I've got a couple of questions for you: First, have you ever read the book by Dr. Seuss titled "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish"? I'm pretty sure that it was the very first book that I ever read aloud. It was a favorite at the time.
That book...and one called Green Eggs and Ham. As I think about it, I loved just about any Seuss book. They were fun, and colorful...and a little bit silly. Like me when I was five.
And let's face it, if you grew up when I did, pretty much anything break from Dick, Jane and Spot.
My second question may seem a little odd and unrelated...but if you'll hang with me for a few minutes, you'll understand why I'm asking. The question is this: Are you a "theme gardener"? What I mean by that is, if you plant annuals at your home each year, are they always the same color or do you like to change it up from year to year?
The reason that I'm asking is that I like to change things up a little bit each year. The annuals that fill my window boxes and the urn on the stone wall of my home as well as those that line my flower beds generally have a theme or at least a coordinating color scheme
....and sometimes, as was the case two years ago, even my patio furniture is involved.
Truly, looking back at these photos, I'm not exactly certain why it happened but not a single piece of patio furniture or clay pot was spared.
I've gotta believe that I was having a subliminal throwback to my childhood when I did this....it was very clearly a One Fish, Two Fish-inspired theme....don't you think so?
It was certainly bright...and colorful...and even, um...whimsical?! Yes, let's just go with whimsical because I have no other plausible explanation for the choices that I made that year.
Blaming it on a Dr. Seuss theme sounds so much nicer than admitting that for whatever reason, I may have temporarily lost my mind at Home Depot that day....filling my cart with every brightly colored bloom that I could find before swinging through the paint department for cans of spray paint to match them.
My garden was a riot of color...my patio furniture, well...that was just a riot....the kind where the police should show up and haul people off until they calm down and order can be restored.
Having a brightly colored, Seuss themed, garden and patio for a year was fun but I have to admit, it never really felt like me.
Last year, the back patio furniture got it's $3 patio cushion shower curtain makeover (assisted by about $20 worth of white primer and spray paint), a hand painted harlequin outdoor rug and a crazy lamp made from paint stirs. The colors were softer, the vintage, reclaimed and hand made things that I love so much were back...and all was right with the world...
...almost.
While I did finish the makeover on the back patio last year, my front patio...the one that everyone sees, looked like this:
So, this weekend, after I got home from visiting my oldest at college for "Mom's Weekend", and the temperatures rose into the low 70's, I grabbed some white primer and a few cans of white spray paint and erased the last of the Seuss theme!
I can't wait to show you how it turned out....I think that it feels much more Anne of Green Gables or maybe even Little House on the Prairie. It's certainly much more my usual farm girl French style.
Now I just need to figure out the flowers!
xo,
