Four Happenings from our Fourth – A DIY Holiday

First, we wrapped up the window seat bookshelf project, which was my favorite of our DIY summer projects, so far. 🙂

This was a long project, being that a lot of the work needed to be done in the room next to where our little one sleeps.

With our downtime being his naptime and bedtime, the project was more drawn out than we had hoped.

After taking the above photo, I caulked a few last spots and put the last coat of paint on the shelves.

Here’s a selfie (or should I say shelf-ie) before I did some last few spots.

I’m just so pleased the shelf is done. Not only is another project checked off the list, but we have about 12 boxes from our move stacked in our mudroom that are filled to the brim with books.

We hadn’t unpacked them because we hadn’t a place to put them.

So, now we can finally finish unpacking from our move.

I’m so excited about that! (Now if only I could finish getting all of our pictures on the walls…).

A Picnic Table in a Day?

Just when I thought the weekend couldn’t get any better, Ash finished the picnic table that he started the same morning.

He built a picnic table in ONE day.

Crazy, right?! ​And, his post tells you how you can too!

Here’s what I saw Ash working on in the morning, when I snapped a few quick shots:

And, the same evening, a perfectly-built, sturdy picnic table was in our driveway.

I was floored!

But I shouldn’t be too shocked being that this is also the guy who single-handedly built a shed last summer.

We brushed the table off and moved it to the backyard, so we could put it use on the Fourth. Definitely a useful summer project:)

Fresh Veggies!

Our third item of the weekend was discovering vegetables in our garden! So exciting!!

Ash and I have been together over a decade, and this is our first garden.

This year, we have made a switch to clean eating and living a more healthy lifestyle.

I have been living by Anthony William’s book The Medical Medium, which is all about healing our bodies through what we are eating.

His information is life-changing, and he most prominently discusses just how amazing organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs heal our bodies.

With our new way of life, our beautiful backyard, and Ash’s talent at construction, we decided to plant a garden this year. Ash built a DIY planter box as an early summer project.

We hadn’t seen too much happening in the planter box…until this weekend. First we noticed a couple of hot peppers…

…then a few tomatoes, and finally some itsy, bitsy red and green peppers. It was a Fourth of July miracle!
I can’t wait to keep checking it, let alone harvest our fruits and veggies! If our garden is a success, I might have to help Ash build another DIY planter box next year.

Catching Some Shade

The fourth, and last project we had happening this weekend (other than some yard work) was installing a shade sail for our very sunny patio.

We were looking for a cost-effective way to throw some shade on our hot patio in the summer months, and we came up with this solution.

A shade sail is a weather-proof fabric that is held up by the house and a few poles.

It appealed to us because it’s quite modern-looking and not permanently affixed to the house. We didn’t get too far into the project, but we will keep you posted on how it turns out (update – check out the full tutorial).

Here is Ash double checking the measurements of the fabric, and Zeus who always seems to make his way into the photos 🙂

We didn’t have a conventional Fourth of July weekend, but it was a great one. We  spent some time checking off a few projects, starting a new one, and of course, discovering our homegrown fruits and vegetables!

Above all, the best part was our family picnic on our new outdoor table – built in ONE day. I’m still impressed 🙂