15 Unique Garden Border and Edging Ideas

Now that it is officially Spring, I’m ready to start planning our landscaping. I found a bunch of clever, unusual, and some down right weird ideas for garden borders and edging one day while I was researching what to plant and where to plant it.

I thought I’d share because maybe you need new garden borders too.

Or you just like to look at garden p*rn. that’s OK too.

 Save these ideas to Pinterest for later!

21 Drought Tolerant Plants for Your Yard

You are getting excited for the Spring planting season?

Me too!

Although I am not looking forward to how much it will cost us to keep a new landscape watered all summer long.

One way to avoid a high summer water bill is to plan my new landscape with native plants. Since I often forget plants need water to grow, they should be drought tolerant too.

Since I know pretty much nothing about native or drought tolerant plants, I'm cruising over to Organizing Made Fun and reading her 21 suggestions for Going Native: Drought Tolerant Plants for Your Yard.

Check it out now and pin it for later!

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Can Your Laminate Flooring Kill You?

Last Sunday, 60 Minutes investigated Lumber Liquidators Chinese made laminate flooring for unsafe levels of formaldehyde in  Lumber Liquidators Linked to Health and Safety Violations. 




The basics of the story I linked to are this:

• 60 Minutes bought 150 boxes of laminate flooring from several Lumber Liquidators stores throughout Californian.

• 60 Minutes asked three independent labs to test the samples to see if the formaldehyde in the laminate flooring (mostly in the glue used to make the laminate) meets California’s strict formaldehyde emissions standards, called CARB 2.

• The lab results showed all of Lumber Liquidators Chinese made laminate flooring was from 6 to 7 times over the state limit and some laminate samples were up to 20 times over the state limit.

• Lumber Liquidators American made laminate flooring as well as Lumber Liquidators flooring they purchased from Lowes and Home Depot passed testing.

• 60 Minutes then purchased 31 Chinese made laminate samples from Lumber Liquidators stores in four states and sent the samples to two certified labs for formaldehyde testing.

• Both labs reported that 30 samples were over the formaldehyde limit, some as high as 13 times. 1 sample of Chinese made laminate flooring passed testinga.
• 
  

6 Smart Strategies to Organize a Garage and Workshop

Our garage and workshop was an unorganized mess!  I put the organize the garage project off for long time because I was overwhelmed by the clutter. Where do I start? Ack!

Pin this post for later!

By accident or design (I’m going to go with by design because it sounds like I had a plan all along instead of a make it up as I go along series of happy accidents) I broke my big garage organization project into several smaller, less overwhelming projects.

Guess what? Three days later (I had a lot of stuff to deal with) I had an organized workshop I can use without tripping over anything. I discovered some things I thought were working weren’t and why. I made changes according my needs and organization style. My garage is now neat and stays that way.

Yay!

This method worked so well on helping my clear my garage clutter madness that I’m using it to organize other parts of my house. You can too!

Organize Your Garage in Three Easy Questions

I make most DIY projects harder or take 10 times longer because I have to hunt for stuff in the jumble of crap the tool shelves eventually become in my garage. It needs to change.

Welcome to my nightmare.

It’s time to face the fact that while tool storage shelves work for some people, they aren’t working for me. I have tons of garage organization ideas on my Pinterest boards (follow Condo Blues on Pinterest, pretty please?)

I have even more people telling me I should create/build/buy garage organizers like the kind they like.  I appreciate the helpful suggestions. But  I have some of those suggested organizers and they aren’t working for me right now.

I need to learn how to determine how to organize my workshop and garage according to my habits and organizing style first before I go crazy installing the slat wall of my dreams or whatever.
 

How to Make a Garage and Workshop Organization Plan with Three Simple Questions

17 Resources that will Motivate You to Declutter and Organize

 Pin this list of ideas to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

Winter is a great time to get organized. Since most of us are stuck inside because of the snow and the cold and a little restless, why not use that energy to clean and organize the post Christmas carnage in my craft room, right?

Small Space Industrial Open Pantry Yay or Nay?

