Spring Clean Up

What a b-e-a-utiful Sunday!!  Can I get a collective "Heck Yea!!"??  That's right, Spring has officially sprung in our neck of the woods and I couldn't get enough of the beautiful and abundant sunshine this weekend.  But with the sunshine comes the inevitable shedding of light upon the piles of crap that accumulated over the winter.  It was all too easy to just walk right past - or add to - the junk that collected in our breezeway/screened-in porch.  Serving as the main entrance to and from our house (we never use the front door except to get the mail), it was a catch all for shoes, junk, recyclables that hadn't yet made it to the outside bin, boxes, knick-knacks that had no other home, and similar crap that was ugly to look at.

I'm not proud of this picture.  Our wedding seating chart has been sitting there in that same place for almost 6 months!  There were shoes - I'm talking at least 20 pairs - scattered all over the floor.  I've got a nasty habit of wearing a different pair every day and then just kicking them off before going in the house.  This is where they end up.  There were paint cans, open umbrellas, cans of pop and beer (we have a refridgerator, I promise), random bits of my pottery that had no home inside....I could go on and on but I think it speaks for itself.

I worked outside most of the afternoon.  I emptied everything onto the back patio and started from scratch.

We had an un-used carpet remnant that used to be in the basement.  It felt cleaner than the grungy indoor/outdoor carpet that's in here now, so I hauled it Dan hauled it upstairs and rolled it out.  The chair and plant stand in the corner are from a house I went to for a flooring measure through work.   They guy was getting rid of it and so I generously offered to take it...along with several other pieces that we won't get into just yet.  Original plans were to redo the chair, but upon further inspection, I decided it was in such great and clean condition, I didn't want to mess with it.  It's pretty comfy too, as I am relaxing in my new space as I type. 

The room actually feels like a room now.  Granted, next winter it will turn back into a soul-sucking catch all of mammoth proportions, but the Spring/Summer/Fall months can get use out of it. 

It also serves as the perfect spot for my new plant collection.  Now, I'm no botanist by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, I have killed pretty much anything I've ever planted in a pot...or the ground.  But I decided to give it another go with Dan's supervision in reminding me to water them every once in a while. 

I have been coveting one of these beautiful and prehistoric-looking orchids for forever.  They have them in the center aisle of Home Depot, and every time I pass them,  I linger and look and tell myself it's too dangerous.  But one day while shopping for light bulbs or something really mundane, I gave in.  The tag said to add three ice cubes to the soil once a week and that's it.  Pretty simple, right?

When I brought this guy to the checkout counter, I felt like I was taking home a new pet.  I was cautious and gentle and tried really hard not to jar it too much so its weird little jelly bean things wouldn't fall off.  It's called a Donkey Tail "Burrito" and it is, I believe, of the succulent family.  I had a pot from pottery that it fit in (it came with a hanging basket, but the ceilings are too high).  Its just the weirdest/coolest/creepiest thing I've ever seen.

Speaking of succulents, I've been wanting some for awhile and found these at Home Depot, too.  At only $2.98 a piece, I couldn't pass them up.  The middle one is called Baby Toes...I think it looks like some creepy space creature with a million eyeballs.  But that's just me.

The mini rosebush is from a friend's baby shower a week ago.  So far, so good.  Haven't decided yet if I want to plant it outside, but for now it sits on the bottom of my new plant stand.

I added this mirror to the wall of the porch because it was sitting dusty on the floor of the basement and I didn't want it to get broken.  The squiggly sticks are called Johnny Walking Sticks and I put them up there so they wouldn't get broken either.

This little lamp I made from a base purchased at Goodwill and a lampshade I had on hand.  I spray painted the base and used spray webbing for the shade.  Pretty cool stuff, and looks kinda retro.

That's it for this edition of Spring Cleaning.  We also set up the patio table and chairs, and there's some new outdoor stuff coming soon.  Anyone else got cabin fever??