The "Fun" Stuff

Don't get me wrong, I am really enjoying working in the gardens.   But sometimes I need to take a break and work on something a bit more crafty or home decor related.   Something like this:

Here's a wide shot of one end of the pavilion....with the adirondack chairs and table that still need to be painted.  Yes, I'll get to those soon enough.  But in the background you may be able to make out the black sign hanging above the grill.  Here it is up close...

Isn't that cool?   The week before we left Florida to move here Joel's medical residents took us out to dinner and presented us with this awesome sign for us to hang here on the farm.   I've been looking around off and on for 4 months trying to figure out where to hang it and now the sign has a permanent home.  It'll be protected from most weather and looks really pretty hanging between the huge posts.   Ahhhhh, one more item hung up......dozens more to go.

And then there is this, a "leftover" side table that was part of a bedroom set.   There is simply not enough room for it in our guest bedroom but a couple of weeks ago I had an idea of how to put it to good use.   I pulled out some leftover paint and did a dry brush technique on most of the table in soft tealy blue....all except the little indented area on the top.   Then I removed the feet and thick round wooden drawer pulls and painted them red as an accent.

I dug around our book cabinet and pulled out our old traveling map atlas and cut out the central and eastern end of the state of Tennessee.   Can you believe how well it fit in the space that was left unpainted?   Good thing we don't live in Maine.   That wouldn't have worked at all.  A little bit of decoupage and the top was complete.

And now it is once again a useful piece of furniture....out on the rocking chair porch...ready to hold a glass of refreshing, cold iced coffee.   Gotta love it when a plan comes together.

Our love seat cushion arrived yesterday and now it's much more comfortable to sit on the loveseat at that end of the porch.  Notice the blue bird sitting on top of the bird house?   He was really hamming it up for the camera.

This watering can is what started it all.   I'm using the colors on the can to pull all my color direction from for decorating the rocking chair porch.  Some greens,  a bit of teal and a pop of deep red for impact.   It sure beats trying to just pull colors out of thin air......and I carried this can around to paint stores and fabric stores to make sure I didn't get off track.   Who me?   Get off track?   Nah!

A tiny aqua blue print pillow works with a large scale red and white cushion, at least it works in my world.   ha!

Notice the, ahem, purple table.   I know, I know.  Not sure what possessed me to paint it purple but it worked really well in my shop several years ago.   Today it's getting a new coat of paint.   Black paint to be precise.

And now it's a productive member of the farm.   Holding a cool antique porcelain tea pot with flowers and ivy growing out of it.    Gotta love that transformation!  Well, that's as far as I've gotten this last 2 weeks.   There will be more paint make-overs in the future, I'm sure.

Addicted to color,
Debbie