{decked out}

When my mom and sisters were visiting, they helped me sand down my deck. Talk about a labor of love. There are chores I don't think I'd ever accomplish if someone weren't around to encourage and help me. My mom bought all the supplies, showed me what to do, and left us with just a wee bit of staining to do and a bunch of pretty flowers to pot (since all of mine had lately died). Phillip and I finished the staining on Saturday and touched it up on Sunday and I not-so-patiently waited until this morning to move our furniture from the back porch to the front. My grandparent's neighbors recently sold their house and wanted to get rid of their staging furniture. I got all this gorgeous stuff for free! Yay! We currently have 3 dogs tearing up our back yard (2 of which we are watching on a semi-permanent hopefully temporary basis) so I needed to get that furniture away from their grubby sleeping bodies and boredom-induced pillow shredding sessions. I want to show you the flowers, too, but I haven't weeded my yard in a shameful number of weeks and it's not pretty. Also I just potted them yesterday and they're not great looking just yet. I cannot wait to drink my coffee out here in the mornings and read books in the shade of our giant pine trees! 

P.S. The stain is photographing weird, but it's actually incredibly pretty. We used Cabot's Australian Deck Oil in "Natural" and it is awesome so far. 

It feels great to finish a project now and then! Thanks Mom, Lydia, and Sophie!