Summer

I love summer. Most of all I love the kids being out of school, the ability to spend a lot of time outdoors, the flowers, the smells...I really love summer. This summer is testing me though. It has been so hot! This is just not normal for Oregon, and I know I have complained about this already, but this is just nuts.

The sun does look pretty shining through my Ball jars--but I wish Mother Nature would just turn down the heat a bit.

At 11pm at night for it to still be this hot in the house is just crazy!

We have fans going everywhere and are drinking gallons of ice water--but this kind of heat is just not fun.

The kids put together their money and bought a pool which I decided they could get because I gave up trying to keep the back yard grass alive anyway.

It was a good purchase. Everybody has been enjoying it--even Gage who hates the sun.

When Jaxon is visiting he doesn't want to get out!

Of course, Janae's dogs want in on the action.

(photo by Janae)

Fez likes to look out the window and see what is going on in the pool.

I have been trying to keep the flowers watered...and they are hanging in there.

I put ice cubes in my vases to keep my cut flowers from wilting.

 I drink an iced mocha to keep me from wilting!

I have been enjoying the cucumbers from our garden and have made several delicious cucumber salads.

So refreshing on hot summer days!

I sold my little telephone table to a lady who is buying it for her Mother's 60th birthday.

That made my heart happy :)  It reminded me of something that Janae would do for me!

We have been having a fun summer...and I look forward to another few weeks before the kids have to go back to school.

How is your summer going? If anyone has any cool breezes to send our way...please do!

Thanks for visiting!

Stenciling a Damask Wall

It has been a few years ago now that I did my first stenciled wall. I had won thru another blogger a gift certificate to Cutting Edge. I was just delighted with the stencil and loved how it turned out!

You can find the post for this wall here

So when Chantel decided to re-paint her room she thought it might be a good idea for me to stencil a wall for her.

She painted her room in Regal purple. She paid for the paint herself and painted it all herself too. She is a very independent 15 year old. I really like it--looks very young adult to me.

The color looks very much like the hair color she recently had.

She knows how much work it is to stencil a wall...and that I am a night owl. So she decided she should go camping with a friend while I stenciled her wall.

So while she went off to have fun I was stenciling.

It is a long process since I like to let the stencil dry between each stencil as to not make a mess. I am a perfectionist and you have to embrace imperfection with stenciling. If you ever want to finish anyway! :)

 I used acrylic craft paint in white and I thought it looks so beautiful on the purple! Very dramatic.

Sophia was my assistant. I was so worried she would get cat paw prints in Chantel's room. My nickname for Chantel is "Miss Picky Pants" so I knew Sophia better not make any messes!

It is a slow process but it is kind of fun when you see how pretty it is going to look.

 I used a foam roller for smooth surfaces when I stencil.

 To keep things level I use a level that hangs on the stencil--love it!

My stenciling assistant was quite the step stool hog.

Then she got darn right lazy.

The hardest part of stenciling is doing the edges or any place where you have to do a partial stencil. Going around the window was not a load of fun. I do think all the work is worth it though because I love the look.

The first time Chantel saw her room it looked like this...

Janae helped her and they painted it to be more to her liking...

She made her room her just perfect for a 12 year old girl.

Now that she is almost 16, Chantel has grown up so much in this bedroom. Her bedroom has grown up too. I am so happy she has made it what she likes.

Because that is what makes a house a home!

Thanks for visiting!

Cute Little Telephone Table

I love to paint. I am so hoping I can make a small business doing what I love. I just want to make enough money to help put food on the table for our 3 hungry teenagers and help out with the bills a bit. I am so pleased with my latest remake--I think it is so cute!

I think in the time this was made it would have been called a telephone table. Now that we all have our cell phones in our pocket a telephone table is not so much of a necessitiy. I think this would be great as a small entry table or side table. I am really happy with how it has turned out! I hope it sells.

I liked it from the moment I found it at Goodwill.

I like it even better now!

I added a glass knob and a applique which really added a lot I think.

I thought it was fun that it was made in Oregon.

Thought I would share a photo of my daughters before they left for a day of shopping today.

I stayed home and started working on my next project...

This piece is more masculine than I usually do so I hope it turns out!

Thanks for visiting!

Playing with Paint

Ever since taking the chalk paint class I have been so itching to play. The problem is that the weather hasn't been cooperating. It has been over 90 degrees almost every day and I just picture the paint just melting off my project, though I am not sure that that would really happen. I am melting...I know that for sure.

Yesterday when it started to cool a little I decided to try the wet distress method on a frame and mirror frame. I painted the mirror frame in Emile and I layered several colors on the other frame.

You can see I wasn't careful about where to put the paint...I just kind of brushed it on wherever. I mostly covered the mirror frame...but I didn't have to be perfect about it.

Then I painted the frames white.

Before the paint was dry I wiped off the white in the areas where I wanted the color to show through with a baby wipe.

It was so easy---and so fun!

After that I applied Pearl Plaster--I love this product to make things look pearl like. I applied it straight which really muted my colors showing through--next time I will make it into a wash. I do love how it looks in my bedroom though!

The colors still show through and it looks beautiful I think. 

Wet distressing is my new favorite technique right now...I love the look!

It looks so much better than the dark plastic mirror it used to be!

In the midst of all this heat and barely braving the heat to walk out to the mailbox I got the nicest surprise....

I had seen this print on my blogger friend, Kris' blog. I told her I loved it and asked where to get the print. She told me and I bookmarked it for "when I have extra money". Fact is I never have extra money, but I had still looked at it many times thinking someday I want this. 

So after almost passing out from the heat just walking down the driveway to the mailbox I was so happy to find this print with a note from Kris saying he had rearranged her kitchen and no longer had a place for it so she was sending it to me for a new home :). I was tickled! There are so many nice people in the world, I feel so lucky that I have gotten to know so many of them through blogging! 

Thank you so much Kris!

I am having the hardest time keeping my flowers happy--watering 2x a day they are still getting burnt from the sun. At least most of my roses are still doing well. I have kept the front yard grass reasonably green but the back yard is crunchy dead. It is not suppose to be like this in Oregon! I am dreading getting the water bill this month.

I hope everyone is keeping cool and having a good summer...

 Thanks for visiting!