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!! :)

It's Peony Time!

Are peony's blooming yet where you live? They sure are here in Michigan and
I took the opportunity to do a couple photos shoots. I think my camera is on the way
"out", but I am trying to nurse it along and hopefully it will last for awhile yet.

I had to include some AQUA because I think pink and aqua are just meant to be
together!

I think these photos with the books are off color. The flowers look more lavender to me than the true pink,
but they are pretty anyway...that temperamental camera again. OR it could be the photo taker??? 

Every time I notice that a few more flowers are out in full bloom, I run and pick them and stick them all
over the house. I just LOVE peony's! Can you tell?

I am including a couple photos of my old fashioned roses also. The smell from these is just
heavenly! They have been on our property for decades and I have dug up several starts,
plopped them in the ground and they grow wonderful for me. These photos are from starts
that were planted.

Hubby picked these light pink ones for me along the roadside a few days ago.

I had a plant exactly this color , but it didn't survive so I need to find another one.
I think it was called Sarah Bernhardt and my bff gave me a start...hmm...maybe
she has another one. You never know. :)

I love mixing all the shades of pink from very light pink to dark. I would also
like to get some white peony's to plant...someday.

I hope you have a wonderful upcoming weekend. My oldest granddaughter turned 16 yesterday and I
will be going to a masquerade party for her. That should be FUN! The older I get the more I
enjoy doing fun things and I am really looking forward to it. I may not look young, but I can
still party. ha!

The final days of summer

Can you believe that summer is winding down already??   I can't!  It seems once again
that it has just flown by, but I LOVE summer here in Michigan this year.  Not scorching
hot, but beautiful weather for the most part.  We didn't even put in our air conditioners
this year and that is saying something.  Most evenings we even had blankets that we
covered up with instead of laying in bed roasting!  Although, I will say that we
 REALLY
 need rain here...badly!!  The grass is brown and crunchy which does not make
 for pretty photos at all.

I don't think I will ever tire of the chippy , white look.  Will you?   I think it is here to stay
for me.  I do add splashes of color such as pink and aqua every now and then, but I
always wonder what the next "trend" will be. hmm...

I am loving all my outside flowers again this year!  They are doing pretty good even in spite of
the lack of rain.  I have had to run the hose a bit, but not too bad.
 I  am glad that I can capture their beauty every year to share with you.

This is the back deck area this summer.  Yes, I do need to get the blower out and get rid of some leaves
and get out the spray to kill off some weeds and grass, but for the most part it is okay.  The area on the
right of the photo is just covered in tiny white flowers {Sweet Woodruff} in the Spring, but when
summer hits it looks rather bland. I wish the flowers would bloom all summer long!

I love white picket fences and have put them here and there on our property.

Here is one of our kitty's that we "inherited" when my son and his family took off for North Dakota.
They are finally coming around and being very friendly for the most part, but for the first couple
weeks we thought they would never return. ha!

We have two of them, both gray.  They are sisters and they fight like sisters do also! :)
One of them hisses at the other when it is feeding time and I tell them to stop that they
need to share.  We usually end up separating their food bowls. Crazy cats!!

I acquired this vintage can just recently and I love it.  I plopped some fake flowers in
it , but I really need to pick some real ones and take the fake ones out.
{I am a bad blogger...:( }

Up close and personal.  Not sure which one this is.
They are named Merida and Maeve and I can never keep track of who is who.
We need to get one of them a different color of collar so we can tell them apart.
One of them does have a wider face also so that helps sometimes. 

We had to work on this little window house this summer.  It has sat outside for a few years and was showing
the ill effects of the sun , rain and snow so we replaced the "peak" windows and I also gave it a touch up of
paint here and there.  I also added some silverware chimes and a white geranium sitting on an old stool.
Still love it!

I hope you are not tired of seeing my back deck area.  This is where we enter the house.
We rarely use the front door {unless we get locked out for some reason} so this is
the area I love the most. AND most of the time I can't remember what pics I have
shared with you so you may get duplicate posts.

Are you having a great summer? Ready for school to start??

I have been doing a few projects inside the house that has thoroughly exhausted me.
Hopefully I can share those with you soon if I can get some decent photos with this
crazy lighting.

Blessings~

I am in LOVE with our latest project...is that possible??

If you follow me on facebook you know that my hubby's factory closed in November of last year with no
warning. He found another job in the middle of January of this year. We JUST got health insurance after
his probation period of 90 days, had it for a week or two and then he got laid off again. He didn't find
another job until about three weeks ago so...I say all that to say this. We TRIED to keep busy to keep
 ourselves sane, but on the other hand we had no extra money to spend so we set out to do a project
with things we already had here.

We just finished up this piece yesterday that we started when he was laid off. I guess you could call it
 a potting bench, but I doubt I will do much if any potting on it as I have a garden shed also.

 I LOVE how it turned out, don't you?

It all started with this piece that we picked up at a garage sale for $2.00! You can't even buy one board
for that price so it was well worth it. I wish I had a before picture as it was a blue gray color with a LOT
of grease on the top and inside. It was previously used for a work bench and was a MESS to say the
least, but I saw potential. Didn't have a clue what I would do with it, but I am so glad we put it in
our jeep that day!

Fast forward a few weeks.   I was browsing PINTEREST and was inspired to make some type of  bench
 with it. If you google "potting benches" you will find one that is similar in nature as far as the top of it,
but more of a creamy color with a tin valance. That was my inspiration.

{My genuine antique English watering can...there is a repro of it sitting on one of the bench
shelves also...but I digress...} 

After we finished it yesterday I initially thought I would put it on the front porch, but there
wasn't enough room where I wanted it. WHO KNEW?? ha!

So we ended up putting it on the back deck for now and I moved plants etc. here,
there and everywhere trying to find the best look.

{I am loving how my tiered herb garden turned out this year!}

This is a side view of the piece. One day I got inspired for hubby to add a window and then another
day I said, "Hey , let's put some shelves on the side of the window". We did that and it sat a couple
more weeks or so. Yesterday, I figured I better get this done or it would be winter before long!!
So we cut and old post in half for the front and added some shelves on the side that I had laying
around along with the brackets.

{The post came from my grandmother's house when it was torn down. I acquired three of them and
love using them for something to remember her by}

When I look at the finished photo, I think I would like one of the shelves that are on the sides a
 bit lower than the other side so it doesn't look so "matchy, matchy", but we can do that
 anytime.

We added old table legs on each side of the window to add more character and they
were the perfect length! We couldn't have planned that if we tried.

I had the "valance" laying in my potting shed for a few years and had no clue what I would
ever do with it, but now I know why I kept it.

A bit of paint and distressing and WA LA...it was done and ready to be decorated!

I didn't want to spend one dime especially since hubs was laid off,  so we just used stuff we already had
except the $2 we spent on the initial bench. I am thrilled with how it turned out and now we can move
on to the next project...whatever that is. I am sure I will come up with something! *SMILE*

This was the photo that I put on facebook this week.
What have you made lately? I would love to know!!
Blessings~