outdoor patio part I

When we were building our home we decided to place the patio on the side of our house so that it would be completely shaded in the evening. Since we have quite a bit of side yard it fits quite comfortably—but on the downside we had absolutely no privacy from the the road in front of our home ... until now. Yep! This summer we put in a beautiful fence!!! Hooray for a bit more privacy ... and now our exploring toddler can no longer make a unexpected break for it ;)

So ... long story short ... I've been on the hunt for affordable ways to spruce up this area of the yard. My budget is pretty much zero (remember I just bought a fancy fence) so I'm taking the creative route to make less look like more. For example, today I've been sewing fancy schmancy pillows to add a bit of color ... and yes, I got the fabric for  a freakin' awesome deal.  ;)

I'll be posting a mood board of my backyard ideas next week. Goodie goodie gumdrops  :)

collecting & cleaning

While doing a bit of cleaning / reorganizing I came across a small box of random odds and ends. Before I found these items new homes (buttons with sewing supplies, stickers with ... well other stickers) I thought it would be fun to photograph them like Lisa Congdon did with her lovely collections.

Thrifting

Today I'm sharing some of my recent thrift store finds with you. They are not all from the same trip but looking at these pictures I do think its a little funny that they are all made of metal.  :)

{Little Paper Dog}

 The square metal buckets are currently in my kitchen—one with a plant inside while the other holds my dish and hand soap containers. They have the Lone Star Steakhouse logo on one side of them so I simply turned them so its not visible ... I'm so tricky. ;) The yellow basket holds some of my design supplies, the star is hung in the hall and the bookends are keeping my cookbooks from toppling over.

{image via Design Sponge at Home, p.14}

I was very excited when I found this little accordion expandable file organizer since I had been pining for one ever since I spotted this one in my Design Sponge book. She now has a home in the office next to my rotary dial phone. Hmmm ... the one from the book is next to a phone too ... spooky coincidence. The little lunch box holds more of my design supplies and the container neatly holds pencils and pens in the kitchen.

Oh treasure thrift store ... I love you so!

 

 {Little Paper Dog}