Spring is Popping and a Curb Pick

After a long cool spring, it finally got warm—very warm, and very quickly—and everything turned green, popped, and took off!  I mean, it seemed like in just a couple days' time.  I remarked on a friend's Facebook post that my daffodils were barely up a couple inches, then bam, they were blooming, and now, a few days later, they've already called it quits. 

One day I came around the north side of the house to see the bleeding heart bush coming back nicely but no blooms yet, and it seemed like the next, there were pink hearts all over it!  Now it's the lilacs.  Here today, gone in a short few.  Such is the season.

So I did what we do here when it seems we've finally rounded that corner to warm weather.  I bought flowers and mulch and dirt, and set to work cleaning up last year's garden debris, turning soil, and planting pots.  There's not much to show for it yet except aching knees and whatever the heck I did to hurt my left foot, but hopefully that'll all get better as fast as things in the garden are growing.

A couple weeks ago, we were out for a neighborhood walk during a time when the city sanctions its semiannual "bulk pickup."  That's when residents can put out larger pieces of furniture and other stuff that doesn't fit in the regular weekly trash container.  Just about every street has the usual lineup of defunct Hoovers, decaying sofas, and banged-up headboards.  I am not above a good trash-picking, though, so I keep a casual eye out for treasure on our walks.  

The hubs is wary of my penchant for adopting others' castoffs, but he should trust me by now.  He's still using a bedside table I gleaned from the curb years ago and repainted with a faux marble finish.  And there was that lovely-but-rained-on vintage typewriter that turned into a nice bit of green cash.  And remember the Red Wing crock that's now holding a plant in our living room?  Just a few of my trash-picked treasures.

(2018 - Can you believe someone put this beauty at the curb?!)

So when I pointed out a bench on our recent walk, I got the usual resistance.  "We don't need that!  Where are you going to put it?  It's nasty, and I'm not carrying it," and so on.  But by the time we reached our house a couple blocks later, he agreed to hop in the car and retrieve the bench.

Isn't she pretty?  Okay, maybe not cosmetically, but she was sturdy.  Good bones, as they say.  

I sanded her down as best I could—and there were more layers than a Swiss Colony Dobosh Torte—or as best as need be, since she was just going to go back outside to serve a supporting role for summering houseplants.

A couple coats of exterior paint and voila!  I'm sure it won't be long until the weathered patina returns, but at least she had the full spa treatment in the interim.

Not much sewing has happened for a couple weeks while I did other things in the fine weather.  But yesterday I started on my Table Scraps Challenge for May, so I won't be totally empty handed by the end of the month link-up.

So tell me, do you have a favorite trash-picked success story?

~Paulette