10 Mistakes to Avoid with Raised Garden Beds

image: eartheasy

There are many people today that are creating their own gardens at home whether in their backyards, front yards, or even a small space inside their home.  There are also co-op gardens available for those that may not have space to grow their own produce on their property.

If you are someone who may be considering starting your own raised bed garden, here are several mistakes to avoid.

Make a Raised Garden Bed

On today's post, I will share our latest project, a "Raised
Garden Bed".  I will keep the post short and sweet.
There are several ways to construct a raised
garden bed, and it all depends on your budget, the size that you
want and the wood you will use.
Our garden bed is 18 inches in height, that gives me enough room to
plant vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and onions. It is 3 x 6
feet. In order to get an idea for the type of garden bed that you
want to build, I will provide this link here.
There, you will see several varieties; you may choose which one to make.

We planted some seeds this summer in biodegradable egg cartons,
so when they sprout, we may plant them in our vegetable garden.
You may view that in my Instagram account.




We added chicken wire to the bottom as well as this dark weed
liner to prevent weeds from growing & critters from digging
from underneath the bed.


My husband measured the width & length on the ground
in order to remove the grass to prepare the ground for the raised bed.

We added the soil and mixed it with organic compost. 

After the soil was mixed into the garden bed, we added the plants.

I hope that this inspires you today to create your own garden bed.

Thank you for stopping by.

A Week in Pinning

Happy Weekend everyone!  Today I will be sharing my pins for the week.

These are just a few among the many I pinned.  I was inspired by Autumn!
Hope they inspire you for Fall decorating later in the month.

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Happy Pinning!

Christmas Home 2014

Welcome to my Christmas Home tour.  As you view the images you will notice that I
have kept it pretty simple around here.

It has been dark and gloomy around these parts and it'll be that way until Christmas, so I was
not able to capture as much as I would have liked to share with you, but at least I was able
to get these photos.

I have been baking lots of cookies this year to share with friends & family, so when
you walk in our home, the fragrance of fresh baked chocolate chips cookies is what you are
met with.  Upon entering the home you will also encounter our Advent Wreath on our dining
table.  As you look into the living room, the first thing you will notice is the Christmas tree.

I used what I had on hand for the tree decorations and my previous handmade ornaments.  

Below is this year's Jesse Tree.  I found some cool Jesse tree ornaments online, so I didn't
have to make my own as I did last year.  My son loves these.


I used my pom pom garland from last year, but I added more pom poms and made the
cord thicker to decorate the mantel.  I love it!  The stockings are also handmade and you can find the
tutorial here.  For more tutorials on items featured here, visit the Project Gallery.

Thank you for joining me on this tiny tour of my Christmas home.  I leave you with Warm Wishes this Holiday Season!

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The Nester

Create an Outdoor Space

Create your own outdoor space with what you already have at home!  Do you have extra wood or a pallet lying around?  Perhaps you have an old table you want to paint over?  Do you have extra fabric or paint in your closet?

It doesn't take much to make an outdoor space inviting.  You know what the Nester says, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.  At the inspiration house, we like to keep things simple. This handmade patio was created with extra items that was sitting around collecting dust in our garage and closet.

With our finds, we handmade and revamped what we had on hand.  The pallet chairs were a gift from a friend which we painted white and our table was made by using a pallet, you can view the post here. Please excuse the table's crooked legs, that's my fault for dragging the table against the floor, but it will get fixed soon. The toss pillows were handmade and hand painted, you may view the tutorial on this post and the flower pot is a makeover that I did several months ago.

The most difficult task was creating this patio area by installing the pavers.  That took a lot of work and elbow grease, those pavers are heavy, but the patio is coming along slowly.  The grass is finally growing on one side of the pavers, we will also place some plants around to add texture and color.

Making something cool out of scraps is awesome and hope that you were inspired to take anything you have and turn it to something useful even an unused space.  How will you create your outdoor space?



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The Bewitchin Kitchen

How We Created a Butterfly Garden

There may not be a creature on earth that is more admired by children and perhaps adults, than the butterfly. Why not put out a welcome mat for these amazing creatures? One of the most wonderful features that butterflies have is that they are easy to attract into your own back yard. Our backyard oasis was designed to attract butterflies by providing them with only four things; 1) Plants that the baby caterpillars can feed on 2) Host plants that serve for laying eggs, 3) Flowers that provide nectar and 4) shelter from wind and predators.

Plants that provide Nectar

Your own observations will tell you what kind of flowers will attract butterflies where you live. Start by setting aside a sunny part of your garden to grow wildflowers.  Among the wildflowers try planting a Butterfly Bush (buddleia).  It's fragrant flowers spikes bloom from July until the first frost--and most butterflies can't resist them.

In planting perennials, consider Phlox, Yarrow, Black Eyed Susans, Coreopsis, and Shasta daisies. We have had great success in attracting the Tiger swallowtails and Monarchs.

I had to snap several photos in order to finally capture the beautiful wings of this lovely Eastern Tiger Swallow Tail Butterfly.  

