Patio Post

So this material in my earlier post....

...was used to cover this old ugly cushion.

My patio furniture needed an upgrade and I finally got it finished. I used to have some before pictures of it but they got lost somewhere. But you can see the difference, right?

I made a few changes and that included the sides and corners of each cushion. It made it look much cleaner and it was much simpler to do than all that piping.

The old cushions hooked onto the furniture with velcro. But what I learned that velcro left outside becomes less and less velcro-ey and the cushions would NEVER stay put. If a wind storm came up, I had to gather cushions from all over my yard. So I swapped the velcro tabs for tie-on strings. Also, the old cushions were sewn together and so there was no way to take the covers off to wash them. I closed them shut with, yes, velcro, but it won't be exposed like the other velcro tabs were.

And after giving the patio set a fresh coat of hammered-texture black paint, making the whole set look much nicer and sharper, it was finally finished and ready to be put together. It's about time because my backyard and my patio is my favorite place to be if I'm at home chillin':

The final product:

Just in time for a friend get together with some good friends from High School. We enjoyed BBQ chicken, cheese fondue (duuuhhhh), salad and some delicious cherries. It was a way nice evening and even nicer to have cushions to sit on - and cute ones at that!

While I'm at it, I'll show you my flower pots that got a make-over, too. These pots used to be green and then they were all spray-painted black for my wedding. After nearly 4 years, the paint was coming off and they were very weathered. So I spruced them up and made them happier and more cheerful:

I love all the colors but I especially like my purple one. Grow Dahlia, grow I say!!!:

And now since we're on flowers, let's move to the garden! It's coming along really great so far. We have the watering system set up even better than last year and have three seperate groups that have different watering frequencies and lengths.

I have five different tomato plants, one of which is an heirloom I'm excited for. The typical zucchini, summer squash, crook neck squash, lemon cucumber, beans, carrots (which don't ever do so well in my garden) and beets. I used to do corn but I'm not a believer in the nutritional value of corn and since I haven't been able to get corn to grow well the couple of years, I ditched it.

New this year is lilac, jalepeno and pablano peppers (as well as sweet red and green), red onions, green onions, potatoes and garlic.

I already have some Sugary cherry tomatoes coming on (very nummy!) and a few peppers. I can't wait for everything, especially the tomatoes!