Little Did I know...

When last I posted, I said I was off to find my next project. Little did I know....

I think I have shared that we finally have a date set for our reunion get-together. We have missed so many birthdays and anniversaries while in isolation but, perhaps the most important, we missed 4 graduations...two from college, one from high school and one from elementary school. This is a big deal and even though their schools found alternative ways to recognize the graduates, it isn't quite the same as having your family gathered around cheering you on.

And so, on June 20 we will be doing just that. Some of us haven't seen each other since Christmas so there will be much to catch up on as well as much celebrating to be done.

And so, since daughter #3 is serving as host this time so that we can also break in her newly renovated home, I am just in charge of decor and photo props...and probably some food as soon as we finalize the menu. I did a lot of decor for those of us who could gather to celebrate grand daughter #3 so, I wanted to do the same for the rest of the group. And, since not everyone was able to make it to G'vlle to celebrate Morgan, we will be celebrating her again as well. And so, I set out to do something that I love. I'm not sure why I enjoy doing these props so much but, I do. I start with an image online and then I just do lots of picture piecing...kind of like putting a puzzle together. And, even though I'm never sure where I'm going when I start, I always seem to end up with a reasonable facsimile. Gotta say, the 8th Street Elementary Eagle was definitely the simplest to put together.

This guy nearly did me in!! And, being a Gator having to make a Seminole, I would not have expected anything less!

Here's Morg's lion. I think they're the Saints so I'm not sure why the lion but I just go with it. Lol

And, the beloved Green Devil from St. Pete H.S..

One chore down, lots more fun to come. My girlfriend is coming to spend tomorrow with me. We have talked often but not seen each other since isolation began so you know there will be lots of talking going on...so much to catch up on.

Not sure what my next project will be but you can bet I will bring you along for the ride. Stay safe and stay tuned.

And...We're DONE!

OK. The sunflowers are finally done...and, I just kind of stuck them in this container to see what I would think. This is probably not the container I will use when I put them out next month, but it is along the the lines that I have been thinking about. I actually think I will empty one of the old crocks that that I have in the yard to use. I think it needs something with a bit of a wider mouth. But, I am definitely feeling better about them than I was. They are different and, since I know I need at least one more large arrangement since things have moved since the last time I decorated for late summer, I think these are so much better than just another big pot of store bought flowers. I'm really not sure where they will end up, but at least I now know they will NOT end up in the trash. Lol And, believe me, those thoughts were in my mind last night.

And, while I have you, let me show you the 4th of July things I picked up while I was out.

These beads look similar to the ones I made but, at the sale price, are actually less expensive than making more myself. I like them here on the coffee table.

I picked up these two ceramic jars really inexpensively. Right now they're sitting on the ledge in the kitchen but will soon be full of fresh flowers. They might also be cute full of silverware at a party.

I have salad servers for almost every other holiday so when I saw these on sale, I grabbed them for my 4th of July dining.

And, I picked up some blue chalk paint and got the frame repainted. It is amazing how chalk paint sticks to things when acrylic just won't. No one else probably notices this but, it is the little things these days that keep me happy.

We are having another rainy day. I love how green and lush everything is looking but my pool is getting very close to the top so, maybe enough is enough. I'm off to find my next project. Stay safe and stay tuned.

The Devil Made Me Do It

Yesterday marked 14 weeks since I had been out of my house to go anywhere except quick visits to my daughters' homes or through drive-thrus for banking or to pick up prescriptions. I was pretty proud of myself that I had managed to stay busy and involved and hadn't lost my mind...but then, something happened this week after my pressure cleaner broke and I realized that my big fall-back project has just been taken off of the table. I HAD to get out and get some "stuff" for some new projects to keep me busy.

So, donning my mask ( courtesy of my very talented sister-in-law ), I was off. On day one I hit Target and Publix...mostly for essentials that I just really needed. And when I realized that I had lived through that, I woke up the next day and took off for Hobby Lobby. And, when I lived through that, I headed to Michaels.

I was truly like a kid in a candy shop. I had been seeing on all of the craft sites that I follow that both HL and Michaels were practically giving things away but, that must have been in states that had just opened. I guess our stores have been open for awhile and I must have missed all of the really good bargains.

But, they both still had their regular sales and coupons so I was good. In fact, I was so happy to just be there that I would have been happy no matter.

Now we all know that this isn't my favorite time of year so project ideas are always kind of scarce. I made the few 4th of July things that I wanted while in isolation, so except for picking up a few 4th things that I didn't have or could actually use, I wasn't dwelling on the red, white and blue.

