Simple Ways: Stucco and Silver

I just mistook self-tanning cream
for hair conditioner.
I kept wondering why the tangles were not loosening from my wet hair.

Yes, it has been that sort of Monday:

Phone tag
(why is it people realize they need hay delivered on Mondays,
and need it NOW),
puppy disasters in the form of holes dug right outside the doorway
same place, same mud pit as last Friday,
as well as chewed up items that I will not mention but that made me gasp and then screech
which sent him running out the back door;
home-schooling frustrations regarding division
(and I thought I disliked division the first time around;
teaching it to a child who wants to skip as many steps as possible,
no matter how many times I reinforce that all steps are necessary,
well, let's just say 'challenging' is putting it mildly,
like calling a severed finger a hang nail that has gotten out of control);
cooking atrocities compounded by substituting wrong ingredients;
stepping in evidence that the chickens have been sneaking up on the porch again...

with my socked foot.


Yes, that sort of Monday.


I had great plans of posting a great story of a great lesson I had learned,
but I lost it somewhere,
I think between my toes.


So, rather than wax wordy about things that have been lost upon my tangled brain,
I will post a simple project,
in the hopes that simplicity will return to Tuesday,
(although that wind whipping outside just now sounds like it is a bit flustered by Monday as well.)



I had a little box,
nothing would it hold.

Actually, it was a cute little box I got at a yard sale or somewhere for a quarter or so.

I decided to use it as a sort of pedestal on my mantel for an old bird I found,
so I spray painted it with some silver spray paint,

and then mixed up some plaster of Paris into some white paint,

good and thick, mind you,

like mashed potatoes, or angel food cake frosting,

or something else unfood-like so I'll stop making myself hungry.

I taped a favorite stencil I had made from an image at the Graphics Fairy

and used on my living room cupboard.

I like to use Frog Tape for this because it holds VERY well,

but it doesn't pull up any of the paint with it.

I painted this thick as frosting paint onto the stencil

and carefully pulled it up,

wiping it after each use
before moving it around the box.

There were minor smears,

but perfection is not always worth the difficulty of attaining it on some things,

or so I tell myself.

It adds just a bit of different height to the mantel,
a sweet perch for the bird in her nest.


Perhaps I will fasten the troubles of Monday on her wings and let her fly away...

But now I'll go get some tea and sit by the woodstove and listen to the wind...

and ignore that puppy snoring on the couch,

and try to focus on the season,

realizing that many have faced annoyances and much greater frustrations,
a part of life for all of us on earth.


"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea,
unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife,
 being great with child."

Luke 2: 4- 5

Yes, I have little to complain of...

and so I'll say,

'Goodnight.'



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Glue-Gunning for Texture

While digging out the tomatoes from the case I purchased at the produce auction,
I came upon a catalog
used to ad more stability to the opening at the base of the box.

Lo and behold,
it was a "Country Door" catalog.

Oh, how I love the "Country Door" catalog,
but it stopped coming to my home some time ago
when they realized I was only a window shopper.

So I promptly sat down,
thanked the woman who had chosen to pack her extra tomatoes
in the lap of such a luxury for me!


I came upon this image...

Countrydoor.com

and forgot about tomatoes.

Something about these detailed mirrors beckons to me.

I saw several of them in the latest issue of Romantic Country as well
(a fabulous magazine gifted to me by my mother for my birthday
and devoured when it shows up in the mailbox).


I wanted one for my bedroom,
and decided to try to create the effect
using a plain mirror I had that fit perfectly in the space where I wanted one.

To begin the transformation, I dug out my glue gun,
a ruler and pencil,
and some paint.

(FYI: the red stripe is a streamer across the ceiling left-over from my daughter's birthday celebration,
not a "No Decorating Mirror" sign.)



I measured off how far I wanted each decorative segment to be,
which for this piece
was 1 1/2". 

Using my heated glue gun,
I then proceeded to make arches around the frame,
being sure to use an adequate amount of glue
and that the glue gun lightly pressed the glue onto the wood
to ensure good adhesion to it.

