Getting Ready For Spring

It's Spring!  Woohoo!  And the weather here is gorgeous.  We enjoyed a very mild winter with very little snow.  And now record-breaking temperatures for the last few weeks.  I don't remember ditching my winter coat so early in the season.  It's awesome.  As a result of all of this sunshine, I've been outside a lot.  No, not working on the yard (although, I should have been...).  Just going for short runs (trying not to hurt my back) and long walks.  I just can't get enough of this weather.  Which has put me behind on the house a little.  And, I'm alright with that.  It'll all get done.

Anyway, when the weather is this nice, I can't help but want to pull out all of my patio furniture and start prettying up the backyard.  Every year, we work on the yard a little.  It has taken years to get it to where it is now.  And, we have some plans for this year as well (remove a few old, dead bushes, plant a few new ones, and buy a new garage door).  And I always like to add some small stuff too.  Like this planter -

I picked it up at Salvation Army a while ago for $.75.  I love the shape and knew I could change the color very easily.  The problem I had was choosing the color.  I wasn't sure where I was going to use the vase so I didn't know what color to paint it.  I finally decided to go with white.  I mean, how could I go wrong with white?

Well, I was wrong.  I didn't like it at all in white.  But, I still didn't know what to do with it.  Until I took a trip to Target and saw these - 

Beautiful copper planters.  I was in love.  But not with the price - they wanted $34.99 for a 12" planter!  I stopped at Lowe's and bought some Rust-Oleum Aged Copper spray paint.  

It did take a number of thin coats.  Here it is after three - 

And here it is after six even coats - 

So much better than the white!  Or green for that matter!  I can't wait to fill it with a beautiful green boxwood - it's just a little bit early.  It's going to look great on the patio - now I want to dig out all of my patio furniture!