Know When to Fold 'Em

 There definitely comes a time when it is best to know when to fold 'em! Such was the case with my antique roses that I have had on the trellis heading into the side yard for a very, very long time. I guess to everything there is a "time"...or, maybe I just needed to do a better job in caring for these roses. 

I actually tracked them down at a specialty garden shop a number of years ago. They are the kind of roses one wishes for. They had beauty and fragrance. But, being the "antique" variety, they required a bit more care and maintenance than I gave them and so, they finally gave up.

Back in their day, they produced some beautiful results but, that was usually right after winter as antique roses are not all that happy in the heat of our summers.

 

 

 But, lately this trellis has just looked sad and so, with my "new eyes" seeing how bad it really looked, I grabbed my clippers and headed out. And this is where we are now.

Definitely time for a good scrubbing to get all of the mold off and then a couple of coats of my favorite oil rubbed bronze spray paint before I decide its fate. I did leave the base of the roses to see if maybe they will come back but I'm pretty sure that is a lost cause...we shall see.

 

Since I was out there...and before the sweltering temperatures of the day completely took over...I did a quick survey of the gardens. The crepe myrtles are loving the rain as is my blue sky vine. The sky vine took a good hit this year from our freezing temperatures-I can't believe I'm talking freezing temperatures right now-hard to remember that that EVER happened-but is almost back to being completely filled in again. But, as much as the flowers are loving our rains, so are the weeds and ALL of the areas that I had completely WEEDLESS just a week ago, are full of the little lovelies again. I think I'll just put it on the list. Lol

 

 

And, as we were dragging garbage cans full of clippings out to the curb we passed the mailbox that I had repainted not too long ago and realized that I had never touched up the copper trim...so, out came the paint and we got it done. I only used acrylic paint as I didn't have anything else in copper so we shall see how long it lasts. The metal was kind of textured so I'm hopeful it will be OK.

 

 So, that's where I am today. We'll be heading to daughter #3's in a bit to check on the cats and the house. They are due home later today so I like things to look welcoming when they come in. They have had a very busy and eventful 5 days in NYC. They took in 2 Broadway plays and she showed the kids lots of her favorite parts of the city but the best was getting to spend some "liberty" time with my grandson before he boards the Eagle for his turn at sea before classes and football practice start at the Academy very soon. Since he is still considered a "swab", he isn't supposed to make any kind of contact until he is officially on liberty but he somehow can't help those little smiles when he sees the family making faces at him. Lol

 

 

Wishing all of the cadets safe sailing on this very impressive vessel-and smooth seas!!

No telling what I get into next but I will be sure to share. Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

 

Countdown to Christmas

Since I have some time until my next decor switch and it is really too hot to do a lot of the things on my to-do list, I have started looking for other ways to keep me busy but also fulfill the need for some new ideas in my decor. Yesterday I posted the witch's stocking...and wait until the end of this post and I will show you what has happened since then. But, also, I told you I was going to start on Christmas and here is where it all began.

I actually didn't but either the faux tiles or the mop pads for this project. I bought the tiles just because I finally saw them and there are so many things you can do with them. And I think I bought the mop heads to use as a Santa beard but I have no idea on what Santa. I'm pretty sure I have it in my Pinterest pins but apparently it wasn't a priority because here they are still unused.

So, on I went to the Santa stocking. I cut two of the tiles into what I thought kind of looked like a stocking while trying to use as much of the height of the tile as I could.

I used my hot glue gun set on the "cool" setting so I didn't melt the very thin plastic of these tiles and glued the two together. Then, I painted it red with chalk paint. I tried to leave a bit of the silver peeking through but for some reason, that was harder than I thought, Then I came back in a few areas with my favorite, the Waverly antique wax to grunge it up a bit.

