Playhouse Progress.

As some of you may have read in my previous posts, we recently acquired our "quaint" shed. Our landscape designer was very clear that we really could just have any old metal shed but that we need to find something that would stand out and be a good fit for the acreage. So this is what we came up with. I haven't sent her any pictures or had her come over yet to see it. Very excited for her to see it. And hope she loves it as much as we truly do.

The pink potting shed/playhouse/garden ~ tool hut in it's original color of bright pink. I knew the second I saw it that it would not stay pink. Figuring out what color to paint it was bit challenging but in the end, I love what we ended up choosing. Just the right shade of the right color.

And in it's new hue of radiance .... our little guy was not impressed. He really liked the pink! Now he says it's dark but we really like that it matches the big house. 

There will be more progress over the long weekend .... painting, sawing, gluing, hammering .... I'll do more updates as we go. This project has been a lot of fun so far. We're half way there and loving it making it truly ours.

Final Frugal Finds.

My last two Frugal Friday finds .... dirt and clothes. We've been thinking about buying dirt to fill up our raised garden boxes. To get it delivered is handy but then the dirt would be sitting out in the rain. So we then decided to buy bags of it. Yesterday, I was given a $10 coupon to use online if I was to purchase $50. I searched for dirt and found an amazing sale. Bags that were originally $5 were on sale for $2.50 each. And with my coupon, the price came down to $2.14. In the end, I spent $75 which ended up being a total of 35 bags, at 28 litres each for a grand total of 980 litres. This should fill up our garden boxes very nicely. Can't wait to get our garden finished up.

Our last deal of the day .... clothes. We love a particular store and recently bought a $10 store card that gives us an additional 10% off all orders online and in the store all the time, even during sales. We've had some amazing deals and today was the best. A one day sale, with an additional 40% of sale items, plus 15% off that total (up from the original 10% due to Canada's 150th birthday tomorrow), and to make it even sweeter, free shipping. So we chose over $1,140 worth of clothing but paid just $182. Isn't that the most amazing deal!! Time to purge our closet and donate the items we haven't been wearing all year so there is room for our new finds. 

That's the end of the Frugal Friday Finds for this week. Hope you had a good week too!

Frugal Friday #8.

The best frugal find of the week was this

vintage end table. I was at the Antique

Mall tidying up our little booth and kept

walking past a pile of items at the front.

I finally stopped and asked the staff if

someone had bought the items and they

told me that they were just being dropped

off by on the vendors for their booth.

The owner than showed up and the next

thing I know, I'm loading up this beautiful

piece into my car. And we had just the

perfect spot for it. Love the drawers, the

handles, the curves, the hand painted 

flowers, the colors and the legs. The fit

was just right for this challenging spot. I

am so happy I stopped to ask the owner.

Frugal Friday #7.

 I love tiny books. Maybe being a dollhouse

miniaturist has inspired me to always watch

for "little" items. So much fun to search for

tiny items to fill our dollhouse or our home.

An author I love is Becky Kelly. Her art work

and her words always make me so happy.

Frugal Friday #6.

Another .50 cent acquisition .... a nice sized

doily. This may go in the booth or it may stay

here at home. I love the delicate pattern and

the color too. It will be a bit hard to part with.

Frugal Friday #5.

This Angel I picked up, also for .50 cents,

for our garden or the deck. It's actually a

candle holder with the shining light coming

through the back. I may try it tomorrow.

Frugal Friday #4.

And the 4th lucky find, this colorful basket for my

Art Studio. I'm not sure what will go inside just yet.

Frugal Friday #3.

Frugal Friday find #3 .... for a tidy sum

of just .50 cents, this small garden book

was perfect for a weekend read. And

planning for our own small gardens.

Frugal Friday #2.

My second find .... an Ikea metal plate

with little hearts engraved along the edge.

Frugal Friday #1.

If charity shop treasure hunting is part

of the plan for the week, I often choose

Fridays as sales seem to best on that day.

Today was a good one with 50% off.

