Showing posts with label stucco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stucco. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

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.'



Linking up to:
Abowlfulloflemons.net
Graphicsfairy
Nominimalisthere
Cedarhill-ranch.com
Todayscreativeblog.net

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

New Life for an Old Lamp





I am loving summer for all the time to work on projects that have been waiting to be completed!

My husband's boss sent me a lamp she no longer wanted.
(Thankyou, Tammi!)

I thought I'd try out the stucco/stencil on it that I'd done on my cupboard
using the Deco Art Texture Stucco.




Taping a stencil to a surface that wasn't flat
took a bit of tape,
but once the stucco was smeared on,
and the stencil pulled off,



the little smears or imperfections weren't worrisome.



After the stucco had dried for a day or so,
I mixed some Plaster of Paris into some white paint,
til I got the consistency I wanted,
and painted the lamp.



I was happy to find some vintage material at the Good Will store
and glue-gunned it to the lampshade.

The new colors in my bedroom are coming together.



I decided to paint the design on the lamp.





Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A New Use for an Old Bird Bath Base.






~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was cracked when we moved in.
The basin had jagged markings of many years use:
a pleasant drinking fountain for the weary bird,
a delightful place for him to splash about.

But when my Farmer got called to go off to the war,
the woes of a birdbath in need of care
were lost beneath the mountain of other more pressing essentials.


It was icy cold that winter.
I remember the driveway became a sheet of ice
with the melting and then refreezing of the water coming down the hill.

When spring came,
her shattered pieces lay scattered at her base.




Years passed.

Lost in a jumble of hydrangea and spirea blooms,
the bird bath base was forgotten until the raspberries at the arbor ripened,
and my daily visits to pick them
reminded me of her solitary watch.

I looked for something to top her and give her a life again,
but nothing seemed right,
until I happened on a large birdhouse this spring at a yard sale.


 


 I put a fresh coat of paint on the birdhouse
as well as the stuccoed stencil like I explained >HERE<.

I had another birdhouse I'd found at a craftstore
that I painted up...

and applied some images from the Graphics Fairy,
sealing them well with some polyerthane.


I could have had my Farmer cut a circle to the same size as the circle
that held the birdhouse basin on
and then slipped the house on it to make it more secure.
Perhaps some adhesive would also work to hold the house in place.

I decided to just place her on the old base,
the arms of the bushes crowding around seeming to hold her securely in place.




It is always a happy feeling to find a new use for something
too nice to part with.




Now if only I could keep others from troubling the bird friends.


Please come back on Wednesdays to link up your fun creations
on my new Around the House link party!

I am happy to mention that BobVila Nation
has allowed me to share some of my blog posts on its website.


Linking up to: