The back porch

We are lucky to have a screened in porch off the back of our house, although I am such a baby about hot weather I don't know how much I'll venture out onto it in the next couple of months. I recently moved a few of my indoor pieces out there and the porch has a garden style vibe. I don't especially care for the more tropical motif cushions on the wicker furniture, but the chairs are comfy and changing them is not a priority at this point. Ryan bought the set for me for my second Mother's Day when we lived at our 1940s house on Bennett. They were great out on the old brick patio in the backyard, under the shade of a huge old tree. Our postage stamp yard now dims in comparison to that one.

To the left is a screen door out to our garage/driveway (not the cute chippy white door that is propped against the wall). The screen on the porch door is loose at the bottom and we don't fix it because one of our cats, Maya Angelou, declared herself an outdoor kitty and she uses the flap in the screen to come in out of the rain or for a nibble from the Fiesta bowls of food and water I keep out there for her and for our neighbor's calico Arleen.

This dried honeysuckle wreath is one of a few I have from my favorite store The Seedbox in Ozark, which has now changed owners and is called Leola's Home and Garden. I still like the store, but I miss the former owners Meloney and Bryan and their little dog Ruby, who Macauley liked to visit. They are on the antique show circuit now, I guess. The grain bin is from Colleene's and I have had it for a long time. I dream of having a woodburning fireplace and using the bin beside to keep kindling and newspaper in, but for now it is a catch-all on the porch that I probably need to clean out.

The insulators are from my late grandfather's stash in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and my Aunt Debbie let me take a few on one of my last visits to my grandparents' old place. I always remember seeing them around there when I was a kid, and I think Papaw even took my cousins and me out at one time to find a few. I can't remember it perfectly, but I do remember a bunch of us going out to an old abandoned school somewhere near Muskogee and scavenging some old books and other things. The kids rode in the back of Papaw's pickup...it was a really long time ago, but I remember we bought Yoo-Hoo at a convenience store and now when I hear that Kenny Chesney song about a "Yoo-Hoo on the floorboard" that is the fuzzy image that I instantly pull up. I miss my Papaw so much, and I like having the insulators as a reminder of him (and my childhood with my cousins) right out my back door.

This little green table is one of my favorite finds from Riverview Antiques in Ozark and the green birdcage is from The Briar Patch in Talequah, Oklahoma, where I like to stop on my way to Muskogee. I got the concrete bird years ago at an antique mall in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Isn't it funny how you can always remember where you got your favorite things? I usually remember prices, too.

I got this metal piece at Riverview, too, and I thought it was called an obelisk, but now I don't think that's right. Regardless, it's rusty and I love it, and I wish I could find a place for it inside but it's just never landed anywhere. The green corbels are from Hobby Lobby and I kind of just put them out there as an afterthought in a hurry to get ready for our party last weekend. The yellow chippy nightstand is another treasure from Colleene's that I've had for years but also can't seem to find a permanent place in my house. I'm not giving it up though.

This old screen door, I might. I bought it at an antique mall in Rolla, Missouri and totally don't need it. I love it, but I think it's headed for my flea market booth when there's room.

The welcome sign is from a folk-art place in Eureka Springs, and I've had it forever. The bird pictures were a Christmas gift from my mother when Ryan and I moved into our first house nine years ago. I saw a pair for sale at The Market here in Springfield not too long ago for a lot more than I remember these being.

I had looked at this picture at Spring Creek and Riverview forever but never bought it until it went on major clearance and I think Shannon was with me and told me to just get it already. There are words under the picture that say "The Garden Bountiful" and the image reminds me of watching "The Victory Garden" on PBS on Saturdays with my mother when I was younger. I think I was drawn to it because of that.

I love the little chalkboard stuffed in the middle of this wreath. It was a prize for the 1954 Chick Raising Contest somewhere and I splurged on it at a store in Billings, Missouri.

The porch seems to be a place where cast-offs that didn't make the cut inside my house but I don't want to get rid of end up. It's the cleanest it's been in a while right now, too. It is also usually home to the recycling bin and other stuff that I clean out of the car but don't want to take inside and deal with. Booker T. also likes to lounge out there on the couch with the ceiling fan on high, but he has only recently figured out that he can fit through the flap in the screen like the kitties and has escaped a couple of times. He never goes far but our neighbors don't really like him wandering around and peeing in their perfectly fertilized grass, which makes me long for living in the country like I did growing up, where animals were welcome to wander and our yard was 20+ acres of perfect imperfection.