As you can see,
perfection with a glue gun is not my specialty;
but I figured when painted, the errors of my glue-gun doodling skills
would be more forgiving.



I then filled in the archways with the decorative image as follows:

(Step five starts at the top and proceeds in a downward motion,
which is shown completed in step 6.)

After completing the whole mirror
(I used approximately one and a half of the 10" long glue sticks),
I began pulling off the glue gun threads.

I set the mirror aside and went to bed,
partly because it was late
and partly because I wanted to be sure the glue cured well.

I chose a base-coat paint that I liked for my room
(any color may be used, of course)
and then carefully painted the whole thing.

I let this dry and then cure for several hours as well.


The white I chose for the top-coat was watered down slightly
(actually, I made mine too runny and I had to thicken it;
so be careful doing this step:
 just a teaspoon of water per 1/2 cup of paint should do it.)

After I painted a side,
I'd lightly wipe it off so that the under coat would slightly show through.

I wiped more off the inside margin.

I sealed it all with a coat of glossy Mod Podge.

The mirror helped fill the spot above my newly painted black and white cupboard

and I like the textured look it now has.

I am still waiting on a better lamp shade for my crystal lamp;

the glass globe is a temporary fix as it doesn't properly sit on the lamp.

I had experimented with the glue gun texture on a little storage box for my daughter

that was gummed up on the lid with wax or something else that wouldn't budge.

Of course, that box ended up being her colors...

I hope to share it soon along with her completed dresser.

But of course,

I was a bit selfish and wanted to show you my room project first.

Now I must be off to finish the last batch of tomatoes...

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The Porch Transformation: A Place of Many Rooms

I stepped out the back door and saw this:

a little slice of heaven.

When we bought our farm almost about 8 years ago,

the scenery drew me like a ripe tomato draws fruit flies.

This view from the back porch was one of my favorites.

Great memories have been made on this porch:

lots of projects worked on,

lots of special events.

A few years ago,

my husband's parents gifted us with getting the back porch finished.

Oh to have that space all year long!

I can't tell you how exciting it was to watch it happen.

I even sneaked a photo of the Amish men working.

Shhhh. Don't tell.

Windows.

Must have windows.

After the basic work was done,

I painted the walls and ceilings,

and my husband added the woodwork.

Then it was time for the flooring.

Not being sure if we would keep the porch heated all winter,

our flooring decision was limited.

I finally decided that, for now, I would just go ahead and paint it.

We rented a drum sander but the sand paper ripped up as fast as we turned it on.

After hurrying it back, we exchanged it for a belt sander, but it did the very same thing.

(We kind of got the feeling that the sanders we rented were too old and over-used to be any good,

but who knows.

I say that because I had read on other blogs of sanding a sub-floor for painting this way.)

The point of the matter was, we were stuck with a floor that needed sanding,

and I was sick of it not getting done,

so,

I did the unthinkable.

I will never do that again
(I know..."Never say never.")

I had a mask on and ear plugs, but,

let me tell you,

I was afraid my wrist was going to break right off.

After a few days of recovery

(and after my Farmer had caulked all the cracks carefully,

so they were flat with the floor)

I got out the primer.

The whole floor got a coat of sealer,

and the marks were done another time or two,

til I could no longer see them bleeding through.

Then I painted the whole thing with two coats of floor paint in a shade of white.

As much as I tried to keep her out of the room

 I occassionally had a visitor who wanted to come sit on my lap

and discuss how important her book was.

She also found it necessary to make sure her favorite nursery rhyme CD was kept on.

Hurray.

The next step after the floor was thoroughly dried

was marking it for the diamond pattern I had decided on.

Using my husband's crosshair laser level tool,

I marked the line along the wall as straight as possible,

 afterward measuring to the opposite side and marking it so it would be evenly spaced.

Straight lines across were carefully measured,

and then meeting points where the diamonds would have their points.
It was difficult because everything needs to be precise,
although I won't allow any visitors to get down and measure all the diamonds.

(My math and precision are not worthy of perfectionism, I'm afraid.)

 

 Once that was done,

the very light greenish color was carefully painted on.

