Vintage, Junky Christmas in my Gazebo

As promised, it's now time to show my completed rustic, vintage, junky Christmas/winter gazebo decorations! I'm absolutely in love with how it all turned out! 

Now pull yourself up a chair and grab a cup of hot chocolate, because there's lots of pictures to come.

Saturday was just about the perfect day. The morning started out a little cold, but I was able to finish up Tanisha's burlap and lace wedding order, made a couple of new Christmas wreaths, started some laundry and did some indoor work. Later, the sun warmed the day and I enjoyed some time outdoors.

As I went to open the gate for the mail lady to stop and pick up my outgoing orders, I walked down the road to gather some of my Christmas tree decorations. I love seeing all the wild grasses as I travel the back roads and this particular white fuzzy grass has been telling me it needed to be on my shabby chic tree. 

After the mail came, the girls and I went down in the woods on a nature walk to gather pine cones, holly, cedar, and pine.

Then the fun really began! I showed a sneak peek of my junk wreath last week. We'll here it is up close. Bed springs, a saw blade, washer, and medallion are my "ornaments" suspended by twine on the window frame. A swag of cedar and pine accents the window.

I filled my old crock with more greenery and pine ones. 

The base around the crock was a silk Christmas wreath that I added a few fresh clipings into.

I was kinda sad, trying to figure out what I would put in my tired looking flower buckets. Then it hit me, I poked the greenery into the dirt and instant makeover. I left the kale and begonias in the bucket and just added the greenery around them to make the bucket much fuller and hung them back up on their spring hooks. 

Some of you might know the story, but our gazebo was literally pulled from a trash ditch a few years ago! It really was someone else's junk. Everything was either pulled from someone else's trash- gazebo, buckets, crock, bike, springs, metal water cooler,  gym basket, tin on the roof or found at a garage sale - burlap, Christmas tree, 3 strands of C7 lights and quilts or made by me. Nothing store bought here! I prefer to keep my Christmas decorations that way- natural and rustic. We are not ones  to get into the commercialism of the holidays and no Santas will find a place among my decor this year.

Now here's my fuzzy grass from the side of the road! 

Anybody know what it's called? 

I simply tied in the grass stems with the branches on the tree. Since our house is itsy, bitsy, teeny, weenie, and we are so overcrowded (hey, we're junk collectors😉), I don't think I am going to put up an indoor tree. No one ever comes to our house during the holidays, so I think we are going to enjoy our tree outdoors this year instead. 

A few more clippings, a rusty Texas license plate, pine cones, and a burlap bow fill the gym locker basket on the front of the bicycle. 

As the daylight faded away, we grabbed a couple of vintage and tattered quilts, a cup of hot chocolate and enjoyed some time under the twinkly lights. 

I have a feeling most of the decorations and lights will stay up long after Christmas and we will enjoy sitting out in the gazebo in the evenings. 

Thanks for hanging around till the end! Hope you are having a fun, stress free weekend.

 Merry Christmas! 

Christmas Sneak Peek!

It's totally unlike me to start decorating for Christmas this early! But yesterday was pretty, I was off work, the inspiration hit as I was cleaning up the frost bit plants in my yard, the forecast says cold weather returns this weekend, yada, yada, yada...

So here is the beginnings of my vintage junky Christmas gazebo decorations.  I have a few more ideas I want to incorporate in the next week or so and I promise to share all the junky details ASAP. 

A Fall Rusty Junk Bucket Makeover

A few weeks ago I gave a few of my rusty containers a makeover. Hello Pansies and Mums!

Remember this bottomless rusty bucket from the spring? Well the marigolds are gone, but the dusty miller, petunias, and creeping jenny are still with us.

 A few purple and yellow pansies from the local produce stand filled in the holes and will last all winter.

I added a yellow mum to the basket on the bicycle and the fountain grass is blooming in my wash tub along with marigolds and springeri fern.

 I know when we get a frost, the petunias will say good bye, although I'm hoping the pansies will have filled in  more by then. The dusty miller will last another year, so next spring it will get transplanted to a larger container.

 Hope you are all having a Fun and Junk-Filled Fall! I'll share more pictures from my yard soon and from our day spent at the Antique Car Show. Have a great week!

