Simple Flower Bed design

 This is originally what I had to work with.  Over thrown with weeds.  I was trying to figure a way to straighten it out and lay out the design that I wanted.  I had planted a blueberry plant and a fig tree here, hoping that they would grow okay.






This is what it looked like after I pulled out all the weeds.  A huge improvement from before.  I still didn't want the same design that I had initially though, I wanted more curve to it.  So I used the water hose trick that we are using for the pathway to the pool we are doing.  This is how I did it.




This is what I got after I laid down the hose and started to even it out using the paver sand.  It came out even and worked quite well.  I also used the hose as you see in order to get the perfect curve for the bricks.                                                                



The newspaper is laid down to serve as a weed protector to the dirt.  Instead of spending slews of money on the black cloth, I used newspaper.  It works just as good and I find it easier to work with when I want to plant something else in that spot.







This is the sand that we used in order to level out the dirt for placing the bricks down.  Works really really well!




All finished with the paper laying down and almost done with the bricks.










I laid down all the mulch to cover the paper.  I even had some left over bricks so I made a spot for a miniature orange tree, my bird bath, and my hook so that I can maybe hand something else from there.  Not sure what yet.

Caleb loves helping mommy in the garden :)

 And this is the finished product.  I added some rocks around the mulch to bring some color, and added rocks around the smaller bed with the potted plant.  Definitely a big change from what it was! All in one mornings work :)

Pathway to the Pool

Here is the walkway that we made to the pool.  We are still working on it :)

If you go to the store you can buy path markers for about 20-40 dollars to help you lay out a path for your walkway.  We used our water hose to lay down the path marker- a lot cheaper than an actual one you buy from the store and easy to do.  This is still a work in progress so I will post more photos as we go.

I decided that instead of paying for the black cloth you place down to stop weeds, we would use newspaper to lay down.  Newspaper, believe it or not, works just as good as a 40.00 roll of black cloth. 

Perfect Cubby Bench Project

I was looking for a new bench to put shoes in at the front door, since I don't have a shoe closet by the door.  All those dirty cluttered shoes bothered me, and I am not one to wear them around the house, or to let people see some horrid shoe holder or hoard of shoes when they come in.   I needed something that was pretty, could hold a lot, and matched the rest of the furniture in the home.  This is what I came up with.  JC Pennys, Target, and everyone else sold these at around 150-300.00 depending.  I made mine at under 40.00, that was including the stain and gloss coat.  Check it out :) The wire rack next to it was the one that I WAS using :)

Here are the plans if you want to try this yourself.  Just take the cut list to HomeDepot and they will cut everything for you!  It was that easy!  I used minwax polyshades with the sealer and clear coat in it in Bombay Mohogany Gloss, it took about 5 coats after sanding.  The wood was pre-cut using the cut list, and we used the screws they suggested on the supply list.  I did not use the wood glue because it wasn't needed, it was super sturdy!  This was my first home project that I did and I truly enjoyed it! 
Here is the link to the supplies and cut list:
http://ana-white.com/2011/01/perfect-cubby-bench-plans-want-it.html