Wrapping It Up!

 I think I have pretty much showed you all of this year's 4th of July decor except for the guest bathroom...so, here we go.

I love that abstract flag that the kids and I did a few years ago. We each did our own interpretation and even though they are all so different, each one is a masterpiece in its own right! Lol

Gotta love a good Riesling bottle for a perfect 4th of July vase.

Not really anything more of note to talk about about in here. But, of course, there is always the little (and this time it is a really LITTLE) nod to the holiday in the master bath also...just enough to remind me that there is a celebration coming up.

And, speaking of that, it is about time to start thinking of where we will be on the 4th. By then, my Ocala family will be home and I am thinking we will be doing something at their house for the holiday as we can see the fireworks from there. Others may join us, but with all of the skittish dogs in the family these days, it is easier to just stay a little more low key at their own homes...we shall see how it plays out. In any case, I've already picked up my red, white and blue M&Ms and tortilla chips. No matter where we are or what we do, I know they will be put to good use!

Daughter #2 just left for home. I'm hoping she makes it before she has to drive in heavy rains again. Hazel (my grand dog) and I are off to see what adventures we can find. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Sunny Days

Sunflowers?! I know, right. And just how did this happen? Well, as I have been posting, I still don't have a car and a lot of my family are not only out of town, they're out of state! And, I am dog-sitting. All of that together, kind of puts a bit of a damper on what I can do and where I can go. And so, with those parameters, I find myself still looking for things to keep me busy.

And, so, even though the 4th of July is still a few weeks away, I am beginning to look beyond the red, white and blue and long for what comes next!

This is when I usually go back to last year's photos just to kind of give me a gentle reminder...and, to realize that if I don't come up with anything new, this might me the exact decor arrangement I will be using next.

I have to admit that as soon as I saw those sunflowers, my heart beat a bit faster. Once they have arrived, can autumn be far behind? The truth is "yes" but, in my world, I find it easy to ignore the forces of nature and sink into my delusional world of being whatever season I want...no matter what is happening outside my walls! Lol That's why God created A/C and fireplaces, right?

And so, after perusing the photos, two things popped out. Not large things mind you, but, enough to get me started.

I noticed immediately that there wasn't a postcard in the mailbox as there usually is for each theme.

I actually just realized that there isn't anything in the scale either...may be another project in my future. In any case, I couldn't find a vintage postcard with a sunflower to download and print so I found an image, printed it and matted it and I think I will be fine.

And then, I also realized that although I thought that I had made one of my wooden tags for every theme, I must have missed sunflowers. And, you know, I couldn't let that happen! And so, with a pile of tags still at the ready, I pulled together some supplies.

As usual, my plan had been to take you along on each step of the painting. Here is step 1: a coat of white chalk paint.

And that is pretty much where I went awry. As so often happens with me, especially when I don't really have a plan, I get so excited to see how things come out that I forget to document them along the way. And, so, this is step #2...and #3 and...well, you get the idea.

At this point I felt like it needed a quick swipe of the antique gel just to knock off a bit of the "whiteness". Then, it was a simple matter of some twine and butcher's cord for the tie and...

I'm really not sure where it will go but with all of the crocks and urns that will be out soon, I'm pretty sure I will find a place. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that one of the blogs that I follow will soon start coming up with some fantastic new sunflower ideas to get me through another crafting lull. This just might be another reason why summer is just not my favorite time of year.

Stay safe and stay tuned.
 

On the Fence

 I think the last time I posted I was talking about the lazy days of summer. Don't know how I managed it but they seem to have gotten even lazier the past week. Daughter #3, her family (with three kids) and three extra kids are now in Arkansas visiting her in-laws for a few weeks...and their dog is here with me. My car is still in the shop with apparently every mechanic trying to figure out why it is doing what it is doing without any error codes showing up on the computer!

I think normally I would be a bit panicked knowing I couldn't leave my house but, I have been well taken care of. My son-in-law loaded me up on groceries, a friend took me to lunch and then to Lowes where I needed to load up on a lot of things-and those things in turn gave me what I needed to do some small repairs all day long yesterday!

