Weekend Projects, and Some News, Too!

Project Weekend

Around here, weekends fall into two categories. It's either an adventure weekend, or a project weekend.

This weekend has been mostly a project weekend, but I did have an adventure on Friday. I went garage sale shopping with my friends, Ronnie and Nancy.

In Texas, garage sales are typically held on Fridays and Saturdays, instead of Saturdays and Sundays. I think, because people go to church on Sundays here.

Remember church? Yeah. They really go here. Anyway, all the good stuff gets grabbed up on Fridays, so we set out at 9am and hit up about 10 sales by noon. I picked up a wooden platter for $1 and a fantastic rocking chair for $30! Between shopping and lawn and garden chores, and my husbands never ending quest to find new ways to utilize pallet wood, we've kept ourselves pretty busy since Friday.

Pallet Project #1

Spring is in full swing here, which means temps between the 80's and 90's. There are a lot of projects we want to get finished before the heat of summer sets in!

One of our projects is this pallet garden.

We used two small pallets, about 4 by 4 in size. Hubby closed off the open ends with additional pieces of wood, then we laid them on top of a thick layer of newspaper. You can also use cardboard.

After that we filled them in with nice garden dirt from Home Depot. We used miracle grow garden dirt. It has slow release pellets.

We planted lettuce and radishes in one and onions, shallots and garlic in the other. 

The pallet garden is about 3 weeks old now. 

Birdcage Garden

I did another project with my daughter Maddie, in between cutting the grass, weeding and watering. We had tons of inpatients to pot, and ran out of things to plant them in, so we threw half a dozen into an old bird cage. Isn't this adorable??

There's that $30 rocking chair!

Pallet Project #2

Lastly, my husband spent the afternoon making me this cooler box!  

He used pallet wood, and hinges from an old cabinet. 

It doubles as a side table! Love it!

There's that awesome garage sale rocking chair again!

This project was almost totally free. We had the foam cooler, the hinges, and the wood. Hubby bought a box of nails but only used a handful. Less than a dollar! Up-cycling done right!

If you have any great ideas for free or inexpensive outdoor projects, or repurposing unused household items, share them with me! 

Finally, I spent a few hours whipping up a new recipe for potato salad.

Did you think I was gonna share that recipe? Nope! It's top-secret! I have to tuck it away for a contest, but I'll share it with you during the summer. 

Now For Some News

This week I will be blogging Cinco de Mayo events, recipes, and links.

Next weekend is the big car show, The Concours d" Elegance at La Torretta Lake Resort & Spa at Lake Conroe, and also our 23rd Anniversary weekend. 
For information and Tickets to this weekend full of fun, checkout 
Tickets: http://www.concoursoftexas.org/tickets.cfm
Event Info: http://www.concoursoftexas.org/eventinfo.cfm

Also, big news for me, I was selected to compete in the saucy mama blogger contest!

 This is a World Food Championships Qualifying Event in which I will be creating a recipe using one of saucy mama's wonderful sauces. 

The winner will go on to compete in the 2014 WFC, so I will be asking for lots of support from all of you, but as a thank you for that support I will be having a contest give-away soon for a prize pack from Saucy Mama for one of you! 
In the mean time, you can checkout Saucy Mama products at Saucy Mama.

As you can see, I've got a lot going on. I am so glad we got some projects done over this weekend. Cheers to all of you, hope your weekdays go fast and your weekends last long!