Almost Done

My car is now at the service center and I got a lovely surprise as neither my daughter nor my son-in-law-who are the usual suspects-picked me up to bring me home this morning. It was sweet granddaughter #5. It still takes me aback a bit to realize that she is now, too, driving. She is having a pretty quiet summer although she did fill me in on her "float" down the Rainbow River yesterday. She said the place was packed which, with our temperatures these days, does not surprise me! In any case, after a nice catch-up chit chat, I am home and thinking we will head into the family room today.

I'm still kind of proud of myself for the "knockoff" Statue of Liberty watercolor that I did a few years ago. I love watercolor but, quite frankly, have never been able to master it so, when I saw this print on sale somewhere, I came close to buying it. Then, upon closer examination, I thought I could probably figure out a way to get a close copy with no expense.

I ended up finding a die-cut image and cutting it out of Con-Tact paper that I carefully adhered onto a sheet of watercolor paper. Then, I simply wet the surrounding areas, dropped on watercolor paint and "smeared" it in for the background and then splattered water to make the spots. When it was fully dry I peeled off the Con-Tact paper "mask" and had just what I wanted.

I usually use the white round tray here but, because I am still pulling in some antique gold in this room, I left the gold tray in place. Those "My Texas House" hydrangreas are just too pretty to put away just yet so I put them in my large PB urn and added a few red geraniums and an old blue hydrangea. 

This is the first year in many that the mantle does not have lights. Both sets of star lights blew out and the last few years I have strung the twinkle lights through another red, white and blue pip berry garland that I had but, every year it got harder and harder to hang and get right so, this year I just gave up. I put a simple pip berry garland on top of the mantle and called it a day. Then, I took the old garland and cut it up and twisted it into circles to use as candle rings that you will see in other spots around this room-waste not, want not. Lol

Those who know me or have been visiting my blog for awhile know that I am not a fan of dolls. But, for some reason, last year everywhere you looked people, were featuring the Uncle Sam doll. I had bought a set of the round boxes to make my drum that is in the dining room and I had the largest box left over. Again, not wanting to waste it I thought it would look cute as a riser for something so I decided to give the Uncle Sam a try. I did not have a pattern so there was much hit-or-miss and he is nowhere near perfect but, that is the point and probably the only reason I gave him a try. Being he is supposed to look primitive, you almost can't go wrong. He may not last as decor forever but he did make the cut again this year. Lol

This wreath is one of my most viewed and copied images on my blog. Daughter #3 made it for me many years ago when her children were much smaller than they are now. The only thing I did after receiving it was to remove each little handprint and laminate them so they would stand the test of time...and they have!

I still like this pillow cover I made from a very inexpensive cover from HL and acrylic paint. Again, I did the Con-Tact paper masking and just painted over the stars and removed the mask at the end. 

For whatever reason, I never remember to get a picture after it is fully dark outside but, you can see what it looks like as the candles all start coming on-albeit without me getting up to turn on the small chargeable lights. This is my view every evening and it takes a LOT to get me up once I am cozied in. Lol

Not much more to go and then, I will have to admit, one of my favorite decor themes is next. Because I dislike summer so much, when I bring out the "sun"flowers for summer along with the citrus and Mediterranean decor, even though it is 150 degrees in the shade outside, my brain seems to remind me that "this too shall end" and autumn WILL come again! I seriously ask myself why I am still living in Florida. Lol

Still haven't heard anything about my car-the longer it takes usually the more it costs so fingers crossed the phone rings soon. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.