beautifying the front porch.

the following picture is brought to you, with special thanks to my ridiculousness/stupidity….

I wanted this picture to be all sorts of dramatical, so I planned to take it at night.

well, I also needed to be level with the porch, so that required a stool..

and well, my prime lens was the best option to get the most light without using a flash, so I had to be farther way, like, in the middle of the lawn.

so there I was, looking pretty ridiculous, standing on a kitchen stool, in the middle of my front lawn, late-ish one night.

(see, I thought I was smart doing it later, like less cars, but no.  not so much less in the traffic area.)

I spent one monday afternoon, hitting the town with my two best short sidekicks, trying to find the perfect flowers for the porch, that gets mostly shade, a teeny-tiny bit of sun, not much at all.  my short little sidekicks were pretty good at spotting the “part sun” and “shade” symbols on the various flowers and plants by the end of the day.

they were also very good at listening to me when we went into the scariest thrift store that I like to visit, but only when I am feeling exceptionally brave (or desperate).

I told them that they were not to leave my side, touch anything, or say a word about what the place smelled like, until we were back in the safety of our car. 

we came out successful in all areas.

we found our rickety (but not too rickety) old stool that was perfect for some black paint and roughing up.

the last thing I needed was to have a giant “p” on my door.

(and depending on where your mind is at the moment, that sentence sounds kinda gross.)

off to joann’s we went, and it is a mess there!  (just a heads up to anyone in my hood.) I mean, it’s all exciting and junk, but it’s kinda scary and gross all at the same time.  my feelings on the matter are quite obviously mixed.

we made our way through the crazy place, got our big “p”, and some moss.

now before you go shaking your head, saying, “what a mess that must have been.  was it really worth it?”  let me tell you about sheet moss.  it is moss that comes in a…  get this..  SHEET!

it is quite amazing, still a little messy, but amazing none-the-less.

I used my trusty and most favorite (and only) hot glue gun, to attach the moss first to the front of the letter, then trimmed the edges, and then to the sides, trimming and piecing all the way around until everything but the back was covered.  the nice thing about this stuff is, there are no seams.

pretty sweet.

and it’s lovely and green, and I figure it can live on the front door for quite a while.