Cedar Hot Tub Cover, Patio Updating

I'm gonna get right to the point with this post and tell it like it is ...... the typical spa/hot tub cover sucks!

Those of you with outdoor spas are nodding your head in agreement, and the rest of you are wondering why the typical spa covers suck.

I'm going to tell you why vinyl covers suck, and why our new cover from Canadian Hot Tubs is awesome, but first let me give you the cover story (pun intended) of our spa and its old vinyl cover.

Red Cedar Covers for ALL types of hot tubs and spas!

Easy Metal Door Update, Thrifty Style Team May

It's May in Minnesota - the birds are chirping, the trees are finally getting their leaves, flowers are starting to bloom, and it's time for the Thrifty Style Team with frugal finds for the month of May.

This month I have done a cheap update to an old, metal, dated dirty door.

Thrifty Style Team Projects, Where are they now?

April's Thrifty Style Team post is a where are they now? update on five of my past thrifty monthly projects.  You can find the links to all the projects I mention at the bottom.

April showers bring May flowers, but I'm not sure what April snow brings besides more shoveling and mud when it melts.

Thrifty Style Team Home Decor Giveaway

The Thrifty Style Team has a little something different going on this month.

If you visit each of the participating blogs you'll have a chance to win something from their thrifty stash.

Me.... I'm sending off an authentic Guatemalan coffee sack, minus the coffee beans.

Coastal Colors Coffee Table

Did you know that you can't fly on airlines with paint in your checked bags?

YOU probably did know that, but I didn't.

I figured the Fusion Mineral Paint I prefer to paint furniture with could fly just like the face paint I call beauty products, but that was not the case on a recent trip to the Golden State.

Glass Blowing In Half Moon Bay California

When I was a kid living in Southern California (we didn't call it SoCal in the olden days) we made a yearly trip to Disneyland in Anaheim.

The Land was only about an hour away, but when your age is still in the single digits an hour seems like a day.  There is the possibility my dad took the long way so I would think it was farther and not ask to go more often than the one time each summer.  Not that I could be a pest or anything.

Thrifty Style Team February First Aid Cabinet

Like most families we've always had a particular location in the house where we keep a decent assortment of first aid supplies.

Prior to this project it was an old tool box that I up-cycled a few years ago into a portable first aid kit.

Band aids, gauze, antibiotic.

Medical tape and wood craft sticks used for sprained fingers from sports, along with good gripping tweezers for shards of wood lodged under the skin that were sometimes longer than the tweezers.

For the February edition of Thrifty Style Team a two dollar cabinet I picked up at a garage sale several years ago was given a fresh coat of white paint inside and out, and transformed into an unmistakable first aid kit.

Projects Of Christmas Past, Present and Future

Jingle bell time is a swell time when you're in good company.

And I'm in good company.  Five bloggers and a few ghosts.

Are you familiar with Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol?

It involves that Ebenezer Scrooge guy who is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, who knock him down from his crotchety demeanor.

But because I'm fresh out of real Christmas ghosts and I'm not as crotchety as Scrooge, you're about to be visited by the ghosts of projects past, present and future, or more accurately;

A project with old wood....
A sign with lettering....
And a quick and easy project you can do in the future.

The future is any minute from now right?

Thrifting The Thrifty Style Team Way December

December is coming to a close and 2017 is going out in style, Thrifty Style Team style that is.

At the bottom there are links to the people I thrift virtually with every second Wednesday of the month - the gals of the Thrifty Style Team. 

But for this thrifty December trip I'm going to show you where it is I like to thrift, the real life team that I like to thrift with and how I spread around a little of the thrifted goods in my home and theirs.

Chins Up, American Made Apparel

Hello Christmas shoppers and those of you looking to support small business with your good old fashioned American pride as well as your cool cash.

Today I'm going to tell you about a brand new business here in the state of Minnesota called Chins Up, but of course you don't have to live in Minnesota to order, we do have UPS and Fedex in the frozen North.

I may have missed small business Saturday and cyber Monday, but in my book shopping with small businesses is always a good idea.

And ....shopping from a business that gives a little back to veterans while still keeping some jingle for feeding their own families, well that's a no brainer for me.

And and and ....shopping a sale is good for you and for feeding your own family, right? (But I've also got a giveaway at the end.....bonus!)

Chins Up Apparel Logo

Long Needle Pine Garland for Winter

I've been searching for some new Christmas garland for the past few years.

The stuff I have is over 20 years old and lots of the little red berries that were on it have fallen off and the pre-strung lights that came attached had seen their last twinkle years ago.

So as each season approaches I begin looking for something to replace it, and each year I either haven't been able to find any I liked, or there was only one three foot section left in stock, because a bunch of other people apparently liked it too.

Silk Plants Direct and Outdoor Artificial Palm Trees  solved that for me when they sent a complimentary box of their holiday greens, and I love them!

Perfect for my space, high quality and exactly what I have been looking for.  My garland hunt is over!

Naughty & Nice Christmas Bedroom

I'll be home for Christmas, although if you're reading this before December 25th then I'm actually not home, I'm gone.

But I will be coming home eventually and I'll greet you if you show up at my door bearing gifts, however there is a good chance I will be snuggled up under the covers in our decorated bedroom trying to stay out of trouble as part of the "Come Home For Christmas - Room To Room" holiday blog tour.

The tour is organized by the talented twosome at 2 Bees In A Pod  along with other bloggers who have a knack for decorating that is by far better than mine, so make sure you tour their rooms which includes entryways, living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and bedrooms - all decorated for the holidays.