Here's the 1st item I chose. A sweet

little "friends" photo frame. It was

just $5 but at 50% off, I paid $2.50.

I love the Angel and the bunny.

Are you a frugal shopper?

Do you like searching for treasures?

Window Blinds.

We may have finally found window blinds for

the bedrooms, after two years of trying to figure

out the best options. This is our guest bedroom

in late evening in the summer. So very bright

and not the best for trying to fall asleep at night,

especially for our little guy when he sleeps over.

From Ikea, we love the light color and the easy

way to pull this blind down and then lift it in

the morning. We're going to bring one home

this week and try it out. And hope we can sleep.

Two Years Later.

 We're celebrating two years in our new

country home this week. That went fast.

I stocked up on all sorts of items before we

moved in .... toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner,

toilet paper, dish soap, light bulbs and tons of

laundry soap. And in the last few weeks, we

have started to get down to the last few bits

of our "stock pile" including our laundry soap.

I filled this handy dandy container and it's

almost time to order more soap from Costco.

I love how much storage room we have now

so we can stock up on items, especially on sale.

Do you have a spot in your home to store sale items?

Do you try and catch sales and then stock pile for later?

Doors and Drawers.

Our doors and drawers have finally

arrived. Right now, they are stacked

up in the garage on a pallet. We'll

start to bring them in this weekend

and then finish up the cabinets. We're

getting close to having an Art Studio.

After the Rain.

Once the rain disappears, I love to venture

out to the front veranda to watch the new

blooms carry the raindrops. It's alway so

quiet after the rain, except for the little

drip drops that splatter to the puddles. A

relaxed place to be after the rainy storm.

During the Rain.

We've had some rain later in the day

for the last few weeks. It's a nice rain

but it does create some dark afternoons

when the clouds roll in each time.

Thankful for this sweet little lamp in our

dining room that provides a bit of light.

I love the cozy feel and the warmth that is

brought in to our current dark afternoons.

Natural Soap.

I'm off to the Big City tomorrow and I

may stop in at my favorite store to pick

up some more natural soap. This new

scent was just released in the early

Spring and I love how it truly wakes

me up in the morning. I bought two

bars last time and am getting down to

the last little bit of the second one. So

it's time for more bars. I'm hoping it

will still be in stock once I get there.

Wordless Wednesday.

Hospice Bunny.

I pulled up to our local hospice last week

and look what I spotted in the yard ....

This little guy is white in the Winter but

in the Spring, he's beautiful shades of brown.

He's pretty good at leaving our very little

hospice garden alone. Fun to watch too.

Growing ....

..... on our veranda. A gift from another

community member who had too much

in her own garden. I was given two

pots full. Hoping to actually plant into

our garden this weekend. The smell is

amazing and the flowers are heavenly.

Antique Mall: After.

 All set now. We spent the first day of

our booth acquisition painting and the

second day filling it up. We've been

back each week to add items and tidy.

And after just a few days, we've sold a

pieces. Not a lot yet but a good start.

I love that the staff stops and turns on the

little lamp each day. Very welcoming.

This weekend is a long holiday weekend

in Canada. We may pop in to add a bit

more and move things around. Other

vendors have told us this helps to gain

interest when the booth is always looking

different. We're going to add a wing

chair to sell and a few more wall items.

A few more books and a china set too.

Antique Mall: Before.

We decided to use an old shelf we acquired

when our favorite local shop closed years

ago. It's a dark green, with "Willow Tree"

embossed at the top. Loved this forever.

After two coats of sage green chalk paint,

it's set up in the booth, waiting for our

vintage items to sell. We also painted the

former white walls a pale lavender. I'm

hopeful that the light colors will "invite"

customers in to our booth and they'll

buy all our little treasures. Such a big

gamble. Hopefully it's successful and fun.

Fresh Berries.

Some of my favorites: ruby red raspberries

and dark blueberries. I love blackberries

and strawberries and feel so fortunate that

despite all my food allergies, these are

not on the list of foods that I can't eat or

I'll have an anaphylactic reaction. Grateful.

