Barnaclebutt

I am so loving "Do it yourself day" at A Soft Place to Land. It is like getting that extra motivation to pretty up the house that you get from having company coming, except you don't have to clean the bathrooms. After you read about my front porch makeover and wreath renovation you can clicky click on the button up there and see what everyone else is up to. There is good stuff I tell you!

Before I start, I have to share this reoccurring dream I have. I already typed it up once, and then accidentally deleted it. That must be nature's way of telling me to "omit needless words."

So. The dream. In it I am walking through this fabulous house slowly realizing that it is mine. As I open doors I discover it is full of things that I love-stuff from my past, things I own now, furniture I've seen in magazines, and fabulous stuff my head made up just for me. It is beautiful.

When I wake up I always feel happy knowing that whatever I really need, it will come to me. I've been blessed with a beautiful life and this dream always makes me remember that God will provide. It's a good dream. I like it.

So when I decided to redo my front porch starting with the sad little wreath I had up there, it gave me a happy feeling to find I could do it all with stuff I had stuffed around the house. I began with the wreath because I wanted it to be my inspiration piece. Here is the sort of scrappy little guy I had up there to begin with.The first step in wreath renovation was to head over to the Nester and search her archives for "wreath." I did like she said (I always do like she says) and rounded up everything I could find that might look good in a wreath including every other wreath I own.The best idea I got from the Nester was to use an old Christmas wreath for my base. I cut out the red berries and then started sticking in stuff. These white roses seemed like they were going to look good, but on second thought, didn't.I love lovity love love the nest and birdie. The feathers and flowers I just stuck in, but I hot glued the pears and wired in the nest.Here is my porch-a-rama before I even moved a skate board. That is the new wreath though, I got so excited that I nailed it up there before I remembered to take the "before picture."The plant stand and pot I totally found by the side of the road when I was garage saleing one Saturday. The pot didn't look right when it was terracotta but I remembered some yellow spray paint I have, and now...it's like a symphony in green and yellow is it not?Here is the big splurge. You know Smith and Hawken is going out of business? Sad, but Marc scored me this mat for $25. Since everything else was free to me, I feel good about it. The final touches are the "Families are Forever" whatever that is and my little bunny.It looks so much more welcoming doesn't it? If you come over we can sit on the bench and watch the kids play while we enjoy these last few days of summer.