Several years ago on arriving home from Charleston SC I went over and purchased new furniture for the deck.  What I had was wonderful but getting old and high maintenance.  I just wanted a new look.  Everything I had before were chairs and lounges and I wanted a more conventional look with a sofa and chairs.  I ended up purchasing a grey “wicker” look sofa and chair.  Cushions were grey and the chair was striped.  My thoughts were “I can work with this”.  Which I have and it’s been great.  But I am so tired of neutral!!!

We purchased a new outdoor rug in the spring, dark grey and you guessed it neutral!  Oh, I miss my vinyl floor cloth.  

Somewhere along the line, well about 3 months ago I decided I needed color on the deck and the flowers were just not enough.  I painted the chairs that go around the table Peacock.  These are those same cheap plastic chairs that stack and a lot of us have.  I just couldn’t stand all the brown anymore.  So far the paint has held up well and even survived a 78 MPH wind event.

Then came the problem.  Although I loved the way the chairs turned out I was stuck with the task of pulling the space together.  I ordered a garden seat that if you squint and shut your eyes most of the way you can maybe pretend it’s peacock. 

 But for the life of me I couldn’t find a lap throw or fabric for pillows to tie everything together.

 I started collecting blue/green antique glass bottles with metal stoppers hoping they would connect the dots.  Nope!  I do love the bottles though.  I had just about given up for the season and eureka I found it.

Last Sunday I went over to JoAnn Fabrics for a zipper.  This isn’t a sponsored post BTW.  I wandered back to the outdoor fabric which I have done a billion times over the past several weeks.  A sign told me outdoor fabric was 50% off, hmmm.   Then it just about reached out and grabbed me.  This crazy fabric with Octopus’ on it.  Really can I do octopus?  I hate novelty fabrics.  But oh the colors are sooo delicious.  Neutral, taupe, grey, navy and yes some peacock.  

Well, this fabric does have starfish and coral.  Maybe, just maybe I can live with Octopus’.  So I put it in the cart took it over to the fabric counter and bought what was left on the bolt 1 1/3 yards.  I was going to make pillows.

I enthusiastically brought the fabric home convinced that I had finally solved my problem. I took it out to the deck and yup, it was the glue that made everything stick.  I liked the way it played with the new rug, perfect for the chairs, loved it with my dads ship out in the back 40 with the copper sales,  

White mirrors, check, pottery pot on the deck, perfect it’s even perfect with the bronze elephant cache’ pot I inherited from my grandparents.  

Crazy thing!  It was even nice with the stripe fabric I am so tired of.  As I’m admiring my brilliance and imagining what was to come the husband says “why don’t you make a new cover for the cushions on the chair that you hate so much.”  Well dah, why didn’t I think of that.  Monday morning I trotted back over to JoAnn and picked up more of this crazy fabric. I spent a lot of last week sewing.  I got the cover for the chair done

You can just barely see the ship  off the left corner of the chair.  Then I made some pillows, I still need a big button for the envelope pillow.  Then I just had some fun taking pictures as the sun was setting.

Then the pouf that I had just made a few weeks ago, you guessed it, it was neutral and went perfectly with the stripe chair, was driving me crazy so today I made a new one.  Super easy to do I’ll have pictures and DIY on that later this week.  A very satisfying weekend with a lot done.  I even pulled weeds!

What do you think?  Do you prefer the neutral look or do you like the Octopus?  Leave me a comment I would love to know.

Hope your weekend was satisfying too.

Thanks for stopping

Shelley