afternoon project

I was a little discouraged.

I really love to spend time out on my patio in nice weather, journaling and reflecting, doing Bible study, etc. I like to water green growing things. I like to feel the breeze blowing around me. Until a few hours ago my patio basically looked like the above.

The lovely herb garden my sister-in-law gave us for Christmas died a mysterious death after coming along nicely for weeks and weeks.

I could go right out to a nursery or Wal-mart and buy a supply of plants but for various reasons, this summer isn't lining up to be a good summer for us to try to grow things. Green, living sorts of things. And keep them alive. So, what's a girl to do?

Step one: gather up some "stuff"

can of old hardware bought at an estate sale a few weekends ago for 50 cents I think,

a trowel, a rock my brother brought back to me from the top of a

Colorado mountain many years ago and some colorful pots

and some sheet moss bought at Joann's

search the house for some cute "little" things

pluck them out of their present places and stick them in a moss covered pot!

Very pretty!

But then the wind starts picking up and something rolls over the edge of the balcony

and breaks and you decide to take that pink glass eiffel tower

right back inside before it too becomes a casualty

and you look for some more stuff

like this adorable little red phone booth that has lived on my fridge for

as long as I can remember and reminded me my mama was only a phone call away.

It used to make a phone ringing sound when you pressed the button but now it doesn't

and the door is now held on my gloppy glue gun glue and it had found it's way

to the seldom seen side of the fridge so . . . out it goes to a new home!

And even though it's plastic, you still prefer that it and your sheet moss don't blow away at the slightest provocation, so you do what any "gardener" would do and you break out your . . .

GLUE GUN!

And your husband wakes up from his nap and comments "I've never seen anyone glueing anything to dirt before. Awesome!"

And you add these fun garden clippers for weight that you also got at the same estate sale as the hardware, again for 50 cents or a quarter because you liked the way they look

And after various tweaking and arranging and gathering and tying and glueing,

you end up with this:

chair bought at a garage sale a couple weeks ago for $3.50!!

Re-painted white and number added inspired by Wendy

but that's only one comfy chair to sit in and there are two of us now and this weekend I found this!!!!

I was sooo excited to spy it at a garage sale that I stopped at on the way home from mailing the baby gift. It was marked $15 and I got it for $8!!! Yippee! Yippee!

and it will go up here alongside the number 3 chair

(hee hee, I noticed you can see the rust on the bottom in this photo! oh well)

So here's my question for you. I want to paint the wicker chair. I think I want to paint it black.

But the number chair is white. Or I could paint it a color. What do you think and why?

I'd love to know!

Oh and I want to credit seesawfaith and kelli whose little container gardens with miniatures I saw a few weeks ago that were percolating in the back of my mind and inspired my afternoon project! Hope everyone is having a good Sunday afternoon. Adrian and I are about to go out and enjoy our 8 month anniversary present to ourselves. More to come on that later. Kelly

p.s. does anyone know anything about "outdoor friendly pillows"? Thanks! Kelly

I added this post to Rhoda's Monday party of sharing things you've found at estate sales, garage sales, etc.