The Front Porch, Or The Room I Am In All The Time

We had a cloudy/rainy weekend a few weeks back; the first one in about 2-1/2 months. I decided to make the best of a weekend indoors, and I did the whole porch. Now, I LOVE sitting out there. It's much cooler than the rest of the house and since it is enclosed, I don't have to worry about mosquitoes. They have taken over my back yard and every time I step outside for even a brief moment, I get another bite. Bug spray doesn't help, so I have enjoyed my tea or glass of wine on the front porch for the first time in about a year. Also, while I can't actually see the sunset, if the sky is orange, the porch glows. I love August sunsets.

Here are the results. Be mindful that NOTHING in this room matches. It's a collection of stuff I bought/thrifted at different times. One day, my goal is to have a nice wicker furniture set out here. Till then, just having it neat and clean is enough.

This was a gift from my mother in law several years ago. It's made of that melamine(?) plastic and can also be hung on the wall. I just haven't had a chance to hang it, so it sits on one of the bookcases and
is the first thing you see when you come in the door.

The coat closet. I put away as many of the baseball caps as I could.
These two are destined to stay out, but at least they are on hooks.

 The couch, where I sit and relax, blog, and nap. These windows connect to my living room.

This is the side facing the driveway. I moved our indoor/outdoor fountain indoors where I can actually enjoy it. Unfortunately, the first weekend it was there, I was watching a dog that used the fountain
as her own personal water bowl.

This is the shoe rack. At the moment, there is simply nowhere else to put it. 

This is the larger of the two matching lanterns. I decided to put the smaller one out on my back patio with a real candle, and place all three of the battery operated ones in here. A bold move on my part.

The bottom part of the window sill in the photo above is a piece of wood trim nailed to the sill because my former dog chewed it to shreds. Don't ask. It needs to be painted, which has been on my to do list for eons. I'm not quite ready to do that yet because once I do, I'll have to paint the rest of the windows and that can turn into quite a project. 

I'm not sure yet what my next project will be. I think I'll work on my wardrobe for the next round of Project 333. 

I also really need to finish tackling the basement, as well as our spare bedroom, and my boys' bedroom, and...

...those darned CDs. Yup, still waiting.

Things will be hectic here for a few more weeks but I will try to make posting twice a week a priority. Thanks for visiting and stop back soon.

Aaahhhh, Symmetry

Let's recap. Here is my fireplace wall right after Christmas but before I added the second bookcase and decluttered the DVDs, which were in the large cabinet on the right side.

Here is the final version.

The DVD/CD cabinet is now in the basement housing my boys' video games (still in their original plastic containers -- I can't even go there yet). I also removed the big candle lanterns on each side of the mantle because I wasn't feeling it; it was too much. I moved the lamp to the right because that's a dark corner, and while I would love to have identical lamps, I'm not going to buy another one, mostly because I got this lamp many years ago and they probably don't make it anymore. I won't buy matching lamps because that would be the opposite of what I'm trying to do. The square candle lantern on the left is about the same size and satisfies my need for symmetry, so I'll keep it like this. 

I know many of the home decor magazines turn their interior design noses up at symmetry, but I NEED it. I think it may have something to do with being a Pisces, or maybe not. Either way, I don't feel the need to be trendy when it comes to my home decor, and I think it's important to do what makes you happy. And this makes me happy. 

Finally, were twinkle lights always called "fairy" lights? And if so, how could I not know that?!?!