Shutters to Block out the Mess.

I haven't disappeared,

really.

I caught this monster cold from another planet.

My voice scares me:

 for a while I sounded like oxygen was not the gas I was meant to breathe.

I had every-five-minute sneeze explosions that were rather like bomb detonations,

and tissues were my permanent facial feature.

It seemed to fog up my brain a good deal, too,

because I don't know that I did much thinking in the last week.

If I did, I don't remember.

Needless to say,

if I had been a working school teacher,

my tissue box and I would have never left the comforting arms of the recliner.

Only having one eye open and a face full of tissues,

however,

does not limit a home-schooling teacher

since

(like it or not)

the children are there and must have some form of diversion

or 

the resulting tornado-like consequences would make the

'train-ran-over-my-head' feeling even worse.

The fog has begun to lift,

(at least, I hope I am making sense of this),

so I have again picked up some forms of constructive construction,

besides the Mt. Everest that has evolved in the laundry room from my neglect.

The sun today was pure bliss.

Lillie and Violet came in with a fist full of daffodils for me.

Levi came in with a fist full or worms to show me.

And my heart lightened when I heard a robin's song.

I love the first robins of spring.

So, I finished a shutter section for that part of my living room that has plagued me

the nearly eight years we have lived here.

I purchased two of these at a yard sale a few summers back.

Originally they were going to hide some pipework in the basement,

and then maybe the furnace,

but now they have ended up in the living room.

Here's the way it happened.

I saw this fun wall paper on Pinterest.

Pinterest.com: from Apartment Therapy

I mixed some country white paint with some Plaster of Paris

(to make the paint stick better to the shutters

since they seemed to have a light sealant on the wood),

and put one coat of this paint on

and then a coat of the paint without the Plaster of Paris in it.

 The large and small side of a plastic container were used to start the circle flowers.

 Next were painted the middle, lighter blue sections in each circle.

I then switched over and did the leaves/greenery for a while.

I used a darker blue and touched up with some white,

altering the pattern to make it easier.

This corner, with the hot water pipes stretching from floor to ceiling

was my long-detested foe,

and the place where I tried the shutters.

I love the way my husband's grandfather's rocker

looks great in any place it finds itself!

I am thinking I may just leave the one in this corner white.

The flowers made it too busy right up next to the stucco/stencil cupboard.

 Progress is good.

Progress in the living room is great.

Progress in the laundry room is difficult.

Ut-oh.

I think a sneeze is coming.

I think I'll end as it could send the computer screen into orbit if I don't.

Have a  healthy, productive week!

Linking up to:
Missmustardseed.com
Gnowfglins.com: Simple-lives-Thursday 
Embracingchange.blogspot.com: Creative-inspirations-linky-party-5 
Nominimalisthere.blogspot.com: Open-house-party
Theprairiehomestead.com 

funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com

Primp - Primp Your Stuff Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
We Are That Family

*Power of Paint Party - Domestically Speaking

Restore Interiors 

Primitive & Proper

Raising Homemakers: Homemaking-link-up