Thinking It Won't Be Long Now!

 I am truly thinking it won't be long now. Honestly, if I didn't have house guests coming soon, I would probably be putting out my autumn decor already! I'm sure they wouldn't mind but I would probably feel the need to explain and so, I am holding off until they return home and then, all bets are off. That will probably be in about two weeks so we will see if I can hold on that much longer. Lol

With all of that being said, I should probably show you the rest of the summer decor before it vanishes. Lol

Guest bathroom is up first...but, I must say, there is not much inspiration in this room. It is looking about as tired as I am feeling. Lol

The only reason I took this picture is because I was thinking back on when I made that frame to zhuzh up the basic mirror the builder put in out new house. I'm still kind of proud of myself for figuring that out but I was starting to wonder if it might not be time for an update of some kind. And, before I could even think any further on that subject, I noticed the piece I hung above the sinks. That has been hanging there forever and this is literally the first time I have looked up and noticed it in just years! Now that I have, I can't stop thinking about it either. Maybe it needs to go. Maybe I could use it somewhere else. Maybe I should get rid of it altogether. Can you tell I'm getting antsy for a project?!

And, of course, the obligatory nod to summer in the main bath.

So that is the end of Summer 2025...can't say I will be sorry to see it go but it has served me well as a tiny glimpse into what is coming next.

I had the most wonderful evening yesterday with daughter #3 and grandson #2. We had planned to eat at Bonefish and even after finding out it was $6 BangBang shrimp night, we still decided to forge ahead. That special always brings out LOTS of people the restaurant is always packed but we were on a mission. The crowd was there and we did have to wait a bit but it was fine. It just gave us more chance to visit and once we were seated our meal was just perfect-as was the company!

I think I am heading out tomorrow. I have so many places I need to get to that I just decided to do it all in one day! It will still be hot but maybe once I get home I can head out to the pool for the rest of the day.

Not sure what is up next for me but I'll be back. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Gotta Learn to Pivot

 The Christmas ornament saga continues. When last we "spoke" I think I said I was shelving the project until I got out to pick up a few more supplies. Those of you who know me well know that that sentiment probably lasted as long as it took me to publish that blog. My brain started going on those "halos" and I realized that maybe if I first drew them with a white colored pencil I would have enough of an image that I could simply trace the shape with a very think brush and paint as opposed to doing it all with just a brush. And, that would have been a really good idea except that even when I tried it, the halo just wasn't going to show up white on white. Again, if I had used one of these painted rounds as my prototype, I would have known that but I guess I was wishful thinking.

And so, of course, I next thought of silver because I was planning on keeping these angels kind of neutral colored except for their gowns. But, alas, no silver paint pen was to be found. And, of course now I was way beyond waiting to get out to buy anything so I found the next best idea-a gold paint pen-which I had and even better, it worked! And so, I tried it and I was OK with how it looked.

Once I got this far, I was ready to finish the back. I have a small pad of Victorian Christmas prints that I love to use so that was my plan. Of course, that paper is 4"x6" and these rounds are so large that I could only run them in the opposite direction of most of the patterns that I love without having to piece the paper so the papers I could use are not my favorite but, again, the word of the day is now PIVOT! And so I did-once again!

That left me with the really ugly edges of these rounds. They are literally 1/4" think. And so, on to the glitter. My original plan had been to use a clear, shimmery glitter but, I was bothered with the only gold on these things being the halo and I felt like I might balance them a bit if I used gold glitter for the edges.

Now, usually, glittering is a no-brainer job...but, as you might expect with this project, that didn't turn out to be the case. I normally use Elmer's glue for glittering but in this case, because there was such a large surface to cover, it just kept running either to the back or the front. So, I switched to Tacky glue which is a favorite of mine for most things because it is a bit thicker and holds its place. But, it is not as easy to apply and I had to be really careful applying the glue so the edge was covered front and back. And let me just say, my sunroom will "glitter" for quite some time to come as this stuff is everywhere!

And then I was still wanting some embellishment on the front so I headed to my stash. This is all that I have left over from past projects.

