Grand Old Flag

Time for my summer mantle and I go patriotic for the season... Memorial Day through Labor Day.  The large framed flag from my Dad anchors the arrangement.

The "I Like Ike" scarf and the 48 star flag behind came from my great grandmother.  I just 'refound' them and have plans for a better display for next year.

What's the 4th of July without bottle rockets?  These are old ones...back from 2000 when we sold fireworks to pay for a mission trip to Tanzania.  The Coke bottle is marked from Minot, ND - the closest city to where Himself grew up.

I picked up this 9/11 girder cross on my trip to NYC in 2003.

... because of the brave!

A Gift of Glass

My friend recently went on a trip to Italy and lunch today was the first time we've gotten together since their return.  She told us about the highlights (after all, we only had lunch to visit) and then laid a small package in front of me.

Inside were these beautiful Murano glass 'candies'!

They had visited the island of Murano, and she watched these very pieces being made.

The top on with the purple tails was a special request to the artist as I love purple.

The texture on these two is so cool!

I love them!  Now I have to find the perfect little bowl/saucer to display them in.  

What a fun surprise!  Thanks so much B!

April showers... in June!

This is the weather we have been having the last week... 

STORMS!

Big scary storms, little annoying storms, and cloud burst out of no where.

One time it was pouring down in the sunshine!!!

So, outside projects have basically come to a halt for a while.  Either it is wet or killer humid.  Neither one is my ideal working conditions.  So we've been working inside where it is dry and cool.

Hope to have a few dry days this weekend.  How's your weather been lately?

Easy Kitchen Update

Still motoring along with my little updates I’ve been doing around the house.

I was so pleased with the kitchen accent wall I decided to kind of focus on the kitchen for a while.  I’m going to see how many little things I can do that will end up resulting in a big difference.

I’m really not at all in love with my cabinets.  While I’d love to rip them out and start over, that is not going to happen anytime soon.  There’s nothing really ‘wrong’ with them…but there is nothing really ‘right’ with them either.

So my next project was to do a set of open cabinets.

I’ve been mulling over this one for a long time.  Sis has some glass front cabinets and I really like them.  But most of my cabinet space is purely functional… I like the fact I can close the doors!

After some thought (and some door uglies on one of the cabinets) I decided to go for it.

Himself took the doors down for me and gave them a good scrubbing out.

I got into my paint stash and pulled out a partial can from when I painted the bedroom.  It’s a Behr paint that is a blue teal color that is almost exactly the same shade that is in my kitchen chair’s pattern.

Here’s the AFTER:

I love them!  It didn’t take much effort at all and zero dollars to do it (since I already had the paint).  Hardest part was deciding where to re-house everything! 

The crystal on the top shelves is from Himself’s mother.  They are pretty old.  The bowls are various serving pieces I use.  I’ll probably change those out regularly by season or mood.

So another kitchen makeover project done…and at least a dozen more on my list!  Stay tuned…

A Morning of Card Making

I enjoy do a variety of creative projects but one I haven’t gotten into is card making.  Probably because I have a stash of cards I’ve purchased here and there.  Likes dozens of them… and that’s not counting all the blank note cards!

But at a recent Homemakers meeting the lesson was on card making.  A good, interesting, frugal topic…fun too.

Geri went over a half dozen different techniques that are regularly used in card making: stamping, embossing, stitching, collage, pens & markers, and quilling.

She brought enough supplies that after her demonstration we all were able to give it a go ourselves.  Everyone jumped right in on it and had a great time.

Applying embossing powder to a stamped image.

Then heating the powder to ‘melt’ it into a metallic image.

Bobby made an embossed card.

Silver and gold embossed butterflies.  You know, I have a heat gun...I really need to use this method with some of my projects.

Kathy tries her hand at quilling.

I think her butterfly and flower turned out great. 

Me?  I tried some stitching…

…and a bit of everything else too!  My card was kind of a 'sampler' so I can use it to remind myself of what I learned.

It was a fun make and take all by itself but Geri also brought us lunch to go with it.  What a great afternoon of socializing!

Incredible Sunset

We had some pretty intense thunderstorms Saturday night.  Just at sunset, two strong storm cells were just north and south of us.  But there was just a tiny break that allowed the sun to come through for just a few minutes.

And come through it did!

We had the most incredible ORANGE sunset I have ever seen.  It got better and better as I snapped photos from our deck.  These pictures are straight out of my camera... no filtering, no playing around with them.

6 Boat Cleats + 2 Driftwood Boards = Smooth Sailing

Just finished another project for the challenges at Mary's Organized.  This one was for the Master Bedroom.  It didn't take me long to figure out what I needed to do.

I wanted to put some hooks up in the closet to hang clothes that had only a bit of wear and our night clothes.  It's just not good to put them back with the clean clothes... but they aren't ready to be washed either.

So it was time to dig into my stash again!

The cleats came from a marine shop in Anacortes, WA.   I'm not sure where the two driftwood boards came from.  Probably my hunting grounds over on the Mississippi River.  

Himself drilled them in for me.  

It took me only seconds after he finished to grab my work jeans and shirt that had been flung over the tub side.  

I can tell we'll get a lot of use out of this project!