Summer in Michigan!

Please come up on my front porch and sit awhile if you so desire.

I love decorating outside just as much as I do inside so it spills out onto my front porch every year.

This year I wanted to add a bit of blue/teal to my decor without it being totally blue and I think I pulled
 it off.  What do you think?

I love vintage plant stands and have had several over the years. This is one that I hung onto
and I use it ever year. The flowers in my urns are just coming back after a nasty run in
with a raccoon! 

I always add impatiens to my porch in either pink or white. They are very easy to grow and this
gal LOVES easy. 

Front porch view from my yard. I am wanting to do something to the floor. We have lived here for over
 33 years and it has stayed pretty much the same. I either want to put a wood floor over the cement or get a
 nice big sea grass rug. I also want hubby to enlarge the porch posts and put some decorative angled trim
around the top and maybe the bottom. Hopefully we can get that done this summer.

One of our kitties are always photo bombing! lol

This is reality living in the country. I got up one morning to this mess! I never did get the large
terra cotta planter replanted. The plant was broken off with no roots left. ugh!

Doesn't this look like a fun clean up?  At least all these still had the roots attached so I could replant them.

As I said earlier, the flowers in the urns are finally coming along nicely. I hope we don't have any more
run ins with raccoon's. Hubby caught one so hopefully that is the only one around. ha!

The plants growing in front of the cement are tall white phlox, but they don't bloom until late June or July.
I love their fragrance. Also, the plant growing on the arbor is a Sweet Autumn Clematis. LOVE IT!
It has gorgeous white flowers in the fall.

This is also another flower I purchase every year and they are getting harder to find. I don't
understand it and neither do the growers because an IVY GERANIUM is the easiest flower
to grow! Makes no sense. 

 For the past several years I have had a tall white wicker table
in this space, but I wanted to mix it up this year. First I had this bookcase sitting the "tall" way and I
just didn't like it. I turned it on it's side and loved it. I want to put numbers above the openings, but
haven't gotten that done yet. I can change out the decor in the cubby holes anytime I want.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of our humble abode. I love living in the country...in Michigan...
in the Summer...without the raccoons!! :)

Front porch serenity

My ivy geranium on my front porch has really

taken a growth spurt lately with all the rain

we have had and I love it.

I don't know if I have ever told you, but we live on a dirt road

{what other kinds of roads are there in Michigan!}

in a two story house that was

built in the 1890's. We have lived here for over

29 years

and truth be told we will probably always live here.

Once in awhile I get the urge to pack it all up and

move ,but then when I think of all the work

involved ...yea, it stops me dead in my tracks! lol.

Our home sweet home still needs a lot of

work! We went through several years of babies,

lay-offs, machinist strikes, etc. and the time

just has never been right to fix it all up

like it needs to be.

We did replace the siding ourselves one

year when the kids were still at home, hubby

was working 10 or more hours a day and he was

also coaching our sons little league team at the time.

He would get home from work, we would literally

throw a couple pieces of siding on the house

and then run off to a game. I don't know how,

but we finally did manage to get it all sided

that year.

However those little *finishing touches* like the

soffit, trim etc never got all done. Almost , but not totally.

We are hoping to get that accomplished this

summer but once again...

Hubby is working a lot again so that doesn't leave much

time. We also need to replace a few of the windows.

Hopefully within a couple years we will get that

accomplished too, but God is good and I do enjoy

my little corner of the world...most of the time!

Remember this mirror? I think I had photos up

of it last year when it was dark green. I gave it the white treatment and it goes so much

better now don't you think?

A birds nest that I found while trimming bushes one day.

There is still part of a broken egg shell in it.

I purchased this wicker stand one year at a garage sale for $5.00! Still can't believe that price.

I love anything architectural!

I love this bush when it is in bloom. Also loving this plant

stand that I purchased for 5.99.

Don't look too close! The allysum in the pot is almost

dead I think...but it is coming back now slowly

but surely. lol.

View from the west end of the porch.

One of these days I would like to paint

( I mean...I would Mr. Wayside to paint) the green

table and chairs white and our dark blue shutters

white as well. I also want to get a new market

umbrella for the table. All in due time.

I just planted a lilac bush at this end too so am

anxious for that to grow and fill in the space. Once in awhile I toy with the idea of hanging

airy curtains at this end of the porch too.

What do you think?

Hope you enjoyed your tour of my front porch.

Maybe next time I can get better photos of the

glider and other items that I missed.

Blessings~

Sprucing Up

I just spent four hours outside this morning

weeding and and I decided it was time for a break.

I probably won't be able to wiggle tomorrow

when I wake up, but that is another story! :)

These impatiens on my front porch look better now than

they have all summer long. It has just been too hot

for flowers to look really nice...until now. At least

that is the excuse at my place. lol

They were all looking so pathetic a few weeks ago so

I broke off the stems partway and gave them a

few shots of fertilizer and wa la...they decided

to repay me with a beautiful show.

Been doing some work outside on and off this weekend. Got some mowing in and hubby will finish that up tonight.

Hubby also hooked a chain on his truck and yanked out

a large boxwood bush and we replanted it. Now to see if it actually lives. I hope so. We had success doing this

with a forsythia bush several years ago. Time will tell.

Need to replant three new bushes where we took

three out. {yanked two last fall and the last one this

past weekend} So I have that area to get prepared yet.

We also took the original windows from the house

out in the shop, removed the old caulking {what was

left of it} and replace it with new caulking. We really

need to get replacement windows eventually, but that

is for another year.

I really feel like we have gotten something accomplished

this past weekend and today. Yay!

Hope you are having a wonderful day and that

you have cooler weather like us in Michigan today.

I am loving it...thank you God!!

Blessings~

My Front Porch ~

I love sitting on my front porch with my sweet

2 year old granddaughter Annika.

She says, "I want to swinggggg...I want to swinggggg"

so we go out and sit in the glider and swing. It makes her so happy ~

I took these photos at the beginning of flower season

when the flowers were in full bloom ~ I usually have pillows on my glider ... I have no idea how I missed that~

I LOVE ferns on my front porch~

I want to spray paint the mirror on the wall white

It has birds on it and it would just be perfect then ~

Once again, lovely flowers when in all reality right now...

the petunias in the cone basket don't look too great. Where is my gardener ~

I sat an old iron chair over my white phlox.

They are just starting to bloom right now ~

Love my pinks ~

We have not done one thing to this porch since we moved here

in 1982. It could use some renovation , but it just

hasn't happened and at our age now I doubt it ever will.

I will just continue to enjoy it as is.

Blessings~