On We Go

Today we'll move into the dining room. Same caveat as I seem to be issuing the entire way...LOTS of green with the occasional pop of purple. As much as I love spring outdoors, it's not my favorite to decorate for!

That little black urn is new. I spied it in Walmart the other day in the Better Homes and Gardens area. I actually like a lot of their stuff and, of course, the first thing that came to my mind was "Halloween"-isn't that would enter everyone's mind at the beginning of April? Lol In any case, it was inexpensive so I grabbed it and was going to put it away for later but, I never got any farther than here with it. I needed something, the black set off the other black around it and I had 3 left over hydrangeas that I didn't want to put away. LOL...and so, this was born. It will do for now but those flowers are really too white for this grouping!

And that is the dining room for this year. I feel as if it is completely uninspired and if I didn't have lots and lots of H.S. graduation decor to get up and running for my grandson's party, I might even think about totally re-doing this space-who knows...I still might but for now-stay safe and stay tuned.

I did do one quick little fix up-I added a small pick of greenery to the garden urn on the shelves...wish I had more but it will do for now. It gives it a bit more height and looks a little more finished...sigh...still not feeling it. We may see the red, white and blue a lot sooner than I thought! Lol

 I just realized that I didn't post this the other day so, since my life has a few more memories since I finished this, I thought I would just add them on. If you are here for decor and crafts, you might want to head out now because the rest of this is pure family...Nana pride.

Yesterday we started our day bright and early at Trinity Catholic H.S. which my two grandsons attend. It was spring signing day and Harrison officially signed his committal to play football and lacrosse at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy! It was a wonderful ceremony. He loves getting his hands on the mike so he once again gave a beautiful speech and thanked everyone who has had a hand in his first 18 years of life.

It was just heart warming to hear all of the cheers he received from the student body and his teammates! Then we were off to the cafeteria where we had set up a table with memorabilia and goodies. I wish I had gotten a picture of the table before the kids got to it. We had a HUGE cookie cake which was practically gone by the time there was room for me to get a picture-high school kids eat FAST and MUCH! Lol

We were able to get pictures with the family, the school president, the Coast Guard representative and the Athletic Director. I missed the one with his coaches.

I spent the rest of the day with daughter #2 going through years of photos to pull many for a graduation surprise we are working on for Har.

And, before I knew it it was time to head back to school for the back-to-back award ceremonies for the boys. Under classmen were first and Hud (who is a freshman) received the distinguished student in math award and then the honors social studies award.

When the first ceremony was over, we were on to the seniors where Harrison officially received his full scholarship to the Academy-a scholarship valued in excess of $200,00!

Then he also received his meritorious cord, Honor Society drape, volunteer service hours award and the Scholar/Athlete Award. What a night it was!

I spent pretty much all of today out and about trying to find some light weight outfits that I can wear to all of the upcoming festivities without melting on the spot. Tomorrow we have the lacrosse banquet and the I'm guessing I will be using the weekend to recoup. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.

Back to Spring!

 I've been off on my 4th of July craft detour for the last few days. And, if the truth be told, if I could find any other 4th craft that I am dying to do, I would still be off on that detour. But, alas, try as I might, I am coming up empty! Again, I've been crafting for so long that there really aren't many new ideas coming down the pike. I'll keep looking but until I find something, I thought we should get back to our spring tour. Today, into the kitchen we go.

I love spring but seem to have a bit if trouble decorating for it. As I said in my previous post, I wasn't feeling the pastel colors of spring so things are kind of GREEN. I also don't have a lot of spring crafts so this is one of the few times of the year that I can incorporate "generic" things into the mix. The problem is that I have so few of these occasions since holidays usually prevail that I kind of forget what I have to work with. By the time that I figure it all out, I'll probably be ready for red, white and blue. Lol

Even in here, I left out a little of the pops of purple just because there was a LOT of green. I love green but I needed a little more "spring" in the feel.

I needed something to put the small pot of pansies into and just couldn't find anything until I remembered that many years ago I fell in love with the Royal Doulton Brambley Hedge seasons collection. It consisted of a bone china beaker and sandwich plate for each of the seasons. I used to display them all of the time with my other collection of bone china but, as the years passed, my taste changed. I still love the bone china and drinking out of it but I no longer display it all-it was actually a dust and cleaning nightmare that I just didn't want to fuss with any more.

