Rainy Day + Pallet = Potting Bench

This is my husband and my first pallet project.  Before he thought pallets were just garbage (silly man!).  Our brother-in-law gave him one to take home and throw on the burn pile.  This wasn't just a little pallet it was huge, they had to saw it in half to get it in the truck.  It was used for siding for a shop.  Well I guess a little of my junking has rubbed off on hubby because he didn't throw it on the pile to burn, he made a potting bench out of it.  

It rained last week for the first time in about a month and it felt so good.  I worked on cleaning out my treasure shed where all my soon to be fab furniture is stored, and Mr. in the Styx cleaned out the shop.  After that we really didn't have much to do so he decided to make a potting bench.  I'd suggested earlier that maybe he could build one out of the spindles, legs, arms and backs of a couple of old chairs I tore apart, guess that will happen later.  Anyhow, he measured, cut, squared up, and screwed together this great bench.

I couldn't wait to paint it.  I've been wanting to try a technique that Becky at Beyond the Picket Fence does (please check it out here http://bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-did-you-paint-that.html )  I love all of her stuff!  So I went through a bunch of old paint, threw some out, mixed some together, and did a couple of test boards.  This is what I came up with.

Sorry, I'm not great at photography so the lighting isn't good.  The blue is layered and duskier then it looks, and the pop color is a bright spring green.  I also put some cherry stain over the blue, then finished it off with some Defthane.  I was planning on selling it next spring at the Fancy Farm Girls show, but my sister-in-law saw it sitting out front and wanted to buy it for a wedding present for her son and future daughter-in-law.  Well I couldn't let her do that, so it will be our present to them next month.  Congratulations Skyler and Heather - Plant some Love and watch it Bloom!

I will be linking up to:
beyond the picket fence
miss mustard seed
funky junk interiors

Christmas in July and the Family Chopped Challenge 2014

Merry Christmas!

Our family has gotten so big that it is difficult to get all of us together in one house to enjoy Christmas, so six years ago we decided to celebrate Christmas in July.  My sister, brothers and myself take turns hosting each year.  The host finds a campsite, plans activities, chooses a theme for the present exchange, and sets the meal plans.  My brother and I switched turns this year because of a glitch in our campsite reservations.  We live in the woods with a good location for camping, so we were happy to host at our home this year.  It was kind of a blessing in disguise to only have two months instead of a year to plan.  We quickly came up with all of our ideas, and sent out the invitations.  We were also blessed this year to have our daughter and her family visiting.