Last night my husband and I sat out on our front porch in the white wicker rockers I bought at the thrift store. The air was warm and still; blue jays hawked and cardinals serenaded. In the distance we could hear the joyous voices of children enjoying the summer evening.

Our porch is narrow but comfortable enough to sit in our rockers and cross our legs. I wish it was a wider, southern-style porch {as pictured on Paula Wallace’s Perfect Porches book, left} but I am glad we have a porch that is functional. {At my husband’s condo that I moved into when we married, his front porch was not the width of a chair. That was just sad!}

I love how front porches just beckon us to come and sit a spell. Porches are the perfect place to use your mix and match items for an eclectic look or you can opt for a matching patio set. Personally, I love the mix and match.

I also like using lamps outdoors as you see on Paula’s bookcover - I have one on our front porch. When I turn it on at night instead of the two mounted lights on either side of our door, it gives such a warm, welcoming glow.

Another “must have” for me is movement – I must have chairs, a swing, or even a hammock that will allow me to slowly rock all summer long. I like the trend we’ve been seeing for the past several years of porch bed swings.

A bed swing seems like the perfect place to relax with your summer read or to take an afternoon catnap!

Ahhhh, I just love porches! Enjoy the links below of beautiful porches and if you’re in the mood make a bedswing!

BHG Tour of Porches
Make a Swinging Porch Daybed
Elements of a Great Porch

It’s the forth day of 90+ degree heat here on the North Coast. I’m not complaining because before we know it we’ll be sitting in snow.

To take advantage of this beach weather and get a little inspiration, take a few minutes to take a virtual tour from some beach houses! Just looking at the white walls makes me feel cooler!

Beach Cottage  Little details like a glass vase with a bit of sand and shells add a touch of seaside cottage even if you are landlocked.

Modern Beach House

Barefoot Beach Getaway

Beach House Before & After

Seriously, can’t you just imagine dining al fresco at this table? LOVE the bucket of flowers picked fresh from the garden.

July 4th is always a wonderful time of getting together with friends and entertaining and that’s always a great excuse for making things beautiful. Here are links to help make your holiday festive & fun:

Red, White & Blue Desserts
All American Party

July Fourth Recipes

A Declaration of Desserts

Decorations for July 4th

Decorating Independence Style

It has been another wonderful weekend. Even though it seems like it rained most of each day, we seemed to have good weather when we needed it!

On Saturday we went on the Historic Home & Garden Tour in Chagrin Falls. It’s held every other year and we missed the one two years ago so I was bound and determined NOT to miss it this year! Thankfully the rain held off for most of the tour!

Red was a popular color on the tour, or at least it seemed to catch my eye at every turn. I am a red (white and blue) kind of girl!

This mail basket {above} on one of the front porches of a tour home was a rusty reddish brown.

Doesn’t this red geranium arrangment in metal boxcharm you? Believe me it had all the charm of the beautiful home it was in. It was a favorite and such a creative container.

This unique bell outside on the entrance to a barn caught my eye and had me seeing red.

The show stopper was this wonderful mix and match red patio table and chairs below. 

I also thought this flower box with feet was so clever! What an easy way to dress it up.

I love going on home and garden tours! Such inspiration.

With summer unofficially here, it’s time to celebrate the season with f-u-n outdoor accessories! Some of my favorite are these colorful hanging porch buckets!

While you can use them as shown, I love using things in unintended ways. I think adding some vinyl letters or numbers to the outside of the buckets would help personalize them (for your kids or grandkids) or as a welcoming message (how about spelling out H-E-L-L-O with vinyl letters or put your street address on these colorful buckets?)

They would make a great storage bin to keep summer stuff – aloe, suntan lotion, chapstick, sunglasses, etc.

These would also be great to hold utencils and condiments for a summer cookout on your deck.

These would also make fun buckets for storing craft items like bottles of glue, scissors, tape, ribbon, etc. Such a fun punch of color for under $20!

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to summer on my calendar and summer means F-U-N!

We have relatively so few days of good weather here on the North Coast that I like to make the most of them while they are around. This weekend, for example, was one of those rare instances when we had great weather for a holiday weekend. That basically never happens! So over the weekend Mr. DH and I planned an “outdoor movie night”.

We took the flatscreen TV with a build-in DVD player that I bought at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago and hooked it up so we could watch a movie outside under the stars. I  brought out a long outdoor extension cord and sat the TV on a milk crate. Then I inflated a queen-size air matress and we were ready for some hot fun in the summertime!!

Now, I can’t say that Mr. DH was all that keen on the idea at first – he thought it was going to be “so much work. Can’t we just watch a movie inside?” I stuck to my “we are going to have fun” guns and set things up outside and in the end, he was happy I did. Afterwards, we laid on our back and studied the stars. We were surprised to discover the Big Dipper ended at our chimney. Who knew?

I’d love for you to share some of your “hot-fun-in-the-summertime” ideas so we can all make 2010 the best summer ever! (Here’s a link to the song HFITS. Enjoy!)

Night sky photo from Flickr.

We are fast approaching summer time and days perfect for outdoor living. Living “alfresco” {outdoors} is one of the joys of summer days.

A porch, patio or deck gives us the ideal space to set up our summer headquarters. To see some great porches and to get some great porch ideas, click on the image below from myhomeideas.com.

No matter what porch style you prefer, it’s a wonderful way to take advantage of warm-weather living. Enjoy!

Spring continues to tease us here on the North Coast. Some days are sunny and warm while other days it feels like winter’s back again. I know that as we creep closer to May and June, we will soon be enjoying days that will entice us to live alfresco style. 

Al·fres·co: \al-ˈfres-(ˌ)kō\ adjective or adverb. Italian 1753 - taking place or located in the open air : outdoor, outdoors <an alfresco lunch> <an alfresco café> <dining alfresco>

Living outdoors, enjoying the fresh air and warm days, is such a wonderful treat. Here in NE Ohio, we only have a few precious months to even consider alfresco living. The question is how can we best take advantage of  “Alfresco Season?” I think for me the key is to create designated spaces/rooms.

We have a large deck that runs the length of the back of the house. Mr. DH and I have talked about creating zones on the deck – the grill zone – that’s his space ;o). Then there is the sun soaking zone – that’s where we can lay out and catch the sun. Lastly there is the entertainment zone – that’s where we want to set up some outdoor chairs/sofa. These spaces will help up make the most of the long deck that has pretty much gone unused since we moved to our Cottage In the Woods 2.5 years ago.

This photo from Better Homes & Gardens inspires me. It’s simple but beautiful. I love the muted tones of the setting and the striped table cloth.

We don’t have space for a large 9 or 11-foot umbrella on our deck but I found these great little 5-foot ones at Cost Plus World Market.  I have been buying these for the last couple of summers. The umbrellas are $59.99 each and the stand is $29.99. I typically buy a new umbrella each year because they do fade and can get mold spots {even though they are made of mold-resistant fabric.} For under $100 this umbrella an pull together your alfresco dining area. Love it!

I will admit that the one things I don’t like about alfresco living is the dust and dirt! I swear, my alfresco spaces, take way more effort to keep clean than the ones inside! However, since it’s just for a little while, I think it is worth the effort.

So I’m wondering, any of you out there in cyberspace looking forward to Alfresco Season? What are your plans for taking advantage of living outdoors?