I think the other Come Home For Christmas participants must be on the "nice" list.

Painting The Little House, Part 2

This post is a continuing story about a rental I came to own that I'm calling the little house.  If you missed the first post and want to be brought up to speed, the link to Part 1 is at the bottom.

I left off discussing how I hate painting and how the little house needed top to bottom paint.  Of course, oh joy.

As most everyone knows, painting is the most affordable update homeowners can do, which is good since the little house was needing it.  Paint = big impact for little price.

And when you have the right tools, some projects go more smoothly.

An electric spray gun is about the handiest gadget for painting tasks, and the one we used is the Tacklife paint sprayer  which you can find on Amazon for under $50 bucks. (I am not an Amazon affiliate so no I am not compensated for telling you that, click the link and take a peek at the sprayer).

I think what I hate the most with painting is the prep, taping up everything.  I'd rather gnaw off a limb than tape up walls to paint.

Thankfully my husband has a long wing span so taping off for painting is an easy task for him.  Believe me when I tell you that to have me tape the trim means lots of wasted tape, frustration and swear words on my part.  If there is a trick for this job I don't know it.

The Little House Part One

How about some house talk today with a few Autumn tree pictures?

And when I say talk, I mean talk, there isn't a bunch of DIY photos.

Just because I've been busy posting wedding stuff doesn't mean that there isn't the constant renovation of something going on in our world.... there is.

This post is going to start out with a story, and the next post will have some of the DIY.  So if you're not in the mood for a wordy post, you might want to skip this story and stop back in next time.

What you will get this time is the story of the little house, and why it's going through some changes.

In 1992 my dad had a stroke enjoying his retirement with a round at the golf course.  At that time my parents lived in California where they had been for the past fifty years.

Updated Mudroom Faucet With Pfister

20+ years ago we installed the hardest working faucet in our house in a tiny mudroom wash and go area.

I say it's the hardest working because in those 20 years it was the faucet that saw the grimiest of hands, and it was the first place of rest when anyone ran inside in a hurry, if you know what I mean.  PU!

Hands working hard in the garage, out in the yard, and the faucet that six kids delivered their dirtiest paws too.

Oh, and it saw animal paws as well.

My family put the mud in mudroom.

Wood Bow Ties Thrifty Style November

Hello hello hello, welcome to the November installment of the Thrifty Style Team, where a gaggle of gals show us how to be thrifty in our homes and lives.

I happen to be one of the thrifty gaggle gals, and today I'm going to show you how around here last month we used thrifty style to be stylish.

I guess you could say I'm putting the style in thrifty style this month.

Now I will tell 'ya, as far as style goes I'm the last person who would ever claim to be any kind of a fashion plate, but I do know a good-looking bow tie when I see one.

Napkins That Fool You & Wedding Menu Bands

These napkins fool 'ya.

Show of hands; how many of you know that there are napkins available that look and feel like a linen fabric but they are actually a quality disposable?

And now you are wondering why you need something like that right?

Well.... for any event, party, or get together where you need a napkin nicer than the standard kind, but real linen won't work.  Like say a wedding in a tent.

I needed a quality paper napkin so 250 people could wipe Chinese food off their lips, and I kid you not I love this product, and no I am not getting paid to say that!

The napkins are made by SimuLinen and they are a linen-feel premium quality paper napkin.

Lazy Halloween Door Decorations

In these parts I'm known as the Halloween Queen.

From years past hosting a haunted trail in the woods, to some epic parties in the back shed, if I'm gonna do Halloween up, I'm gonna do it up right.

Usually.  But not this year.

Or for that matter not Halloween 2014, '15, or 2016 either.

Hard to believe the door things that you are about to see is the work of the same woman who made these awesome party invites......

Or whose party buffet spread sports glowing fake windows.....

Let Them Eat Cake, From A Mosaic Cake Stand

While other folks are readying their homes for Fall, I'm still winding down from wedding preparations.

I don't really have the desire to decorate anything since I'm still un-decorating from September.

So let's have a chat where I discuss cake, smashed china cake stands, and make no mention whatsoever of pumpkin spice anything.

Daughter #2 wanted a simple wedding cake, she's not a foofy girl, and her request of Amy from Amy's Cupcake Shoppe in Hopkins Minnesota, was for cake with a dark sage green and a touch of gray, sort of earthy to match her rustic outdoor wedding.

Popcorn Cart Stocked With PoppedCorn Gourmet Treats

Over summer our place was like a bee hive.

Worker bees everywhere.

Coming and going, hammering and nailing, flying in and out of the hive with pieces of pallets.....free pallets was our form of honey.

Then just like that in one day it's all over and as they say, all that's left are the memories.

But if you're lucky there are a few bags of popcorn left too!

October Thrifty Style Team Glass Light Globes

It's the October Thrifty Style Team, and I'm going to show you the glass globes I have that keep on going.

Or is that glowing?

Or globe-ing?

Whatever you wanna call 'em I have reused them four different ways -  not too bad for a thrifty find.

Mini Biff, A Good Place To Go

So you know there was a wedding going down around here right?

When something takes almost a year to plan I must have mentioned it at least once or twice, but I admit I don't often yack about the personal side of my family, so if you didn't know that tidbit, I understand why.

The spire tent went up overlooking the lake, which is a quarter mile down our driveway away from any "facilities".

It wasn't going to work to have a couple hundred people walking back up the driveway, especially after dark, with the hope of using our mudroom bathroom, a vision I admittedly wasn't crazy about anyway.

So who 'ya gonna call?