I'm so glad that you could join me this week for the second part of Heni's 21st birthday "surprise project". As you have probably guessed by now, it's an outside mural which is going to brighten up a dreary deck and be an area in which Heni can go explore some of her toys and sensory bits and pieces.
Last week in part 1, I showed you how Hubby and I made the huge picture frame that was to become the canvas, and I also gave you a sneak peak of the flamingo below...
This
week I am going to show you some of the various stages and changes to
the project so that you can see how it progressed and took shape
throughout
the 7 afternoons that it took to complete!
21 Today!
I thought I would just quickly add a few pictures from the beach yesterday (of the birthday girl in her early birthday pressie hat) for you to take a peek at.
It's
going to be Heni's 21st birthday next week..... a very special milestone in hers, and our lives...... AND it's also a day that I never
pictured or envisaged we would ever reach. To celebrate and mark the
occasion, one of the things I wanted to do was to give her a gift in to which had gone a little
thought... something that required some sweat equity, some time and a
lot of love.
......and
so for the last few months I have been dreaming up ideas, planning
away and working on a project that I thought she would really like.
Last year we transformed an old trampoline in to a swinging teepee tent, and this year I had ambitions to make over another section of the
garden that has been unloved and neglected.... a deck at the back of the house that hardly gets
used and has a boring brick wall at the end of it (a by product of our neighbour's extension). In my minds eye, I
had a plan to hide the ugly wall and in doing so make it a fun bright area for
Heni to go outside and use and enjoy on nice weather days.
Hubby
helped me with the first part of the project (today's blog post) and a
friend of mine helped me on part 2 (coming real soon!)
I enlisted Hubby for his wood working skills (and of course his state of the art power tools and truck to collect materials!)
This week has been a busy one...I've not had the time to write a (proper) blog post as I have been occupied finishing a few projects I've had on the go..... but mainly my week seems like it's been spent on maintaining lots of things.
The paint has been peeling off the deck and so it got a new coat of paint....
The weeds are growing like.... well ...weeds.... and I've been trying to keep on top of them....
The shower sprung a leak upstairs and damaged Heni's bedroom ceiling below and we had the plumber round trying to fix it....
...and I've also been striving to keep on top of exercise and health matters... hoping to maintain the ground I have managed to achieve and not go backwards (given the lack of energy I have had to put in to it).
It seems like this weeks lesson (for me) has been one of "continual upkeep".... so hence a few last minute ramblings about it!
It is a natural occurrence for things to start to decay and go backwards. It doesn't matter what subject you can think of...(homes, bodies, relationships etc).. without continual effort, conservation, nurturing, preservation of whatever we come across ... most things will begin to fall apart.
