my cousin's cottage...the outside

Here is the last post on my cousin's cottage.  

If you missed the first two posts, click here and here to see the inside.

This post is all about the huge back and side yard.  My cousin, Gale, definitely has a green thumb

and an eye for all things vintage, white, chippy or rusted with a bit of blue thrown in.  

She knows how to use a good piece of junk too.  

Keep in mind that she does not have internet or cable 

so she has not seen any of your blogs or watched design shows.  

First up is this chair from one of a few sitting areas.  Since red's my color, I love how the white is chipping to reveal some red underneath.

I love the contrast between the chippy rusted table and chairs 

and the fresh white pitcher and plate on top.

You will see several of these gallon jugs around her garden.  She says when she

plants new young plants or seeds, they need a lot of water or consistently moist soil 

until the plants get going.   So, she pokes a tiny hole in the bottom of the jug and places it next to the new plant.  The water filled jug will drip keeping the soil moist.  She says the jug of water lasts a long time so she doesn't have to keep going out there to water the plants.  Once the jug is empty, just refill it to keep the soil most for a few more days.  

She's made her own trellis so plants will grow on the fence. 

Just a stake and wire to create the rustic trellis.

Here's another sitting area with a swing.

This is her side entry.  She loves to garden in containers 

and buckets, pails and tubs are her favorite containers.

How's this for a cute planter?  She used the bottom of an old rusted heater to hold a pot for a plant.

Here's a garden gate she uses as a divder/sort of a wall to define a space.

This is her makeshift bird feeder.  She found a metal stand and put a white platter inside.

I love this.

Cute little blue chair sits across from another seating area on the other side of a walkway.

Oh and see the line of water jugs helping some new plants get started?

Cute little seating area.

...more container gardens.

Don't tell her but I would love to have that enamel table with the red trim 

she has the two buckets sitting on.

Here's a dining area.

She has the galvanized tubs lining the back of her house. Each has different plants growing in them

along with plants growing between them.  I love this.

more container gardens.  No wonder I can't find some great enamel tubs and galvanized buckets.

She has them all!

I can't remember the name of this bush and I can't begin to tell you how big it is.  

It lines the entire side of her yard and is as tall as me, taller is some areas.

Here is one of her outbuildings.  She painted it green.  Love the metal roof.

Here's a close up of the dining area. She has no idea how expensive these chairs are.

She finds them all out junkin.

Here's a rusted candelabra she uses for a centerpiece on the table...

and yes, she puts candles in it in the evening.

Her version of trellises and garden art.  

I have no idea what this is but it's cool.

Another little seating area...she wants the baker's rack inside the house but she doesn't have room

so she put it out here with a couple of chairs.  

Even the hardware on the garage is cute.

I love the rusted corrugated roof on top of the white garage.

More container gardens on top of an industrial metal table.

Here's her pretty little pathway around to the front yard.

She has gravel in places around her yard.  In the gravel she has added little round colorful pieces of glass.  You have to look closely to see the pretty little splashes of color.  

I may steal that idea.  It's really pretty when the sun hits those little glass pieces.

So, there you have it.  That's the full tour of the my cousin's little cottage.

What do you think?  Any ideas you want to steal?

I'm about finished working on my giveaway to celebrate 400+ followers. 

That's coming up later in the week so stay tuned!

I'm going to link up this thrifty cottage transformation to some of my favorite blog parties 

in the list at top or down below on the right.

Somebody stop me...

Somebody stop me.  I'm going crazy with the aluminum spray paint.  I'm painting everything in sight with this stuff...okay, just a couple of things including my front porch ceiling fan but I keep looking for more things to paint.

At the neighborhood drug store, I found these.  3 for $1.00

They are plastic and sort of a whitish clear color.

They are small.  I started thinking....if I painted these with the aluminum paint and made little tags, could they look like miniature gym locker baskets?  Well, that could be interesting (and for a buck, what have I got to lose?)

So, I spray painted them Aluminum.

 Can you tell?  Do they look metal to you?

With a little paper, some wire, computer printed words and a little Mod Podge... 

 Here are my little miniature aluminum gym baskets.

These could come in handy.

They could hold my Christmas present wrapping supplies like tags, ribbon, embellishments.

They could hold extra forks, knives and spoons at a holiday party.

They could hold office supplies.

Oh my gosh, I'm already thinking of more things I could paint with this stuff;

ornaments, gift tags,  containers, pots/planters, signs, and so on.

I'm not sure if the pictures capture it, but it looks like galvanized aluminum.  

What would you paint aluminum?

I'm linking up to some of my favorite blog parties in my list above and down below.  However, if I start having a difficult time finding this paint because there's been a run on it and the stores are out, I may have to change my mind :)

Chippy white paint can be bad...

I haven't been in the mood to decorate our front porch for Halloween or fall.  It's usually done by now but with warmer temperatures and some problems with the porch, I just wasn't inspired to get it done.  So, we decided to tackle the problems and get the porch ready for fall.

Let's start with the problems:

We have a ceiling fan on the porch which is great.  However, the fan used to be white but now has become tinged with yellow and really rusted.  It's an outdoor fan but the amount of rust it has would make you think otherwise.  I figured I could give this a fresh coat of paint and it would be fine.

The ceiling on the porch is white and shows a lot of dirt.  I've always wanted a pale blue ceiling on the front porch so our plan is to paint this.

If you've followed my blog, you know I love some chippy white paint.  However, chippy white paint on the front porch looks like we just don't take care of our house.  It also allows the wood to rot.  So, this piece of wood trim will get replaced and we will repaint.

Every speck of trim needs to be sanded and repainted.

These are our columns on the front porch.  Houses in our neighborhood that have columns are all painted in two different colors.  There is the base color that's on the rest of the house (the siding areas) and there's the trim. You can see my next door neighbor's house and their two-toned columns.

I have never liked these columns painted two colors and over the years have grown to hate them.  I've always wanted all white columns.

So, let's get to work and make some changes.  First up, take down the fan and paint it white.

As my husband carried the fan to the backyard for painting, he accidentally hit the blades against something and broke a couple. 

That could be bad...OR it could give me reason to buy a new fan!

Barn Electric 

I've been eyeing this galvanized metal fan.  Maybe I could get this instead.  Well, no not exactly.  With a $350. price tag, I'm just going to have to admire it from afar.

So, here we are with no fan.  It's so sad.

On a brighter note, here we are with all white columns.  Woo hoo!

These look so much better and fresher and make the columns more prominent.

We're painting the ceiling a pale grayish-blue.  The color is "Ozone" by Behr's vintage collection.

Now, about that ceiling fan.  We bought a package of replacement fan blades and a couple of cans of aluminum spray paint.  For about $30. bucks, we made our own galvanized metal fan.

There it is...the pale gray-blue ceiling and galvanized fan.

This looks sooooo much better.

Pretty cool, huh?  and so much cheaper.

From the front: blue ceiling, metal fan, fresh white trim and white columns.

Pale blue porch ceilings are a southern thing.  It's supposed to help keep flying insects away.

Does it work? My husband dodged two wasps while he re-hung the fan.  Oh well, at least the porch looks prettier and has inspired me to get on with decorating for fall.