French door for the shed and filming with Matthew Mead

 So much progress to talk about in regards to the ramshackle shed project!

As you can see its looking quite finished, which it practically is now.

Instead of using just an old screen door I had from Brimfield, I spotted a pair of

old french doors for sale on a Facebook yardsale page, so I ran off to buy them.

I hoped I could have the pair of them on the shed, but together they were too wide,

so we settled for one.  I painted it black and hubs installed it for me with my help.

Its quite darling, and since the shed is very tiny and has no windows, this glass

door seems to be the perfect solution for both adding style and light to the structure.

 Since I hate heights, even the shortest of heights, Justin did the entire roof 

with the cedar shingles.  Topping it off with a cedar shingle ridge treatment,

it is finished and basically waterproof now! 

 The idea to stain the exterior with a solid white was so it would go along with the house and the white arbor.  Using a big fat 5" wide brush made short work of painting the siding.  I still have two sides left to do, and that will likely be done next week.

 It is really adorable and I can't wait to clean up the site, put away the saws and ladders and all the tools.  Then move in my rakes and shovels and gardeny stuff.  The interior is not going to be all dolled up, its just going to be a utilitarian garden shed.  Over time that may change, but I have a small tomato garden that is going gangbusters and I just want to keep up with the watering and weeding and staking of the plants. 

The arbor needs a coat of the same stain, so I have been tackling that as well.

I also whipped up a new umbrella cover using Sunbrella Cabana Classic in black and white

which looks pretty with the black door and the white siding of the shed.

I will post more on how I did that project, but in essence it was simply taking off the umbrella

fabric (did you know you can do that?) and then copying it as a pattern to cut new fabric pieces

and then sew them together. Much quicker and cheaper than buying a new umbrella!

 So the shed is part of the backyard transformation, and it is really 

looking cute back here in the courtyard.  After I get all the tools put

away I will share some pics.

 In other news I have been doing a few things with Matthew Mead.  Yesterday he came out 

to the house to photograph my office studio for the magazine, Where Women Create.  

He brings flowers for the shoots he does, and they are an essential ingredient to a room looking as 

pretty as it can possibly be....and so after it was over I put one of the arrangements on the 

dining room table and I just loved how pretty it looked in the room.
Flowers really bring a room to life.

 Colby has recovered from being neutered and is just being terrific.  He is getting more affectionate as he gets older, and his one year birthday is coming next week, so we will be celebrating with a steak dinner for all!! 

The other fun thing I did last week was appear in a short film that Matthew Mead is 

preparing for the Haven Conference in August.  Haven is a conference for bloggers.  Yup,

like most industries with their conferences, blogging has several, and Haven is a big one.

While I was in a lot of the film with Matthew, sometimes I was watching him

 shoot his bits, and so I filmed a bit of the behind the scenes.  

Wouldn't it be fun to see more of this?  

He is so much fun to hang with, 

and some of this will be on our next Youtube video. 

 Stay tuned for that...and the shed....

and Colby's birthday party!