In fact, I had actually looked ahead to my next decorating theme which is sunflowers and will come out about, oh, I don't know, maybe JULY 5!!! Lol

I truly love it when my house goes to sunflowers. I know we will still be in the thick of our Florida summer, and even though I use that theme to represent "SUN" flowers for summer, my mind reads them as the very beginning of hope for autumn to arrive. And, I'm sorry but that can never happen soon enough for me!!!

I will say that I don't have a slew of sunflower crafts in my mind but I had seen one that I thought would be a bit different from everything else that I have so, supplies for that were my first priority.

I will say that I am a bit "rusty" when it comes to craft shopping so I actually forgot two things but I am hoping I can muddle through - we shall see.

In any case, today was the day! Except that this would probably have been a better sunny day project. But, those of you who know me know that I was not going to wait, so a bit of jerry-rigging is taking place and we shall see. It will definitely take me longer than it should have but that is OK. After all, the plan is to stay occupied! So, here we go. Any ideas where this may lead?

I needed a large basin - which apparently I no longer have so I grabbed a shallow but large garbage can lid that covers my outdoor Christmas lights - not garbage. Lol One of the things that I forgot to buy was instant coffee to coffee stain the fabric. I knew it wouldn't be as dark but I ended up just brewing a pot of very strong coffee and going with that.

I poured a lot of paint into the lid and then mixed it with the coffee and some ground cinnamon and cloves to "grunge" it up a bit. Then, in goes the muslin.

I could tell already that this wouldn't be as coffee stained as I wanted but I'm OK with that.

Of course, the rain that I wanted so badly decided right at that moment to pay a visit so operations quickly moved inside.

I left the muslin in the solution until I thought it was as dark as I wanted. Of course this is when the fabric was to be laid out in the sun to dry...but there was no sun nor any dry spots where it could be hung.


 I toyed with throwing it in my dryer but I was afraid some of the paint might find its way into the cracks and crevices and my next load of wash would come out yellow polka dotted so, I found the only spot in the house where I thought it could safely hang and drip.

While that is drying, I sprayed the Mason jar lids with brown paint. This was something else I guess I forgot to buy but, once again, I lucked out. I thought for sure I had some of my hammered bronze spray paint in the garage. I always have a can for pool furniture touch-up but, apparently, the last time I used it up, I never replaced it. Luckily for me, I did have a small can of brown gutter touch-up paint and it had EXACTLY enough in the can to get both sides painted. These are going to get covered with either pebbles or burlap, so it isn't an all-together necessary step but, just in case any should peek through, it won't be as obvious as the unpainted lid.

Once the lids are dry, a hole the size of the wire you are using for the stem needs to be drilled.

And then, a piece of string needs to be tied through the hole so that once your lid is filled with the muslin, you can find the place to insert the wire. This was a tip from "The Crafty Decoraror" (who was my inspiration for this project ) and one I wouldn't have thought of myself but a real time saver for the next step.

 When my fabric was finally dry, it got ripped into strips...

...and tied around the rim.

Then, the lid got inserted.
 

I used E600 to glue on the pebbles.

When they were dry, I thought they were too gray for my liking so I dabbed on some brown paint. And then, I called it a night!

I thought a lot about this project last night. Let's just say it's a good thing I wanted something to keep me busy! Lol There are still so many more steps to go and so far, I am just making my "prototype" so I can see what changes I have to make because I wasn't able to get all of the correct materials.

Day #2 starts with me making up another dye concoction for the bit of fabric left to become leaves.

We are having another day of rain, so once again this will have to be an indoor project.

While that is drying, it's back to the flower. You can see how easy it is to find the right spot for the wire with the string hint.

The wire was one of the things I didn't get. I would have had to go to yet another store and I just didn't want to do that. I knew I had some fairly thick wire and it was the perfect size...but I forgot just how malleable it was. No matter how much floral tape I used, the weight of the flower kept pulling the bloom over. I tried two layers of wire and it wasn't any stronger so, in desperation, I attached a wood skewer. It may not look perfect but, it still needs the leaves and it does hold the bloom up, so I am OK with it. 
 

I really don't know where these will end up when I decorate for late summer. They will definitely be in some kind of arrangement with lots of greenery to fill in, so I think they will work. I stuck this one in the 4th arrangement just to see how it might look. I think I might do a bit of adjusting but, I'm ready to go ahead and finish the rest. 2 yards of fabric is supposed to make 3 large and 2 small flowers. I truly don't think I have enough fabric left to do that but we shall see.

So, I just had enough fabric for the flowers and I got the bloom parts done. The green fabric dried and I moved on to the leaves. They were a simple matter of tracing and cutting...

...gluing in a stem then gluing the two pieces together...

...and covering the wire with floral tape and attaching two leaves to the stem.