The little sprigs of holly look cute but I don't have enough so, once again, I guess I am at my "will have to wait" spot. I also still want to come up with a way to add the date that might be just a bit cuter than just writing it on the back...we shall see.

So here is where we are...just realized that maybe I can write the date on the "hanger part of the round at the top.

Here is what the holly might look like-if HL even has any of these this year??? I will say that I would like it more if it was a darker green but I do like the holly. I might even try to paint one to see if I could possibly pull that off. Lol

But then again, when I look at the colors in that poinsettia-the dark green is what I am craving, the red matches perfectly and I just noticed that gold in the center. Now I might just be leaning in this direction!??! I don't know. We shall see!!!

I'm off to do a tiny bit of weeding-I'm trying to keep up with all of the gardens that I got done last week so I don't have as much to take care of as the weeds continue to return. Then, I am going to get ready for my dinner date. Daughter #3 and grandson #2 are taking me to dinner at Bonefish. It is truly one of my favorites so I am excited to get going! Stay safe and stay tuned.

And Away We Go!

 With yet another day of record breaking heat upon us, I am happy being inside and having something to do...even if it is the "dreaded" assembly line of crafts. I have mentioned before that I must have a pretty short attention span when it comes to doing things that require repetition! I would starve if I ever had to work on an assembly line for pay-or go mad. Lol

In any case, this is the only craft lined up right now so I put on my brave face and got started.

I created a sort of stencil mostly to assure that I got each angel in about the same spot and that they were about the same size. I simply cut out the body of the angel and lightly traced it on the wood round.

That worked pretty well in keeping them close to the same size even though the pencil didn't always want to go where I wanted because the distressing on the wood creates grooves and ridges. And, once I got them traced, I decided that I wasn't exactly in love with the shape of the body so I did a bit of "correcting". The lines are easy to erase and if I don't get them all off it won't matter once I go back around everything with the thin, black Sharpie.

The faces went on first...

...followed by the gowns.

Then I decided to paint the wings white on these rounds. I didn't do that on my sample one but the raw wood had a bit more color and the wings showed up just fine. I was afraid they might just blend together here. It was probably an unnecessary step but I did it so it's good.

And then I added the hair and got to feeling that these really aren't coming out exactly as I had hoped. I think I have made the heads too large so I'm not exactly feeling them right now. I am hoping that once I add the black outline lines that all things will fall into place. It probably wasn't a good idea to do the sample on a different base but I was trying not to waste what I have because I really do need all 12 of the rounds that I bought. The other thing that it took me this long to realize is that this round is quite a bit larger than the plain wood ones I have used before. But, if I remember correctly, the other ones must be bought in packages of three different shapes-hence the reason I had the left overs to practice on-so I would have had to buy many more packages. I will reserve judgement until the end but, we shall see. Lol

And, as I have said many times, I am in no way a painter. I can fill in lines with paint-in fact, I kind of enjoy doing that. But, when it comes to actually having to paint something that looks like something, I am at a loss!! And so, each angel has different hair and each head of hair seemed to get larger as I went on. LOL!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post on these cuties. adding the outline lines is a bit more challenging than one would think. The inspiration piece is definitely meant to be "imperfect". And that is fine for the original artist but, as a "copier", if you make it imperfect on purpose and don't do it correctly, it just looks sloppy or like maybe you've had a bit too much to drink. Lol But, it also looks much too stiff if you do it perfectly. Somewhere in there is the happy medium but I'm not sure I hit it-at least not on all of them. Once everything is done, I will come back and I can always add more outline if needed or paint over any place where I got too much. I'm definitely flying by the seat of my pants.

I'm not sure how I will be finishing these either. I assumed they had a hole in the top with the accompanying jute hangers until I opened the packages and realized that the hanger is stapled on the back. I left it there for now. If I have-or find-a ribbon that is perfect for the way I finish these off, I can easily pull out the staples and drill a hole to accommodate it. If not, the jute can stay. I will have to wait until the Christmas stuff goes on sale at HL before looking for any greenery...if I even want greenery. I know for a fact that I will be using a piece of Christmas card stock to cover the back because it isn't finished and is just ugly pressed board. And, because this round is thicker than usual and the edges are just as ugly, I am now definitely going to have to address them. I can either hit them with some distressing or use glitter-we shall see.

When I "painted" on the spackle, I really put a heavy coat because I wanted lots of texture...and it looked good-until it dried. It seems as if it just kind of flattens out as it dries. I actually thought of putting on a second layer but, since I'm adding the diamond dust, I'm going to let it go. It dried in record time in this heat.

I have to chuckle as I look at these now. Some of them are definitely having a bad hair day! Lol THANK GOODNESS I don't have to add a face! Like I said...painting is not my forte!

I was really on a roll with these and actually enjoying painting them way more than I expected but, I think I am at a stop for now. The "JOY" stamped on went so easily. A lot of times I end up really doing a not so great job of stamping something-especially when it is almost the last step-but this time all went well.

The wings have their glimmer and all that is left is the halo before the finishing touches. Although my white paint pen is new, the nib has never worked correctly and you either get no paint or way too much. My thought had been to use a thin brush to paint them but, that is a really thin line and there is a LOT that could go wrong so I think I will leave the halos until I can grab another paint pen. And maybe by then I will be able to finish everything else as well.

It's hard to see the glimmer on the wings in this picture but it is there.

So that is it for today. I just got a ding on my phone and saw where Tampa currently has a heat index of 120 degrees!!! I don't think we're quite as bad here but I think we may be fast approaching it. I am ready for summer to be gone!!!

Stay safe and stay tuned.

Mission Impossible

 So my mission on this VERY HOT day, if I should choose to accept it, is to come up with a prototype of this year's Christmas ornament. I found a photo of a painted angel ornament that I liked although the photo was not in a tutorial so I was left to my own devices to figure out how it was done as her wings had some texture. I had a few ideas so I gathered my supplies and set out on my mission.

Since this was going to be an experiment with probably a few hits and misses, I decided not to use the rounds that I bought but instead to practice on some ornament shapes that I had in my stash. That wasn't the best idea since it isn't the correct shape that I will actually be painting on but for now, I was just going for some basics.

I sketched a bit of a shape and began painting. To get the texture on her wings I used light weight spackle. It goes on pink but dries to white. I bought both a burgundy red and a green paint to try out. I know I could have gone to white, gold, silver, etc. but we all know that I am a traditional red/green gal for Christmas and, oddly enough, both of my inspirational photos used those colors.

At this point it became very obvious to me that when I go to paint these on the "real" rounds, I will probably create some kind of an outline stencil. I know they are supposed to look hand painted-and they will be-but, I would like them all to be close to the same size and shape and as you can see here, the harder I tried to do that, the worse it got. Lol

The other hard part of this project is that the design is semi-outlined with a thin black line and it is meant to be kind of freehand and "sloppy". I find that really hard to do because if it isn't done correctly, it looks like the artist just did a really bad job. LOL

I tried to use my NEW white paint pen for her halo but it still wouldn't co-operate on the wood so I had to resort to a very small brush and just painting it on.

Once the spackle dried, I felt like it needed a zhuzh of some kind. I was going to use glitter but it seemed too large so I happened upon this stuff in my stash. I have NO recollection of ever buying it or what I may have used it for but I think it worked. It is just a much finer grind than glitter and gives the wings the little pop that they needed. And, I also decided to try stamping on the word "joy" and I like it so that will probably make the cut as well. And perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that I am going to go with the red over the green. That is a huge surprise even to me but I just like the way it pops better. Of course, I will have to wait to see how all of this plays out on the distressed rounds that I bought. I might distress the edges of the ornament or perhaps glitter it. And, I am thinking of maybe topping it off with a small sprig of holly to get the obligatory pop of green.

