Desperate Times...

...call for desperate measures. Is this the favorite thing I have ever done? No. Is it even in the top 10? 20? No. But, it did provide me the crafty time that I so enjoy so it is not a total fail!

I almost always have a hard time finding new craft ideas that I want to do for the 4th of July. I have been crafting for so long that I have already done most of the ideas that come down the pike and finding something new is just hard. And so, when I saw what one of the blogs I follow was making with what they called a "spindle" Uncle Sam, I thought it was different and not so "cutesy" and that I might give it a try.

I found out two things. My Lowes does not carry the "spindle" she used and, in reality, it is not a spindle but a furniture leg...at least in my store. Once I found the closest thing I could find, I grabbed it up and thought I could work with it. But, when I got it home and actually started thinking about the placement of his different parts, I thought it was just too big! By the time I got a hat on this guy, he would have been just too tall to fit into any of the shelves I was considering.

And so, out came my trusty miter saw once again and I cut one of the sections out and glued it back together.

I had all of my supplies on the table in the sunroom and found that I would do a step, head out to the garden for a few hours, come back in and do another little something...and so on. In all of that, I didn't take many pictures but, it is basically a painting project with a few other little things along the way.

The hat that I had seen was made from cardboard and a TP holder. I am not a fan of seeing the side of cardboard on craft projects so I was going to buy a wood round to use as the brim. Except, my HL was out of them. I decided to buy a painted round shape and thought I was lucky to have found the perfect size...except that now that I have it all together, I think it is too large. I have it glued together with just a drop of hot glue just in case I happen upon the right sized disc.

The painted disc I used was made up of two thin discs so I pried them apart. I used the one for the brim and I cut small rounds out of the other to use as the top of the hat on the TP holder. I am also not a fan of seeing the "wrap" of the TP roll once it is painted so I covered the roll with card stock before I painted it.

Once he was painted, I sanded him a bit to distress and then wiped him down with my antiquing gel.

Since I wanted the vintage look, I dipped some cotton balls into coffee and spread them out to dry.

Then it was a simple matter of two black dots for eyes and the cotton balls glued on as hair, mustache and beard. I also put a bit of silver tinsel around the hat. At this point I was almost wishing that I had cut down the TP roll because that hat is just so tall. I found a free download, printed it out and glued it on the hat to break up the height a little.

Like I said, he is certainly not my favorite but, when I discovered that he does fit on the very large shelf of the TV armoire - a shelf that is hard for me to fill because small things just get lost on it - I am a bit happier with him. We'll see how I finish off this shelf soon.

I woke up to rain this morning but it is beautiful out there now so I am off to see what else I can get off of my list. Stay safe and stay tuned. 

So I have an update! As I was walking past my Uncle Sam just now, that mustache just didn't look right. I googled Uncle Sam images and almost everyone I found did NOT have a mustache. When I searched on Pinterest, some of the wood ones did have a mustache but, I decided to err on the side of the vintage images and get rid of the stache! Luckily, it was a simple task of just pulling it down to the beard. Ah...so much better! Lol Now I will be able to sleep tonight! 

Spring, Spring...

...beautiful spring! After a few days of rain-which, by the way, brought the MOST beautiful lushness to my lawn and gardens-we are having picture perfect spring weather and I am trying to take advantage of every minute of it. I have been out most of the morning doing weeding and trimming and thought I would give myself a bit of a break before heading back out to get it all picked up and out to the street.

Let's take a look at this year's family room before I share my day from yesterday.

I love how the basket, flowers and hat mimic the bicycle decor from the metal sign.

You can always tell when a decor isn't my favorite because I never have much to say about it. As much as I love spring, the chance to use old garden decor and just the mostly green colors, spring is still not one of my favorite decorating themes. I always feel as if something just isn't quite right...that being said, this year it will be one of the decors that will be up the longest due to our early Easter, so I guess I better get used to it.

Now for my yesterday. My oldest grand son was in the district track and field playoffs down at the Villages Charter H.S. It is a gorgeous campus and their sports facilities are beautiful. And, to top it off, the weather was picture perfect-not a cloud in the sky and cool temperatures. It was a day you wish could go on for a very long time.

My brother, sister-in-law and I went down with Harrison because both my daughter and son-in-law had meetings they could not get out of. Harrison is pretty new to the track and field team so I too am new at how these things play out. Harrison does discus and shot put and they are done on the fields instead of on the track area. We were able to sit comfortably, thank goodness, because there is a lot of warm up and then many tiers with a number of boys in each one and they each get four tries. That is about all I know and I'm not even sure that's all correct. Lol

In any case, he is good at discus but not great so we were just happy with how well he did. He is better at shot put and was #1 for awhile and then slipped to #4 (which would have come with an invite to regionals) until the very LAST throw of the day when another boy's shot put went a centimeter farther. I think he would have like to have gone on but I also think he was very proud of himself for how well he did with his short time of coaching and practice. Everyone better watch out next year! Lol

So that was my fun and games for the week. I'm hoping to use today and the rest of the weekend to finish up some of the outside chores and then it will be time to plan for our "Christmas" visit next weekend...and then, I'm heading out of town with daughter #1 for a few weeks so, I will have lots to share. Stay safe and stay tuned.

So Not Prepared for This!!