So after two days, this is where I am. I do see the end in sight but at this point, I am praying that I like them a whole lot better when I get them into some kind of arrangement because at this point, I'm beginning to doubt my decision to give these a try.

I'll get them done tomorrow but it is just more of the same, so I am signing off for now and I will let you know the verdict as soon as I know. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Oh, by the way, if you are at all interested in seeing my inspiration, go to www.thecraftydecorator.com. She sure made it look a lot easier than this! Lol

Onward We Go

Since I knew there was upcoming rain in the forecast...and it looked like it might really happen this time and go on for awhile...I decided it was time to move on a bit more with the pressure cleaning of my fence before the skies opened up. I had pretty much gotten all of the most readily visible fence done with just the far end of the side yard yet to do...but, it is QUITE a lot of fence! I'm not really sure why I felt compelled to even do it but, since I enjoy this chore so much and since I LOVE that the really aged fence looks almost new when I'm done, out I went. I was really moving along...until the turbo nozzle decided to stop spinning. The pressured water still comes out but in a thin stream. I so wanted to just keep going but, since there is so much fence and I was only cleaning about an inch at a time, I gave up. I'm pretty sure I can buy a replacement nozzle...once I want to go back to Lowes. So, for now, the rest of that project is on hold.

And, the predictions were right. We have had a beautiful rain all night and it looks like it will continue for some time.

And so...I'm coming up with some inside jobs to accomplish today but this is first on my list. Let's head to the family room. If you are really eagle eyed, you might notice a few changes between the beginning pictures and the ending ones. I have been tweaking as I went. Some of the vignettes have been re-photographed and you would never know and others I just left the originals because I was too lazy tired to get up and do them again. Lol

Now that those arches are hanging in this area, this vignette just cries for simplification. I think this is just enough to say the 4th without over-doing it.

This is where the 4th of July book stack and bead garland landed.

I was about to not hang the lower set of lights. They are getting kind of tired and I like the brightness of the LEDs so much better. But, when push came to shove, I couldn't do it. It kind of felt like getting rid of an old friend. And so, they remain for at least this year. But, I did go ahead and string the LEDs on top of the mantle and it all looks pretty at night.

Again this year, this grand children's hand print wreath made for me by daughter #3 is proving to be a big item on my blog views. It must be floating out there in Pinterest land and gets viewed many, many times...especially at this time of year. Some day I will have to look up that original post just to see how many times it has actually been viewed.
 

Since I had to steal borrow the large white urn from these shelves for the console in the dining room, this area became once again hard for me to decorate. I feel like the top cubby needs something big because it is so large...and, since I'm still not heading out and about to shop for non-essentials, I grabbed the photo holder that I use for Valentine's Day and loaded it up with vintage 4th of July images. I had done this before a long time ago so, luckily, I already had the images printed - as I am still out of ink in my printer. I don't use my printer all that much these days but boy, when I can't use it it seems as if I need to print something every day. HP ink is #1 on my list as soon as I break out...after plants and craft supplies...so I guess that makes it #3 on my list. That is promising to be one big shopping excursion!

And, if you are looking at that frame on the middle shelf and thinking it sure could use a paint job, you would be right. I had pulled that picture from a calendar many years ago and never did anything with it. Fast forward to stay-at-home and one day I'm just roaming around looking for something to do. Light bulb moment - I could frame that picture for the 4th. I happened to have the perfect sized large frame...only problem was that it was plastic. I knew chalk paint would work but I didn't have any in blue. And so I tried acrylics...and my instinct was right. It just scratched off way too easily. So then I tried dry brushing it with the VERY small bit of white chalk paint I had and that looked even worse. Not one to give up easily, I went back and dry brushed with more blue. Total failure. And so, with regulations easing, I decided to leave it the way it is until I am brave enough to hit HL or Wal-Mart for the chalk paint...no one but me is going to see it until then anyhow. Lol

Did you spy the big, red pillows that I had completely forgotten about until today?

I also brought the grain scoop in to this mix. I just didn't have anywhere else to use it and I didn't want to put it away so thought I'd give it a try here. Again, I think it was just me too tired to really come up with the perfect answer-that would have involved moving more things around and, quite frankly, I was just too tired. As it turns out, I kind of like it here.

So that is the family room for this year. I'm off to start making some things to use for decorations and photo props for the three graduates we have yet to celebrate. I might get away easy on my FSU grad because her colors are very similar to Flagler's colors but, I am needing green and white devil's heads for St. Pete HS and red and white eagles for 8th Street Elementary. Should keep me busy a bit longer. Stay safe and stay tuned.

I did whip out this card for Presley and am thinking it is kind of cute! The eagle was kind of easy...not looking forward to the green devil.