My Summer Garden

While out watering my yard tonight, I decided to snap a few pictures of the flowers.

First up: Cosmos and Zinnias started from seeds in my greenhouse during late winter. These are by my steps at our front door.


This little grasshopper likes the zinnias a little too much as well.


So what does one do when the rusty wheelbarrow completely falls apart? Use it as art in the flower beds to frame the flowers of course! You didn't think I would throw it away did you? The base was used to prop up zinnias that were falling into the path. No good junk goes to waste!

Sadly, this is the last day lily of the season.

The creeping jenny is cascading over the bundt pan on the vintage bicycle, just like I hoped it would. It seems like everything was covered in an insane amount of dust tonight. We are "suppose" to get rain this week, and I sure hope we do. Its been a few weeks since we got a good rain, but we are so thankful things are not nearly as bad as last year.

I tried a different way to upload my photos tonight... if you noticed any difference, please let me know if they load better, worse, slower, faster, ect. I also played with blog buttons and html code, so here is my first button! Fingers crossed it works right!

12 Creative Junk Flower Containers

My yard has a rustic, junk yard theme this year, using recycled items for creative flower containers. I have shared several of my junk planters this spring and wanted to give an update on the flowers and share some new planters. Donna from Funky Junk Interiors is hosting a garden themed linkup this weekend with the opportunity to win a subscription to FOLK magazine, so I thought now would be a great time to share 12 of my creative flower containers.

While using this style chicken feeder for a light fixture has been popular recently, I planted flowers in mine! I honestly never though this shallow container would hold up to the east Texas heat, but it has done really well and become one of my favorite containers in the whole yard.

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 This wheelbarrow holds a whole flock of hens and chicks! Do you see the chicken feeder hanging from the rose arbor?

 The rustic bottomless bucket is still growing good and the petunias have really taken over the wash tub. I originally had planted ranuculas in with the petunias, but they didn't hold up very well.

 My nepthytis seems to like living under the gazebo in this trash ditch rescued water jug.

The pansies occupy this old crock, but I feel as if the June heat will soon over take them.

The springeri is nestled in this old Gulf can and the water jug and watering can holds spider plants. An old rusty popcorn tin holds the aloe plant.

 The spider warts are blooming in the mornings and the oregano is harvested occasionally from this washing machine tub that is hiding a plastic pot.

I rearranged things this week and moved this English Ivy to the gym locker basket on the old vintage bicycle. I'm excited to see the zinnias and cosmos blooming beside the bicycle.

I am glad I went with a junk theme this year in my yard. I like seeing all the rusty containers much better that a bunch of plastic or styrofoam pots, plus they cost much less than purchasing new planters!

A Bicycle and a Bundt Pan

This bicycle has been a fixture in my yard for several years now. Last year I moved it by the gazebo and like to plant flowers on it.

The gym locker basket is wired to the handle bars and holds my parsley plant.

 In the past, I've used one of the coconut lined hanging baskets, minus the hanger, to put over the seat post, but this year I went with something different.

I know I said I wasn't going to buy any new flower pots from the store this year,  but I think this will  pass! I was at a garage sale earlier this month and saw this old Bundt pan for 25 cents. I wasn't even sure where I was going to use it when I planted the marigolds in the pan. I had planted the flowers and was walking around the yard when I saw the bicycle. The hole in the Bundt pan was perfect for the post on the bicycle! (I did drill a few drain holes in the pan for drainage.)

 No wiring or rigging a flower pot to stay on the bicycle! I then decided to add a few sprigs of creeping jenny to the cake pan, so that over the summer, there will be a cascade of greenery flowing out of the pan. Several years ago I bought a couple of creeping jenny plants and now I can take a few divisions from other locations to fill in as needed.

 I already had the parsley plant from last year and I used less than 5 small marigolds for the bicycle. I think the 6-pack of marigolds was around a $1.89. So the total cost of flowers on the bicycle came in around $2.00!

To see more pictures from my "Junk Yard", please click here. I'll continue to share tips and tricks for how I pulled off my frugal, rustic, vintage spring gazebo in the coming days.