Flower Boxes

 We live on a corner lot. And this is the side of our house. There used to be a very large tree on the corner. It was beautiful. The canopy was large. Although it was close to the road, it hid the side of the house. Now we're left with this.

I took this picture a few weeks ago so the garden has begun to fill in around the deck. The satellite dish can come down since it was left by previous owners. It just hasn't happened yet. The wires have to stay. Well, if we want hydro they do. I've tried to resurrect the grass. We'll see. The awning which is hidden by the magnolia tree will be painted, but I'm waiting until it's consistently warm at night so the paint can cure. Soon. I'd love to replace the awning with something beautiful, like a singled porch with pillars, but that's not happening anytime soon. I'd love to re-do the side walkway. It's a mess. A big mess. Pavement (driveway) to gravel to interlocking stone to gravel to old concrete sidewalk. That's the path you take to get to the side door. Horrible I know. It was like that when we bought the house. And unfortunately it will have to stay that way for a little while longer.

But not all hope is lost. There is one thing we can do.

 Thank goodness for this man.

For Mother's Day he built me flower boxes. In one day. Well, an afternoon really. See the strange box in the middle? He even figured out how to build a flower box around the deck post. Clever man.

Beautiful flower boxes painted a charcoal grey. 

They are filled with flowers that were once in hanging baskets. The grocery store had an amazing deal on hanging baskets. I took the plants out, pulled them apart and replanted them in the flower boxes. Quick and easy - just the way I like it.

Now the walkway may still need to be blown up, but at least I am somewhat distracted by the beautiful flowers in the lovely grey flower boxes. And it doesn't look quite so bare.

Getting Ready for Christmas Part Three (Or Thrift Store Wreath)

Our side door was in need of a little Christmas cheer. Several weeks ago I found these lovelies at a thrift store.

Glass. Vintage. I'm in love. Many still had price tags. 39 cents for some 99 cents for other bundles. Many came from Eaton's.

So let's get crafting, shall we? With my amazing power and strength, I turned an ordinary hanger into a circle with my bare hands. Amazing, eh? Snip off the hanger part. I used wire cutter for this part, not my bare hands.

And that is where my amazing power and strength end. With no strength left, I taped the two ends together.

I simply began by winding the wire that was attached to the glass bobble around the wreath frame.

 They were so wobbly at first, that I thought I would have to change tatics, but the more bobbles I added, the less wobbly they became. I started with the largest size and worked my way down to the little ones.

Until I had this. Shiny. Happy. Cheerful.

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Front Door

Yesterday was gorgeous. 17 degrees, warm, sunny. It felt more like September than November. It reminded me of our last good stretch of weather when I spent a week painting the deck and the outside of the house. Of course, I ran out of time and sunshine and warmness, leaving me the awnings to paint come spring. For a moment when the sun was brightly shining, I did contemplate painting the awnings, but only for a moment. A freshly painted deck and doors with have to do for now.

Before.

In this picture the deck is painted. Finally. That took forever. Days. The wood around the door is almost painted. The door - not so much.

After.

So much better! I love the dark grey. I have been wanting to paint the doors since we bought this house. I painted the old brass house numbers the same grey. I was going to spray paint them black, but several of the screws were stripped making it impossible to remove the numbers. On to plan B, paint all the numbers beige (the same colour aroung the door) and then paint the face of the numbers grey. I like how it looks.

The side door. No before picture, but it was the same burgandy as the front door. But, thankfully not anymore. I can't wait to paint the awning and railing in the spring!

This Week

This week I was slammed with a nasty cold. I still feel yucky. Despite the fact that I feel under the weather, the weather this week has been gorgeous, perfect in fact. Finally the rain stopped and the sun came out. Time to address the deck.

After spending all day Monday on the couch, I decided that when the sun came out on Tuesday, that it was time to get outside, whether I felt like it or not. I mean how many warm, sunny days are left this year? While I was waiting for the sun to dry up all the rain, I began to tackle the mess that is the front garden.

This is in progress. Still. Lots of work left to do. Maybe next week?

I've spent the last several days painting the deck. Wow. It's taking a long time. I knew it would. It's totally worth it.

Well, back out to the deck I go.