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Recently, I decided to tackle the UFOs (unfinished objects) in my life.  My goal is to finish one per month.  We will see how it goes.   Last month, my choice was a Cosco kitchen cart. I found this vintage, mid-century modern cart rusting away in the shed.  It was covered in nasty, old contact paper, rusted, and the chrome was pitted. But since this type of used cart is selling on-line for $100-$200, I was determined to bring it back to life.   Restoration: -The action of returning something to a former owner, place or condition    - To...

Last month, we decided to have a garage sale.  We spent a lot of time going through everything and cleaning out stuff that had acuminated.  Believe me, the garbage men earned their keep for a couple of weeks!  During the sale, a couple came in with two adorable, little boys.  I soon realized that English was not their first language.  I had a bucket filled with toy dinosaurs marked $2 for the bucket.  The mom and boys went through the bucket one by one.  After some discussion, they brought one over to buy.  I told them they got the whole...

  Last month, we started clearing out our garage in preparation for a garage sale. In one of the cabinets, I found some teapots that had been forgotten. I remembered seeing where teapots were used as garden art, so over to Pinterest I went to check out some ideas. Using these ideas at inspiration, I created my own teapot garden art! I saved some of my favorites to this Pinterest board - check it out.  https://www.pinterest.com/jodeeschrlau/garden-ideas/repurposed-recycled-or-salvaged/   The teapot I choose to use had a chipped spout, so I didn't want to sell it in the garage sale. It was made...

  This spring, we had a new visitor to our yard, a Scarlet Tangier.  I had never seen one and had to look it up to find out what kind of bird it was. Here is what I found in All About Birds. Male Scarlet Tanagers are among the most blindingly gorgeous birds in an eastern forest in summer, with blood-red bodies set off by jet-black wings and tail. They’re also one of the most frustratingly hard to find as they stay high in the forest canopy singing rich, burry songs. The yellowish-green, dark-winged females can be even harder to...

Now that the weather has warmed up, we were able to take the plastic off of our screened-in porch.  Wow, the world outside looks so much clearer now. It is interesting how much a seemingly clear piece of plastic can cloud the view.  With the cold, rain, and dirt, that once clear piece of plastic had become very cloudy. It happened gradually over the winter, a little cloudier every day, so I barely noticed.  But when Steve ripped down that plastic, all of a sudden, we could see clearly again! The grass is greener, the flowers are brighter, even the...