Refurbishing the Yellow Brick Road

Sugarwings got her love of all things Oz from her mom and Nanny.  I've always been a fan myself and have done my share of encouraging her interests.  When she was little, we'd go to this sidewalk at a nearby shopping center to do some skipping and pretending.

She enjoyed that so much, that I painted our flower bed's stepping stones yellow so she would have a trail here to play on.

And over the years, she has spent a lot of time along this short path.

Dewdrop loves dressing up as Dorothy too.  (her mother sent this to me from her new home, looks like she is pretty happy and having a wonderful time there!)

Seasons of harsh weather has taken its toll on the pathway, our yellow bricks faded out and returned to the blah red bricks they started out as. I'd used latex house paint on them before, I think. Or was it craft paint? It has been awhile. I doubt if there are many paints that would hold up to Kansas weather, especially on bricks.  

Sugarwings and I decided to give them a make over. This might not last much longer than the other paint did, but redoing is fun, so we won't mind freshening it up again if needed.  This time, we worked in tandem, I sprayed them yellow ahead of time, then used a gold glitter spray over that after it dried.  Sugarwings got the bottles of glitter ready to sprinkle over that as it was still wet.

We tried different shades of sparkle, but I really didn't care for the red or green as much, so we layered over it.

Sugarwings also helped out by running in to get her ruby slippers to try out the path, and by arranging our Toto yard art nearby.

Although, we have our own, live yard art Toto/Twinkle that worked just fine.

Sugarwings thinks we should add a scarecrow. Maybe.  What we really need is some blooming plants. Spring is here, but not in this little corner of the yard yet, it's still pretty dull, even with the bright yellow paint. 

But not in her mind.  She sees the whole land of Oz ahead of her. 

Comments

[Jeannie McGehee]

This is so cool...The scarecrow would be awesome and then a big Tin Man made out of some tin cans from vegetable cans or something bigger! I love Sugarwings imagination and your creative mind.. all of it is just wonderful!

[cheryl]

Before I transformed my entire backyard with a pirate theme... I had a whimsical garden for my grand kids too. I would "plant" artificial flowers in amongst the greenery and it just really made things pop. I bought flowers at yard sales, thrift stores and the dollar store too. You should think about giving it a try too. I think you'd love it... instant gratification and if you need to, you could gather them at the end of the season and tuck them away until the following spring *wink*
big hugs,
Cheryl

[Karla Nathan]

Cheryl your pirate yard is such fun! I do use dollar store bunches of flowers out in the woods along the trail, it makes nice color for the kids.