Weekday Afternoons

Since it has gotten warmer Paul-John and I have developed a new habit: when he comes home from work, we sit on the front steps, drink iced tea or iced coffee (homemade, natch) and people- and cat-watch for about an hour.

I check to see what's growing

Josephine always joins us

The view from our front steps

Our neighbor has two cats that like to hang out on their roof

Paul-John always looks cute, especially in front of our house

Lucy chased this squirrel up the telephone pole

Weekend Project

Last week my grandparents bought me a church pew! They had heard we had our eye on one at the Reconnstruction Center so when they saw one at a tag sale they picked it up for us! The pew is now on our front porch, where it fits perfectly along the wall. It replaced some old wicker furniture that the previous owner left:

Pretty gross looking. But, we don't have any real furniture for our back patio, and outdoor furniture is expensive. Instead of throwing this out (which initially was my plan) Paul-John suggested we spray paint it. I was skeptical, but for $30, it looks awesome. And I love it!



We chose the colors to match the cushions. Initially I want graffiti-esque neon colors but Sherwin-Williams didn't have any (and we get a discount there, so...) I did call Home Depot as well, but they also did not have any neon colors. This turned out better I think because otherwise we would have had to get new cushions.

This is a really easy project, and we could have gotten it done in one day instead of two, but we started it kinda late on Friday after I had gotten out of work, and we didn't realize how much spray paint it took. I think we used a total of 11 cans! It took 3 trips - the first trip we didn't know how much to buy, and the second trip they didn't have enough in stock so we had to go to another store.

All in all, great project - quick and inexpensive but with a big impact!