plants | The CSI Project

Welcome back to another great challenge at The CSI Project! This summer's biggest wave of heat has finally passed, and we are all ready to get outside and enjoy our outdoor living spaces. What better way to celebrate the lazy days of August than with a quick spruce-up of the place you park your lawn chairs? We're excited to see all the ways you've found to create, improve, or decorate these often-overlooked spots. Joining us as our guest judge this week from The Shabby Creek Cottage, Gina Luker is looking forward to seeing your outdoor spaces, too! Having recently redone her own porch, Gina knows exactly how much fun it can be to refurbish porches, terraces, and patios. (You can read more about Gina HERE.) She'll be stopping by to visit each of the projects you link up to this week's challenge. Gina will select an overall winner for the challenge, along with her 10 favorite projects. We CSI Girls will choose our favorites, too. All of our favorite projects will be featured in the winners' post this Saturday. A feature isn't the only thing you can win by entering this challenge. Thanks to this week's sponsor, Dinky Bird Boutique, we have something special in store for a randomly drawn winner! Every project entered into this challenge will automatically get an entry into this week's giveaway. (For additional entries to this giveaway, click HERE.) Our randomly drawn winner will receive this gorgeous silver floral fabric accessory, handmade by Stephanie of Dinky Bird Boutique. Before we start this week's challenge link-up, let's take a look at some of the outdoor spaces and tutorials that our guest bloggers have offered for inspiration, this week. Sybille from Funkytime showed us that it's not just country gals who can enjoy a porch with her Urban Porch Makeover. We got to see gorgeous blue and white screened porch decor from Pretty Handy Girl, Brittany. Now it's time for you to take a turn inspiring us. We hope you'll take the time to link up your porch, terrace, and patio projects this week. It's so fun to see how you use your talents! We noticed that there has been a little confusion about how long the challenge is open for new links each week. Each week, the linkup starts Wednesday at midnight (EST). It closes Friday at noon (EST). You will still be able to visit the linked projects after the linkup button disappears, but you won’t be able to add any projects. Make sure you have your projects linked before noon on Friday! You’ll find the linkup for this week's challenge at the end of this post, following the challenge rules. This challenge begins at midnight (EST) Wednesday, August 10th, and ends at noon (EST) Friday, August 12th. Please remember that to be eligible to win this week’s challenge and giveaway, you must provide a link back to the challenge in your entry post. It’s easy–we have a button ready for you to insert into your post HERE. For additional challenge rules, please read below. 1. All entries for this challenge need to incorporate the challenge’s theme. We are not simply a linky party. We have a specific theme for each week. All submissions are competing to be the judge’s top pick. If your project does not incorporate the theme we will have to remove it. 2. When you enter the challenge, please enter the link to the specific post on your blog that relates to the project — not to your general blog. This will help when a year from now, for example, someone who visits the site can find your project directly. 3. The CSI Project button must be in your blog post. HERE are the buttons. This makes it easy for other people to come over and join in the challenge if they like – and for us to know that we have the correct entry in the challenge when we’re judging. And if you use an older post, please update it so it’s current. If you don’t want to update it, please add the button to that post and to the sidebar for the week of the contest. Thanks! 4. The project you submit must be your own project and something you have made. (It can be inspired by something someone else has done, but it must be your creation.) 5. We ask that you are a CSI follower or subscriber to win the prizes. The more followers the site has — the more giveaways we are able to host 6. If you enter a project into our challenge, we ask that you please leave comments on at least 2 other entries in the contest. Not only is it nice to do, but it’s a great way to meet new people and make new friends. 7. By entering, you give us permission to spotlight your projects – we will give you credit and link back to your blog. You are welcome to enter as many themed projects as you like! You also give us permission to add your name to our newsletter list. If you wish to unsubscribe you may do so at any time. Now, won't you join us out on the porch for some lemonade?