Garden Aspirations.

Happy Monday morning fellow blog readers and writers. 

I hope your  world is bright and sunshiny today. We

had a big windstorm through the night. All is well now, 

though the wind is still present. A "strong breeze"

they are calling it .... hope it ends soon. It's sunny but 

so very cool. I may need a warm blanket to cuddle.

We worked quite a bit in the garden again this weekend. 

Pictures to follow once I have them downloaded. We

weeded (a never ending task), dug out our birdbath and

filled it with fresh water for the robins and their babies

(not hatched yet), set up the trellis and then planted the

clematis vine. I also sorted out my pots and we have some

annuals to get planted. If the wind goes away, I'll try and

plant those this afternoon. As much as we are doing, I

know in this first year of gardening that my little piece of

Heaven will still look a bit bare. It's going to take time for 

everything to sprout, grow, creep and fill in. And of course,

as we go, each year, we will add to the garden. I dream of

the day when I'll be able to sit back and see the progress

and the calmness of the sun setting on such a beautiful

landscape. I'm patiently and eagerly waiting for the time

when I'll be able to post a picture like the one above and

say "how do you like MY garden?" One day, it will look

like this. I love the different colors, the different heights

and I'm sure the scent is amazing. One day, dear friends ....

.... one day ....

Heavenly Lavender.

Since I was a young child, the smell of lavender has been a calming influence. I love the scent, the color, the feel and the look of this beautiful plant. A few years ago, we visited the Sacred Mountain Lavender Farm out on our favorite island on the West Coast. I asked if there is a chance that lavender will grow in our region but sadly was told "no, it's far too cold there." I'm not one to accept "no" as an answer to any query I have. So when we came home, I visited our local greenhouse and was told that "it wasn't really worth investing in a plant that likely won't survive our climate."

If you've read my blog for a bit, you know I LOVE a challenge! Told I can't to something, I find a way around it.

So guess what I've successfully grown in our garden at our old house for 4 years now? Yup, lavender! And guess what I just bought to plant here at the little house in the big woods? Yup, lavender! Still in pots this morning as I have to figure out the best spot to start these babies. Vibrant and full of sweet scent. The bees love them already. Hopefully the deer stay away. All the literature I've read suggests they are put off by the smell so we'll see what happens. Wish me luck ....

Hanging Baskets.

This house is our 6th. And we have

never, ever had hanging baskets.

Now that we have a front veranda and a

little back porch, we finally have room.

These are the sweet baskets we found at

one of the nurseries. I love the colors.

Wild Roses.

We live in a province that recognizes

the Wild Rose as our local flower. It

is everywhere on our acreage. But we

love the natural feel and the abundance.

Our Blooming Garden.

We've been carving out a wee bit of a garden at the front of our house. I love the sweet wild flowers and even the weeds that are blooming. Every single day we see more colors,  more sprouts and shoots and it's filling in so nicely. My little flower beds around the veranda are ready for the perennials that I picked up the other day. I'm hoping to have them planted before the weekend. We've had a bit of cold rain so now I have to wait for a bit of a dry spell. I'll post pics of those once they are in to the ground. Our landscape designer said it will take up to five years before we will be really happy with our garden but I'm going to truly say today that I'm loving what is happening already and we know in time it will look even better. I'm so glad we chose this tiny piece of land with so much nature all around us. A bare spot would have been very disappointing. We lucked out with this acreage and it was worth the very long wait to find it in the end. Watching it bloom and grow is going to be a treat.

1st Day of Summer.

A vicious storm tore through our County last

night but today has started out with clear blue

skies and warmth that will likely be extra hot

by late afternoon. Welcome 1st Day of Summer. 

Strawberry Success.

We're so excited to discover that our tiny

strawberry plants have begun to produce

sweet little berries. We'll let them grow a

bit bigger because we eat them all up. 

Hello June.

We're happy to see you .... Summer at last.