Turning My Week Around

It's been a week of setbacks, setbacks to our property, our car, my health, and the garden. When things just keep going wrong, I have to do two things: 1) identify those things that are going right in life, and 2) make a forward step somewhere in my life.

As for number one, as I was watering the garden today I counted 16 growing pumpkins and winter squash in my little pumpkin patch. This makes me very happy. I caught myself smiling and humming a tune as I watered and counted. Now that was a great way to change my perspective on my past week. The rest will turn around soon, too.

For the second item, I was at Value Village on senior discount day and found something on my list, a plastic gift wrap storage box in pristine condition.

The manufacturer identifies this as an underbed storage box. But it's the exact length of commercial rolls of gift wrap paper. Fred Meyer sells this for $17.99.

At Value Village, it was marked $6.99. With my senior discount, I paid $4.89. Not too bad -- a $13 discount for an item I needed.

Tuesday evening, as I was putting together my schedule for Wednesday's chores, I decided I would prioritize tidying up the gift wrapping supplies. Our assorted wraps, gift bags, tissue paper, cellophane, basket/bag fill, bows/ribbons, gift tags and cards, packing peanuts and bubble wrap had taken over an entire closet. I gathered up the packing peanuts and bubble wrap and set it all aside for our free pile this next weekend (will list on Craigslist if we can't get rid of it in the neighborhood). Then I brought all of the rest of the supplies to the dining room table. I sorted absolutely everything. 

When I finished, I had some torn wrap and tissue to add to the compost, stuff to give away, and only took up one shelf in the closet for our various packaging needs. 

One of the things that pleased me the most is I only had a handful of stuff for the trash can, less than what would fill a sandwich bag. When I set out to my task, I brought a grocery bag for the garbage. It turned out that I didn't need that bag at all.

And we now know exactly what we have and that we don't need to buy gift wrap, ribbon or greeting cards for a long, long time.

You know, the satisfaction in cleaning out that closet really helped to boost my mood. Between counting the pumpkins and sorting our gift wrap supplies, I now feel like life is going a lot better than I had previously believed. 

I hope your week has been a good one. 

The Finished Garden Bistro Set

Jog your memory a bit -- this is what I started with in May of this year, a $5 garage sale table and two $5 thrift store chairs.

I spent many hours sanding, staining, spray painting, and sealing the pieces. I took a bit of a break from this project earlier in the month and came back to the pieces this week.

Below photo: Here they are, sitting opposite the grill station on the small patio in back, as viewed from behind the fig tree.

I'm not that pleased with the seats. They were a mess. Remember, these were upholstered chair seats. So the plywood under the foam and fabric was thin and water damaged. It probably wasn't all that great to begin with, given that the manufacturers planned for the wood to be covered with foam/fabric. The layers of one of the wood seats' edge had split. I filled the edge gaps with wood glue and clamped it closed until the glue dried. The top of the water damaged seat was wavy and rippled. I didn't want to sand too much off, so I figured I'd live with the result. 

For the time being, I have enough lime green shower curtain fabric left over from making patio cushions plus the foam from the chairs to make removable chair pads for each seat. I'll get to this next week. Chair pads will conceal the finish of the wood seats. In the long run, I'll probably buy a new piece of plywood and cut new seats, then finish and seal.

Below is the view facing the bistro set from the small patio. 

Cost-wise -- I spent about $40 for the pieces and finishing supplies. I used 2 1/2 cans of spray paint and about 1/2 can of sealer, plus a small amount of stain. I also bought a dowel to make plugs for some holes in the wood seats. I have a little paint leftover and lots of sealer/stain, plus most of the dowel to use in other projects. 

Was it worth it? I like projects, so I don't consider my time spent as a negative. The cost was a whole lot less than any bistro set I could buy ready made. My family really likes the set-up and are all looking forward to having breakfast, lunch, or a glass of iced tea at the little table on the little patio. So yeah, it was worth it.

The candle and candle holder on the table were free. Both were found on free piles. The candle holder had some autumn foliage wired onto the stem. It wasn't the look I was going for, so I removed the faux fall stuff.

The pillar candle was found in a basket of free candles a few years ago. It was just the right size.

One of the things I like about making over secondhand finds is in the process of working on the pieces, I put a fair amount of myself into them. They no longer feel like secondhand stuff or someone else's castoffs. But instead, they feel wholly mine.