This post is sponsored by Enbrighten Café String Lights by Jasco. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

As promised on Instagram, I'm finally getting around to sharing with you all how we hung our deck lights on our newly built deck space. I love the look of cafe lights strung outdoors (and indoors too!) and I have a feeling we are going to be using our deck space right up till winter. Sitting outside during the fall is more enjoyable anyways since you don't have to deal with mosquitos and other flying pests. Now if only burning leaves wasn't hazardous to your health and didn't contribute to pollution. I guess I'll just have to stick with my 100% beeswax or soy naturally scented candles instead. If anyone knows of a beeswax or soy naturally scented candle that smells like burning leaves, let me know! 

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If you haven't noticed yet, I seem to have a slight obsession with white painted furniture. Between my painted farmhouse style kitchen table and chairs and my Menards chalk painted desk, plus all of the other painted white furniture in our home I have yet to share with you all, white seems to be my thing. It's classic, clean, and versatile. In some rooms in can look elegant and polished and in others it can look casual and even handcrafted. 

When we moved into our new house last summer, we sold, gave away, and donated more than half of our possessions. I can't imagine ever going back to having any kind of clutter in our home again. I got real serious about minimizing my wardrobe at that time too. Why I bothered to keep clothes that didn't fit or that I never wore was beyond me. I'm not big into fashion and I don't work a full-time job outside of the home, so there is no reason for me to have a large wardrobe. Having a smaller wardrobe made it easier to go looking for a dresser for our bedroom since I wasn't looking for that much storage space. We sold our bedroom furniture when we moved from Wisconsin, and I was determined to have mostly unique pieces of furniture in our new house, so I looked at rummages, on Craigslist, and frequented furniture consignment stores for the perfect (to me) dresser. 

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I'm super excited to share with all of you my latest project because it's been something I have been planning since last fall. As much as I loved the large farmhouse table that we scored for a super good deal at an Amish auction last summer, I have plans for it in another area of our house (you can see that table and the benches here). In the next few weeks we're going to be starting our deck and I'm eager for that to happen because it's going to be an extension of living space (for a month or so out of the year since we do live in Minnesota - har har har). Our new deck space will have an upper and lower deck and my plan right now is to use the old rectangular farmhouse table and benches on the lower part of the deck. With our daughter's high school graduation party coming up, having the farmhouse table and benches will be great for extra seating. And just a month after that I turn 40 so we might just need extra seating for another party. :) 

These past few months I have been keeping watch on Craigslist and Facebook for a used kitchen table and chairs. I knew I wanted a pedestal table and I knew I wanted 6 chairs. I occasionally found sets that I was interested in purchasing and ended up disappointed because they were either already sold, or the seller never responded to my email. After dealing with that for awhile, my husband suggested buying the table and chairs separate since I had planned on painting them anyways. Duh. Why didn't I think of that?! 

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When I discovered that Menards carried chalk paint I had to try it out - especially since the price was only $19.97 for a quart. Don't expect this paint to be front and center in the paint department though, you'll have to walk way in back to the end of one of the paint aisles to find Dutch Boy Dimensions Chalky Finish paint. Just like the other chalk paint brands, you can choose from a great selection of colors (42 of them actually). 

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There is something special about forgotten vintage pieces that have been abandoned because others have not been able to recognize their old world charm.  Especially when you can just imagine how necessary or essential that piece was in someone's life at some point in time. This is why I love flea markets and antique shows. It gives those of us with an appreciation for these abandoned pieces the chance to give them a home once again. 

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