While those were drying, I moved on to the "fur". I cut one mop head in half lengthwise and it is pretty easy if you cut it the way you cut faux fur fabric-fold it back and try to just cut the backing fabric leaving the nap in tact as much as you can. As pretty as the stark white looked, I prefer a bit of a vintage feel so I took to the coffee staining. I only put a very small amount of instant coffee into water, very quickly immersed the fabric and then squeezed it out. Once I squeezed out the excess coffee, the color was much more subtle. Then came the hardest part of the project-waiting for these things to dry. I tried the dryer for a few minutes and then even the heat gun but I finally had to resort to patience-not necessarily my strong suit when it comes to crafting-and let them hang to dry overnight.

I used some of my rusty wire to make a hanger and then used lots of hot glue to adhere the fur to the cuff of the stocking.

And, here again is where I will have to ask your forgiveness...or your imagination. Imagine this stocking full of beautiful Christmas pine greenery and then maybe a red timer taper or a few cloth candy canes or...??? I have TONS of Christmas greenery and picks but, unfortunately the are packed way up high and behind many other Christmas things. It is not difficult to get to when I am taking down everything Christmas but certainly would be today just for a few picks. And so, once again, I won't be able to give you a totally accurate picture of how this will look come December but, hopefully you get the idea. I have some "pine" pipe cleaners so I stuck them in there along with a few sprigs of mini-pinecones and then some rusty bells...just for the photo shoot until I can get to HL. It's actually bigger than I thought so I have no idea where it will go but it will be fun trying to decide.

 And now, back to the witch's stocking. I told you I thought about adding some drawn-on spider webs so I thought this would be as good a time as any. What do you think? I like it...might be done, might not...we shall see. And do you notice that I'm not showing you the whole thing? As promised, the Spanish moss is already in the trash. I'll share the whole thing after my shopping trip.

And, one closing tidbit. I think I've told you that I enjoy playing a "game" where I find decor things I already have and may have forgotten about and try to find new ways/places to use them. Well, of late, I have been doing something similar with food. Since the prices of food have gotten so high, I can no longer stand to waste anything. But, being a single person, a lot of fresh produce that I buy begins to go bad before I can eat it all. If it is veggies, I usually cook them up in some way as I did this past week with all of the stuff my son-in-law got me. I roasted some, made salads with some and put some into sauces.

I usually have no trouble using up veggies. Fruit is a different story for me. I am not much of a sweet eater-just don't care for it. And, although I do enjoy fruit, I am truly fussy about its timeline. I usually want it the minute before or after it ripens. I will NOT eat it if it has even the slightest hint of soft or worse yet, mushy.

And so, after giving away a whole watermelon and a pint of strawberries, I was still left with a large bag of fresh cherries-which are still pretty hard so they will be eaten-and another pint of strawberries-way past their prime in my eyes. Since we have started going down to Sorrento and picking way too many berries every year, I have been on the hunt for a good way to use them. And so, off to my Pinterest board I went to find yet another recipe to try still trying to find something not real sweet but that still tastes like fresh strawberries. And, I think I have finally found it. I made this pretty late last night so it isn't displayed in any fancy way but it is really good. It is not sweet but the strawberry flavor really does come through. It was easy to make but, it uses Canola oil as many quick breads do and I am kind of missing a butter flavor. I am so NOT a baker so I really don't know anything about changing up recipes but I think the next time I try this, I might substitute melted butter-or at least a part of it-and see what happens. In any case, I'm finally enjoying a strawberry bread so I think I'll hang on to this recipe.

There is actually 2 cups of diced berries in the cake and 1/3 cup of finely diced berries in the glaze so it used just exactly a pint of berries...and NO waste! Yay me! Lol

So it's Friday. I'm thinking Hazel and I will do a few more small chores today-plus clean up our mess from the last two days-and then call it quits and maybe watch a movie. Stay safe and stay tuned.
 

