NEW PAIR OF WINGS

Hello outdoors!!  We’re well into a lovely warm spring and summer will be close behind! It’s time to start living outdoors again!! Wootwoot!! When I was a kid in the 70’s running around barefoot, laying on the grass, hanging around in trees, making a hideout out of the shed and drinking from garden hoses was the way we did summer back then.  And it really was carefree and wonderful! But now that we’re adults and drinking hoses are 🚫 forbidden, and climbing up into trees might cause permanent injury, all the fun of summer is gone right?  Heavens no! It’s just a little bit different kind of fun.😎

Mum and I are homebodies, but we do enjoy having friends over and doing some entertaining especially when the weather is fine.  The pool is a wonderful thing we can share with others, and we’ve set up our back yard with several outdoor rooms for our own comfort and for the comfort and enjoyment of our guests.

Most of our outdoor furniture has been collected over time.  I love end of season clearance sales and we’ve gotten cushy chairs and our bar as floor models, which came with an additional % off and they’re all really nice quality and have been with us for years.  The bar is a draw and guests usually sit at the bar and enjoy their meals and visiting, and having alot of beverage seeking peeps wandering thru our small kitchen, while trying to prepare food for guests was not working well, so we were definitely in need of an alternate beverage buffet.  We also wanted a place to store towels, sunscreen, goggles and lessen the wet feet👣 traveling back into the house for forgotten items.

We shopped around abit, but it was hard to find something that would provide the multiple needs we wanted it for.  While out and about one day we found a surfboard shaped glass table top, and of course we needed to bring it home!

Necessity being the mother of invention, the ideas for how to use the glass top began churning thru my brain.  I tried using it several different ways including on the bar, thinking it might make it a little bigger, but that really didn’t work.  I finally tried it on top of the dresser and even though it overhangs a little it actually fits really well. Then when our ice water dispenser needed a lift so that you could put a cup under it, I went garage shopping and found the crates we were using as boxes on a shelf .  They worked perfectly and also gave us a space to store trays and to tuck cups and bottles when we have guests.

We also noticed that time tends to get lost when you’re chilling by the pool, so we brought out this large clock, that we made from an old sign and a very inexpensive plastic clock, so now wherever we are in the yard, we know when it’s time to start the burgers!

We shopped the house and added an old mirror, a potted plant, some outdoor candle lanterns and our old oil lamp as useful and pretty decor.  That stained glass lamp, is a free roadside find and an old hanging chandelier that we finaggled and combined to give a little more light to this side of the patio. The lidded basket that a friend gave us is perfect for trash  with a plastic bag lining the inside too.

It was almost all free!! And it’s been a fun and so useful addition to our outdoor life and makes summer fun that much more comfortable!

I hope that you’ve been inspired to rethink and upcycle something that you already have and help your outdoor life become a little bit easier, prettier and more fun!

For more great upcycle and reuse ideas and inspiration check out my friend Gina’s place The Shabby Creek Cottage.