Pardon My Absence, I’ve Been Projecting

If you’re a frequent follower, you may remember me congratulating our friends on their recent Traverse City home purchase. Sure, it’s not their first home, but Tony and I felt like the landmark occasion warranted a housewarming gift. The only problem with that is we did not know what to get. What do you get people who have been married for several years and have a fair collection of stuff they intend to drop off at Goodwill before they complete their move?

Jim and Jess closed on their house back in mid-May, and it wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that a confluence of ideas sparked in Tony’s mind and he came to me with a thought: what if we made them an ottoman for their porch from a pallet? It might be a tad brazen to decorate someone else’s new front porch, but here’s the gist of why we did it anyway:

-While at a local restaurant the other day – that both Jim and Jess had bragged about their decorating prowess – Jess mentioned how much she loved their (pallet) furniture.
-They’ve already spent more time on their new porch than they did in the house they’ve rented for two years, but lamented that it did not have an ottoman.
-We’ve joked multiple times about the seriously outdated cushions on their glider.
-Jess and I have conversed many, many minutes re: decorating and color choice preferences.

So, here’s what we’ve been up to (we hope the love it!):

Since Sunday, we’ve painted and planted three flower pots, converted two empty crates into an end table, chopped a pallet up and repositioned the pieces as an ottoman, sewed two glider cushions and one ottoman cushion – including all new cushion guts, and hand-painting a driftwood sign (JC3 = Jess, Jim, and Jackson Clifton), rock-owl, and set of coasters.

You can see why I haven’t been terribly busy on the blog the past few days. I’ll work on it – promise! In the meantime, I did manage to spend a couple minutes with the gorgeous setting sun last night.

What’s keeping you busy this summer?