Of course, now we are at the point of accepting my mission...or not. I think I will! I don't think I've made an angel ornament over the many years I have been doing this. If I have, it was probably a decoupaged image and not hand painted. Of course, this is also the part where I have the most trouble getting motivated. I LOVE to do one of something and I'm OK with two because I can make my modifications. But, once it goes beyond that, I get crazy bored. I have 12 of these to do at the very least so we shall see how it goes. Lol At least I am not outside in our predicted possible extreme heat index of up to 114 degrees! 

I'll let you know how I end up doing on these and maybe I'll even show you the end result-after I post a spoiler alert for those of you who might be on my gift list because these will probably end up being package tie-ons for your presents! Stay safe and stay tuned.

Decision Made...and Confessions

 I wasn't sure what my day today would hold for me when I went to bed last night but I awoke to a heat advisory for my area-up to 110 heat index!! The only things I have left to do outside are really quite labor intensive and, even with walking in and out of the pool, I just wasn't up to facing that today. So, that meant inside projects which, we all know, I don't have on deck either. And so, I decided to head to $Tree to look for a few things I have seen on different blogs and then to HL to pick up what I might need to finish one-or two- autumn lanterns.

My $Tree Plus had some fall things out but none of what I was looking for so off I went to HL. Of course, HL is bursting with autumn!!! It is everywhere and those are the colors and scents that I love so walking up and down the aisles even if I really couldn't use half of what was there was still fun for me.

My goal was to find some of the foliage I might need for my lantern. I wanted to go with a softer colored autumn leaf but I couldn't find any that really filled the bill so I just grabbed ones that were the right size and then filled in with some picks and flowers of other colors.

So here is confession #1...and this is not a well kept secret or surprise because I have admitted this many times before. Flower arranging of any kind is just not a gift I was given. I am NOT good at it...nor do I enjoy it. Of course, just making a ring around the bottom of the lantern is not any kind of real arranging but even that gives me trepidation and so, ONE lantern it is. I actually decided that because this lantern will have some presence and I really don't know if I even have anywhere where two of the same lanterns would be needed. 

So here is today's haul...joined by my previous haul. Hopefully I now have more than enough to get this job done.

I also grabbed some pip berries but these have leaves as well so, if I don't unwind them, them will make a cute candle ring for some plain candles. And, I also grabbed some autumnal paper flowers just in case a need should arise somewhere over the next few months. Lol

...previous haul

And then for confession #2. I have said many, many times that the only things I ever pay full price for at HL are the things that never go on sale. But, today I broke that rule. I think I have decided what my Christmas ornament will be this year and the inspiration picture has a distressed white background. I was looking for just plain wood ornament discs to use and wondering how many steps it was going to take me just to get the background before I even started painting on them when I saw these...

Even though the inspiration photo didn't have any instructions, I swear this could be exactly what was used...and so, I grabbed some up even though Christmas is not yet on sale. I just want to get started and see how they may turn out...I'll let you know.

As I said, I really don't know the correct way to do flower arranging so I just started with my candleholder and the Styrofoam rounds. I use skewers to secure the two thin rounds together because that made it the perfect height to sit in the base of the holder and give me enough area above the rim to secure my foliage.

I started with a sort of base of the largest leaves.

Of course, once I got here I was totally at a loss as to where to go next so I just started pushing in the things I knew for sure I wanted to use. I had to make sure that all of the white of the Styrofoam was covered and I really wanted to squeeze in both the flowers and the pumpkins. It might be a bit too much of a good thing but I'm OK with it. Of course, I was a bit frustrated so I forgot to take any more pictures until I was done.

I hadn't planned on using the "droopy" stems but it felt like it needed a bit more not quite so structured. And, as I look at it, there might still be a bit more tweaking if the mood strikes...we shall see.

I'm glad I actually thought ahead for a minute. Instead of attaching anything to the lantern-including the foam rounds-I just left them loose and everything is inserted just into them. So, when it comes time to store this, all I have to think about is finding room for the rounds. And, the lantern and candle holder can be used again for another holiday-win, win!

