Snapshot Saturday

 I have been putting the finishing touches on decor at Our Haven, a room at a time. My latest project was a wall hanging for our bedroom. I saw this knot design I really liked and my brilliant artist-daughter helped me tweak it and add the phrase I wanted.  I really love how she made it look three dimensional and yet kept the sketch aspect of it. I had it canvas printed and it is exactly what I wanted!

 It looks great on the wall above my bed. The next thing is a furniture project - a pair of twin antique wrought beds from 1920's. I'm going to refinish them in a hammered bronze and join them together for our Cal King bed. 

This is the view that makes me not want to get out of bed. 

I also have to celebrate a fabulous find - summer season clearance plus $30 off for a great bistro set (I paid $60 for a $250 set). The chairs swivel and rock and there's a cute little table, too. You can just see the edge of one of the chairs in the picture above. 

I took these pictures from my balcony vantage point enjoying my new find with a cup of homemade lemonade-tea.  

I practice breathing daily, "In. Out. Let go. Repeat" and I think it's finally starting to work. Too bad I have to return to school next week.


Thanks for stopping by!

Therapy Thursday

My therapy project today was an extension of my Garden Notebook.  I really wanted a chore list available at a glance for family members to reference but didn't see anything I liked at the stores or online, so I made one. ^.^

Here it is all finished:

It took me longer to make my custom lists than it did to put it together.

Basic info:

• The font is Jane Austen - I like it even though I'm not an Austen literary fan.
• The lists are printed on resume paper for a parchment look.
• I bought a 12x36 poster frame with glass  - important if you want to use dry erase on it) for about $15 at the store 
• I raided my fabric stash for the backing and 504 spray.

With my materials all laid out, I got started.

I trimmed the fabric to the board with about an inch and one half extra all around. I pinked the edges so they wouldn't fray.

I sprayed the 504 on the wrong side of the backing board and smoothed the fabric onto the surface. Then I flipped it over and sprayed the 504 along the edges.

I pulled the corners in first and then did the sides to make a nice edge. Then I worked from the center out to the edges to pull the sides down. I didn't need to tug much, I just wanted to keep it smooth and not wrinkle.  You can see from the picture above, I wasn't really worried about perfect lines with the spray glue (5o4). No one is going to see that side anyway. 

Sorry it's a bit blurry. Here it is ready to flip and add the checklists. 

I did a little math to center the pages, put a touch of 504 so they don't slip and then it was ready to frame.

In the frame the metal turn downs will hold everything in place.

All I have to do now is mount it. I'm going to put it in the laundry room along with a dry erase marker. The expectation is that when people do chores, they will be able to check it off and initial. I'll be able to see what's been done and what needs doing and I don't have to maintain the list in my head. Win on both accounts.

To Do List Tuesday

I have to mow the lawn - again. IF I have enough energy once that's done I plan to get started on my garden shed sign. Right now it looks like this: 

My plan is to sand it, match the "chalkboard" shade of gray as best I can, and then re-word it: 

We'll see how far I get. 


UPDATE: I got the background of the sign painted - two coats, then it started raining. I'll finish tomorrow.  I DID get 95% of my geography unit finished - yea me! 

Oh, and good news - because of the rain, ALL the chickens went into the run early. I decided to leave them there - and guess what? They ALL went into the coop and tucked themselves in like good girls. ^.^  

You have no idea how happy I am about that. I think I'll keep them in the run for a few days just to make sure they get the idea. Hopefully that will be the end of it - but with chickens, one never knows. 

To Do List Tuesday - trail signs

One of the little things on my list of To Do's is to touch up the trail signs. They are very weathered. So with sandpaper, whitewash paint, and brush in hand, off I went.  I changed one that said "Picnic Shed," which I really didn't like - it's not a shed, more of a patio. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

supplies

before

after

 Of course one thing led to another and I got working on one of the other signs that were bugging me. It's a work in progress - not sure how I feel about it yet. The good news is if I don't like it, I can always sand it down and start over.

These were attached to our the pizza kitchen off the deck.
The large one needed some work; the other is getting an update.

 I sanded both and gave them a base coat. This is the one I started working on first. I painted some vines on the frame and then worked on what I wanted it to say.

Almost finished. I haven't painted anything like this in awhile, I'm out of practice. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either  - we'll see what it looks like when I'm done.  

Here it is finished and installed. It turned out better than I anticipated considering I haven't done decorative painting in a few years: