This is why stopping at garage sales can be dangerous.
I’ve been looking for a ceramic garden stool to go next to my egg chair as a little side table, but I haven’t had much luck finding a good inexpensive one. Now I have a bizarre little elephant to set my drinks on instead.
Murray’s a little creeped out by it.
Here’s how I spent my Saturday afternoon…
There’s me, the round little roly-poly VERY pregnant lady, painting the porch. Aye, my back hurts! And please note that the Chicago weather is NOT cooperating with us. I’m wearing a shirt, a hoodie, and a big bulky sweater — it was only 45 degrees out.
To be fair, I must let you know that Brandon, his sister Jessica, and several other people have offered to help me paint. It had to be me though because I was painting the pattern freehand. I couldn’t just pick stripes or a checkerboard pattern that someone else could work on for me, now could I? No, that would have been too easy, and of course I’m all about making things difficult as can be. ;) The pattern was inspired by a rug from Urban Outfitters, and also the flower petal patterns my grandmother used to draw.
Brandon made some excellent progress today as well. Our table and chair set has been painted!
We still have a few things to do for the front porch, but they should go fairly quickly. And as I told my mom, we still have time because the baby isn’t due until Tuesday and I’ve instructed her to stay put until then. We have too much to do before she arrives, and our doctor will be out of town until Monday night. I’m sure the baby will listen, right?
My second post for the 48-Hour Challenge is up! This week I described the planning process and talked a bit about what we’re going to do on the front porch.
Last year, Brandon and I talked about doing something to screen our backyard from the alley. We have chain-link fencing, which of course offers no privacy but we’re not going to replace it anytime soon. The stretch of fencing we’re most concerned with is the section by the parking space in this sketch:
I went to IKEA not long ago to check out their summer line and I liked their wind/sunshields, but I couldn’t think of a use for them. Today I suddenly realized that they may work well to cover the fencing.
The other idea we had was to use Put-in-Cups to create a pattern. They could be very cheesy (I know), but I think they could also be very cool. Check them out here:
Nice, right? We had also considered fence slats as another option. When I talked about wanting to do something to the fence last year, a lot of people suggested woven willow, reed, or bamboo panels. I’m sure that would look good, but I like the idea of doing something more graphic. Everyone hates on chain-link but I really don’t mind it. I think it could be an opportunity to do something kind of fun…
