Olympic | Like a Sunday Stroll

Hi everyone! I don’t know if it’s like this in your neck of the woods, but the weather in our little corner of South Carolina has been the best of the best. Most of my life I’ve lived either dangerously close to the equator (DR) or in the muggy South, but for some reason, Spring in the Carolinas has been just that — Spring! Crisp, 64-degree mornings and breezy 84-degree afternoons. And it’s the end of May, almost! I’m definitely down with that.

Although, I won’t lie. I am one of the weirdos that loves 98-degree afternoons in August where even the straightest head of hair will curl with the humidity and the faux-leather on your car seats stings your buns. Is that weird? Probably.

Speaking of buns…

I won’t apologize for the excessive Scout photos, but I am inadvertently trying to make her feel beautiful despite the bad, homemade mom haircut I gave her this week. She has a crazy little habit (as most bichons do!) of wallowing in the dirt like a little piggy (how appropriate, thusly, is her name!?) and getting mud and grass caked into her fur. When she did that on Monday, it was so bad that I had to start cutting little bits and pieces, and, well… let’s just say that the phrase “got into a fight with a lawnmower” wasn’t too far from the truth. I’ve been trying to trim it a little bit every day to even it out because her groomer can’t see her until Wednesday (diva, I know) and she is not feeling her prettiest thanks to mom.

We also found that sweet little summer dress on sale at Pet Smart and what with the frilly pink skirt and the sequins, she let us know she just had to have it.

Robert and I are also trying to get this deck-staining project finished.

No one tells you that even a tiny deck like ours takes FOREVER TO STAIN.

We’ve been staining in shifts. Robert will plug in his nerdcasts and stain for a few hours and then we’ll trade so that I can plug in my latest audiobook to stain for a few hours (currently listening to The Girl on the Train… great so far, full review to come!) Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks(just for being my reader!)

But, it is getting there and we really don’t have much left to do. We’re using the Olympic Semitransparent Light Mocha Stain + Sealant because we really like the natural wood grains to come through, but we might do a more solid stain for the front porch. Our wood is new since the house was just built last year and we’ve been waiting the recommended year before staining, but, phew, we’re so glad to finally get it going because it has looked pretty pitiful, especially with the clay stains all over it.

By the way, we did use the Olympic Deck Cleaner 2-1/2GAL Deck Cleaner beforehand to get all the funk off from the last year, and it was some potent stuff. Totally worked, but POTENT! (Honestly, we think bleach may have worked just as well, but we’re no experts)