Finished-For Now

 I always dislike it when people post a project before it is finished and proceed to tell you what they still need to do. I always wonder why they don't just wait until it IS finished to post. But, today, I find myself in their shoes. I am posting the project I shared with you yesterday now that it is dry and finished-almost. The plan is to put some dried "something" there in place of the borrowed (from my bathroom bucket) eucalyptus. I would love to find dried sweet Annie but not sure I will be able to. In my thinking, anything dried will lend to the spooky feel. And then, those of you who know me know my UTTER DISLIKE for Spanish moss. Living in Florida, it is the bane of my existence. I go to great lengths to keep it out of any of my landscaping-which, is almost impossible. It is truly a wonder that there was actually some hanging around that I could get my hands on for this picture.

All of that being said, I have shared that the only time I do use it a bit is for Halloween. And so, this project calls for it. But, as soon as this photo shoot is over, the "real" stuff will be in the garbage and I will need to buy a package of treated moss. I know I can put this stuff in my oven to kill whatever might be living there but that creeps me out even more than the moss itself. Lol

And then, I guess I will be on the lookout for another timer candle. I happen to have this one but it already has a designated home once Halloween arrives so it is just visiting for the photo as well.

With all of that being said, you are probably wondering why I don't just get into my car and jet to HL. But, I think I have shared before that my grand dog is staying with me again and I just don't have the heart to leave her alone. She loves being here and totally fits right in but, she is a bit of a nervous Nellie and she's already away from her home. I just don't can't bear to look into those eyes as I leave her here alone. Anywhere I go the next 5 days, will be somewhere she can come along. And so, the shopping trip is postponed until then but I wanted to get this wrapped up...at least for now. And so, here we are. I think I might add a few more "spooky" elements when I bring it out and decide where it will hang.

As I look at this picture, I'm wondering what it might look like with a few spider webs drawn on the body of the stocking by the "BOO". Hmmmm?

I think I am actually going to try a Christmas craft this afternoon-still not my traditional yearly ornament because I am still coming up blank on ideas for that. How about before I do we finish up the late summer decor tour? All I have left are the bathrooms.

I just realized how closely that little pot of vines resembles the topiary in the picture-serendipity. Lol

And, as always, just a nod in the main bath so it can still function without things having to be moved. Even though I have lots of storage in this room, when all of the stuff comes out that it takes to make me "beautiful"-LOL-I do need lots of space!

So that is it for my summer decor, Next will be autumn-but, unfortunately, that is probably about three weeks down the road. Not sure what all I will be doing until then but I'll bet I can find something to share. Stay safe and stay tuned.

I Wish I Knew!

 Oh how I wish I knew how my brain works! After breakfast and my 2 cups of coffee this morning, I began to plan my attack on the day. I have a list of things needing to be done outside and THAT was my plan. But, somewhere between that formulation and the back door to the great outdoors, this happened.

From out of nowhere I decided that today was the day to tackle the witch's stocking! I started as I always do with a project like this where all I have is an image. I grabbed my inspiration photo, brown Kraft paper and a pencil and set to work.I much prefer to work from patterns. There is something very technical about pattern making-and, we all know that that is not my forte! Lol

It is relatively easy to produce a shape about the size you might want...although even this simple task took me 2 tries. Sorry about the pictures-the sun was shining in very brightly.

Once you have that, you would think the hardest part was over but you would be wrong-at least in my experience. Of course, you have to think about the size of the seams you are going to use and you also have to take into consideration how much of your surface area will "disappear" as you stuff the project and it becomes more 3D...that is where I always go awry because it will not be the same amount of "disappearance" for the whole thing. The shape of the project definitely affects the stuffing. In any case, a lot of times I "close my eyes" and go for it-only to have to try, try again.

This time, I actually wanted the stocking to be a bit wider at the leg part but, once I stuffed it and saw how it came out, I was OK with it because I wanted a skinny, scraggly witch leg anyhow.

Once it was sewn, curves were clipped and it was stuffed.Then painting began.

I used my regular acrylic paint mixed with textile medium for the painting. I like using the medium because it makes the paint glide onto the fabric more evenly but doesn't "dilute" the color intensity of the paint the way it would if I just thinned it with water.

