kid tested, Olive approved

Olive's bed for the porch arrived this morning.  I brought it inside and announced "your bed is here" and our son thought I was talking to him so he promptly laid on the dog bed in the living room once I had unwrapped it.  Olive stood by looking confused as usual.

Now it is nap time and Olive got to check out her very own addition to the porch.

Hopefully she will embrace it.  It is new and not dirty and stinky like the old bed she had on the porch so I can see why it might be less inviting at the moment.

That green is a seriously good match though!

Have a happy weekend! 

hanging lantern

We have some improvements planned for our porch.  It is a great space that we get a lot of use out of but it needs to be prettied up and fussed with so we can really make the most of it.  The concrete floor is dirty and stained.  We are going to power wash it and stain it in the spring.  We need a new outdoor rug and I'd love to find a lounge chair.  We like to eat lunch and dinner in the porch when the weather is nice and these sunny winter days get it really toasty too so we've been hanging in it a bunch lately.   There are no lights out there and we had some string lights up but they always looked sorta messy to me.  Yesterday at home goods I saw this on clearance for $8

It's a solar lantern but judging from the mysterious rattling in the little solar panel that part is busted.  I can easily fit a solar candle or battery operated candle inside so I wasn't bothered by that.

I thought it would look nice suspended about the table.  A lantern chandelier.  I grabbed some leftover chain from our dining room chandelier

I played around with the lantern to figure out how low I wanted it to hang then opened up the chain with pliers so it would be the right length.

Then time to spray paint the chain black so it matches the lantern.

It is hard to spray paint chain by the way, you are always missing a spot!

After what seemed like 40 coats we were in business.

I screwed a little hook into the ceiling over the table and wrapped a little black wire along the top of the lantern and the chain to attach the two and...

I took the plastic thingy out of the inside.  I'm not sure if that was to help it illuminate with the little solar bulb or what but with a plain white pillar candle it looks much nicer.

I like it!  Looks a little more polished and as we make the other improvements out there I think it will start to feel like an extension of our home rather than the dirty porch with a mish mash of stuff.  I've got a plan for another light out there that I'll be trying to figure out.

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Delightful Order
Shabby Creek cottage
The Sasse Life
At The Picket Fence
French Country Cottage