In any case, I think the cup works perfectly here and I just went and grabbed the plate (which I had actually forgotten all about) and will see if I can find a place for it as well...we shall see.

So, what do you think? Definitely not my first choice because there is so much purple in the box and none on the plate (the little pops of blue are kind of close) but I will just have to go with all of the green. I really wanted to have the plate up on the shelf where the cup is but, the shelf isn't wide enough to accommodate to correct holder and I didn't want to take a chance of it falling and breaking after I just found it again. I'll let you know if I come up with something better but, until then, I'm off to give my very furry grand dog a good brushing. Thanks for visiting. Stay safe and stay tuned.

I Couldn't Help Myself!

Here I am...I'm at it again. With my mile long list of to-dos growing by leaps and bounds, I am still finding ways to avoid tackling it at all costs. I kind of have an excuse. I'm dog sitting this weekend and I had planned to begin my pressure cleaning but, with my little shadow here, I could not be outside without her and with her, she would probably be in the way more than not and present more of a trip hazard than the process already is. There are a few smaller tasks I might still take on but once I got the bee in my bonnet on the 4th of July wreath, I couldn't stop myself.

I started pulling the vintage images yesterday. I already had a lot from previous projects so all I needed to do was print them on to card-stock paper. Then, because it is just so much easier than the foam core base, I decided to once again use the metal wreath form from the $ Tree. I do step on it to flatten it. That makes the picture placement so much easier.

I got the images cut out and sort of arranged before calling it a day last night. This morning I started by taking a picture so I would have my reference point once I had to remove everything to wrap the wreath. The sun was shining a lot in the sunroom today so the picture isn't great but it was able to at least guide me a bit when it was time to assemble.

Of course it was at this point that I realized that I was using two of the same images so everything had to be moved anyway...but first, I wrapped the wreath form with some strips of red fabric that I had in my stash.

And then, the truly hardest part of this project begins-the adhering of the images once again. Everything seems to keep shifting and moving and there is lots of placing and replacing but, I think I'm OK with this. This is not where or how I will use the wreath but there was an empty nail so it served the purpose. I will probably add a wide ribbon hanger and, even though I'm not crazy about the back being reflected, it will probably go over a mirror.

 And, just as I was about to end this post, I realized that this would be a holiday where red, gold and blue glitter would probably be appropriate so back I went. With all of the sparklers and fireworks of the holiday, the glitter was just needed. I actually see a few more places where I will be adding just a bit more before actually hanging this for the tour but, for now, it is good.

I'm off to brush my FURRY friend before having some lunch. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay safe and stay tuned.

So Why Not?

So, all of my Easter is packed away for another year and my spring decor is out and ready to go. Once that was done, I had a list a mile long of things I needed to tackle out in the yard. After being away for a week and then having a week of something every day, the yard is looking pretty neglected. And, of course, not having a drop of rain for so long hasn't helped. And so, that was my plan for today...until it wasn't!

As I was packing away the last of the Easter, I happened upon an old cutting board that I have had and used for quite some time. But, lately it has mostly been in the carpenter's box for show. And so, when I saw it I knew it was more the size that I needed to make the 4th of July board I posted yesterday. The other board I had was a bit too small. And so, once I had that in hand, I was off to craft thinking it would be a quick project and that I could get outside soon. Either I'm really moving slowly in my old age or it was more time consuming than I imagined. But, with that being said, I have really enjoyed my day and there's always tomorrow!

I gathered my stuff-or what I thought would be my stuff but, by the time I was finished I think I was into every box, cupboard and bin in this house! That statement may just say something about how much "stuff" I have and how many places in my house are used for storage for all of the "stuff"!

As I said, that cutting board was used often so it has lots of knife marks in it...which I liked until I didn't. It did make precise painting a bit difficult but, except for the really hard time with the stars, I was able to finesse the rest. I started by taping off the top section and painting it blue.

Using the painter's tape I was able to lay out 7 stripes. I pulled off every other one and painted the red sections.

Then I moved the tape back to cover the red stripes and painted the white ones. I will say that when I removed the tape, it did pull a bit of the red paint off but I knew I was going to be distressing this any way so I figured all was good. I did touch up a few spots.