I used the masking tape as a barrier to the different colors of the stripes and it did an OK job. There was a bit of seepage but I corrected it the best I could. I am really not worried about it because as you will see, once the paint is all dry, I will be giving the whole stocking a coffee stain. It is supposed to look a bit ragged and grungy-just how I like it.

After the orange and black stripes were done, I painted the body of the stocking with an ivory paint. It is pretty much the same color as the muslin but I wanted paint coverage everywhere so the stain didn't sop in too heavily in raw areas.

Before I coffee stained the stocking, I decided it needed a little more love. I drew a black line between the foot of the stocking and the body and then decided to add "BOO". I was going to try to paint it but decided to just use a Sharpie marker instead...and even that was an issue as the marker kept going off of my plan because of the bumps in the stuffing.

Next, I mixed up some instant coffee into warm water and added some cinnamon. I painted the stocking with the mixture and then sprinkled on more cinnamon and came back with the liquid to wash some of it away.

And now I wait overnight for everything to dry. I will need to make a trip to HL to get some dried greenery and moss to finish this the way I want but, my grand dog is returning in the morning while daughter #3 and her family head to NYC to see Harrison get on the beautiful Coast Guard ship, the Eagle. It will be his platoon's chance to sail the ship the rest of the way to Maine. Hazel will be with me and I don't like to leave her alone-she just looks so sad when I do-that I won't be going anywhere for a bit but I will see if I can't rig up something to at least give you an idea where I am going with this.

Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.

 

Happy Tuesday

I'm back after my very busy weekend. From Thursday to Sunday, at any given time, I had one or both of my two youngest (almost 14 and almost 16) grandchildren here and their dog...not to mention heading back and forth between the houses to feed the cats, bring in mail and packages and water plants. The kids also had some extra activities they had to get to so it was a busy weekend. We had so much fun together but I forgot how tiring it was keeping up with teenagers...and their pets! I've kind of been playing catch-up but I've got a few minutes right now so I thought maybe we could head into the familyroom.

Now that I'm looking at the larger brown bottle, I'm thinking it just might need a vintage label as well.

 

I'm still enjoying the sunflower jug that I made last year. It truly cost me nothing to make as I used one of my old "coin collecting" jugs, a free download and paint, ribbon and a tag I already had.

 

Wow, as much as I love sunflowers and the fact that once they're in my decor, autumn won't be far behind, I think you can really tell that I am not a summer fan. Except for the two brown bottles and the flowers in them and the sunflower picture at the front door, I don't think I have really changed up much else from last year. I am just not that motivated during summer. I would love to say it's because I am too busy lounging out by the pool or enjoying the garden but that really isn't the case-it is either sweltering outside or storming and either of those conditions do nothing to motivate me to get busy! It happens every year right about now so I can come to no other conclusion than I am just NOT a summer gal! I'm counting the days!!! Lol

In any case, that is the familyroom for this year. I do love this room when it gets dark and the lights and candles are all glowing. I need to make a HL run and then I think I will be able to finally get going on some Halloween and Christmas things. I do always get happy if I can get some of that done during the summer so I have more time to enjoy those holidays when they arrive.

I'm off to do some cooking. My son-in-law brought over bags and bags of all kinds of fresh food for when the kids were here and, even though they have pretty big appetites, there was no way we could eat all of that food. He told me to just cook up the rest and enjoy so that is what I am doing before things start to go bad. Tonight I'm doing my version of Carrabba's marinara sauce loaded with zucchini, summer squash, onions and this time I added carrots because I had bags of them. And then I have a pound of buccatini pasta to make so I will be eating on this for awhile. I've also managed to roast up a ton of veggies and make a huge pot of mashed potatoes so that all is waiting in the fridge for me as well. Now, I need to boil up a dozen and a half eggs, eat several pounds of cherries and strawberries and eat a loaf of bread. And, if I hadn't sent all of the meat and cold cuts home with them, the list would still be climbing. He and my daughter are so appreciative of what I do, that they don't want me to get hungry I guess- EVER. lol.

There's only a bit more of the tour but I'll be back to fill you in on my adventures. Stay safe and stay tuned.