Wonderful wicker and happy hostas...

Good evening friends! I hope that you're all well.

We have had a busy couple of days doing a face lift of our front porch. The new black porch swing is up (more on that in a future post), and while my husband was masterminding that process yesterday, I decided to give our old and tired wicker furniture some punch by painting it black to match the swing.

A very bad picture of the old wicker. 

Here you see it in the driveway after I rinsed it off.

It was crying out for some help.

You can see by the color of the siding on the house that

there was just not much contrast...

The spray paint that I used for the job.

That little attachment nozzle thingy makes

it all so much easier...

The furniture, in the woods, after the coffee table

was partially painted...

Settee partially painted...

First coat completed on all pieces, but still a little streaky...

So, while the chairs were drying in stages,

I divided and re-planted a large hosta plant.

Voles ate the roots last summer,

so I dug out what was left of it in the fall.

It wintered over in a pot without much attention.

Yesterday I moved it back to the shady side of the

garden shed. On the left below is the clump, dumped out

of the pot after a million ants that were nesting within

vacationed on my arm, and dined well courtesy of

same arm.

It looks like my next project will be to paint

this old bistro table and chairs!

After I gobbled down two Benadryl,

I decided to keep a safe distance from my hungry friends,

and completed the division with the assistance of my

pitchfork...

...then trotted over to the the compost bin for some black gold.

This is the side of the shed that the pretties were

added to...

And here is what one of the two divided pieces now look like,

flanked by their new friends, the well-established lariopes.

Even the compost bin was fun, with something

new and unidentified growing at the base of it.

Last year it was hydrangeas, and the year

before squash. I dump so many vegetable scraps

 and plant cuttings into it, that we never know

what the seeds will bring the following year.

I am hoping for zucchini

or cucumbers in this crop...

And of course, a trip to the fridge to get the scraps from

the last few days, kept in the fridge in a covered container...

...to fill in the hole from the compost that I just dug out.

At the end of the day...Wicker almost finished. Cost: About 10 cans of paint. Porch swing up. Cost: The price of the swing plus extra chain. Hostas planted. Cost: Free. The feeling of accomplishment: PRICELESS!

I hope that you had a great day!!