Remember a couple of years ago when Cate and Grace fixed up the old attic? Well, that inspiration got the wheels in my head turning, and I decided I wanted to convert our shed by the garden into a special place for Evie, as well as make the surrounding areas of the garden extra nice and fun to be in. We have so much land, and so many overgrown areas, that getting the yard into shape is actually quite daunting. But I think I've realized that, no different from house cleaning, I needed to just tackle one area of the yard at a time. We currently have three outbuilding that are currently stuffed full to overflowing with junk, filled with hornet's nests, and overwhelm me if I think too much about the work that needs to be done. However, spending the weekend on this little project for Evie, and the garden has given me a little momentum to keep forging ahead and plotting how to tackle some other outside areas that need work.
This shed really wasn't too bad to begin with, and it is still not done, but so far it has been a fun project for the whole family. Pinterest has proven to be its usual help, or danger, depending on how you look at it. After deciding to make the shed into a fun, cozy house for Evie, I looked to see if Pinterest had and ideas for me (Ha!). Well, apparently making sheds into charming, feminine spaces is a thing? They call them She Sheds. Hahahahahahahaha, I know, right? Anyway, I for one find that hilarious. But, thankfully, there was no shortage of ideas. I'm hoping to be able to sort through all that junk I was telling you about, and be able to make the shed super charming just with things we have on hand.
I did have to buy paint, of course, and I'm sort of already regretting my economical decision to do everything, including the floor, in white. But I have found that floor paint really does wipe down well, so I am hoping it will work out all right when Evie and her friends play in there. I also painted the bike- an old, rusted one of Grace's. I plan to cover it with flower baskets. And, you may not believe me, but I did come up with the idea of painting an old bike for decoration, before peeking to see if anyone on Pinterest had ever done so. Yes, yes, indeed, they had. So much "painted bike covered with flowers" inspiration.
We painted our old crib. It was Cate's baby crib. So many memories. Grace, Gideon, and Evie used it. After Evie, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but Jude, Truman and Clemmie never slept in it. We didn't live in a home that was big enough for a special, private baby nursery, and as infants they slept in our bed. After that, I moved them to a Porta-crib, because our house was such that I needed to move the crib in different rooms throughout the day so the baby could get a quiet nap. We converted the crib to a daybed a few years back and put it in the play room for cozy seating. But when I painted the shed white, I knew a gleaming white daybed/couch would be perfect. So the crib got painted, too, giving it new life from 17 years ago.
We also needed to purchase the flowers (though the random assortment of pots were all things we had on hand). The flowers were very fun for Evie to get to pick out, her own special choices. I hope she will find them special enough that she will keep the flowers watered and alive. But anything else I plant out there I hope will be perennial, so I don't need to buy more flowers every year. I did buy clematis, to get started on the more long term picture. Also, I really hope to actually plant a couple of trees out there for shade. If they are on the west side, they will not shade the garden at all, but will hopefully, in a few years, be able to shed and the other things in that section that are currently in the direct sun. It gets very hot. I'm not a very experienced gardener, flower arranger, or landscaper. So I'm sure it will be trial and error. But that's kind of the point of gardening, right? Year by year, adding and adjusting and learning what works and what doesn't, watching the area change with time?
Okay, so, let me close this post by showing you pictures of what we have done so far.
