Entertaining is one of our family's very favorite things to do. We like to throw dinner parties and birthday parties, welcome home parties and goodbye parties. We do backyard movies, and we do bonfires. Especially now that we have kids, it's so helpful to have people come to us, instead of pondering the logistical nightmare of putting our kids down to sleep at a friend's house. Maybe even more than me and Nekos, Tessa loves to have people over. She does the ugly cry when it's time for our friends to say goodbye.
Nekos and I aren't cold weather people. Have you noticed all my gloomy posts recently? I at least partially blame the weather. We like the sunshine, and we like leaving the doors wide open so that the fresh air goes in and the music comes out. Nekos likes to garden (me, not so much) and grill, and I like to sit and sip cold beverages and spread blankets out on the grass. We all like the sun to stay up long enough so that we can take a walk after dinner.
Both our back deck and our front porch need some major love this season to get it ready for our warm weather entertaining. The deck is coated in algae (which I've read that OxiClean, a scrub brush, and a hose pipe can do wonders for), and the brick-colored paint on the porch is filthy and chipping off. (Here's a look at our porch now.) Worst of all, our porch gives us a bird's eye view of our next door neighbors' front porch. We're not the biggest fans of these people (they tried to steal our cable last year, among other offenses). We want a privacy screen so we can pretend they aren't there. So, spring project No. 1 is our front porch, which I'd like to at least get started on before Tessa's third birthday party in a few weeks. As usual, it involves lots and lots of paint. Here's what I have in mind:
Striped porch - Garden & Gun (Here's a great tutorial from the "Our Vintage Home Love" blog for painting the stripes on a porch.)
Paints - Benjamin Moore
Privacy screen DIY - Four Generations, One Roof blog
Doormat - Garnet Hill
Outdoor pillow - Joss & Main
Vintage patio chair + flowers - Pinterest
Maybe, too, if I get really ambitious, I might paint the beadboard ceiling "haint blue." Have you heard of this color (or, rather, range of colors)? Going way back, legend has it that haint blue keeps evil spirits out of your house and discourages bugs, too. Cool, huh?