A worn valve on our water heater flooded the utility, laundry, and kitchen after Husband started the dishwasher on Christmas Eve Eve morning.

Husband shut the water heater off while I called plumbers. Apparently plumbers are crazy busy with smart people who have plumbers do pre-emptive work on their pipes before overloading their plumbing with guests, cooking, and cold weather. It was a Festivus miracle I found a plumber during regular business hours that day!

That didn’t make my cranky feeling go way as I mopped the rest of the water, hoped we didn’t need to buy a replacement water heater (fortunately we just needed to replace a valve – whew!), and pulled a mountain of chaos out of the utility room so the plumber could find the water heater had room to work.

Wood Laminate Floors: Yay or Nay?

 I never really thought about the carpeting in my house except for vacuuming dog fur tumbleweeds when Lacey's coat changes for the season and spot cleaning coffee spills because I am a klutz.

Th Great Water Damage Room Renovations is forcing me to think about replacing my bedroom floor covering. The question is with what?  And am I stuck with horrible wood laminate flooring if we don't go with carpet?

How to Cover Popcorn and Textured Ceilings

One of the first things Husband wanted to change when we bought in our condo are the textured ceilings. I told Husband if he wanted to soak the texture with water so it is loose enough to scrape off off with a hand scraper while standing on a ladder in. every. room. of. the. house. the project is all his.

10 years later we still have textured ceilings we don't like.

We learned to deal with the fifth wall in every room we aren't crazy about. We didn't think about changing our ceilings until I flooded the house and damaged the kitchen ceiling. 

How to Remove Grout and Regrout Tile

The grout in the Master bathroom shower is chipping. The other grout patches I did as a quick fix are discoloring. I’ve been putting this job off forever. When Husband went out of town on business, I figured it was time to do remove the bathroom grout and add new grout to the tile. 

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This job isn’t hard. However is probably messier and takes longer than you might originally think. At least it did for me.

No Sew Halloween Apron

My sister and I are foodies. We often send each other email with the subject line MAKE THIS and a recipe. During one of our conversations the subject turned to food, as it usually does, and how cooking messes can ruin clothes.

There is a solution for that. It’s called an apron.

Halloween is my sister’s favorite holiday. We share the same warped sense of humor. I made her a no sew apron I know she’ll wear for Halloween and quite possibly during the rest of the year to serve as a funny warning to others.

Don’t Make Me Poison Your Dinner Apron

Seven Tools to Remove Shower Tile Grout

The grout in between the tiles in the Master Bathroom is cracking and pitting.  I patched the tile grout when I found an issue, knowing that eventually, I would have to remove all of the shower caulk and tile grout and regrout the shower.

I wasn’t looking forward to removing all of the grout in my bathroom and replacing it. Not because removing grout is hard but because removing bathroom grout is time consuming and messy.   Putting grout in between the tiles is easy and the clean up is well, as difficult as cleaning up usually is after a big project – better if you can get someone else to do it. If you can’t rope someone else into cleaning up your mess for you, a wet/dry vaccum makes the job easier. I mentioned dust flying everywhere, yes?

Two Recommended Power Tools for Removing Tile Grout and Three that Aren’t so Great

How to Purge and Recycle Old Electronics

I swear our house is shrinking. Once upon a time, had storage space to burn. (Don’t. It wastes a perfectly good space and might catch the rest of your house on fire.)

It didn’t take any great detective work to determine why our house is shrinking. The answer is easy.

We have stuff we don’t think/aren’t sure if there is a place to recycle or responsibly dispose of it. The last time I checked this wasn't the case, or if there was such an animal, it was only accepted those things on that one day during a full moon when cows do backward sneezes kind of thing. Hello hazardous household waste collection, I’m talking to you.

Aluminum Can Barn Star Wreath

For some reason, I have barn stars on the brain. I notice them everywhere!

Except on wreaths.

Until now.

 I painted my stars red, white, and blue but you can paint your stars whatever color you like!