My friend also made a surprise grocery trip for me and one of mt daughter's assistants keeps checking on me, so I am doing fine...and, giving myself permission to play with Hazel and wile away the days just as I choose!

In any case, one of those days I got a little antsy to do a craft. I had seen a picture that looked like it was made by covering paint sticks with scrapbook paper and making it into the "suggestion" of the US flag. I actually had everything I would need so I decided to give it a try.

Once everything was gathered, I wondered if I couldn't do the same thing a bit more easily by just cutting strips of cardboard and using that as the "stripes" instead of the stir sticks.

So, I gave that a try. I just cut the paper, glued the cut strips all down onto a sheet of cardboard and cut them apart.

Next, I was on to the stars. I cut three stars out of the cardboard, glued them on to a blue paper and cut them out. I did decide to give all of the cut pieces a bit of a distressed look on their edges because the paper I was using had a bit of a vintage, distressed look.

Then, I assembled it all and put it in the frame...and wasn't really impressed.

I let it go over night and in the morning decided I might like it better with a star napkin decoupaged over the star shapes. And so, I gave that a try.

It kind of looks OK up there...it definitely fits into the "star requirement"- Lol - but it also has some of the same vintage images that are on the plate so, maybe, it is serendipity? NOPE! Don't think I would go quite that far on this one but, as I have said many times before, if I enjoy the process and it happily fills my time, I consider it a successful project...that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I'll definitely be back but no telling what exciting tales I will have then. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Summertime...and the Living is Easy

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I am not a fan of summer...I am not a fan of heat. But, the one good thing is that with summer comes less scheduling, no school for the grands and just a lot less exertion expected because of the heat. That kind of gives one "permission" to take life easy...to read a book even though there are chores to be done...to leaf through magazines and make "wish lists" even though there are windows that could use a washing. And on and on it goes. For some reason, these days of summer bring back all those memories of movies where the heroine is sitting on the veranda with a fancy fan and sipping lemonade...and not doing anything else that day! This may be the only thing about summer that I like.

And so it was yesterday. With my oldest grandson in Tallahassee at an FSU football camp, his brother out at Camp Kiwanis and my daughter and son-in-law tied up at work, my grand daughter asked if she and her dog could come spend the day with me. I told her I had no exciting plans but that we could wing it and do whatever we wanted. Of course, I did know that if she wanted to whip up a craft or two I had plenty of supplies at hand.

Well, it seems as if she has the same take on summer that I do - not to mention that this is her first week with no school. She was happy to sit and watch some "craft" girl that she enjoys and then follow along with her on a drawing or two.

She also likes some game where she can design rooms for imaginary people...maybe she'll end up a designer like her mom.

In any case, we all had an easy summer day (dog included) and then her mom got done early and surprised us with an early dinner and then stayed to wile away the rest of the day while waiting until later when she could finally go pick up my grandson from his trip. We had the nicest chat with nowhere else to be or nothing else to do. I didn't really accomplish anything although I feel as if I accomplished more than I could ever have imagined. More family memories were made and I sometimes think these are the memories that come back much more often than all of the big, scheduled and planned things that we do.

So today, I am taking a leaf from yesterday's book but managing to squeeze in a few little to-dos along the way. With that in mind, why don't we head to the family room?

This pallet flag I made many years ago as gifts is still a favorite with me. It is getting a little beat up over the years of being pulled and pushed under the stack of other signs but for some reason, I like it even more now. It feels like it has been around a long time and been through much...much like our country that it represents.

I still love this wreath that daughter #3 made me when the grands were still small. These days, we couldn't begin to fit their hands on that wreath!

So this is where the other spindle Uncle Sam ended up...and, I moved the two stars and stripes pots here as well. In the past they have been split up in the kitchen but I like them so much better together. They both have a faux plant...not one of my favorites but I think this large, black hole of shelves needs some green to bring some life to it and there is no way anything live could thrive in that darkness.

And, this is where the other new crafts ended up. I still love the Statue of Liberty...and, I'm still amazed that my technique worked. I might have to remember that for other holiday art.

