When I am an Old Lady, I will Wear...I Mean Paint a Chair...Purple

I don’t know what has come over me this spring. I am normally a very conservative, white-shirt-khaki-pants-wearing kind of gal. I do like color, and have painted rooms in my house in shades of color beyond tan and white. But, I am still very traditional.

But…this spring, I have painted my Cracker Barrel rocking chairs apple green and added black and white polka dot cushions. They started out looking like this:



After a coat of primer, they looked like this:



And, tada! This is what they look like now! I LOVE them...every time I drive up to my house and see them, they make me smile.



I found this cute little mosaic table


and this fun, colorful mat


at Target.




And then, I took on my biggest make over…my rusted, ugly 16 year old fake wrought iron deck furniture. I know you can't see rust in this picture, but trust me, it's there! This furniture was once hunter green, and before it underwent it's much-needed makeover, it was somewhere between faded green and rust brown. I was ready to throw it away, but I decided to paint it instead. It looked like this last weekend:



After many coats of spray paint and a sore arm/hand/wrist, Lauren Tony and I painted it all




A few years ago, we bought a gazebo for our deck, and I loved it. It not only shaded our deck, but it helped keep the kitchen a bit cooler too. The next summer, the top was blown off in a storm and ripped to shreds where the Velcro attached it to the metal frame. Tony saved the metal frame for some reason…and just last week, he was at Target and found a replacement top. So, we put it back together, and after adding some plants, our deck now looks like this: (click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can it all better!)






I LOVE it. I love the colorful chairs. I love the cushions (that were only $16 each at Gordman’s!). I was worried that the kids and Tony would hate it, but they love it, too. The kids keep telling their friends to go out on the deck and look at our awesome table and chairs.

I know the plants look pretty darn wimpy right now, but I just planted them today. I used Miracle Gro potting soil, like I do every summer, so I am sure that within a week or two, the pots will be overflowing with flowers. My pictures aren’t that great, but I planted white impatiens, purple New Guinea impatiens, burgundy star wave petunias and sweet potato vine.





I really love how everything turned out, and I can’t wait to spend lots of time on the deck having coffee in the morning and dinner in the evening. Although that won’t be happening tonight because it’s about 180 degrees outside.

The only thing I still want to do is find some tiny white lights to put on the inside of the awning. Oh, and a few citronella candles to ward off the mosquitos!

Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June. ~Al Bernstein

June is my very favorite month of the whole year. It may have started when I was a kid since my birthday is in June. I don’t give a hoot about my birthday these days, but I still love June. June is typically that really wonderful time when spring is patiently waiting for summer to arrive. Typically in June, it’s not terribly hot, or if it is hot, the smothering humidity has not yet arrived, which can make for some very pleasant days. June is the month that my kids are finished with school. When they were young, I think I looked forward to and celebrated the last day of school as much as they did. I so anticipated one lazy day stretching into another lazy day…an endless stream of days of sleeping in, swimming lessons, going to the park, eating popsicles, blowing bubbles and drawing masterpieces and hopscotch on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.

Well, those days are LONG gone…although the kids have definitely taken sleeping in to a whole new level. While I used to be thrilled if they slept until 8 am on a summer day, now, I now text them from work repeatedly at noon to tell them to haul their lazy butts out of bed. And long gone are the lazy days of swimming and going to the park since I work now. Those days have been replaced with days of me coming home from work to discover bowls with congealed cereal, half empty water bottles, empty apple sauce jars, granola bar wrappers and empty chip bags scattered all over my kitchen and family room along with wet towels and tshirts and more empty water bottles strewn around the back yard. And the pantry is usually empty of all food that was purchased just the day before. While my kids are lounging on the couch in a zombie-like state brought on by eating so much food all day.

But all that aside, I still love June, and I still look forward to the kids being out of school The grass in my yard is still green in June, and it is weeks away from turning brown and crunchy. In June, I rarely have to turn on the sprinkler. Our pool is newly opened. Flowers are freshly planted. The whirring sound of lawn mowers and the smell of freshly cut grass fills the fresh air most evenings. In June, even though it may be hot during the day, by night time, the temperature often drops to a cool, comfortable temperature, enticing me to head to my front porch with a glass of wine and a book. At the beginning of June, the warm summer days seem endless. It is hard for me to imagine or remember the ice and chill of winter. At the beginning of June, I try not to think about the hot and steamy days of July and August that I know are coming.

In June, I buy fresh strawberries from produce stands almost daily and eat them sliced on peanut butter toast for breakfast, chopped on top of salads for lunch, and covering ice cream for late night dessert. Sometimes in June, I even go pick my own strawberries, and if I’m really feeling ambitious, I make jars of strawberry preserves, stacking them in the freezer, knowing that those jars of sugary red yumminess will fulfill my need for summer strawberries throughout the winter.

It’s June now. Today for the first time this summer, I wore my favorite white skirt to work. I am sitting here at my desk listening to the sound of the 13 year cicadas that have recently hatched and thinking once again how much I love June. I have flats of purple and white and yellow flowers on my front porch waiting to be planted. And, I have 28 more glorious days to enjoy my favorite month.