Garden Cart Makeover

This is a follow up to my previous post featuring a few of my "Spring makeover" projects. If you'd like to read that post before continuing with this one, you can click on the following link: Spring Makeovers This is the garden cart I mentioned in that post ... The cart had several layers of paint, some of which was chipping off, and definitely needed some attention. After vigorously scraping the cart with a wire brush, I sprayed it with the primer coat. I was fortunate to have an excellent little helper ... our granddaughter Avery Grace, who is out of school this week for Spring Break. I didn't let her do a lot of the spraying because it was very windy yesterday, but at least she got to spray a little, which is always the "fun part" of a makeover project. Here is our garden cart with its bright new sunshiny yellow paint beside the newly-painted turquoise bench, whose transformation was shown in my previous post ... I haven't gotten any new spring flowers for it yet, because we're still having cold nights with temperatures in the lower 30s [there was frost this morning!].  I'll share pictures of it when I finish decorating it ... hopefully, soon! Avery is eight and in the third grade, and every time I see her it seems as if she has grown several inches. Every minute we spend with her is precious, and it means so much to me that she still wants to spend her Spring Break with us.  I cherish this time with her, and hope she will have some happy memories that will be with her forever. We are going to meet her mommy and daddy and little brother Maddox today at the Jackson Zoo.  It should be a fun, springlike day, and I hope to capture some sweet memories with my camera.

Spring Makeovers

Not only did the extremely cold winter take its toll on our plants and flowers, our wrought iron furniture and outdoor decor seemed to fade and wither too.   I took advantage of the springlike weather yesterday, and, with the help of several cans of spray paint, gave a few things a Spring "make over."     The seat of this bench had started to rust, so I scraped it with a wire brush and smoothed the rusty areas. Then I sprayed the seat with a primer and repainted it the same color (Rust-Oleum's 2X Ultra Cover "Satin Oregano"). We've had this little bench for many, many years and it had several layers of black paint and at least one coat of white paint through the years.  Needless to say, it was "chippy," and needed some help.  After scraping and priming, it now adds some color to the stone path leading from the courtyard to the back yard. [Paint color is Rust-Oleum's 2X Ultra Cover in "Satin Lagoon," which you can find at Home Depot]  I can't wait to add some spring flowers to the garden cart beside it. And speaking of the garden cart ... it's next on my "makeover list," and I'm seriously considering painting it bright yellow.   Will that be "tacky" beside the bold turquoise bench? My final makeover for the day were my two geese, Maude and Claude.  Poor things ... their aluminum finish was showing through, and they looked like little orphans.  Maude didn't look too happy about the whole thing ... Perhaps she thought I was going to leave her the rusty primer color. But I wouldn't do that to her.  I recently discovered a fantastic paint that is perfect for any kind of garden decor.  It is Krylon's "Make it Stone Textured Paint" in Cobblestone, which I found at Hobby Lobby.  Unfortunately, I bought all they had in stock and I'm not sure they will get any more.   Here are Claude and Maude posing for their "after" picture.   Maude still doesn't look very happy, does she!                  Here are a few more makeovers I did using the Cobblestone paint. Before ... After ...  Before ... After ...  Freddie the Frog ... after I think I'm going to go ahead and paint my garden cart bright yellow and see how I like it.  That's the beauty of spray paint ... you can always change your mind!