Since it is back to school time I thought we’d do some arts and crafts.
Painting 101: chalkpaint is the best invention ever….no prep, just paint. Many people like Annie’s Sloan’s line but I use Americana Décor which you can get at Michael’s, a bargain with a 40% off coupon. This chair was a $5 thrift store find – I found it outside the store when I was dropping some stuff off. I used Serene Blue which is a lovely soft shade.
It was originally intended as an extra chair for the patio but it looked so nice that I put it in the spare bedroom. I have also used Vintage green on this weathered table with great results.
Scavenger Hunt: I saw this abandoned wrought iron cart on the street put out for the garbage pickup, so I asked the homeowner, who it turned out I knew, if I could have it. She even delivered it for me as it wouldn’t fit in my car trunk. It was an ugly sunflower yellow but I spray painted it lime green with paint from the hardware store. I’m not a big fan of lime green in general but it’s okay on a garden ornament, and it held my lime green pots up off the ground and away from the bunnies. I have been teased about picking up stuff at the curb on garbage day but it is amazing what people will throw out. I once got a white vinyl corner picket fence that retails for $50. I dragged it across the road from my mother’s neighbour to her garage. They were new neighbours and obviously didn’t like the garden décor as they also threw out a $300 white arbour, but it was gone in thirty minutes, before I could find someone with a truck.
Most recently I scooped up a turquoise Adirondack chair which just needs a bit of retouching, it’s plastic but stack-able so good for when you need an extra chair beside the campfire. I placed it under my maple tree and plan to sit and read there when it turns colour.
Crafts: Take two $4 dollar store fall foliage sprays (I always try to get some with corn stalks or wheat),
and twist them around a green floral holder to make an attractive gravestone wreath. I recycled last years as it was still in good condition. You can also fill it out with leaf garlands and a harvest bow.
My dad died in Sept and as a farmer, autumn was always his favourite time of year, once all the crops were in. So much attractive than those garish purple and yellow things floral shops sell for sixty dollars plus…..and much more frugal. I think my dad would approve. PS. I have done the same thing at Christmas with Christmas garlands.
So there you have it…..class dismissed!
It doesn’t seem to matter how early I plant them, this year in mid-May, but they never bloom until September. Along with the dinner plate hibiscus, they are usually summer’s last hurrah. 
I remember wearing a stylish dark cotton plaid dress the first day of grade eight when I was just starting to be fashion savvy, and thinking it was the grooviest thing ever. High school meant a whole week of dress up days before we were regulated into ugly navy-blue nun-like uniforms with white shirts (which my mother had to iron every morning) and no pants either, although the boys could wear ripped jeans and t-shirts with bad sayings…..you would not get away with that kind of discrimination today. How I would have welcomed a nice plaid kilt like other Catholic schools had. Dress up days were also held the first Friday of the month and were a cutthroat competition as to who could look the most like a Seventeen model. I remember wearing a short plum skirt with a gold blouse and a plum vest with a gold plaid pattern on the front, and thinking it was the epitome of style…. kind of like a cheerleader’s outfit. Although I was never the type, I envied them their uniforms. Skirts were short, (looking back, really short), as it was the early seventies, and the nuns would go around measuring with a ruler if they were in a particularly mean mood. One winter when I was sixteen I bought a wool plaid winter coat at Saks where we hardly ever shopped because it was too expensive, simply because the sales lady talked me into it by telling me I looked like the cover of Mademoiselle, a magazine I was not familiar with at the time as it was for college students. I think I only wore it one year as the next year it was out of style, and the plaid was way too loud and garish. University meant jeans and plain polyester shirts with the occasional sweater – we were poor students with no money and high rent living in a big city where there was lovely shopping but who could afford it. We window-shopped instead. In first year, my roommate and I so coveted Viyella plaid housecoats that we used to stop by the nightwear department at the Eaton’s store and visit them when we were downtown. I finally bought a knockoff version because you had to have something to put on in the girls dorm, because horrors what if you ran into some guy in the washroom. 
I had bought 3 different types, cherry, Roma and beefsteak, and planted them in half of the planter box as the other half was taken up with two strawberry plants 
(which did well and provided berries for salads all summer), and lettuce, romaine and leaf , (which also did well). How lovely to be able to go outside and just pick just what you needed for a salad, instead of buying at the grocery store and throwing half of it out a week later. I also stuck a 
Luckily my neighbour took pity on me one day and thinned the tops (which is supposed to concentrate the plant energy in the fruit), and staked them for me, to let the sun in. 
A few weeks after that, I had a bumper crop. But then what to do with all those tomatoes? There are two types of people – those that love tomatoes and usually grow their own – and the rest. Luckily I managed to find a few neighbours to share some of the bounty with. 
Still there is something memorable about the smell of a fresh picked tomato, so maybe next year, I’ll try making spaghetti sauce – send tried and true recipes if able, light on the spices please. 
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