Plants that caterpillars can feed from

One good way to ensure a continuing supply of butterflies is to put in plants that will feed caterpillars and their larvae.  Consider Bermuda grass, clover, dock, hollyhock, lupine, nettle, St. Augustine grass, and turtle head for this purpose.

Shelter for Butterflies

Butterfly houses, similar to bird houses, provide shelter to the fragile creatures during storms as well as food.  They may be brightly painted, just as their inhabitants are.  

Planting a butterfly garden will not only attract these beautiful insects to your yard, but it will also preserve them.  Many species of butterfly are endangered and creating a habitat where they can thrive will help them to survive.

Because many butterfly species are threatened, please don't try to "preserve" their beauty by killing them & mounting them in boxes.  Admire them in their natural habitat.

I must admit, these are beautiful, and they are so large in size.  This is the Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, isn't he a beauty?

What attracts these amazing creatures here in our garden the most are the wildflowers like the buddleia, also known as the butterfly bush.  We have plenty of those around the property and they attract the hummingbirds too. Many zinnias planted in a garden along with purple cone flowers are appreciated by all these amazing creatures and the flowers bring in beautiful colors into your garden.

To find out what plants attract butterflies in your area, visit your local gardening store.

I hope that you have enjoyed our little butterfly adventure, these are only a few of the many photos taken in our butterfly garden and I hope that you enjoy.

Note: No butterflies were harmed.

Outdoor Pallet Table

Pallets are very popular right now for creating practically anything you like, from wall covers, furniture and accessories. They work well for a rustic look in furniture or incorporated in a particular design. Pallets may be purchased or if you are as lucky as we were, you may even get them free.  We have had this pallet forever and it has seen it's fair share of paint drips, crayon scribble, dirt and everything else.  It started as a back drop for some of my blog photos, but over time, it just got plain ugly because of lack of care. We have used pallets in the past; when we created our mudroom space, we used half of a pallet to give our seat height by placing under the bench and we also made pallet night stands on here.

I decided it was time to fix our pallet and create something useful with it.  I asked Mr. M to give me the sander and instead he sanded the pallet completely.  It was super smooth and all the marks were pretty much gone. He added legs to it with some extra wood that was in the garage.

The legs are of a different kind of wood, so it was not going to stain the same, that's when I decided to paint it white and to stain the top.

After the paint and stain, I waxed it to give it a nice polish. 

For this project we used:

1 pallet
4 x 4 for legs (left over in garage
electric sander
white paint
wood stain
paint brush
sponge
nails or screws
drill or hammer
wood furniture wax

Got to love free things right?!  For more ideas on using pallets visit my pallet furniture board on Pinterest and follow to get the latest ideas.

We love our table and are enjoying it. View more photos of this table on this link.  Thank you for stopping by and checking out our pallet table.  If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

DIY: Hand Painted Pillows

Summer is here and today I want to show you what I made this past week for my pallet chairs, while cooling off inside to beat the heat; we created hand painted pillows.  I wanted to change out the old pillows for new ones, and you know me, "save money". So, I made my own.  I'm not an expert nor a craft guru. It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.

Items needed to make these pillows are:

• Craft paint
• Fabric Medium
• Paint brush
• Frog tape
• Scissors
• Small bowl
• Fabric (4) 20 x 20 squares
• Sewing machine or hand sew
• Thread/ needle for hand sewing if no machine is available
• or use fabric glue--heat bond for no sew project
• Card board about 18 x 18 to fit in the pillow case
• Pillow stuffing

I had ivory fabric stored in my craft closet, but you can use any fabric that you like.  I cut four squares 20 x 20 inches each.

Take two squares and sew three sides closed leaving one side open.  Do the same for the other two squares.

Turn pillow case inside out so that the seam in on the inside.

Place a cardboard 18 x 18 inside the opening, this will help prevent paint from seeping through the fabric.


You may tape down your pillow case to hold it firmly in place with painter's tape while you paint. (optional)  I did not have painter's tape so I used packing tape-- (painters' tape is better).

Use the painter's tape to form your design.  I made a chevron design.

Take your favorite color of craft paint and one bottle of fabric medium which is available in craft stores or online and mix according to the direction on the fabric medium bottle.

Mix the paint in the small bowl and begin to paint your design on the pillow case. You can even have your little one's help.


Once it is all painted, let it dry.  After it is dry, remove the tape and stuff your pillows, then sew them closed or heat glue them closed.

You should then have your decorative pillow(s) to enjoy!  I love how ours turned out and I'm happy with the results.  Now I'm thinking about making more for our sofa.

Note: You may want to protect your fabric from moisture, spills and other things, if they are for outdoor use. There are products available for sealing your outdoor fabrics, which you may find in your local hardware stores, these are basically called fabric sealers. ( I do not vouch for this particular product, since I have not used it before, but I will give it a try.)

Give your outdoor furniture a new look with this little project. I had a great time making these and my son loves the painting process. Your kids will enjoy it too this summer. Happy Crafting!