Musings of a Vintage Junkie: June 2017

Thursday, June 29, 2017

RED

As I have been adding vintage finds and décor pieces to my porches and garden areas, I realized a theme happening with all the new things....RED! No matter where I am decorating or the existing color scheme, it seems I am drawn to put touches of red here and there.

On my sage green and aqua front porch I balanced the chippy red, white and blue heart on the wire flower cart to add some patriotic décor.

I style my (beloved) wood plant stand every year with lanterns, antique pots and jugs. This year I added my wooden flag and God Bless America sign.

I found the ox harness at a yard sale and it just happened to be painted red. I had to have it, although I had no idea what I would do with it. Then I remembered seeing one at a barn sale with plants hanging on the ends. It is quite unique.

My faux red succulent pops in the black Bokar Coffee can and the EXIT sign adds color to this little vignette.

I was getting so envious of all the vintage rolling carts I have been seeing on other blogs that I wanted one out of sheer envy! I never ever thought I would find a red enamel one in great condition. I found it at an estate sale I just happened on one day. I thought about selling it, for one second, and then I styled it like a potting bench.

My side porch is tones of sage green so this pop of red geraniums is just right.

In my garden the red Bee Balm are blooming.....

The red Verbena are blooming...

And the garden art flower stake I won from Tuula at Thrifty Rebel Vintage last year, is blooming.

I was so undecided as to whether or not to paint my first DIY toadstool that I decided to wait and see if I could find another wooden bowl to make one to paint. I recently found one at Goodwill and went to work painting two coats of chalk paint, adding white polka dots and two coats of polyurethane. Now I have two!

It sits in front of my red enamel chairs and red vintage plate.

I planted fifteen Zinnia plants this year....of course there are red!

Happy Fourth of July!

Enjoy the RED, white and blue!

AnnMarie xoxo

I am linking up with these fun blog parties:

Share Your Cup

Share Your STyle Party

Vintage Charm Party

Home Sweet Home

Anything Goes Pink Saturday

Cooking & Crafting with J & J

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Plates in My Garden...and Other Fun Garden Decor

I first started adding vintage plates and saucers to my gardens last year. I already had quite a few plates collected and continued to pick them up at garage and yard sales. I even made a few garden plate flowers for myself (above) and for gifts.

This year I found more and added them in different places around the yard.

Behind my newly planted basil plants.....

Near my hands birdbath....

Around the rusty vintage birdbath behind the Lilac bush....

in front of the old horse and buggy post, surrounded by what will be black eyed Susan's.

to keep my garden frog company......

and of course in my garden sink with newly planted pink Bacopa.....

It is fun to add unusual items to decorate your garden with.

While out thrifting, one of the yard sales had a wood toadstool painted red with white polka dots. I fell in love and asked if it was for sale. Of course not!

I was on a mission now to find one. What I found was an inexpensive way to make one.

All you need is an old (vintage!) wood bowl and a small log. I just happened to have a bowl in my booth and my husband had the perfect log in his fire pit.

Just screw the bowl upside down onto the log. Bury the log into the garden and done!

My bowl had feet on it that were missing and it had a very worn patina. I put it in the garden and all plans of painting it went away....for now. What do you think? Leave it or paint it red with white polka dots?

You may remember my chippy door from last year, that is even chippy-er than ever. It has a new sidekick this year. I found the large green chair at a garage sale for $5. It is so perfectly worn that I didn't want it to lose it's charm. I painted two coats of outdoor polyurethane on it to preserve it's beauty. I will be giving the door the same treatment so it is not totally bare by next year!

Once the Impatiens fill in, it should be fabulous!

This is not new garden décor, but a peek at what is to come for along the back of our yard. I took this picture because I loved how the flowers looked behind this crib headboard. I have three of these plus two other different style headboards that I am going to paint and put up as a fence. The three crib headboards will be white, alternated with an aqua one and a maize one.

Lots of work to do for me as they will all need two coats of polyurethane too.

Last Fall we pulled out my two Hydrangea bushes because they hadn't bloomed in years. I really, really wanted Zinnia's in my garden somewhere, so that was part of the incentive to take them out.

I got my wish.....

I can't wait for them to bush out and fill it all in. I got to use my rusty metal garden fence too.

One last new garden item to show you. My husband's early Father's Day gift is a great piece of metal art by a gentleman that makes them and sells them at the Rochester Public Market. He uses car parts, garden tools and odd pieces to make some fun stuff. He was selling the shovel handles left over from using shovels in his creations and I bought one for the garden (in the picture above with the black eyed susans).

I will end with some other random pictures of garden things. The garden will continue to evolve over the summer. We are actually supposed to get summer-like weather this weekend.