Along with getting my butt in gear with working out (which I did...3.5 miles and some pilates yesterday) I decided to stop sitting around on Pinterest all day and get to work! I went to town on my apartment and cleaned everything! I mean scrubbing, spraying, everything. The inside of the microwave even got cleaned...ohhhhh...ahhhh.
Since the school year is wrapping up and I have less to do with lesson plans, I figured this weekend would be the perfect time to start working on a DIY project that I have wanted to do for a while. Plus, Tal wasn't home and I wanted to surprise him with fixing up our patio. A while ago I was on Pinterest (surprise surprise) and saw this beauty from
Country Living Magazine.
Aaaaaa-mazing! I wanted one and when I went home to visit and saw my neighbor had one in his driveway I wanted one even more! I asked my mom if we could ask for it, but she said that her boyfriend could just get one from his work....YES! Thank goodness for working with the power company and having a whole bunch of those electrical spindle things laying around at work. I had to wait because one of those puppies would not fit in my little Honda Civic. Luckily my mom came down for a visit about a month later and I got my beauty.
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Zeus couldn't help but make an appearance :) |
As impatient as I was to get this beauty, it sat looking like this on my patio for about 2 months. I guess school and life just got the best of me. I was determined that it would be my first project once summer started. On Thursday I decided to go to Lowe's after work and get everything I needed to put my table together. Well, I didn't really plan much out, except that I knew I wanted to use rope around the middle part. So with a little wandering and looking like a lost puppy I stumbled across the vinyl flooring section. Hmmmm...this could work. I remembered watching a Bath Crashers episode where they used cork flooring and said it was easy to cut. I couldn't find any cork tiles, but figured the vinyl wouldn't be much different. So I laid out 4 different colors on the floor and picked the one that was the darkest to kind of get close to our dark kitchen cabinets.
After about two days of work and a sore thumb from cutting all my pieces with scissors (I know scissors weren't the best and most accurate choice but they were all I had and I am a bit impatient with getting projects done) I ended up with a beautiful table!
I was so happy with it. I was worried that the vinyl flooring would look stupid or wouldn't piece together well, but I think it's great. I might still go back and add something around the edges to smooth it out, but I haven't decided yet. Since I had a beautiful table I figured I needed to spice up the patio a little more. I found a nice outdoor rug from
Garden Ridge for $50 and went to Wal-Mart to get a pretty plant and some hanging lights. With a little TLC my patio looks like a place I want to be now.
I think my flower and gnomes are perfect for the table. I've had those gnomes since Christmas (part of my obsession with white ceramic figurines) and they finally have a home now! I can't wait to show Tal and to start working on more DIY projects over the summer!