"Whew!"

 Let's just say that it is a good thing that I won't need my latest project until June because it may take me that long to finish it.

I had a wonderful day yesterday. My pest control guy rolled up with about seven minutes to spare and got my house done with plenty of time for me to get to my hair appointment. Then, after I was all "beautiful" again-lol-I headed off to my daughter's new office. She found the perfect little bungalow to use for her design business and, although it is older and will take quite a bit of work before it has all of the ADA handicap requirements needed, it is adorable and actually reminds me a bit of the first home she and her husband purchased in Thornton Park right after they got married. They are busy making it just perfect and she is so happy to now have lots of separate offices, a sample room, a waiting area and even a good sized kitchen. And, of course, she is having the time of her life decorating it. When things get a bit further along, I'll share some pictures.

And so, that was my day yesterday. Today is probably our coldest day so far and I had loaded up on food the other day so I decided that instead of running the errands I had planned, I would stay inside and maybe start my 4th of July craft and then get the food cooked up for the week.

And so, this happened...and this always makes me happy!

I started as I always do by tracing the shape on to the faux tile and then cutting out the center but, for some reason, I was having trouble with the star shape. It was hard to get it right where you needed because it doesn't fill the whole tile as all of the others did and I had to make sure it was in the right place for me to cut out the middle.

I actually took a few minutes to measure and I got it right.

Then I picked up the tile and tried to put it on the wood star and it wasn't right-when the middle cut out was correct the arms of the star were off. I was totally upset with myself and about to cut a new one when I remembered-duh!-that there was only one way the tile could go on the wood and be right...and I ended up giving myself  a quick reminder on the backs as you can see in the above picture. Then I painted it an off-white.

I am not the biggest fan of blue but, since it is kind of necessary for a 4th decoration, I decided to try to paint it as it was painted in my inspiration image instead of solid blue. Let's just say that I may end up changing my mind about that because on the inspiration, EVERY raised part of the design is blue. I thought I could use a sponge brush and just hit the raised areas but that was a total disaster so I ended up trying three different small brushes...none of them were perfect but I ended up using the absolute smallest and, even then, it was too large in some places and really hard to keep lines straight. I almost just grabbed a brush and painted the whole thing blue-and that might still be happening but I decided to stop here and think about it for awhile. I'm sure once I distress it and add the "rust" it will be fine but it isn't there yet.

I also dyed some of the silk ribbon that I have using watered down acrylic paint and I think that was more successful than the beginning of the day.

And, this is where things might stay unless I can find the rest of the supplies I need tomorrow. Since tomorrow looks to be sunny and warmer, I will be off on my errands then and we'll see what I find. For now, I'm off to roast up some veggies and make some parmesan tilapia for dinner. Stay safe and stay tuned.