I am not much of a home-keeper. My house is messy, lived-in and sometimes during the summer it doesn’t look like adults even live here.

The mess doesn’t stress me out so it stays. The kids are awesome, so they stay. I love work so it stays. There isn’t enough room for all of it, so it overflows.

But this summer I have been noticing a strange new phenomenon. I am pinning. On Pinterest. Which is not to say I am actually cleaning, but if you were to look at my Pinterst page it would appear that I have a beautiful home, killer style and great hair—although my hair page is honestly called “if my hair worked it would to this…”

And that is one of my beefs, is when I project something that is not authentic with who and what I actually am. So I decided that I would do something drastic and become pinworthy.

My relationship with pinterest has waxed and waned and right now we are in a groove. Maybe it is because my husband travels so much in the summer and I am lonely, maybe it is because pinning is a little like shopping without spending any money, or maybe, just maybe I am getting my Martha on.

So here it is, Mamaloders, my biggest pin-able-ist project ever.

I call it Living Arbor and it rocks my world every day.

We have a super short growing season in Montana, but I love plant provided shade. 

So, we built an arbor with GUTTERS as the cross-pieces. I know, I know, it is so awesome. I could wag my tail.

Added a drip system to make it successful. And because it is beyond hot and dry here.

Built on a slight incline so that the water would drain OFF the deck. We ran an additional gutter along the end to catch this.

Planted with a whole mess of options to see what worked best. Petunas, nastutiums, cucumbers, strawberries, vines. It can be different every year. 

And now it just grows and grows. It is like magic. Only better.

Pin, that. No really. Pin that.