This is how it looked after Gary made several trips to the garden area to get extra dirt 

This is the huge pile of leaves Mom had raked up ,Gary is taking them up to move out back

 All done and raked out

The old porch was ready to fall so Gary & Tina took it apart and then went to Lowes to get more wood for a new one , Mom and I have been wanting an bigger porch but after figuring the cost decided to go back with the same size .this picture shows it not quite finished .

Adding new flowers too, Hoping for new grass soon.

A job well done and another one marked off the list of things to Do !

Trip To Mom's-1st Day

April 28th-Highway 27

Black Eyed Susans ans wild Phlox 

There were wild flowers all along the highway from Archer to High Springs to Mayo & Luraville 

Most of it was very colorful , these pictures does not do it justice !

There were places where the flowers would be very pink with touches of deep reds , whites and more purple too , and the yellows were really thick and close  together. I have always enjoyed traveling the roads to north Florida in April , seems they want the roads to look good and therefor they have less mowing to do .

Looks  stormy - better hurry 

Wild flowers at bridge

Bridge At Suwannee River-almost there 

made it to Mom's just as it started to pour ,this is the front yard 

out the back yard-it looked like a lake all around us 

It rained for quite awhile , Mom and I were prepared to get in the closet as there was really bad wind, rain and the thunder & lightening was terrible it even looked a little green out there ! It was over after about an hour, then we was able to visit and talk about the latest news .Tomorrow I will post about what we did in the front yard on Friday.

My Craft and Storage Shed

This shed was given to us by a neighbor friend ,he had gotten a new one and wanted to get rid of this one , he knew I was wanting one ,so my husband and friends went to get it and had it set up for me in Jan. It is not the best but Iwas desperate for soemthing to put my stuff in, as most of this was in one room of the house and some in the living room ,and some in a very small garden shed .

This will be a work station where I do most crafts, gourds and painting, I need to get a better table , I will get that later.Can you belive all this was in the house !!

I know it is not the best looking shed but I will have to make it look better as I go.

This is what it looks like right now , my husband has promised me he would put new doors on it that open like real doors and not slide like this, later on I may paint it and then maybe add a barn quilt to the side .I will be adding more flower pots around the left side & the front .To the right goes to the back yard and my wash area.

 The shed was carried in from a flat bed trailer by 6 guys ,then my husband & I were trying to get it ready for the floor by digging for the blocks to lay the frame , another neighbor saw what were we doing and volunteered to build the frame himself as he knew we were unable to do hard labor, my husband is on oxygen for CPOD, so we were blessed to have the help we did get ,then I had to wait awhile for it to stop being so cold so I could paint the wood for shelves and the tabl , finally he was able to put the shelves up with my help, then I was able to get it filled  ,There is so much more room in the house now .

Table Top For Ms Robin

This is the random color table top ,I just started cutting the 2 inch squares and then randomly sewed them up .

  This is the outcome ,it is almost 8 feet long ,I had asked members of the family how long the table was and they said they were almost sure it was an 8ft table , so I decided to make it shorter than that so it would not hang over the edge too short or too long .

I did not have a place to hang it to take the picture so, my husband held it at the top of his Golf cart for me. 

This one is the bottom up close 

the middle up close 

The top up close 

Robin was really surprised , it was her anniversary and Birthday present as they both are 2 days apart.

She loves it , took it home and let me know that it fit perfect on the table ,in fact the table was lots smaller than what we thought ,she said it hangs over the edge just right ,I will have to get a picture of it on her table .