You Can Do It Too
We wanted our exterior doors to be steel for all the usual reasons.
Steel has superior strength, no warping and better insulation.
Those things took priority over appearance.
A white steel door just does not have that rustic feel we were after.
As a matter of fact, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING rustic about cold white steel.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever owned a Scarecrow?
Me either…
Not until this summer!
Allow me to introduce you…
Meet Tilly, the hardest working scarecrow in the county.
Rain or shine she is always on the job.
I don’t mind bragging that since she started we haven’t lost a single vegetable.
I’ve been dreaming of my very own “Tilly” for a while…
long before we even planted our garden.
Actually, my thoughts of her began last spring when the old roto-tiller refused to start.
As Sir Lots-a-Wit was getting more and more frustrated with each yank of the rope –
I was secretly hoping it would not start.
As he was making adjustments and checking the plug for a spark, I found myself trying to hide my toothy grin as thoughts of “her” began to swirl in my mind.
When he finally decided that old tiller could not be resurrected, I knew exactly what it could be used for…
My attempts to describe the picture of her in my head was met with furrowed brows and looks of confusion –
This project needed a drawing!
Once he saw my crude drawing, I could see by the twinkle in those baby blues he knew what I was after!
I will admit right here that my contribution was the clothing and the hat.
And the bubble butt –
for whatever reason, I had drawn her with a bubble butt.
Then one morning – Sir Lots-a-Wit, along with our grandkids, called me out to the garden…
and there she was –
Sir Lots-a-Wit is too humble to say so –
but I will shout it from the mountain tops –
***
All photos, thoughts, experiences, and opinions are my own.
Copyright © Lost Mule Lodge 2018 All Rights Reserved
Feeling a bit cocky, I strutted into the kitchen & poured my coffee over a splash of half & half – today was the day. I poached 2 eggs instead of 1, I knew I was going to need the extra energy for what was about to take place.
The resurrection of our kitchen floor was happening today.
Blink if you have ever been disappointed with a purchase? I saw you, you blinked…
It’s happened to all of us. It looked absolutely fabulous on the size 2 model. You order it. You get the long-awaited “Your package has been delivered” text – you race to the mailbox through the snow in your house slippers – rip open the box…
wait a minute….
this just ain’t right.
That describes how I felt about our kitchen floor.
In the store it looked great. It was rustic, with all the right colors and a design that would not show dirt.
The perfect floor for our kitchen…. right????
We have the same flooring in our bathroom
and it looks great…
in there.
I knew it was wrong before the installation was complete. I wanted to say something but we had 2 pallets of this stuff.
It was awful, it was clashing with my countertop. Two busy patterns in conflict.
When you are working on a project of this magnitude, the last thing you want is to redo something you have already spent time and money on.
I tried to find something good. The only good thing about it was that it hid the dirt well… but when I thought about it –
So, after 2 years of witnessing a daily tug of war in my kitchen, I decided today was the day. After my breakfast of caffeine and protein, I marched out to the garage, got the hammer and a chisel, and took it all up.
I hammered and chiseled to “Boom Boom Pow” until every last piece of that tile was out of there.
My version went like this….
Thank you to the Black Eyed Peas for keeping my hammer in perfect rhythm.
When all the dust settled from the hammering, chiseling, and sweeping we decided to extend the same living room flooring into the kitchen.
Sir Lots-a-Wit installed the flooring (both times).
I got the honor of trimming the base of the cabinets at the floor.
I used 1×3 oak – mitered the corners and stained them to match the existing cabinets which are knotty alder and nailed in place.
This new floor looks fabulous – it does show dirt… but I am okay with that.
When picking flooring or countertops or backsplash, consider the big picture. Make sure it all flows.
Sidenote – through all the hammering and chiseling and shop vac noise, our sweet Bella is always right there, she has no flooring preference.
***
All photos, thoughts, experiences, and opinions are my own.
Copyright © Lost Mule Lodge 2018 All Rights Reserved
Have you ever watched a series on Netflix? You get to the end of the season, roll your weary, bloodshot eyes and say out loud, “it is ridiculous to have to wait a whole year for the next season!”
I feel like I have made you wait…. about the time you thought it was time for the next post, there wasn’t one…
While you were waiting on a new post, this blog was celebrating its first year of publication!
I appreciate that together we have shared some of life’s crazy experiences, unique projects, and inspirations. The best is sharing the gift of laughter.
Recently I was invited to a three-day writer’s retreat in the Ozarks, (speaking of a good series, Ozark was really good). I met some amazing ladies who helped me discover that I have a lot more to learn about writing, about blogging, and about life.
I can’t wait to put my new writing skills to work and share what we have done and what changes are taking place here at the Lodge…
The excitement is killing me!!!!
In the spirit of Halloween – let’s talk about our Scary-Go-Round.
Every year we put up our dancing ghosts.
And every year the wind gusts and breaks a stick or two – leaving a hillside of broken “bones” and less than spooky ghosts in a heap, in need of repairs.
Sir Lots-a-Wit had a solution to all those spineless ghosts.
He came up with the brilliant idea of working with the wind instead of against it.
I think this has been his secret to getting along with me all these years!
Just work with it, not against it!! – “It” being me.
He quickly built a crude (very crude) wooden framed merry-go-round.
Setting it up on a ball bearing metal plate that spins – much like a lazy susan. Then he attached each ghost to a spoke on the merry go round wheel, and there you have his latest invention…
The more the wind gusts – the faster they spin!
He even added solar lights so we could watch the spinning at night.
Another job well done.
Alright, alright…
I can’t stand it another minute…
We are getting Sheeeeeep!!
Now, back to the ghosts and the Scary-Go-Round….
Regular ghosts are so easy to make and are such an adorable yard decoration for Halloween.
Materials needed:
4 twin size flat sheets – I got ours at WalMart – about $5 each
4 round styrofoam heads
4 sticks – I used 2×2 boards about 4 or 5 ft tall
4 dowel rod pcs about 6 inches long each
Instructions –
Hammer sticks into ground about a foot
drill hole in the top of each stick about 3 inches deep
stick the dowel into the hole on top of the stick and shove styrofoam ball onto dowel and stick
cover styrofoam with the flat sheet and secure sheet by tying string at the base of styrofoam head
when ghosts are made – tie sheet corner pieces together as if they are holding hands.
*Scary-Go-Round built separately.
All photos, thoughts, experiences, and opinions are my own unless otherwise stated.
I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I upholstered this chair… in 10 minutes.
Seriously, in the amount of time it takes you to sweep those Cheerios off the kitchen floor you could do this.