I got the case of Spring Fever!

I absolutely love the outdoors. I could probably live outside. This is where Bear and I don't mesh. He's not so much on the outside. I think he just doesn't know how to just sit and do nothing but to listen to the wind and birds. He's got to have something occupy him. I, on the other hand, could sit and listen to nature for hours and I do it as often as I can.

A couple of years ago, a great friend and her hubby helped Bear and me build a roof over our patio. The sun shines in my back yard all day and in the summer, it's brutal and I never got to enjoy my yard during that time. With this roof, I can stay out pretty much all day and enjoy the outdoors.

the porch

I also made a special corner of the yard for me. I planted a rose, gardenia and jasmine bushes. I added an arbor and added jasmine around it as well. My corner is the best thing ever. The plants have grown so nicely and it is looking more and more like my vision. The only problem...I didn't really have any where to sit while I was back there. Nothing just seemed to click. Then I got the fever...Spring Fever and my creative side let loose so I could further enjoy my back yard.

Since we are a one income family, I don't have the luxury of just going out and buying items that I want. I have to be ingenious and create my own. We had an old hammock stand for a long time but the hammock was long gone. When we cleaned the yard a couple of years ago, Bear wanted to get rid of the stand. I was adamant and refused to let it go. Something told me I'd be needing it one day. Well, that day was the other day. But the problem? I had no funds to buy a $80 or more hammock. So I did what I always do...Googled it! And I came upon a guy explaining how to make a hammock out of...a SHEET! Just a regular sheet. BINGO! I found my answer. I have plenty of sheets hanging around, so why not? The only thing I needed was rope. Easy enough. So I go to Lowes to purchase the rope and one chain and a S hook(they were missing from the stand). The kind lady cut my chain (enough to hold Bear's weight) and then proceeded to tell us about her on-line gaming addiction. That's a totally different story that I'll not bore you with at the moment. In all I spent around $15 for the rope, chain and hardware. Not bad! I do want to say I bought waaayyy too much rope. I probably only needed 10 foot but got 50 instead because, well, I just didn't know. So I have plenty of rope left over and could probably make 5 more hammocks. So, in all, that really is a great deal! I get home and can not wait to try out this hammock. I mean can it really hold an adult? A twin sheet? Well, I knotted the ends as he described and pulled extra hard just to make sure they were tight. Then I doubled the rope and then tied it under the knot with a "lark's head knot". I then just put the two ends in the chain and did a double knot (I was just testing it out. I actually have two welded rings I'm going to use to attach to the S hooks). And, being a chicken, asked Baby Girl to get in it first. She fit fine and nothing fell, so I took the plunge and got in. I was in HEAVEN! You can pull the sides up around you so you are in a cocoon. When Bear got home, I asked him to try it and it even held him. So it's quite a success. So I now have perfect seating for my corner. I can lay and watch the birds eat from the feeder and be in bliss!

My area w/ Baby Girl enjoying the hammock

Baby Girl enjoying the hammock in my area.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as my outdoor seating goes. I also wanted an outdoor futon. Well, if I couldn't afford a hammock, I sure as shit couldn't afford a futon much less and outdoor one. So once again, Google was my friend.

I already had an old bed frame up in the attic. I got it down and was elated to find it was a twin (well it actually goes up to a queen but I was needing a twin). I found online how to make a simple futon mattress . It's more like a Japanese futon mattress. It doesn't have the back and I was okay with that. I was putting it up against the wall so I was envisioning it more like a daybed any way. The directions said to get a zipper mattress cover and just stuff it with other mattress covers. Being on a budget, I couldn't see spending $60 or more on mattress covers to stuff in the zipper cover. So I went to Target and purchased a zipper vinyl cover so it's water proof. Then I did get one mattress cover and I bought the cheapest foam topper they had. In all I spent around $30 on those items. I had an old queen size quilt (again, just hanging out in the attic). So I sandwiched the foam in the quilt. Then put the mattress cover over that so it would hold it together and put that in the zipper cover. I needed a cover because let's face it a white vinyl mattress would get dirty and hot outside. So I went to Joanne's to see what they had. Luckily for me, my Joanne's store is moving to a better location down the street so they are liquidating the store. I got almost 7 yards of outdoor material for $30.00! I saved over $130 on the material alone! True there were only 3 selections, but I like what I got.

Now, I am no seamstress.at.all. I laid the material over the cover and cut it out. I know, not a professional way to do it, but hey! it worked. I get out my cheap sewing machine. This is when I really kick myself for not keeping my mom's top of the line sewing machine, but I really didn't think I'd need a sewing machine. Regardless, I get mine and get it all set up. I had to actually Google how to use it. Yes, that just shows you how infrequent and long it's been since I used it last. I was actually surprised I knew where it was. No kidding. Well, Baby Girl had to help me feed it and it did it's job 3/4 of the way. The last side, about  2/3 done the sewing machine would just not work. It kept jamming, so I had to do the rest by hand. But I got it done! I then put the mattress I made in the cover (kind of like a pillow case) and viola! I have my outdoor futon bed! I bought two big red outdoor pillows from Wally world ($15 bucks a piece) to use as the back. Bear and I went to Home Depot and got them to cut a piece of plywood to fit the bed to use as the base.  I love it! I spent most of my day on it today! So in all I spent around $75...not too shabby.

My outdoor futon

 I also made a fire pot. Bear saw one at Lowes and really liked it. But again, too pricey. I went to Wally World and got a ceramic glazed (inside and out) planter for $12. I also got like a grill basket (it's thin and made out of aluminum. It's to hold the gel fuel canister. It can take the heat) for $4 for a pack of 3.  I went to the dollar store and got a bag of pebbles and a couple of paper clip holders. I needed something round to set the mesh grill on so the fuel canister would be even with the opening. They worked out perfectly. I stacked the paper clip holders on top of each other. Cut the grill with scissors and put it on top of the paper clip holder. I then put the canister on top of the grill and lastly, I added the rock around the canister. It's so pretty and works like a charm. I was pretty hesitant on using the fuel gel because I read it's like napalm if you get it on you. But I have a box of baking soda nearby and a snuffer to put the flame out so I feel more at ease when using it.

My fire pot. When you're sitting down, you can't see the canister.

I have other items I'm working on...tiki torches made out of wine bottles and a chandelier. I'll post about those later. I'm sure there's an end to this Spring Fever, but not any time soon. I hope. :)