 

 Once there were two coats of the paint on the diamonds,

it was time to seal it
(I barred all children from entering when this process was started
and closed all windows and doors to the inside of the house.
The fumes were horrendous, but I have a charcoal mask or I may not have survived).

I purchased some vinyl confetti-type substance used on garage floors,

and threw pinches of it up into the air,

once the floor polyerthane had been painted on in segments.

 

 A few days and coats later
(waiting a few days in between coats),

the floor was finally completed.

I gave it a week to cure before moving everything in.

 I am really not sure where we lived life before we had this room.

It is such a relaxing place to be.

 Somebody is always on the couch;

she seems to think it's her school reading corner.

(The couch also turns into a bed,

so this serves as our guest room,

if you'd ever care to visit).

Violet's daily school books are stored in the white box by the big hutch.

We find it is easier to keep hers all in one place

in an easily accessible container.

Inside the base of the hutch,

I keep some extra-curricular work, art lessons, our CD's

and some of everybody's supplemental reading to be used during certain weeks.

 Levi's Kindergarten books and supplies are kept on the little shelf under the keyboard.

If you would care to see the transformation process on the spray-painted wall decor,

just click >HERE<.

The transformation of the sewing machine table

may be viewed >HERE<.

The bookshelf was one of my most recent changes

and can be seen >HERE<.

The ceiling light was a simple gold one

that found a new life >HERE<.

The wall shelf was also recently added >HERE<.

And the "What-is-it" Kids' book shelf came into being >HERE<.

My green metal vintage display rack

 is transformed >HERE<.

And the pieced together hutch from the barn

entered our lives >HERE<.

I talked about creating new cushions for the chairs

in this place >HERE<.

This room has become our dining room,

schoolroom,

craftroom,

guest room,

and entertainment room.

 And I still feel like it's one of my favorite places to be

on our farm.

Thank you for joining me on the lengthy journey of our porch room.

What is your favorite room of your house?

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Decisions: Arranging Pictures on the Wall...

Decisions.

I am not good at them.

For example:

when faced with getting new base cupboards for our kitchen,

I had to choose drawer pulls.

What an overwhelming selection of drawer pulls there are!

How do people decide?

How do indecisive people like myself decide?

So I printed up all my favorites,

cut them out...

and narrowed it down to two that I liked best.

I took a look at the price difference,

and when I found that the darker ones were not only on sale,

but a sale on top of that one,

I made my decision and saved about $40.

 

$40 here,

$40 there...

it adds up.

It took some time and ink to print/cut out the paper "pulls"

but I think it was worth it to help a visually-needy person like me decide.

On to my recent dilemma:

My living room is almost complete with it's renovation.

(A recent yard sale find was the oriental rug.
It looks like it wasn't even used.
Yay for yard sales!!)

I am very happy with the way the whole living room has come together.

But there is one wall.

I had used it for a school wall,

but we never seemed to stay in this room to do school,

so I painted the top half a lighter shade of the same green on the living room wall

by just adding some white to it.

I looked for too long through blogs and magazines for ideas for this wall.

There are "farming" scenes and elements all around the living room,

so I thought this might be a good wall to hang our aerial view photos of

our farm

and

the farmette where we lived the first five years of our marriage.

I purchased two small Currier and Ives farm scenes at a discount at an antique store

because the frames were damaged.

I just repainted them (and their mats red),

as well as all of the other frames so that they would look like a more cohesive grouping.

I also had the farm scene that I painted that would be nice in this grouping.

I saw these plastic flowers for $.50 at a yard sale.

They were pink and blue and yellow,

but I turned them all into red.

 The plaque was also a yard sale find repainted.

My predicament was:

how to place all these things on the wall.

I read about cutting paper to replicate picture sizes/shapes and hanging them on the wall

to try arranging.

But I decided to just lay them out right on the floor in front of the wall instead:

 I finally decided on this arrangement:

 I have to say,

it is nice to have pictures on the wall again

instead of maps and children's school work.

Now I have a busy refrigerator.

I feel like,...

...well,

 like I like being in my living room.

It's a nice feeling.

Linking up to:

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