Well, it looks like we are in for a number of rainy days this week. I have a few things on my schedule already so I was really hoping that I would have this weekend to check off a few more outdoor chores...not going to happen. There are always still movies and books to wile away the day but, I am itching to do a craft I saw on a blog I follow. Unfortunately, I don't have the supplies I need. And, to make matters worse, they are not all available at a craft store...some of them come from Lowes and WalMart which would necessitate a multi stop trip out today...in the rain...and I am weighing whether I want to craft that badly. Right now I'm leaning towards "NO" so, I'm going to invite you into my dining room and see how I feel after that. Lol

The dining room is where the hints of purple start to creep back in. I am still loving these painted sap buckets that I found at one of my favorite decor shops in Dade City many, many years ago. I am finding as I comment on so many of my "favorites" that the majority of them have come from shops that were owned by interior designers. Unfortunately, so many of them have closed along the way. I could always count on them to carry unique items not found everywhere and I always found a treasure...or more...to bring home with me!

OK. What was I thinking? I think I have mentioned before that I always seem to have trouble decorating these shelves...but, I thought lately I must have been doing better because those haven't been standing out as much to me...until NOW! This is horrible. I just don't feel like doing a major do-over right now but I did do this...

I simply moved the vintage fence piece - that couldn't really be seen because it was green in front of green - up in front of the tan jar - which was just a beige shelf with nothing standing out - where it had a better visual contrast and even the little birds look a bit cuter.

Do you remember me taking the faux vine off of the iron gate that is now in the living room? I really was ready to throw it away but then I remembered that I had boxwood around this candle - and it looked a bit "Christmasy"...well, not any more! I don't know why silly little things like this make me so happy, but they do!

So that is it for this year's dining room. I'm still not motivated enough to head out in the rain, so we will see what I come up with. Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

So, the "good" is the fact that everything that is getting pressure washed in the back yard this year is now done. The "bad" is that right soon after I got it all done, we had a lovely day of LOTS of rain and it washed a lot of dirt back on things so right now, it doesn't totally look like I did anything. But, the "UGLY" has to be my pool slide!!!

I will be honest. We had the diving board taken out a few years ago when it got very loose and my pool guy wouldn't repair it any longer. I guess diving boards are no longer a "thing" because of liability. And, I am about ready to do the same with the slide. For the last I don't know how many years, I can no longer even get it clean with the pressure cleaner. I can get the pollen off but there are all kinds of molds (?) that have taken hold into the fiberglass because it is no longer smooth. As I have done some reading on the subject, I have learned that apparently I was supposed to be keeping the slide up in some way. No one ever told me that and this pool has been here for 38 years! That is a lot of years of sun and elements.

In any case, when I mentioned taking it out my youngest grands were not happy. They have a pool but it doesn't have a slide and, I will say, they do love mine when they're swimming over here.

And so, I relented and decided to look for a compromise. There are new slides to be had but, they are EXPENSIVE! There are also re-finishing processes but, once again, they are expensive. If my grands were just little, I probably would have looked into the re-finishing more closely, but, they're growing up quickly and the days of just hanging at Nana's are getting fewer as their responsibilities increase! 

And so, it was on to plan C. I decided to clean it real well and try to paint it. When I went to get the paint, there wasn't enough of the pretty blue shade I would have used so, I decided that it is my pool and I can be rogue if I want...and I bought lots of taupe! I figured it might better match the deck and not stick out as much.

As soon as I sprayed the smallest, little area, I knew I would hate it if I went any further. And so, I grabbed a piece of sand paper to get it off as quickly as I could. And, in doing so, I discovered that the sandpaper took off a lot of that mold.

And so, plan D was established. I will go out there right now and say that this is definitely not the preferred way to re-do a pool slide. But, for me, if it buys me even another year or two, I am happy.

The weather isn't co-operating so I haven't finished the sanding but you can definitely see the difference. It doesn't get all of the mold. I'm sure it could if you sanded down far enough but then who knows what you would get to? Lol

So, I sanded and then put on a really heavy coat of paste wax...and, before I had the chance to buff any of it, it started raining. I really don't think that will be an issue. I think I will probably put on several thick coats of wax, buff it a bit and call it a day!

 You can definitely see here where I started and stopped.

It is so not perfect but so, so much better!!! I might even try a bit more sanding between the coats of wax. The bottom line is that I can now sit out there in the evenings without my eye constantly going to the "bad" and my grand children can enjoy another summer of the slide. Sounds like it worked out perfectly! 

All of my other outdoor chores are on hold so I'm off to look for an indoor project...one that I WANT to do. Lol Otherwise, there are always some movies waiting for me as the rain comes down. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Kitchen Here We Come

Now that six more cans are full of leaves and out on the curb, I am coming in to cool off a bit and thought maybe I could get this posted before I head out again. Let's move into the kitchen today. The kitchen is always hard for me to decorate for spring because it doesn't lend itself to some of the florals and colors that appear in the rest of the house and so I find myself going a bit Mediterranean...which isn't really spring but it's what I have...if any of that makes any sense? I did try to contain myself and hold back on some of the orange tones that I will use here later in the summer. It is a bit of a mish-mash but, as I find myself saying so much these days, "it is what it is"! Come on in.

See if you can spot the new kid on the block. Daughter #3 and her family gave me the pretty pink wreath on the top shelf for Easter. It is just too pretty to put away and I like the way it picks up some of the colors on the frame.

As I'm looking at these pictures, I realize how "simple" the swap out from Easter to spring really was. A lot of the same things stayed in the same places. Bunnies and eggs were put away and birds and nests made their appearence. But, I am also now realizing that the next swap to happen will be spring to 4th of July...which necessitates out with everything and back in with red, white and blue. Yikes! I get tired just thinking about it. Lol

I'm off to tackle some more spring chores. Stay safe and stay tuned.