The Big Porch Reveal

My new camera has arrived and I LOVE it! It's the Olympus Pen EPL-1. I won't spend a lot of time talking about it, but if you're in the market for a new camera and a DSLR intimidates you, then look into the Pen line.

Anyway, with the arrival of the new camera comes what you've been waiting for. The big front porch reveal!

So, as you'll recall, this is what the front porch looked like when we bought the house (or at least in the listing photos, with the prior owner's furniture).

And this is what it looked like for the past year. 

But I'm happy to say that it is much better now.

It is much brighter and cleaner out there and I'm really happy with the way the whole thing turned out.

Check out some details.

Terra cotta pots of ivy hung from bird hooks. I'm hoping the ivy grows and cascades over the pot and down in the next few years...if my black thumb doesn't kill it.

Canary, Blue Jay and Cardinal - $7 each, on clearance at Arhaus

Bench from Target - $160 on sale. Pillow fabric from Fabric.com

I think the pillows really made everything look much more cozy. 

Garden Stool from Big Lots - $20, plus $6 can of copper spray paint

Stripe Painting - FREE! Wood my Dad had on hand, and paint I already had. 

$15 in materials to hang it, though.

New light fixture, with motion sensor - $55 at Lowe's

New vinyl screen door - $135 at Lowe's

And who is enjoying the front porch most? 

 

Okay, really Bessie and Daisy couldn't care less how fabulous the porch looks, they're just happy to be out there chasing crickets and watching the birds. 

Care to know what it cost? About $600 for the whole thing. The biggest ticket items took up most of that, the bench, the door, the light fixture and the door knob for the door (which we had to special order since a inward swinging screen door is not the norm).

Next, I'll be taking on the den. The room where Adam and I spend most of our time. I'm planning on assembling a mood board this weekend! See you then!

Excuses, excuses

On Sunday night I wrote up a lovely post updating what was happening with the front porch, and the progress that's been made. I saved it to add some "Teaser Pictures" later when the light was better for photo-taking.

Today, I went outside to take some pictures for all of you, got a few and then...something bad happened.

My camera died.

I dropped it a while back, which wasn't the first time I dropped it, believe me, but it did do some damage this time. It was having some focus problems and the zoom lens wasn't moving like it was supposed to. But I was getting it to work okay. And then today, something happened, I don't know what, and the lens jammed and now the camera won't even start up.

I've been looking into buying a new camera anyway, and I was just kind of stalling, but the time has come and I'll be ordering a new one as soon as a minor glitch with my PayPal account is cleaned up.

In the meantime, I have this for you, since I've been very light on the pictures lately.  I imagine Adam feels I talk like this all the time. (Click to "Embiggen" it)

from Wondermark

 And because I'm excited about the little bit left to do on the porch, here's the remaining to do list.

- hang pots planted with sweet potato vine
- install new door knob on screen door
- install new light fixture
- paint and install screen trim
- paint garden stool

My original plan to hang something on one of the walls isn't going to work out, so I'm going to have to come up with something else on the fly.