She Shed 101 The Building Of My Tea Tent Gazebo

For my 40th birthday recently my friend Anna gave me an outdoor Gazebo Tent so that I may create an outdoor "She Shed" like the one I found on pinterest shown above. Anna knew that in my busy house full of boys that I wanted for my own outdoor retreat. Anna was more then kind with her gift and I am so excited to keep this project going. Currently my "she shed" is a tent style Gazebo currently holding a glass table and several chairs. At present there are 11 people staying with me at my home, outdoor eating spaces are a must. We are also experiencing horrible air quality and crazy heat with Forrest fires around us and no rain for months. This is the longest I remember going with out a good drenching of typical Vancouver Rain, but back to the gazebo.

So the other night I guilt-ed my sister who along with her 5 kids are staying with me right now into helping me build my "she shed", she had said she would help me but not when the temp was 86 degrees out so the minute the temp dropped we started to work, about 8:30 pm on Friday. This is a job for at least two people according to the website, 4 people on page 1 of the instructions and 6 people on page 2. Thankfully my mother and father in law stopped over on their way home from going out to dinner and got wrangled into helping us out. Oddly enough I had just helped them put together their smaller gazebo the night before so it was kind of them to return the favor. The tent came together after much laughs and trial and error in about 90 mins.

The next morning I set myself a special place under the Gazebo and admired it's simple and functional design, while I dreamed of being able to sit outside under it when the rains return. I dream of being able to pick up an inexpensive patio furniture living room set to put under it and the small tea table and chair set I already purchased for it as well...all that in time.

My first guest in what we now call the "tea tent" was my cat Squirrel. She was a lovely guest to have before the rest of the house woke up and tried to join us that is. You can catch me savoring every moment of tranquility when I can out under my tea tent or under the Japanese Maple tree out front just as soon as the Forest Fires calm and the air quality returns here on what should be the "Wet West Coast."

A view of Vancouver currently our air quality is at it's worst ever.

Everything is the color right now of my tea cup, The world is again sepia. Ash falls from the sky and air quality and visibility are really awful. My cup reflects the true colors outside my door. Burnt orange and gold is the sky. Thank you to the fire fighters working so hard to help control these multiple Forrest fires. We are safe where we live but the air quality is very bad for those of us with Asthma. It's an indoor hot and smelly day here. I hope where ever you find yourself you are able to take a deep breath for those of us who can not. Enjoy your day! 
Thank you for joining me for A Cup of Tea and A Cozy Mystery I hope to be out in the tea tent again soon! 
As with all my posts I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com