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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Living. Lovely. (Late) ~ A Spot for Beauty (or Function)

(It's never too late to live. lovely. but my challenge fell through the cracks last week. We're back up and running, though.)


Did you reclaim a spot in your home for beauty or function
this past week or two?


I'd love to hear what you did (and see pictures!) if you care to share. Be sure to scroll down for next week's living. lovely. challenge, as well.


Oh, and if you have any ideas for living. lovely. challenges, I'd love to hear them!

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I have several spots around my house that have become mini disasters. The thing about mini disasters is that they seem to infect the neighboring spots and spread like wild-fire.

I could have chosen any number of places to reclaim, but my porch was really bugging me. Fallen leaves from our willow, toys and shoes strewn about, sidewalk chalk decorating the tables, stray blue 'moon sand' (I hate that stuff) in the cracks of our door mat, and a million other things that set a bad tone when arriving home. Definitely not a porch that said 'Welcome!' to friends and guests, either.

I 'let' the boys get in on the action. I filled a pot with warm soapy water and had them scrub to their hearts' content. Recess, right? I tried to include a before photo, but forgot until I had some of the toys and junk put away.

Porch Clean-Up

We put away the toys, swept, scrubbed the porch floor and railings, hosed off the front door mat, cleaned off the tables, and added some fall decor we had just picked up at the local produce stand. I even grabbed a bundle of corn stalks from our tiny garden, tied them together with copper ribbon, and propped them up by the front door. Ahhh! I'm inspired to get to a few other spots this week....

Porch Welcome


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Next week's living. lovely. challenge:
Send someone a hand-written letter... Snail mail.

8 comments:

Molly Anne said...

Moon sand?!

The porch looks lovely with the new decor and I agree that it should be a "welcome home" spot that makes you glad to be there.

My post: http://mollythepirate.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-cant-believe-its-not-clutter.html

Sarah at SmallWorld said...

Beautiful!! I am inspired!

Laurel said...

ooooh. I have a whole house to reclaim:). The porch looks ... lovely! I also love the still life.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! I need to reclaim my dirty porch and ditch the dead flower pots too :) I think I'll follow your lead tomorrow after we get back from the pumpkin patch! ~Tera

Jilly said...

I am due with baby #3 in two months, so I am in mad nesting mode, and definitely reclaiming spaces everywhere. In my son's room this meant clearing all of last year's (and next year's second hand) clothes that had been tossed in there "to be sorted later", sorting them and putting them in under the bed bins, or back in the basement until boy #2 is ready for them. I used the cleared out space to organize the dress up clothes into an Ikea toy organizer, a crate and a suitcase. This way they can find what they want without (and this is the important part) emptying all the rest of the clothes all over my son's room every day.

I am also trying to claim a little space in my room for the baby's clothes and diapers. Have all those little things to wash before I can sort them away, though.

grandma and grandpa said...

Beautiful transformation of your porch. I just might have to come for a visit. Hope to one of these days. You inspire me. Grandma

Renee said...

So sad I could not participate in this challenge! I had big plans for our master bath...but we had the big rain last week. Maybe I can count sucking out 2" of rain out of our basement, along with wet carpet, my big make-over. Not a fun one! I love your clean, beautiful porch! This is the perfect season to enjoy it!

Dana D said...

I love it! It looks great!