All of my grand dogs have always been right at home in my house...maybe because they know how much I love animals. Hazel comes to visit quite often and makes herself right at home. As a matter of fact, she must have had her best behavior on when I snapped this picture because she is usually up on that couch. Lol

I'm still loving the pillow cover I did last year. Designer daughter #3 just asked me if it was from Pottery Barn (obviously she doesn't read my blog lol) and that, to me, is an incredibly high compliment. Everyone knows how much I love the Pottery Barn. I would move into their catalog if I could!

So that's it for today. Think it's time to pour a lemonade and grab a book. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Follow the Sun

Off we go to the sunroom...although it is anything but a sun room today. I'm not complaining...I'm loving the rains we are finally getting although it is kind of ironic that the upstanding rain lilies that I showed you yesterday are completely beaten down after a night of continual rain.

Off we go.

I still love the silly Uncle Sam Presley and I made a number of years ago.

It was actually in 2014. I can't believe how little she looks!

So that is the sunroom for this year. It looks like we might be having some dreary days this week so I think I am going to make a big pot of my favorite "Martha Stewart Vegetable Vermicelli" soup. I don't usually make soup in the summer but this one reads more as a pasta dish to me and the idea of cooking once and eating for days appeals to me more and more as I get older. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.

Know When to Hold 'Em...Know When to Fold 'Em

 So, some ideas just work better than others. I haven't been able to get out for craft supplies...and, in all honesty, I haven't had any great inspirational ideas anyhow...so, with some rain outdoors and a sense of just needing to do something slowly creeping up, I tried two projects that both seemed to be no-brainers and things that couldn't be messed up...I was wrong.

The first was a simple decoupage project. I had some really pretty 4th of July napkins that I wanted to pair with some old, tin buckets I had sitting out on my gardener's bench. This seemed like a simple enough thing to do-just separate the layers of the napkin and ModPodge the picture on the bucket.

At this point, I was happy...but, the ModPodge is still wet. As soon as it dried, the pretty pattern of the napkin just kind of faded into the silver of the bucket.

And so, I soaked it off and painted the bucket a light gray hoping that would help.

And, it did but I am still under whelmed with this project.

I realized that I really couldn't come up with anything else for the 4th of July so I moved on to my next decor which will be sun flowers. Nope. Nothing striking my fancy there just yet either. Then I remembered that I had been wanting to try my hand at painting pumpkins...but not just any ordinary pumpkin. I wanted to do something a little different and, if I liked how it turned out, maybe I could make them as gifts for family and friends.

With that in mind...and no fabulous supplies laying around, I decided to use the wood fence slat I had cut up earlier. I started by giving it a dry brushed coat of white chalk paint.

Next, I sketched the pumpkin and then used a black marker to draw the pumpkin segments. I thought that might be easier than a thin brush and paint but the texture of the wood made the marker lines hard to control.

Then I started filling in a bit with a light orange chalk paint...which dried much too dark for my liking. It was reading more Halloween than autumn to me now so I started adding other colors. I think my plan had been to not try for a realistic pumpkin...to kind of go a bit more modern art-ish...but, I guess that just isn't me because every time it got anywhere near that, I went back and changed it.

I knew I wanted cut out pieces of wording so I got that added...

...and that is where things really went south. I can't even begin to tell you have many layers of paint have gone over other layers of paint to do and re-do this pumpkin so many times. I finally just gave up. For right now, it is what it is. It may end up as a shelf sitter (on a REALLY obscure shelf - Lol), I may have an ah-ha moment and know just what it needs and make it better or, it might never be seen again...we shall see.

I thought about heading out to the pool, but I think Mother Nature just might be trying to tell me something...

My rain lilies are fairly good predictors of what may lie in store for the afternoon. In any case, I'm off for now. I ended up having the best day yesterday with daughter #3 and her family. It was spur of the moment and those things usually turn out to be the most fun. But, I did put a few chores on hold so with "verified" rain in the forecast, I guess I had better get going on that. Stay safe and stay tuned.