decorating with dodi

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Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Spring Cleaning

As much as I wish I could actually post about floors, windows, etc., that kind of spring cleaning hasn't begun to happen around my house just yet. Nope-I'm taking about all of the little things I have to share that really don't add up to anything more than me "cleaning" out some thoughts, projects and photos. First, I don't think I ever showed you the bathrooms decorated for Easter-really not much. Just a nod to the holiday to keep me happy.











Like I said, just a nod but it keeps me in the holiday frame of mind no matter where I am in the house!

The rest of this post may hop around because that is exactly what I have been doing...hopping from one thing to the other. A lot of these things are small projects I have been thinking about for awhile and it feels good to get them off of my list!

I have an off white chair in my living room that gets used every time we are in there. The fabric is nubby and must have some silk in it because it water spots something fierce! I have it cleaned each time I have the carpets done and, honestly, it just seems to look worse each time. I started looking into possibly getting a new chair but this chair is well built and comparable ones these days are super expensive. I toyed with getting it re-covered but that is almost as much as a new chair. And then I remembered that I could paint it. Now, those of you who know me know that when I decide to do something, I want it done YESTERDAY!

You also know that I am a "measure once" kind of girl. And so, I grabbed several bottles of chalk paint in a pretty color called "Mineral" and went to town. For whatever reason, I thought chalk paint might give the fabric a soft feel. I actually thought about watering it down but then decided I might then have to paint more than one coat and my back just wasn't up to that.

And so I began! The paint went on nicely but the fabric did soak it up fairly quickly. Because of nubby fabric, shadows and different drying splotches, it was really hard to see where I had painted and where I had not.


You can kind of see what I mean in this picture but, after the fabric was all dry, I just went back and filled in spots as I found them.


Here is the chair all done and I love it! No more stains showing...but, I must admit that the paint dried kind of scratchy. I think if the fabric had been smooth, I would have been fine. I did read where a light sand papering might help so that is the first thing on my new list of never ending projects! Lol


There is a veerrryyy long story to this simple project but I won't bore you more than to say that when I first wanted to put shelves on my cabinets many, many years ago, there were no small brackets available other than these utility brackets. I never liked them but I put them up with the clear shelves because I wanted the window framed with something.


Fast forward to now-a-days and there are decorative brackets of all sizes being used everywhere. But, for whatever reason, I chose to replace the clear shelves first. I have wanted to use wood in here for awhile as I feel like it balances the wood of the cutting boards, pizza board and carpenter's box on the counter. I lucked into a 2' piece of 1X5 and after just a few simple cuts on my chop saw and a bit of my favorite stain, they were good to go.

Of course now I am looking to change those brackets as well. Number 2 on the list!!





And then, on about my thousandth pass by the kitchen hutch, I looked over and realized that I REALLY disliked the lamp that was there. That was it...just a fleeting thought but somehow it got squirreled into the back of my brain. I did not go looking for a lamp-if I had the one I ended up with would probably have fit the bill a little better-but, as I was walking through HL, I saw this little light and knew I would at least like it better than the one that was there. 50% off of $30...sold!

It is a bit too small so I put it on this riser that I have-which now, I think , makes it a bit too tall. And so I will be looking for a slightly smaller riser...number 3!!



And now for the Meyer lemon update. I posted about my Meyer lemon tree. I have wanted one on my pool deck for a very long time so I was very excited to found one without having to break the bank! It is still pretty small but continues to bloom and produce fruit. This is my first "crop". It got rather large and I was going to leave it on the tree until it turned yellow but it got so heavy that it fell off.

I must admit that I don't think I had ever tasted a Meyer lemon so I was anxious to get into this beauty.

I am now obsessed!! They say it is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin but it tastes like lemon and tangerine to me! I could literally eat the fruit out of the skin. And, I couldn't believe how much juice this one lemon yielded. It will be a long time before my tree is producing enough lemons for me...until then, I am willing to spend a bit more for them at Publix-they're just THAT good!






And, just when you thought I had forgotten about Easter, my friend, her daughter (who used to be one of my Brownies) and her two grand children came over for the day and we let the girls hit my craft stash. With so much to choose from, it was cute that they both decided to do their bunnies the same way.


They just traced the bunny silhouette onto a canvas and went to town.





And yes, one more picture of my laundry...because, if you are really observant, you might notice that the washer and dryer there now are not the same ones that were delivered in December! Another long story but let's just say out with the Samsung...in with the Maytag! Finally...after only 3 1/2 months of waiting and the Samsung replacement delivery date still 2 months off. Fingers crossed that these work as well as they look!




So that is my spring cleaning for today. I think I got all of my little dangles out of the way. Of course, you know it won't be long before I am working on that new list. I'm off to Tallahassee for a few days this weekend but when I return, I will hit the gardens and pool deck...and I know I'll have much more to share. Stay tuned.

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