Husband and I don’t drink a lot of soda, usually as a treat or for some special occasion. Luckily, I came  into a bunch of empty pop cans that I didn’t have to drink by throwing my mom a surprise birthday party. You don’t have to acquire your aluminum cans that way. Call a buddy, ask a friend, or heck, treat yourself to a beverage all in the name of making a Fourth of July wreath.

Who knew patriotism could be so tasty?

How to Make Soda Pop Can Stars

How to Paint a Wavy Side Table

This post brought to you by FrogTape. All opinions are 100% mine.

I needed  to repaint the side tables on my porch. I didn't want to paint them a solid color (again) and call it a day. I wanted to jazz them up with some decorative painting.

DIY Personalized Insulated Wine Glass Tumblers

Husband’s family likes to get together in the summer for a family reunion. Grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles gather for good times and good food. Every night the adults open a bottle of wine start a round of Euchre. Playing cards is our excuse to stay up way too late telling stories and busting a gut laughing at each other’s jokes. I’m so glad I married into this family.

I bought a reusable BPA free insulated wine glass tumbler to use instead of a disposable cup for the reunion. I want to personalize my insulated tumbler so I know which one is mine at the party.


Decorated insulated wine glass tumblers: Mommy’s Special Lemonade, Oh No! My glass is empty! It’s an Emergency! Quick, call WINE-ONE-ONE!, Mommy’s Sippy Cup, and If you met my family you’d understand.

Vintage Train Toy Box Nightstand

My grandfather made me this train toy box when I was a little girl. As you can see, he made it with a lot of love.

And skill. My grandfather had mad carpentry skills he learned from his father the carpenter.

My train toy box has tremendous sentimental value. It was also the most difficult item to keep and make work in the new guest room/craft room. This is the only place we have room for my toy box. Husband suggested I repaint it to go with the color scheme I first wanted for the room.

I quickly vetoed that idea.

Every ding bump and scratch on my toy box came from two little girls having a good time pushing each other around their playroom in this train.

This vintage toy box on wheels probably horrifies some kid safety expert because the wheels and vehicle aren’t incased in bubble wrap and the children riding in it didn’t wear safety suits and helmets made from organic feather pillows. Thank goodness we survived!

16 Easy DIY Projects for Beginners

I think the best gift you can give someone lacking self confidence is a hammer.

No. Not to make themselves feel better by hitting other people with it, but to use it to build or fix something.
Completing a project is a shot in the arm to the self esteem.

 It might have taken me all afternoon, but I held my head a little higher for the rest of the day after completing my first DIY project. Who knew changing a deadbolt door lock can change your world? (Beyond the added security that no one can come in your house uninvited and take your stuff.)

12 Natural Gardening Tips for Beginners

Now that I have a house with a yard, I’ve been forced into this gardening thing. Some days I like it. Other days, my fails remind me why I named this blog Condo Blues!

I want to keep our gardening habits as green and eco-friendly as possible because Lacey likes to run into our flower beds even though she knows she shouldn’t. The last thing I want is for her to be covered with or ingest some chemical concoction of unknown origin we put on our plants or in our soil. Frankly, I’m not crazy about Husband and I doing that either.

Husband and I need to rework the front yard a bit after a series of windstorms pelted our bushes and plants. I asked a bunch of blogger friends if they had any green gardening tips that I can learn from and share with you.

Down and Dirty DIY Spray Paint Booth

Happy May Day!

And Beltane!

Or as I like to call it Spray Paint Weather!

Whoo hoo! Back flips and the happy dance!

My leg hasn't healed and I'm still in a boot, so the the back flips and happy dance are only happening in my mind right now.

But now that it is over 40 degrees (F) and even with my foot in a boot,  the spray painting will commence!

I like to spray paint outside because of the fumes. The paint dries more quickly too. I can't do that if it is a windy day. Spray painting in the wind is just as successful as spitting into the wind. Guess how I know?

A windy day was just another factor in this hot mess of a painted headboard.

I fixed it by resanding the bumpy, uneven, crackled areas smooth and repainting the headboard inside the garage.