Concrete Thinking......

When we bought this house, there were two huge (blank and empty) concrete squares that sat on each side of the front sidewalk. Clearly, it was meant for big urns (well...clearly in my eyes anyway! pumpkins in the fall....a small evergreen at Christmas...etc.....)

I found the exact urns I wanted.

They were big enough to make a statement

and simple enough to please my taste.

They were at Lowe's...

and they were $70 (and some change)

a piece.

Well, when you move there are lots of expenses.

And two concrete (beautiful) urns

for $140 (and some change)...

was just not in my budget.

 Enter K-Mart. Yep, you read it right. K to the Mart. They had the exact same urns I coveted at Lowe's...only their urns were ...................plastic. So, what is a girl to do?
Whine about it....or take action? 

 You already know the answer! I took action!!!  I bought two of the big size...for $10 a piece. For real. I bought three of the smaller size for (get this...) $6 a piece. So, I invested $38 in urns (plastic!!!)...and had five of them. I put two of the small ones flanking the front door, and put a small one by the back door. Then I took the big ones and put them where they were supposed to be! Right in the middle of the large concrete squares!!

 BUT...and you know there is always a but!!  I had to buy the natural color (plastic) urns at K-Mart, as they were out of the black ones I wanted. (The urns come in two pieces, by the way, the top part and the base disconnect.)(P.S. That is Abe trying to get in the picture. He is my helper (!!!) each day.)

 So, to solve the problem, I simply bought some black spray paint that is specially formulated for plastic. And I sprayed the urns. Took all of about 10 minutes. Maybe. I might have spent one or two of those minutes petting Abe. I bought the spray paint at Wal-Mart (not to get your Mart's confused). But K-Mart probably had the paint too.

 Here are the urns side-by-side so you can see the size difference. Sweet.

And then to make the deal even sweeter, I knew I wanted ferns in my urns (say that three times).

I just did.

So, I went to Lowe's (the place of the expensive concrete urns)...

and

they had their ferns

on sale.

The two huge ferns that

are stand-up-straight-ferns

in the front big pots...

They were $6 a piece.

The three smaller ferns that are

by the front and back doors...

they were $1.98 a piece.

They were the hanging fern type, but I just

cut off

the hanging stuff and sat them in

my

fake-concrete urns.

Even though I am an English teacher .....(the dots are my tribute to Emily Dickinson)

I'll do the math for you...

5 urns = $38.00

5 ferns = $18.00 (I rounded those small ones up!)

"Hello, Welcome to my new house.....= priceless!"

Oh yea, I already had the flags!

One more little tidbit that has very little to do with my urns...

My great-aunt Gertrude was heavily "courted" by Mr. Kress.

That would be Mr. K-r-e-s-s of the "K" in K to the Mart.

My mother said that she and her cousins would spend good parts of the summer

at my Aunt Gertie's in Cherokee, N.C.

Mr. Kress would send out boxes of toys and other goodies for the cousins.

Great way to win over a woman's heart....make her nieces and nephews happy!!

I guess this went on for several years. Sadly tho (in my eyes) my Aunt Gertie

never married ...to Mr. Kress or anyone.

Dangit, Aunt Gertie!!

I'm linking this to Metamorphosis Monday with Susan and

Thrifty Treasure with Rhoda! as well as The Lettered Cottage How-To's