Early Risers, Bring May Flowers

Today I got up at the crack of dawn to head to my first ever garage sale excursion. A neighborhood here in Chicago was having a big sale that has been hyped up a bit so I thought it might be a nice time to scope out a bunch of sales all at once, but...it was a bust. Maybe I wasn't in the mood or maybe it's just seeing the junk in other people's garages that makes me realize I really don't need anymore junk of my own. Don't get me wrong, I won't give up on garage sales altogether but today I was particularly unimpressed so I might stick to vintage sales and thrift stores, etc. for the time being.

The good news is that being up so early on a gorgeous Sunday morning did inspire me to do something about our drab balcony. It has been neglected since the winter (and the winter before) and the rusty floor will likely not to be repainted & repaired until our Condo Association gets more funds. So I thought I needed to take matters into my own hands.

I went to Home Depot and bought some commercial grade, environmentally-friendly indoor/outdoor mats to cover the unsightly balcony floor.

Let's consider this a partial "before" pic. See 3 out of 5 mats down here, and notice the rust where we do not have a mat down yet...yes that should be black to match the railings!

Then I got an assortment of flowers, and a new plant stand with a huge terra cotta pot to sit on it. I filled each of my four green plastic planters with 2 white geraniums and 6 red salvia.

Then I put a stonecrop 'Sedum Autumn Joy' in a cute yellow planter on the bistro table.

I also filled the huge terra cotta pot with yellow, orange and red gerbera daisies.

And here's the end result...

I even had helpers, well more like onlookers, but I was glad to have them there for moral support :-)

Job well done, Lou-dog! (And yes, we like to taunt the Cubs fans here with our grill cover.)