get crafty!

Josh and I love spending time out on our deck. We're out there everyday for at least one meal and usually every evening as well. I've been trying to make it feel more like an outdoor living space, but have been struggling with decor and colors.....and a budget.

Fortunately, we've been able to find a few pieces at yard sales (or, ahem, on the side of the road) that just needed a little scrubbing and paint. Our back porch isn't finished (is any room really ever finished?!) but we're getting closer.

My most recent project was lighting. We do spend a lot of evenings out on our back deck but the lighting is not that great. We've thought about lights mounted to the brick wall, overhead strings of globe lights, and all kinds of things outside our budget. Oh yeah, the budget. What exactly was our budget again? Oh yeah, $0.

I scoured my crafting trunk and couldn't find anything that I could fashion into lighting (although I did find a cool blog about turning empty baby food jars into a chandelier....but we were missing the baby food jars.) So, I went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore armed with $5.

I found the most jacked-up brass chandelier ever. I actually asked them if they would give it to me for free, but I had to settle for the $5.

i took all the pieces apart,
got out my trusty black rustoleum spray paint.....

and voila!
perfect outdoor candelabra!

i love our little shepherd's hook too---we can move the candelabra around anywhere we want
ahhhh, the deck is coming along

all we need now:
bar stools
more pots for plantings
more plants

anyone have any extras??