Thinking Outside the Box
I love thinking outside the box. I am told I have a flair for the creative and I love using it not only in my home life but in business as well. There is something very satisfying about taking a problem or challenge and turning it on its head to come up with a workable, interesting solution.
Take my friend’s tree for example. She had an ornamental tree in her front garden that unfortuately did not survive. She cut it down and had it sitting in her scrap heap ready for recycle day. Well, I looked at that thing for a minute and instead of seeing a dead tree, I saw a chandelier! Crazy? I don’t think so. What a wonderful opportunity to re-purpose nature’s beauty.
I took it home, adorned it with low wattage lighting and hung it under my pergola. Now when guests come over, we have a softly lit dinner table that fits in beautifully with our natural woodland setting. My biggest problem now is keeping the robins out of it come nesting time! Even they think it’s wonderful!
I also used some shower curtain material which naturally repels water and mounted them on spring-loaded curtain rods (so as not to damage the wood decking). This created a cafe-like feel. It’s very private and very cozy and in the winter time, I can easily remove them. Both of these projects were easy on the pocket-book but high on the impact scale.
It was a great opportunity to extend our living space, and we have so many wonderful memories of dinner parties with close friends and family. What could be better than that?!
While physically located in Newmarket Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours anywhere….
