This past week I have been working on sprucing up my back porch.

The years have not been so kind to my little porch, it’s a little crooked from age, and wear and tear, but I love it just the same.

I started with the floor.

The stain had faded a bunch since the last application, several years ago.

Before

After

I used the same Olympic solid stain that is on the front and trim of our house, chocolate brown.

We have some outdoor furniture, two chairs, both with ottomans, that are in very good condition. The cushions for the chairs, are tan, and also in good shape, but some color was definitely need.

Found some print toss pillows at Home Goods, with a little terracotta, blue, brown, and bright green.

The terracotta color blended well with the brick wall.

I really love pillows, so I added some bright green ones as well.

Added two small tables, both as a result of my on going garage cleaning.

They were rusted, so I sanded, and spray painted, one brown, and the other a bright green.

The brown one fit between the chairs, and the green one was the perfect size for my Hoya plant.

Feels so good to use things that you were going to trash.

They really turned out great!

The sun shines on our little crooked porch quite a bit, especially in the mornings, so we bought an inexpensive roll up, tan, bamboo type shade.  We are very pleased with it, we not only get shade, but some privacy from our neighbors.

Added a citronella candle in a bright green tin, and an ivy plant.

So that takes care of one half of the porch, but there is still room for something more!

Maybe a small table next to the railing would complete our little space.

That will be the project for next week!

Everyone should have a special place to sit, with a comfortable chair, hopefully by a window, if not outside, to read, pray, write special things, enjoy some coffee, and sometimes music, as I do every morning.

It’s a simple pleasure that adds to life.

If you don’t have a crooked little porch, find a private spot in your home, or apartment, make it yours, and enjoy the time you spend there!

Love to all!

Last month I shared my project of sorting through stacks of old magazines.

I sorted and clipped out articles, ideas, recipes, and beautiful photos that I loved.

Now, instead of having the stacks of magazines I have this………

.. a stack of clippings!

I have many gift cards that were given to me when I stopped working and also at Christmas time.  I guess it must be hard for people to buy things for me, so I receive lots of gift cards.

They sure come in handy when you are on a budget and find something that you would like to have but can’t justify buying.

I found these “Poppy” binders, file folders, and dividers at Target and I used one of my gift cards to buy them.  It felt like they were free!

Poppies are one of my favorite flowers, so I knew I had to have them, and as it turned out they were just what I needed to organize my many magazine clippings.

They are so bright, with the dots and stripes, that match the poppy colors.

Just love them!

I purchased some clear sheet protectors, and also a coordinating small locking pouch divider to hold smaller items.  The small organizer is perfect for holding photos.

I started the process of sorting and deciding what categories I wanted to place each clipping under, and placed each one in a sheet protector.

Made labels for each category divider.  I based many of the categories on by blog interests and also my Pinterest boards.

Worked on the stack for a number of nights while watching TV.

I am now up to date organizing, but there are many magazines left to page through and clip.

Just needed one binder for now, but down the road I knew I would need another one which is why I purchased both. It would be hard for me to pick one over the other anyway!

This way of organizing could be used for children’s art work, or maybe just for the many recipes we all accumulate and can never find.

Now that I have the clippings organized, as I page through the binder, I feel like I have one awesome magazine made just for me, featuring all the simple things I love.

Hope you all love this idea as much as I do.

Simple things like this bring me joy!

This has been a gloomy weather week.

On and off rain, storms, and dark skies, only a little sunshine now and then.

Too wet to work outside so I decided to go to my long list of “things to do”, picking this as the one to work on today……..

I have mentioned my love of old books, especially children’s, well, it probably won’t surprise you that I also love magazines.

There are so many stacks in my basement that it really is getting out of control. I feel like one of those folks you see on the show “Hoarders”!  If you have never seen the show it is about folks that never throw anything away to an extreme!

I started early with my cup of coffee in hand, sat down and began what turned out to be such an adventure.  I found magazines dating back over 20 years.

As I paged through each one I found really amazing articles, craft ideas, recipes, and gardening tips. It was as if I had found a buried treasure!

There was a wonderful article about Golden Books in an old Mary Engelbreit’s, Home Companion, dated 2001.

Found yummy recipes, this one from a Country Living, 2004 magazine.

I sorted, and went through each one in my stack, deciding to clip out the articles, pictures, etc., that I just had to save.  I now have a stack of clippings to organize, but that’s for another time!

I only managed to get through about 1/3 of my first batch.  I guess I will wait for another day I think it’s going to rain to get through the next stack!

That reminds me of a song that I love, “I Think it’s Going to Rain Today”, by Randy Newman, it really is so good, take a listen.  It is being sung by Norah Jones.

Enjoy!