Life at a "Swell's" pace

My take on a homemade lantern post.

Total cost: $35

I've had this lantern for quite awhile and it's been shoved from room to room inside my house, but I always felt like I wasn't giving it the praise it deserved. I picked it up at the local grocery store for $35 when they were closing out the last of their summer inventory around the floral department.

I had an old table post from the restaurant Jeff used to work at when we lived in Arkansas, and it too needed a bit of TLC. This poor table post has been used from everything from a planter, the middle section to a water fountain (I so wish I had a photo of it), and even a make-shift pole for small table during a party awhile back.

This post needed a good makeover, so I started thinking about what I could possibly do to give it a new life.

I started with a thought of spray painting it and seeing where things took off from there.

A bit of silver paint and boom, the post was a completely different thing to look at.

I loved how it turned out and the marks on the post made it look even better once the spray paint dried.

I paired the lantern on top of the post and secured it with small screws and viola, it was a whole new item that I can't seem to stop admiring.

The whole project cost less than $40!

I think it looks wonderful on my front stoop and while I was admiring my new creation, I got photo-bombed by the Mr.

Such a fun and great project! And the best part, during my Brit Kit Co-Op Party I had party-goers admiring it.

This past weekend we took advantage of the sunshine that came out for a few minutes from time to time throughout the three days we had off. During that time we finally got to try out the sidewalk tattoos my mom has sent Skylar for Easter.

The last two weekends we have enjoyed the thrill of hopscotch and Skylar is actually getting pretty good at it. It's such an oldie, but a goodie when it comes to kid's games.

The sidewalk tattoos that we used were ones from a company called WeVeel.

We wet the back of the tattoo completely and followed the instructions on the box.

And ended up with one out of the eight work on the sidewalk completely. It was a bit of a let down.

So instead of the sidewalk,

They worked out pretty well on the skin.

We had a fun day coloring the sidewalk though.

We played hopscotch till it started sprinkling on us once again. Bummer. :-(

It was a pretty fun three-day-weekend for us.

We also reflected on Monday about what the day is truly about and what we are thankful for everyday.

Eco-Tip: Remember to get those magazines into the recycling along with everything else. Better yet, recycling them in ways that others can utilize them too, like the library, hospitals, and/or Goodwill. For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me Go Green.