I did not really MAKE anything, BAKE anything, PAINT anything...but I did up-cycle some items that were discarded by others, so I thought I'd share this mini project with you.
Around Thanksgiving, I realized how sad my porch looked. My summer pots were dead and dry, and my futile attempt to beautify the porch with a brand new pot of mums lasted exactly 48 hours!!! So sad! An early frost came and went and I was left with a porch looking like this:
I was so disappointed by it. Not only had I just spent $12 on one pot of flowers -that lasted less than 2 days- but I was also disheartened at the tough that if the mum had died, there was nothing else that could be planted till next spring. That's when I knew, that I needed decorations that were not going to suffer from the huge temperature ranges we regularly abide by in Colorado.
I did not want to have Christmas decorations. I am too lazy to invest that much time for decor that will only be used for about a month. So I decided to find 'generic winter decor' and took a quick tour of my local ARC thrift store! It wasn't long before I found a set of awesome vintage skates for less than $5!
I thought of other items that I could pair with the skates to make a vignette for the porch and I was lucky enough to find a chair for about $5, a brand new south west fleece blanket for about $2 and a small winter wreath for 99 cents. Perfect! I came home and literally just dumped my finds on the porch. Since these will be outside exposed to the elements and wildlife, I figured I did not need to spend any time cleaning them.
On the other side of the porch (more exposed to the elements) I just recycled a flower pot that my friend J.A. gave me this summer, filling it with logs, pine branches and cones. These WON'T wilt! ;-)
I think this set up looks pretty nice, especially today with the falling snow. I am also very interested in seeing the whole lot weathering. To me the chair is WAY too new right now, so I am looking forward to when it will be old and raggedy - baked by the sun and chipped by frost.
The anticipations is killing me! ^__^
Here is an image of the whole chair. She is definitely not a beauty yet, but I have hope for the future. If the winter weather does not do much damage to it (it does sit under the eaves), I plan to just put it out back in the yard to bake over the summer. I bet that with the scorching summer sun it will bake to perfection! As you can see, I did go back to ARC and found a super cute iron lantern for $2 that I added to the grouping. I will keep on looking and add more 'junk' to the porch as I find more treasures.
I am pretty happy to have some sort of decor on my porch that can withstand the elements. I hope that this inspire you to go to your local second-hand store and to show some love to discarded items. I can't believe how consumeristic our society has become, and hope that more and more people will embrace my spirit.
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
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