I am working out, outdoors that is.  I am going to blog a before and after deck reno soon, but here is a sneak peak at some of the decor items for our outdoor living area.

You might wonder how I get anything done with 2 little kids sometimes I do too.  Making things is part of who I am, and by translation the kids are quite used to me having a project on the go.  Usually I have a little helping hand for a part of whatever I am making especially if the project is for one of them.  This is the foam that I used to stuff the deck bench cushion cover, and here they are jumping away.  They played with it, and on it for a couple of days while I was making the cover.  Once I had cut the foam to shape, they used the off cuts to make a tunnel and the moon.  Its amazing what their little creative minds come up with.  Sasha wants to help with everything, and there are so many little steps in the process that he can participate in, or he asks for the scraps to make his own creations.

Making of the bench cushion – my monkeys jumping and lying down on the job.

Here is the finished bench cushion, on the bench that my husband made. It’s great to be able to make projects with him as well. Now we are fighting over who gets to lounge on the bench in the late afternoon sun. Ah the luxuries of life.

For more details on the bench we got fantastic instructions from http://ana-white.com/2010/04/plans-simple-outdoor-dining-table.html. We adjusted the dimensions a bit to fit our space, but it was a great starting point.

I also made a pair of outdoor poofs I really don’t like that word it just sounds so poofy. I am open to suggestions on new names for these things. My inspiration for these poofs came from Target but the colours didn’t work for me, so I decided to see what I could come up with on my own. The great part about being able to sew fairly well is that you can make things exactly as you want them. The part that drives me crazy is that the fabric, foam, and stuffing cost more than what you can buy the finished products for and forget about costing my labour into the equation. Sometimes it feels like a conspiracy against those of us that like to make things. I did get the fabric on sale so at least it wasn’t that bad. For both the poofs, and bench cushion I used outdoor fabric and outdoor thread.  All have zippers so that I can remove the covers to wash them, a necisity with kids.  I have been sewing for at least 20 years so I can pretty much make up a pattern on the fly, if you can too please feel free to copy and enhance as you see fit.

Keep sewing, jumping and creating.