One of the hard things is knowing our kids are too young to remember their Grandpa.  But hopefully we can talk about him enough they feel like they know him and he will be an important part of their lives.

But life goes on.  We felt a lot of closure once the funeral was complete, and as the grieving process continues, life has its demands we have to meet....like my husband returned to work a 24 hour shift Monday and I had this mountain of laundry to fold.

Our yard was also a wreck.  We do have flowers in that weed patch if you look close.

So I weeded and mowed the lawn just in time for it to start raining. 

This little girl was perfect and napped on the patio in the shade.

So as I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, here's a little project I threw up yesterday that I'm really liking.  

LANTERNS FOR THE PATIO

We're in the process of laying a rock patio in the corner of our yard.  I've been trying to think of ways to add lights at different heights.

Obviously you could always do tiki torches or something which would be taller, but a hands free solution came to me when I saw these Solar Coach Lights for sale at Family Dollar.  If you have a Family Dollar near you, these solar lights come in a package of 2 for $10.00 on sale for the next few days.  They're meant to hang on a shepherd's hook in the ground.  But I had these basket hangers I bought at Family Dollar for $1.00 each.  So now for $6.00 each we have these cool little lanterns along the fence around the patio.

Obviously they are just landscaping solar lights so not very bright, and these are plastic ($5.00) rather than the metal ($15-20 each) but at night they add a little light above ground, and during the day look quite charming I think. 

I actually have a lot of projects to share with you, some clothing, a quilt, and few other things.  With all that's been going on I haven't had time to photograph or blog them.  So things are in the works to share, I just thought I'd start with these lanterns as they're on sale and I wanted to show people before they were gone/ more expensive.

Here's the plan from Ana White.

I bought my wood from Home Depot and each bench cost $18.00. 

The plans were straight forward except for the angles to cut on the diagonal "x" pieces.  I had to recruit my husband to figure out the geometry for the angled cuts to fit properly.  (Geometry was the lowest grade I've ever received, I stink at it)

I also was excited because my parents got my husband a Kreg Jig for his birthday last month.  He opened the box and I squealed "a Kreg jig!!!"  He looked at me and asked: "what is this?"  So maybe his gift was more for myself, but it is awesome.  

Overall a nice little bench.  However, I was glad I had plenty of wood filler to conceal my imperfections as a beginner builder.

In the gift I also included two plastic pillowcases to go inside to help protect the actual pillow from the elements, even though the fabric is made for the outdoors, it's not waterproof.

Now for the tote.  I thought of the things one would want to do in a hammock--nap, read, write, snack, etc.  So I designed a tote with one main large pocket for notebooks/ books/ magazines/ journals/ etc.  

Then on the front I sewed smaller pockets for pens, stash the i-pod, cell phone, a snickers candy bar, sunglasses, etc.  The contrasting pocket tops are just homemade double fold bias tape.

The main weight of the tote is suspended by a loop on the top, which has a buckle to go through the ring or directly through frame, depending on her hardware.  This should also make the tote height adjustable, in case you want to hang it high right next to the ring, or have it right above your head.

Next I added 3 tabs to help secure the tote as it lays across the ropes of the hammock.

One in the back and center, using velcro to secure it around a rope so the tote can't swing side to side on top of the ropes.

Then I added 2 more stretchy tabs in the side seams to help keep it in place from rolling side to side.

So hopefully it will work and make time in the hammock more convenient.  I know I've had a stack of things on the ground next to a hammock to read or work on and reach over to get something, but dump myself right out on my face.  Then your hammock is twisted upside down with your one foot still stuck in the net and your skirt flipped up over your shoulders...oh and your hammock is in your front yard and you live on a semi-busy street.  And you still wear granny panties even though you're in high school because you hate wedgies, and you're hoping whoever just drove by didn't notice you tangled with your butt in the air showing everyone your underwear.

Oddly, most of my embarrassing moments from jr. high and high school involved underwear somehow--wearing a sports bra as a necklace accidentally, losing my panties completely, etc.

Anyway, having the tote above will hopefully keep her stuff organized and easier to reach.

The best part, is the whole set is washable in case a bird poops on it or something!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!

{She doesn't look at this blog, so this won't be a spoiler}

But now I think it looks much better with just a few improvements:

The first thing to change: painting the posts.

I used Glidden Exterior paint:

Semi-gloss in Swan White

These posts will eventually be covered with plants, so I just did one quick sloppy coat of paint, no primer or anything.  In my mind it was more of a whitewash to get rid of the nasty brown with bleached lattice scars.

Next, my mom came to visit this weekend, and brought with her a bunch of flowering vines to plant at the base of each pole, all the plants were transplants from her own original plants at home.

My mom is a master gardener and so I'm going to take a minute to show you what she's done and where my plants came from:

My mom built this pergola in her yard.

It took a few years.  The pillars are telephone poles she snagged when they went down our street replacing all the poles, and my mom happened to be outside and asked if they'd just dump the old ones they were cutting down in her yard.  They were happy to get rid of them so easily.

For a while we just had telephone poles sticking straight up out of the yard, and my Dad called it "Wood Stonehenge", but now the pergola is really great and has even more foliage on the poles, and flowers throughout the summer.

This photo was taken early last spring.  Each year the poles get fuller with the flowering plants.

So my mom took pieces of some of her plants to give to me.

Clematis:

the plant she brought is actually from her lamp post, not the pergola

So hopefully I won't kill it and eventually one of the posts will be full of these purple flowers.  Obviously it won't be a  fat, thick bush like her lamp post though.

Wisteria:

{image not from my mom's pergola, I guess I never took a photo of her wisteria. source here}

Trumpet Vine:

I have a few of these, and they have bright orange/pinkish tube shaped flowers.  In the fall they have long, thin, pods.  These are the pods I used to make these mobiles here and here a while ago.

Anyway, these are the parent plants of my little guys now planted at the base of my white posts.

So we had white poles with the grow wires for the plants.

So eventually, the poles should have green foliage and orange, purple or pink flowers on them.

Already, the white poles, grow wires, and planter boxes, help the space feel more like a room separate from the rest of the yard.  I'd love if it felt (once the flowers are in bloom and I have a few more projects planned) like a little European outdoor cafe or something.

We all had dinner out there tonight before my parents left, and it was fun and cozy to enjoy a meal al fresco.

We're just lucky there aren't any mosquitoes or many bugs in our area that we've noticed so far!

Someone in the last shade sail post commented about staining the concrete to look like stone.  I'm looking into that idea!  If anyone else sees potential in the space, pass on your ideas, I appreciate it.