As mentioned in a previous post I was inspired to take a class in felting from alpaca fleece. There were a number of projects to choose from but I opted for the thing I thought I’d use most… a wine cooler.

After several hours of a process that is not particularly complex but does take time and attention I was able to produce a gorgeous wine cooler that is woven in colors of black, gray, and white. The best part is the fleece came from the alpaca right there on the farm so I got to meet the beautiful creatures too. I have to say their eyes are breathtaking and they are very quiet and gentle.

These aren’t the alpacas I met but they are just as sweet…

The process of felting starts with the alpaca fleece in this form.

Then over the course of several hours and through many steps of layering, water, rubbing, pressing, etc. around a form I created this:

Love it! I brought it home and embellished it with a few extra details including a suede string with silver beads (they have little leaves on them) and pewter buttons.

It now sits proudly on the bar in the family room waiting to chill the next bottle of wine.

 Who doesn’t love to drink wine in style? 

This past fall on an excursion to Rocky Mountain National Park to photograph the elk we wandered through a number of shops in nearby Estes Park. My husband saw a rack of coat hooks made of old railroad nails for a low-low price of $85. Are you kidding me? Well that sparked an idea that we thought we could do for less. We needed a place for blankets in the family room and what better way than to hang them on cool rustic hooks within reach of the sofa? … Yes, this was my husband’s idea and I just executed it. 

Materials used:

• Scrap rough-sawn pine from the location where our log cabin is in the process of being built (more posts on that in the future)
• Iron coat hooks acquired for half-price from a local craft store
• A few screws
• Total cost… about $12 (not including the blankets)

Once in place we hung the blankets and I added my cowboy hat for a little something extra.

On a recent excursion to an antique mall I picked up a cowboy bench. It’s a funny little piece that was an impulse buy for $20. When I brought it home I wasn’t sure what on earth I was going to do with it. Now it has a perfect home… a “not-so-vintage” 1970s inexpensive piece that looks just right next to the blanket rack.

I have to say I am happy with the New Year’s Eve project. So simple yet so satisfying… and just the touch of coziness our family room needed. 

Completed since I last posted:

• Plantings are in and the mulch is down
• Trees are planted and a few are staked in order to make them grow in the direction we want them to
• Landscape lighting is in on the tree berm and around the patio
• Fire pit is built and in working order
• Drip system is complete and each plant gets their own drip emitter so no special watering efforts are needed on our part

A few pics to bring you up to speed on the patio area:

The rest of the yard is coming along as well. Perhaps the space that needs the most work is the dry riverbed, pond, and waterfall area but hopefully with a couple of these pictures you can get the idea so far.

The tree berm is essentially where we want it for now. When we move rocks around (again) for the waterfall area we’ll spruce it up with some decorative rocks. For now it’s good to go!

Our favorite spot is by the fire pit and especially at night. We brought our adirondack chairs from the front porch to the back yard so we can sit comfortably by the fire. We searched high and low for the perfect rocks to build the surround. After not much luck we happened to stop by the house of a friend of mine and jokingly made the comment that she had the perfect rocks in her front yard. She graciously offered them to us for free because she was having her pond taken down and filled in. Yey! They work great and better yet they were free!

We are still waiting for the ceramic logs to get here. They will add some realistic touches and will help to emit heat. Once we have them we will most likely take this fire pit down and expand it by just a few inches in diameter. Right now the fire ring is pretty close to the edges so we want to add just a little extra space for the flames to rise without touching the rocks.

Things still left on the to-do list:

• Spruce up the fire pit once the logs are in and then glue the stones in place for safety
• Rebuild the pond area a little bit when we put in the waterfall
• Move some rocks around for a more decorative feel and to build out the rock retaining wall at the back of the patio area
• Build a table for outdoor dining. We bought the one in the pictures on clearance and after a week of use decided we don’t really like it and it doesn’t fit with what we had in mind for the space. Of course we fell in love with a teak set that is way out of our price range so we’ve come up with a creative option… more to come on that project soon.
• Ongoing… over the course of time we will add plantings as needed. Our goal is for a grown in wildflower like garden area. Our inspiration came from things we have seen in High Country Gardens. This will take time but that is the fun of it right?

So there you have it. We are finally finally to the time in the project where we can just leave it be and go have some fun. That said I’m off to pack the backpacks so we can enjoy some camping in the high country over the holiday weekend. Happy 4th of July!

• French drains installed
• Sprinkler system re-routed
• Gas line trench dug and gas line installed (for the fire pit and the grill)
• More dirt removed to create the proper grade for the paver patio
• Paver patio installed
• Tree berm created
• Trees planted (Blue Hoop’s Spruce, more Aspens, and a Honey Locust)

A few “in progress” pictures from the above list…

Pika says, “When on earth is this going to be over?”

A lot of back breaking work but needless to say we are getting whipped into physical shape. Not only have we lost a few tons of dirt from the backyard but we have also lost a few pounds. Ha!

With the help of our friends… much appreciated help… we installed the paver patio last weekend. It is about 420 square feet. In order to accomplish this over 11 tons of road base and over two tons of sand were moved by wheel barrel and shovel. I don’t have any idea how much the pavers weighed but I assure you that each one was heavy and there were over 250 of them.

Then like the crazy people we are we brought in two tons of new dirt. This time it is a planters mix for the top soil so that we have healthier gardens. After some shaping and compacting and getting the right grade around the patio the ground cloth has gone down and the few plants we have thus far have gone in. Due to the crazy winds we get in this area at certain times of the year we opted for guerilla mulch which is in the process of being placed around the patio area.

This is where we are today with our LARGE landscaping project…

Items still on the “to-do” list:

• Compacting of dirt and placing of weed barrier on the tree berm
• Plantings to go in on the tree berm
• Fire pit to be built
• Waterfall to be built
• Random decorative boulders to be placed throughout the plantings

And then…. we can enjoy the summer evenings outside in our beautiful back yard. Off I go to plant some pretty flowers! Now only if we had a few shrubs too. It never ends…