While all of that was drying, I started to think about the "messy" bow that was on the inspiration photo. I was hoping that I had some of the same red and blue homespun that was used so I pulled down my HUGE box of fabric only to find that I had other colors but not what I needed. But, I did find a piece of 4th of July fabric I used for my grand daughter's holiday doll that I made about 25 years ago and some plain red and blue. I also had a lot of muslin. I actually toyed with the thought of somehow painting the muslin but gained my sanity back when I realized I could rip the 4th fabric into strips of stars and strips of stripes and get close to what I wanted. I knew I was going to antique the board so, of course, everything just read as too "white" So then it was on to a coffee bath for everything.

I then strung those strips all over the sunroom to dry while I went on to painting the stars. Oy! That proved to be a challenge because of those gouges in the wood. I sure wish I still had the small star stamp that I used to have when I taught and handed out stars on the kids' papers. But, after pulling out all of my old stamping stuff, I couldn't find it anywhere so it was on to plan B. I thought I could control a white paint pen better than a brush so I practiced on paper and I was good to go...until I got to the wood. I could not get a straight edge and the stars just got bigger and bigger trying to. Some of them look like starfish to me but they are what they are.

 Then I was on to the antiquing. I used my favorite Waverly wax and then hit the edges of the board with a black ink pad and put just a bit of gold for texture.

Of course, at this point my entire house looked like a tornado had struck and I kind of forgot to take any more pictures until I was done.

I made a messy bow with the fabric strips when they were dry and added a few strands of raffia. I didn't like the middle of the bow where I had tied it together so I glued on a few buttons. And then I ripped a piece of cardboard, painted it, antiqued it, hit the edges with ink and made a tag. I also cut a small piece of burlap ribbon, stamped on USA and used spray glue to attach it to the board. Then just a simple wrap with jute tied into a bow and I was done. Whew! I truly did not begin to think of how many supplies were going to be needed before this cutie was done. I will say that I am happy with it and even happier that I found a way to get it done without buying anything new. I even used some of my old scrapbooking supplies that I still have in abundance because if one is good than two are even better...and so on! Lol

So, that was my day...literally! It is now getting close to thinking about what I will have for dinner and I still have much to put away so I am off to do so! Maybe tomorrow I'll get to the yard-or, maybe not! Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.

Welcome Spring

 I have all of my spring decor up but can't quite say that I have all of Easter packed up yet. In any case, why don't we start the tour before my week gets any busier. I did manage to get some spring colored flowers the other day and get them planted in the porch pots but, they still need a bit of time to fill in. Just about the time they're full and beautiful, I will be pulling them out to re-plant with red, white and blue but, these will find their way into the terraced garden out by the pool so it will all be good.

It's really hard to get a picture of this without flash-back but, the little nest inside of the cloche is almost perfectly replicated in the image I found, printed and mounted.

As I was going through these pictures, I realized that my spring decor throughout the whole house is pretty much green and white-just kind of gardeny-with highlights of purple and a few pops of pink and yellow where they were already in an arrangement or wreath that I already have. 

This was a pretty easy swap as lots of the Easter decor could stay-I pulled Easter bunnies and eggs and added back in birds, nests and lots and lots of garden decor and embellishments. I wouldn't be surprised that by next year I will have found a way to get rid of the pinks and yellows as well. Lol

And, what kind of crazy lady am I? That is a rhetorical question so my three girls don't all have to start chiming in-ha-ha! I was just kind of perusing my Pinterest page and happened on to 4th of July and 2 images I have pinned that I realized I could easily do because I already have everything I need.

I've had the red and navy blue books forever and I had the "spineless" book left over from when I was doing all of the book stacks. I don't know why I have never done this before but you will see it soon. I don't know if I will use the books as a riser or as they are in my pin but they will be there!!

And then for that cutting board. I picked it up in the WalMart craft section awhile ago. It is not food safe and has just been sitting here waiting for an idea. Then I saw that I had pinned this a long time ago:

I'm not sure it's large enough but, if not, I am going to grab a real board in HL Spring section for 40% off and do this. I think it will look nice in the kitchen. Crazy lady isn't even done with spring and my mind is already on the next decor!

You know what I am off to do. Even I can't live with the Easter stuff stacked up one more day. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.