Summertime!!

 When I left you yesterday, the jug was painted with "mineral" chalk paint and I was already doubting my choice of color. Since the background of the print is white and the other colors are pretty intense in their hue, the tan of the mineral just didn't look like it would help pop the image. And so, before I went to bed, I gave it a second coat but used the color "chalk"-which is a shade of white.

Once chalk paint has the time to cure a bit, it becomes rock hard so, I started the morning off by sanding the finish to distress it a bit. You have to use a bit of elbow grease to get it sanded down to the bottom coat let alone the glass. I also cut out the print a bit getting off much of the background.

It is a pretty easy task to decoupage an image printed on paper to a flat surface but, because I didn't want a lot of extra decoupage showing since I had no plans to decoupage anywhere else on the jug, I applied the decoupage medium to the back of the print instead of onto the jug as I would normally do. Everything went well until I got to the few places where I had really cut the image down into thin leaf stems. Those areas kind of glued to the wax paper and then tore off as I tried to lift the print. And then, as I tried to lift up the small pieces to reattach them, they stuck to my fingers. It was a bit comical...kind of like I was visited by Dumb and Dumber but, luckily, I got most of them off of my fingers and on to the jug and those that didn't make it just got covered with a bit of antiquing wax and no one is the wiser...except you because I just told you. Shhh-don't tell anyone else. Lol

Once the glue was dry, I gave the whole jug a few coats of matte acrylic clear coat. While that was drying, I pulled a bunch of twine and ribbons in the color family of the sunflower print and also found a free download for some sunflower tags, printed them, distressed the edges and got one cut out.

I simply tied the fibers around the neck of the bottle and added the tag.

And then, of course, I had to go and grab a small bouquet of sunflowers to see how it will look. Once again I have no idea where this will end up but, it does have a bit of presence so it might just work in those large, deep shelves in the family room. We shall see.

 Hazel and I are off to daughter #3's house to check on the cats, clean litter, give them a treat, change water, bring in the mail and packages, water the house plants and then water all of the outside potted plants. It sounds like a process, but I do this every time they are out of town - which seems to be a lot - so I kind of have it down to a fine science. I feel bad for the cats as they're there alone so I play with them a bit but then I look around and realize that they're living their best life - the A/C is lower than mine, the fans are on, the TV is set to "cat TV", the automatic feeder is good to go and there are enough cat toys and climbers to house a menagerie. No need to worry about those cats. In fact, they're probably thinking that they can't wait for me to leave so they can get back to their vacation. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.