change . . . always change

A couple of years ago we bought 2 chaises at IKEA

with plain old black cushions.

The first thing I did was make covers for the chaises out of a pretty striped fabric that I had on hand.

I loved the colorful stripes, but they faded quickly.

I replaced the striped covers with new covers made from an old duvet.

I really love these covers, but I thought it might be nice to have a fresh look for summer.

I found my old childhood chenille bedspread in the attic and cut it in half to make new slip-on covers for the chaises.

All the pillows were borrowed from a garden bench and

the nice thing about the white covers is that I can use just almost any of the plethora of pillow covers I have cluttering the attic.

These pillows covers will be what I use next on chaises if I can just find the second red floral pillow in the attic.

A sad change in the garden is the clearing of the jungle.

The Matilija poppy plant that was nearly as tall as the windows had to be trimmed back, but things are slowly growing back.

Last week I showed you how I used my father's old pitchfork in the garden.

This morning I dug out more of my father's old tools, stuck them in the flower bed and decorated them with last year's beach toys.

I know it's silly, but we look at the wall of studio when we sit by the fire pit at night

and the colorful toys combined with the vintage tools make me smile.

You might be surprised to hear that I like this little change in the garden - I asked Steve for a tall, skinny painting for the living room.

He brought his easel and paints into the yard to do a bit of plein air painting of the view from his favorite bench.

This change is only temporary for the garden, but it will trigger some changes in the living room soon.

The one constant in our house is CHANGE!
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Simple Pleasures

It's been a crazy week for us with out of town guests, a late Father's Day celebration, 8.5 hours of driving for me on Wednesday . . .

But even on busy days, I take time to look around and enjoy life's simple pleasures.

I am loving the canna lilies

that are slowly blooming all over the garden.

Steve and I escaped the heat and hit the water in our kayaks.

That long drive on Wednesday (4 hours each way) for a reunion planning meeting led to me spotting a gorgeous garden.

I moved a little table onto the back porch - 

it needs to be painted, but for now it's dressed up with a patriotic display.

Out shopping the other day, I came across these little pieces of wood in one of my favorite shops

and that led to me writing words on a piece of driftwood.

I gathered shells, sea glass and starfish

to create a summer centerpiece for the dining room table.

Along with shells and starfish, my beach bucket collection is on display for summer.

While tackling the jungle the other day, I propped a shovel against the house - that gave me the idea of displaying my father's old garden tools all over the garden.

My final pleasure was actually Steve's - while I was driving in LA traffic, he spotted our resident bluebird hanging out on the most recent addition to the garden.

What were your simple pleasures this week?

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