Putting the RRRRRRRRRRR in Red!

The best way to wake up a sleepy spring morning is with a bucket of red! My favourites are geraniums but petunias, impatiens, anything in vivid red - each one a more welcome jolt than even the smokiest of coffees! You can pad them with white or yellow bitty flowers and they lose nothing in their cartoon loveliness....but the best red is enhanced by more red....buckets...beds...fields of red.

As I carried my most recent red acquisitions to the car yesterday, I passed another 'redhead' and smiled at the smug look on her face. She loaded her cargo with such excitement that an entire flat of redness landed on the pavement. Providing her with the dignity she deserved, I looked the other way, then tucked my six precious plants into the back seat with extra special care.

What's in a Shed?

When you're attempting to run a wee business from your home, it's hard to get a handle on how to present one's wares. I've chosen a shed. A white shed. It's there, it's out front, and it's not busy, so we're putting it to work. After emptying out the various non-essentials from it's floors and walls, it was as we suspected - just trying to look busy - but really not doing anything at all. So now, it's painted white inside and out.... gradually being dressed in white lights and refurbished furniture for sale, so that very soon the humble little white shed will become a humble little white shed...with a job!

Vignettes

This picture was borrowed from Corey Amaro's Tongue in Cheek blog, and it couldn't have been staged better. Kind of looks like it's from a stage....a french farce maybe? Where are the two people who shared the bottle of wine? Did they take it from the restaurant?....perhaps while the waiters were chatting? So much happening in this photo that wondering what's on the front of the canvases doesn't even occur to me....until now.

so many chairs...so little paint...

Treated merely as a place to rest your rump, it matters little what colour you're plopped on, but as a gathering, a group, an ensemble....painted chairs wield plenty of power. They can affect the mood you're in before you sit down, even cause you not to sit. Cornflower yellow chairs always beckon, for example, while a muddy purple can look a little stand offish. When in doubt, make them all different. Every colour, many styles, all around a solid round table. Each chair costs $40 to $60. Kind of puts us to mind of when we sat around the kindergarten table....and those were solid good times!

A Silk Purse?

Some things just cannot be enhanced.....rough and ready....and not even very comfortable....but surround them with something lush, something green, and a thing of beauty is born. Old wooden chairs are a favourite...to look at...to position....and to wonder about. Who bought it and why? This particular gem was probably the crowning jewel in someone's backyard loungewear once upon a time. Stockings would get snagged after church on Sundays. On the patio. In a wooden chair. Divine!

Egg Day

Under all the brown leaves, you'd think a yard in the country, festooned with wild bunnies, would be laden with eggs...but none. Not one. Just mud....and crocuses (croci), and bluebells, and a roll up your rim to win trimming. No eggs. Summer hit with a thud. Just a few short hours of spring. Bunny's likely at the beach.

What about Easter?

Though not a big holiday in our house, I have a healthy respect for it in others. With a family full of Ariens (the astrological, not the political), birthday celebrations override easter bonnets, and finding a few tiny eggs on the rim of a lamp was our largest reward. Besides, some people wear hats better than others. My mom always said that the idea of gift giving at Easter was for families who needed fresh, new clothes for Easter Sunday church services. That always shut us up.