Sara’s 3rd Birthday: A Max & Ruby Tea Party.

When Greg and I bought the Midwestern big square brown house, we asked the builder (we bought a spec that was 99.9% completed) to add on a large, screened-in back porch.  We moved here from Florida where screened porches are an enormous part of homes, most stretching the entire length of the house.  Our French doors were perpetually open on the coast, with our cats running in and out, chasing geckos within an inch of their lives (in all honesty, some might have been sacrificed to the cause).  We almost moved to California, and while we were house shopping, we asked the realtor why the homes didn’t have screened in porches.  He looked down his spectacled-nose at me and replied, “We just don’t do those here.”  OH.  I told him it was for our cats, because…what?  That makes me sound less like a hayseed?  And he asked, “You’d add on an entire room, just for your pets?”  You are so right!  It makes much more sense to carry them around in a PURSE.  As a rule of thumb, Midwestern people love animals, but we generally don’t carry livestock with us to the mall and pretend they are an accessory.  If you walk into the Village Pantry with a dog in your bag in Indiana, people are going to start whispering behind your back that you’re from a weak bloodline.  That nonsense is reserved for crazy old Aunts in ugly hats.   But I digress.  A sheltered porch is a handy thing, and we have definitely gotten our money’s worth.  And when I say “we”, I mean the girls:

Sara & Cousin Avery have been known to find the porch’s limits.

I can’t say I’ve ever lived someplace long enough to decorate it twice, but this summer, the porch just wasn’t working for us anymore.  The big table has always been a traffic hazard, but having a 6-seater has been a key component of the good times we’ve shared with friends and family on the porch.  I hesitate to ever move the swinging chair because the girls live on it.  The doors from my kitchen to the porch are open in all but the worst of weather, and the kids can safely play within an arm’s reach of me, so the space has seen some wear and tear.  After searching high and low for new cushions, I gave up.  Everyone knows I’m way too cheap to pay new outdoor cushion prices.  I washed the stained ones I have, because other than stained, they are in excellent shape.  The “redo” would have to be in some other way.

My fake ferns from our Florida home finally died.  When people joke that they can kill fake plants, I’ve actually done it.  Real ones rarely make it in this space, so I bought 2 new fake plants on clearance.  Oops…very fake-y.  I put them inside my black hanging pots.  Wow, that made it worse.  As I never say die, I added Coconut liners, dirt, and a few real green plants that like heat and indirect light.

That’s better!  I had my eye on some Nantucket lights for some time, but by the time I got around to buying them, I had to mix and the match the colors.  For bargain basement prices, one must be flexible.  The $3 hangers were black.  I liked the price, but not the color, because my Nantucket lights are bronze. The leaf pattern is an exact replica of the backs of my chairs.  Hmm…

A can of multi-textured outdoor spray paint turned them into a perfect match to my outdoor furniture:

I flipped the table, and took the 2 biggest chairs and created a seating area (the last 2 Nantucket lights, big chairs, and the girls swinging porch swing are out of view, but still on the porch).  Then I lit my candles and watched 4 beautiful sunflowers appear on the ceiling as the sun set.

New ambience for less than the cost of one cushion.  It was fun enjoying it for one night.  By morning, the child creatures discovered my new configuration allowed for a more open play area, which was purposeful on my part.  With a rainy day upon us, it didn’t take them long to transition their summer antics onto the porch with Daddy’s childhood Teepee:

And this is why I vacuum and mop my porch.  We use every square inch of our home, so when I find myself avoiding an area, it’s time to rethink it.  I’m feeling glad that I hung up my travelin’ shoes 6 years ago…this staying put thing might just suit me after all.