Patio Fun

Tonight I am sitting on my patio with a giant root beer reflecting on my day.
These are pictures of me, Burk, and Denton enjoying an unusually cool Arizona evening.

It was a wonderful day. I enjoyed time with great friends, Bre and Jess. We visited this amazing little store called Lizabel's Treasures. Treasures is an accurate description of the place. They had the most amazing and unique items in every nook and cranny! I must have walked around the store at least 10 times, each time discovering new items hanging from the ceiling, under a table, in a suitcase, or right in front of my face.My friend, Jess, and I love to decorate and refinish items. She found some amazing treasures too. I think we both love the thrill of the hunt for a good deal. As I look around my patio, I realize that most of the items were purchased without any intention of purchasing that type of item on any give day. Each item reminds me of time spent with loved ones. And all of the items were fairly inexpensive, which is why Erik thinks an item over $20 is really expensive. All in all, each item is a treasure and tells a story. My house is full of items with stories to be told.
Here are my top 5 items from my patio:1. Coffee table - Erik rescued the coffee table from a dumpster. He was the one with the vision for it. It is actually a coffee color, no pun intended. Erik distressed it, sealed it, and put knobs on it from Anthropologie. Our intention was to sell it, but that never happened. It fits perfectly on our patio and currently holds all of my gardening tools. Cost - free +$18 for knobs2. Yellow filing cabinet - I found a filing cabinet at Goodwill for $9. It was already painted yellow and even came with cobwebs underneath. I could not pass up this deal. I thought I was going to put it in our office, but needless to say that room is still a mess. The filing cabinet sat on our patio for a week and then we moved it into the garage. A few months later it was back on the patio with a new purpose - to hold plants! I think it is so adorable! I thought about even opening the drawers and putting large pots in there with bright colored flowers, but ended up just storing future projects in the drawers. I love the bold color and it really brightens up my patio.3. Headboard - Oh, the headboard. I had some skeptics on this one. It is still a work in progress. I have mixed feelings on where to put it. Right now it is just resting on my patio, but it is not in it's permanent home yet. We found this one day when we went to a thrift store that was closing. Needless to say we may have robbed the place. It wasn't like a normal thrift store. It was located in an old grocery store, so it was huge. Because it was one of the final days, the store was trying to get rid of as many items as possible. It all started when a guy told us we could get as many frames and framed pieces of art as we could fit in a box for only $5. It is amazing what you can fit in a box. Of course I just loaded up on anything that looked semi-interesting. Then we were learned that we could fill up a cart for $15. That is when things got out of control. Bre got every kids book in the place! I put my box of frames and art into the cart and loaded up on more. Erik found shoes and clothes. Then I snagged wicker baskets, Erik found baseball helmets. The list goes on and on. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a headboard. I knew it was probably too small for our bed, but I asked how much. Answer - $15. I was already robbing the place of so many other items, I said I would take it. My plan was to put it in my yard and plant a garden around it. Because our yard is so small, I did not want to take up footage with the garden, so I settled on container gardening. Therefore, the headboard moved to the patio. Eventually it will find it's permanent home.
This is the top of the headboard. It is hard to get a good picture of it. See item #5 for the story of the coat rack.

4. Gold tray with flowers - This was a random find. I was actually at school when this item caught the corner of my eye. One of the students purchased items for the yearbook signing party to represent various decades. She found the cutest items! If you ever need a party planner, she is your girl! She even had the cutest powder blue suitcases! I asked her if I could buy the tray from her and she just gave it to me! I will always think of her when I look at it and I love the way it compliments my flowers and patio.
5. Coat rack - Today I purchased a cast iron coat rack. It is pretty sturdy. Since there is never a need to wear a coat in Arizona, I had a different vision for this piece. I could see it on my patio dressed in hanging pots. When I told Jess and Bre that I wanted to hang pots for it, Jess started telling me to buy chains and hang them at different lengths. I was confused as to why the rope on most pots wouldn't work. Finally, I figured out she was talking about pots used for cooking! I still love that idea! I may move it into my kitchen after gardening season ends. So far I only have a bird house hanging from it, but the coat rack has great potential and apparently multiple visions depending on the visionary you ask. Now, this item was a little pricey. Thankfully I had birthday money to spend on it. And now that it has dual purposes, let's just say each purpose cost about $30. :) If you look at the picture above of the coat rack, you will see a bird house hanging from it. The bird house has a great story! While at Lizabel's Treausures, Bre took the bird house from me and hung it on her arm. She forgot to give it to the lady so I could pay for it and almost stole from Lizabel's! Love it!

I am rarely on a hunt for a particular item. The items tend to find me. I always have a vision in my head, but never a time frame. However, I am always on the hunt for a story.