It actually all started on Thursday evening when my oldest grandson had his 8th grade awards ceremony. He is such an all-around good kid and I am always so thrilled to see someone other than his Nana recognize that - cause I might just be a wee bit prejudiced. He is taking advanced classes at school and maintaining an honors GPA while playing football and lacrosse, participating in numerous church and community activities and leading a very active "social" life-this kid is just an all around good guy-but, I digress!
In any case, I love these ceremonies because I really love to see how all of these kids excel-our future is in good hands! Sorry I don't have more/better pictures. We were all about the ceremony and then getting to one of our favorite restaurants for a late dinner-lol.
The following afternoon, daughter #2 arrived with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, all of my favorite foods, a lovely bottle of wine and a beautiful card and gift. We nestled in with lots of chit chat and then ended the evening watching "The Green Book".
Saturday dawned and we discussed all of our options for the day. You'll never guess where we ended up-cleaning the roof and gutters. I'm truly not even sure how we got there, but I think she knew that I would be tackling them very soon and she didn't want her old mom falling off of the roof. The sunroom, garage and hubby's office have a flat roof and a HUGE oak tree hanging over it. Once the leaves fall, they very seldom blow off of this area as they do from the pitched roof. As a matter of fact, the leaves from the pitched roof probably blow down and sit on the flat roof as well. Every year I am always amazed that none of the ceilings cave in under the weight of these things-especially after they get wet from a rain.
Becky is truly a rock star! She got all of the roof cleared and all of the surrounding gutters cleaned out. I did "ground" duty and got most of it raked and into cans. We filled 10 large garbage cans full of leaves, branches and muck and there is still a large area around the side yet to be raked once I have some empty cans again. Don't have any pictures of that little adventure either but I do have a picture of my beautiful flowers. This bouquet is full of freesia, charmelia and cut hyacinths. I have never seen hyacinths as cut flowers...and boy does this bouquet smell like spring!
And now on to my "dumb luck". I am due at daughter #3's in just a bit but I was perusing my Pinterest account until time to head. I happened upon a post of some "European" paint technique that they had used on candle sticks. And faster than a speeding bullet, I was on my way to the garage. I bought a tall, wood candle stick a long time ago in HL. It was on one of those 90% off areas where the ugly things go to die and NO ONE wants them! I really didn't want this either but I thought it might have potential!
It was made out of an orange wood of some sort and it was truly ugly. Over the years, I have spray painted it and tried to make it more acceptable but I recently noticed that when I head to my stash in the garage for a tall wood candle stick, this is one that is never picked! It just sits there year after year collecting dust.
And so, when I saw this technique, I knew there might still be a chance! Of course, me being me, I started to read the technique, saw that foiling was involved and walked away. I first went and grabbed the minute amount of watered down chalk paint I had left from the chair and kind of dry brushed it on. It was better but still not great. I then grabbed a bottle of watered down taupe craft paint and used a stiff stencil brush to pounce that on. At first, I wasn't thrilled but some sort of a chemical reaction started happening. I don't know if it was from the chalk in the one paint or, again, my dumb luck but areas sort of separated and "calcified" and I think I have "got it". I'm going to let it sit until I return home and if I still like it, it will be a "go". If not, I might be dabbing a bit more.
I'm off for some more Mother's Day fun. I hope everyone is having as good a celebration as I am. Always more to come. Stay tuned.
Here is where it ended up...replacing the railing spindle that really looks better on the couch table as it joins the other "porch pieces" and adds a bit of needed height to that left side! It's always the little things that make me happy! Lol
And yes, my Mother's Day ended up just perfectly! I didn't get home until after 10 last night-way crazy late for me-good thing my daughter lives so close.
We all helped-but mostly her hubby and kids-giving her her MD wish...work around the yard.
She has a VERY large yard and she has taken a leaf from her mom and gone on a tear adding tons of new landscaping, trellises, a giant checker board area with bench, etc. And of course, as with her mother, one thing leads to another and lots of little details that have been on a to-do list for so long, started niggling at her and she wanted them done. We all pitched in and then ended the evening out at the pool while my son-in-law grilled every kind of food you can imagine. We ate on the porch and watched fireworks from the nearby golf course!
I also got to talk with daughter #1 in St. Pete for over an hour-lots of catching up to do. And, I had an invite to actually go down there for the weekend with my grand daughter but all of the other plans were already on the calendar. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a nicer celebration. Isn't it funny have priorities can change? When I was younger, being treated like the "queen" on MD was fine with me...and I surely never would have asked for a gift of "labor". Now a days, that is worth more to me than anything else they could bring! I must really be getting old! Lol
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