So that is it for me today. I have a bit to clean up and then I am going to call it a day. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Feeling Pretty Accomplished!

 I got two more large jobs off of my outside to-do list today and I am feeling pretty good about myself! In this heat, everything takes twice as long-at least for me-because I listen to my body and take a break every time I think I am going to have a heat stroke-Lol. Mother Nature isn't letting up but I was determined to get most of my chores done...at least for a minute before they all start refilling with weeds, gangly branches, etc. I will say that between the rains making everything bright green again and my weeding, trimming, and transplanting efforts, the yard really is looking good again and that makes me happy. 

Of course, I would be happier if I had some craft projects on deck but, still no luck on that endeavor. It seems as if most of the blogs I follow are doing Christmas in July so I was hopeful for some new ideas but, once again, everything I am seeing I have already done. And then there are already pumpkin and ghost ideas everywhere but there again, nothing new. Almost everything I'm seeing is a sign and, even though some of them are cute, one can only have so many signs in their home!

And so, I decided that I would visit with you and take you into the family room today.

This garland is so difficult for me to get the way I want it. I started with two long garlands, both the same from HL, and draped them across the entire mantle. They have branches that hang down every now and then so I like that but I think I may need to buy yet one more and then find a way to wire them together because getting them where I want-and staying there-takes forever even with nails in my mantle. Then, I took lots of greenery sprigs and just stuck them in here and there so the garland has a bit more presence.

I think I will leave this up all the way through November so I won't have to mess with it again. Halloween doesn't really lend itself to this garland but if I cover it a bit with creepy cloth and add my mercury glass pumpkin lights I think I can get away with it-it is just TOO MUCH trouble to keep taking apart and redoing. I will have to think of something else before it returns again in 2026. 

Honestly, I don't think I can use one more sunflower in this room. Sometimes you need to know when to "hold em". Lol But, I do love this room at night. This is what happens at 6PM every evening and no matter what kind of a day it has been, once I'm sitting in here with my feet up, all is right with the world! Stay safe and stay tuned.

Sounds Like War!

 Holy cow! I have had a thunderstorm with heavy rain hanging right over my house-or at least that is how it sounds-for hours now! The thunder is deafening and the lightning lights the whole house! Honestly, I'm am amazed that I haven't lost power yet. The rest of the day is not promising to look much better. I follow a meteorologist from Tampa because he is so honest and doesn't panic until it is really necessary and he just posted this. I have a very healthy respect for lightning so I am heeding his advice. I just rolled down the pool umbrellas because more severe weather is predicted for later today and that may be the only time I venture out until this has moved by! Lol

With that in mind, and while the power is still here, why don't we head into the sunroom?

I'm really happy that I grabbed that sunflower pillow when I saw it. It was 50% off at HL so a good deal and the colors and trim on it match everything in this room and on the chair perfectly.

I moved the lantern over here...and, note to self, these plants need to be potted into something larger...and hopefully, prettier! Lol  And, if you look carefully, you can see that I have changed the color of the candle in this lantern. Sometimes, the soft orange will work but, in this case, it did not and I went back to the yellow. Another note to self-if I see any more yellow Luminara candles anywhere, I need to buy them because I have a lot more places that could use them.

I put back the image I made last year but, once again, because I think it "reads" too small, I added the blank frame around it.

And here is my rain chain trying hard to accommodate all of the rain coming down.

The pictures in the TV unit for this "theme" are mostly non-holiday or seasonal photos that I would keep up all year except that there are so many seasonal/holiday ones in their fancy seasonal/holiday frames that this is about the only time of the year there there is room for them. 

So that is mostly it for this year's sunroom. I do have a few other vases of seasonal flowers at the other end of the sunroom, but they're nothing special and just there to greet me with a sunshiny feel as I drag things in from the garage. 

I think I will spend the rest of the day looking for my Christmas ornament idea and then, hopefully, making a supply list so I can get out to shop and then get started on this project. I really do love to have most of my holiday crafting done before said holiday is here so I have lots of time to just enjoy! Stay safe and stay tuned.