Mixing It Up In The Vegetable Garden

Hi everyone! I did a little decorating in my vegetable garden the other day that I wanted to show you plus I want to show you my flowers in there.

I realized that probably no self respecting urban/suburban homesteader decorates their veggie garden and that I’ll probably be downgraded from my lowly wannabe status to…(well nothing is below wannabe is there) to kicked out nothing for doing so…but what can I say.

I found some cute garden signs in my garage and two more at TJ Maxx and they had to go somewhere…right?

I always see cute signs at Goodwill and I never get them because I just don’t have any space in my house but I’ve got a lot of boring fencing. So why not junk spice it up a bit! I can see that whole back fence covered in cute signs and garden things!

Normally I’d plant something in this rusty planter but it has been in incredibly hot (heat indes in the 100's) here and I think I’d have to come out and water it two or three times a day.

So for now I filled it with some cute cottagey plates.

Do you plant flowers in your vegetable garden?

You should!

Not only will your vegetable garden be more beautiful but quite a few flowers deter pests and invite beneficial insects.

I don’t see any reason why things can’t be functional and pretty at the same time!

I get quite a few questions concerning my use of hay.  I use it as a mulch to supress weeds/grass. I prefer to use woodchips since they don’t break down as fast, but I’m all out. I had a huge woodchip pile from having all my pine trees chopped down. I used those chips for years! I knew nothing else was mixed in with them since they came from my own trees (our town will deliver woodchips for free but it always has garbage mixed in with it). A bale of hay is cheap and goes a long way. Plus it looks farmyish no?


I really want a rasied bed that will be a cutting garden. That’s on my to do list for fall because summer's list is booked solid!


Hope you enjoyed this peek into my veggie garden. Thanks so much for taking the time to drop by today!

I’m Seeing Red....

All around my home! It’s my favorite color. Although I don’t like to wear red (I prefer aqua and shades of blue) so there goes the "look in your closet to help you pick colors for your home" theory!!

Whenever I see a room done with lots of red it just makes my heart beat faster!


Red is such an intense color that I like to mix it with white and yellow. Here are red carnations in a white milkglass vase by my sink (next to my other favorite accent color - apple green).


I like to sprinkle the red around - some red in a bookcase.



The red crystals on the vintage wall sconce. The walls aren't really such a bright yellow! The color is closer to the photo below (Squished Squash by Benjamin Moore because I know someone will ask).


The curtains in the living room.


In the china cabinet.


On the china cabinet my favorite pom pom fringe!


A favorite print at the top of the stairs.

Just a few (you know there’s more!) glimpses of some of the reds in my home.

Hope you all have a great week and thanks so much for spending some time with me! It's always lovely to read your comments!

Sunday Photo Feature

Red and Yellow flowers.


When I saw these at the grocery store I just had to have them. Couldn’t resist my favorite color combination!

It just makes me happy to see them! So I thought I’d share them with you.

Hope they make you smile too!

Painted Books & A Mantelscape

Hi everyone! Hope you’ve had a good week so far. Thank you for all the kind comments about my new fruit garden – I’m a farmgirl at heart and I work with what I’ve got which is a suburban lot. But I’d rather have some acreage!

I’ve been looking for some white books to use when decorating and just couldn’t find any. I have yellow books & black books that I use mostly to lift things up, but just couldn’t find any light colored ones. So I decided to make my own. I’ll show you what I did at the end of the post.

But first I want to show you what I did with my mantel to give it a bit of a lighter summery look.

The candleholders with the apple green tapers were ugly brass ones that I got at Goodwill. I few passes of spray paint and some plastic boboches make all the difference don’t you think?

These white iron flowers are from Big Lots last year. I bought them at the end of the season clearance but don’t remember how much I paid for them. The original stickers says $10 so maybe I spent $8? I know most of you savvy shoppers have patience and buy at the end of the season too!

I put a mirror in my faux fireplace last year (I think). I changed out the darker candles that are usually there for some white ones.

The white piece in the center is one I've had for years and years. I've seen that some of you also have it. I took the mirror out and am just using the pretty frame. The mirror I got at Hobby Lobby a while ago but I think they still have it or something like it.

Here’s how I made the French script book. I spray painted an old book with some flat white spray paint.

Then I took a stamp and stamped the front and sides. That’s it! The possibilities are endless and if I had more than the 4 stamps that I have, I would have made more of these. I will be going to Hob Lob next time stamps are on sale and getting a few to use on other books! 

The other books I decoupaged with various things. I used some toile wallpaper on one, some old sheet music on another and some scrapbook paper on others.

Cut your paper to size. If you are doing a rather large book you will need to piece together your paper unless you're using wallpaper/giftwrap.

Apply decopauge medium and the place your paper on top.

 As you can see this piece of scrapbook paper was too short so I had to add a little piece.

That part will be on the bottom and the nice part will be on top.

Above is the top. I also sanded the edges a bit to give it a more worn appearance.

You can use any pattern you want. I'm going to do some books in a black & white harlequin pattern.

They're  great for adding to your displays and very inexpensive to do!

Thanks for spending some time with me today. I hope you try this project and let me know if you do as I'd love to see it! Have a great weekend! OMG it has taken me HOURS to get this thing to post what is wrong with blogger!!!