Good Day!

 
Well, today is Thursday and I'm not at all sure where the week went but, I am here never-the-less! My brother and sister-in-law came down early on Monday and helped me move forward a few steps with the printer and possibly being able to post some pictures from my "cloud". I haven't done it myself yet so we will see. Lol Then my brother was also able to get a new weatherproofing strip onto my door to the pool that was destroyed by a visiting cat-long story that I might share some day.

In any case, that was two more things off of the never ending list. Yay

In the afternoon we headed to daughter #3's house for a wonderful Memorial Day bar-b-que. Both she and her husband love to cook so the menu for the day was the summer bar-b-que that had just aired on "The Kitchen". All new recipes to them but all very delicious-not the same old bar-b-que fare. It was family plus a few old friends and turned out to be a lovely day. We ended it with the kids and dogs-including the newest addition to the friend's family-all in the pool and the rest of us lounging around the deck. Somehow, with the umbrellas open, we were all able to be comfortable and it was a fun day.

I awoke to this on Tuesday.

Don't know if you can tell but the rain is gushing down the rain chain...and I was a happy camper! That was all the encouragement that I needed to start my newest craft. Supplies were gathered and I started by seeing if the acetate ribbon would even accept any of the coffee stain. It wasn't staining as much as I wanted so I threw in my more coffee granules and then even added a bit of my Waverly antique stain and that did the trick. I have had that ribbon forever and could never find a way to use it so I am happy this worked.

While that was happening, I started on the box. I did the lid in blue, the box in red and then it all got a coating of the antique wax wiped on and then quickly off.

The measuring tape is there because this was one of "those" projects that required a bit of math. I don't think of myself as a particularly dumb person but, there are certain things that I just get so caught up on when it comes to math. My husband was a math major in college for 4 !1/2 years-until he switched to accounting-and he could do any math problem in his head usually before a calculator. I guess I relied on him too much because even simple things can throw me for a loop-it's at that point that I cross my fingers and "fudge" a bit. Lol

In any case, I wanted to put brads around the base so I could wrap the twine around them for the drum. But, I had to figure out how many so that the twine ended up together-I know it's simple but I honestly had to draw a picture-yikes-and then I needed to drill the holes. I used my trusty Dremel for this because it is so much lighter and easier to manage than the full sized drill

After that, to give my brain a rest, I pulled out my other old friend, the miter saw, and used it to cut up some old utility table legs to use for the fire crackers. Once I had them cut, I covered them with napkins using ModPodge and drilled holes to insert twine as the fuses.

While those were drying, I decided that I needed to add some stars to the drum. The inspiration had rusted metal stars-which I don't have so I headed to find a dull gold cardstock-which I know I have but couldn't find either-so I grabbed my trusty Martha Stewart gold paint, painted a piece of light brown cardstock, hit it with some distressing ink and cut out some stars.

Next came the twine. This is where a little of my "fudging" becomes obvious but, again, I'm going for primitive so I'm OK with the slight variations. I ended up taping the twine in place and then going back to add hot glue and then a tab of cardstock over it to make sure there was a strong bond.

I finished up by adding the stars, filling the box with some floral foam, adding the scrunched up grungy ribbon then a candle that I distressed with some ink, The fire crackers got placed around and then I added a few circles of red pip berries. And, somehow, it all worked out and I like it. I wasn't sure where it would go but I think I found the perfect spot.

Believe it or not, this project took the whole day. There were a lot of working parts but that made me all the happier...and we got a nice steady rain for a good bit of the day so the outside was as happy as the inside.

Yesterday I ran errands all day and then came home to wait for the tree guy to give me an estimate to clean out some of the HUGE oak that hangs over my house. I am still waiting for the estimate because they don't think they can clean it out without killing the tree so it looks like the whole thing might need to go-and I might need to sell some blood to pay for it. We shall se..

In any case, I'm back to catching up on some things today but I will be back. Stay safe and stay tuned.