Five on Friday ... Thrift Finds & Gardening Finds

I'm joining Amy of Love Made My Home today with "Five on Friday". Thanks for hosting Amy! Be sure to pop by Amy's and see what others have posted for today's Five.

1. Last weekend with all the rain we had (and no gardening possible), I thought I'd swing by the local thrift store and see what they had on their shelves. I had been looking through Pinterest for creative gardening ideas, and in particular have been admiring large galvanized steel pots and also the rain chains meant to hang off your roof gutters and direct the rain to a garden or rain barrel. There are some fun ideas that I had in my mind and thought I'd see if I could find anything at the thrift store that would be useful. I had a handful of possible tin things for either garden pots or rain chains, but when I saw this chair, I put it all back and got the chair instead.

I really nice, solid, non-wobbly folding deck chair! It's made from some sort of heavy wood and is in great shape except for a little water damage on the bottom of the legs, but nothing serious. At only $12 I thought it was a great deal. I've admired these deck chairs forever, and even though it's just one chair, it's great for a quick extra seat on the patio. I think I might make a simple cushion for the seat with ties ... hard wood can be a bit uncomfortable on the bum after a while ;)

2. I've been planning a bit of garden on the outside of my gate to the backyard. It's not a very welcoming entrance, so I've dug a tiny garden there now and popped in a nice fern. The garden here still needs a bit of defining as you can see. My neighbour always cuts this very narrow strip of grass (since his lawn adjoins it), which I guess I should be thankful for. I just don't want to put anything here that he will "accidentally" chop off with either the lawn mower or whipper snipper. 

It only gets afternoon sun, but I think the fern will survive that blast of heat for only a short period if I keep it well watered ... we'll see. I've been thinking of changing things here by painting the gate (a real colour, rather than brown like the fence), and hanging a small wicker basket or something either on the gate of the fence beside it. It's only a small area, so not a lot I can do there. Anyway, while at the thrift store I found a decent sized "Welcome" sign in poly resin. When I washed it off, a bit of the grey colouring came off, so I might just paint it again ... maybe in a bit darker shade of grey. I might paint the letters a different colour, but not sure yet. I think it will look nice above the ferns. 

3. I also found a set of four bamboo placemats for the patio table. Not something I was actually looking for, but they were brand new and still in the plastic wrapper, so I knew they would be in good condition. 

They look nice with the pale beige of my patio chair cushions.

4. My husband and I went up to a gardening centre in the rain too. It was freezing!! We were two of maybe five people at the store, but we do like to browse around. The centre actually had the overhead heaters on it was that cold! I came home with a cute little cactus for my kitchen table. It came with no name tag or instructions, so we'll see what happens. I already had this nice flat dish full of rocks (what else?!), and the cactus looked rather cute tucked into the corner of it. The whole thing looks nice set beside my Christmas cactus, which has been happily blooming since Easter!

5. My husband loves dahlias. He came home with this pretty white dahlia to go with a pink one he bought a couple of weeks ago. I know you can pay a pretty penny for some exotic dahlias, but these flowers are rather simple and not terribly large. 

Once they get established, they'll look nice against the garden shed. We've never saved the flowers through the winter, but I think I might try that this winter.

And that's my Five! 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Wendy