Have a Coke, & Some Petunias, & a Smile!

Gardening season is upon us, and we’ve been doing a few creative home-front (literally, in front of our home) projects I am excited to share with you, one after the other, here on the blog Our garden beds are all ready for planting next weekend as well, with the soil all screened and fertilized.  (So exciting!) Aside from that, I’ve been getting creative & efficient around the garden beds, and this post is one of the little cute projects I’ve been wanting to share.

The week prior to Mother’s day, {A} and I found ourselves scouting a few antique stores, and I spotted this Coke crate among the goods, in the items on the sidewalk outside of the door of one of the stores.

I was so drawn to it, and I had an immediate re-purposing vision for it, too.  As I walked around the store, I got to ‘thinking too much’.  As cheap as I am sure it was, there was a reason I didn’t want to get it, too.  As I hemmed & hawed about whether to get it or not, {A} wanted to know what was holding me back.  When I told her, she thought it was a ridiculous reason. But you know…I think differently than a lot of people, I think. Everything seems to have some psychological puzzle to it, to complicate things for me. It keeps my brain busy, I guess.  But the bottom line is, ultimately, we got in the car and drove home.  Yes, leaving the awesome, vintage, well-worn, old & rustic, Coke bottle crate behind.

It soooo bugged me all week.  I had wished I got it, and I said so out loud a 1/2 dozen times.  Michael asked me why I didn’t get it then, if I wanted it so bad, and {A} was happy to fill him in, with an amused chuckle at the end. (Imagine my appreciation of that. <eye roll>,)

I might tell you at some point in this post, my reasoning for not getting the crate in the first place.  If I am feeling up to being laughed at some more.  But for now, I’ll tell you now that on Mother’s Day, we went back and got that crate!  I was prayin’ it would still be there, and thankfully, it was.  $10.   That’s the price the guy gave me, and it was the most I was willing to pay.

I loved it more than I even remembered.  It had a little stink to it, and some cobwebs, that I wasn’t aware of before, because I hadn’t handled it or got that close.  But still…..it was sweet.  I especially love the printing on the wood on the inside-back.  I don’t know why. I just think the whole dang thing is cool, and I was wicked excited about my plans for it.

1970.  Get-Out!

O.K….it’s not really that old. ; )  But it’s still cool, and it’s got a really old feel.

So I gathered the other things I needed for my project, and put my little vision together…..

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….And it looked even better in real life!

Initially, I was just planning on using a mix of white & red Petunias.  But my little girl really loved these candy cane striped ones, and I love to make my kiddos happy. I threw in a few Snap Dragons for good measure.

I just love how it looks, sitting on the edge of any of the garden beds.  Or anywhere we put it out there.   And my hesitancy for getting it, has bothered me less and less, now that it makes me so happy, every time I catch sight of it.   So I guess I’ll tell you what my issue was.

See, the thing is, I just don’t condone drinking soda. (I’ll give you a moment, to say….”Oh brother!”, too.)

I mean….I am not wicked ANTI-soda, but my kids don’t drink it, and I never have it in the house.  They have all tried it, and hate it.  They don’t like the carbonation.  Which is great, because I wouldn’t let the little ones have it on any regular basis, anyway. My husband used to drink it sometimes, but I think he has come around to my way of thinking about it.  It’s just so BAD for you.  Your body, your teeth, yourSELF.

Ok, maybe I am wicked anti-soda.

Listen, I know you must think it’s ridiculous, too. But like lots of things one has strong feelings about, this goes back to my childhood.  Without naming names, when I was a kid, I knew some other kids who were having some serious stomach problems.  As it turns out, all of the soda they drank was eating their stomach. (And their teeth too, as far as I could see.)  So you see….that really disturbed me as a little kid.  I know. You need to drink a lot of it, and regularly, to have such issues.  But the point is……I’d rather encourage drinking lots of water.  And milk for the kids. And green tea, I heard, has all kinds of benefits. Liquids that are good for you! And I really did not want to send the false message to the world, in my own front yard, that I condone Coke-drinking as a life-style.  Because clearly, I do not.

But, you know….now that I see how cute my soda bottles crate is, with that really great Coke logo…..(I have to admit, and so do you, that it’s a great logo!)…..I am letting the possibility of this misconception, go.

I’m almost over it, already.

No really!

There’s a little story behind the bottles that ended up in this cute-gardening-repurposing-project, too.   While out at other antique stores on Mother’s Day, I found the perfect Coke bottles, to use for this. They were old and circa-I-forget.  But suffice it to say, they were original Coke bottles, with the embossed Coke logo in the glass.  All transparent, greenish glass.  Original Coke bottles, like I said.  $5 each, and I only wanted 3.  But Michael convinced me that he could get the exact same thing at Stop & Shop.  “Really Michael?” I asked. “Are you sure they are exactly like this.”.  “Yes”, he said. “I can’t see buying antique ones just to sit in our front yard, at $5 each, when I can get them for a buck-something.  Who is going to know the difference?”  “ME!” I said.  “I don’t do any of these things for anyone else!  I do them because they make ME happy. It’s part of the way I make my home for my family!”

(Men so don’t get these things.  Right?  Is it just my man?)

So I left those antique Coke bottles there in the store, over my husband’s antics about it. Because he was going to get me some just like them.  And only I would know, they were not really antiques.  Uh-huh.

(Now I had 2 things I would have to keep pushing out of my mind. Right?  That’s what I was thinking.)

These bottles you see in the photos, are what he brought home to me, from Stop & Shop.  I was like, “Michael!  These are not the same!!”  “Sure they are, why not?” he asked.  “BeCAUSE….”, I had to explain, “These have this red & white screen printed logo thing on them.  The others did not have that! The logo was embossed on the glass. These aren’t the same.  It’s not the real thing, Michael!!“

And then I busted out laughing hysterically, realizing the pun I just made by accident.  Which of course, lightened my heart, and I forgave him.

But I’m back to mad again, I think. I mean, I kind of would have liked the real vintage Coke bottles.  You know? On the other hand, the red & white logos do look nice among the flowers, with the red & white crate and all.

So that’s my great long story, of this little garden project.  I hope you love it, and it inspires you to get creative with your own flowers and plantings in your garden areas.  But please do not let it encourage you to drink Coke! Just pour out the contents down the drain, like I did.  Promise?  Soda in general, is just not good for you.  It’s high in sugar. It’s bad for your teeth.  I heard it eats stomachs! So disturbing.

This has been a public service announcement, and a creative gardening inspiration project, all in one!  What a bargain, huh?  Aren’t you glad you stopped by?

Here, have a water, and a smile.

: )

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