21 Day of Farmhouse Style Crafting: Week One

Country Design Style is a blog I have followed for a while.  Jeanette came up with a fun idea of a 21 day crafting challenge, with some really cute ideas for DIYing.

So here we go with the first week's projects.

Day One...

Find an old frame and 'deconstruct' it, in the order of those chairs you are seeing at Restoration Hardware.  We were to sand it down however much we wanted to achieve a timeworn look.

Here's my sanded down frame.

I didn't take a whole lot off, mainly the high gloss and a bit of the relief.

At this point it is ready to lean against a wall or to be a frame over a frame or just about anything you'd want.

Day Two...

Go to a thrift shop and find an unpainted wood item.

OK, I have no need to go to a thrift shop because I have a nice stash at home; like this bird house.

Day Three...

Add twine to something.

Something like my sanded down frame.  Instead of the usual 'clothes line' pattern or zigzag I did a plaid pattern.  Where the twine crosses is woven in a basket pattern.

Now I have a unique photo display frame.

Day Four...

Get a white plate and paint on it.

This was just the push I needed to try painting on plates.  But since I'm by no means a drawing artist, I had to copy something.  No problem with that as I have dozens of cool simple line drawings saved on Pinterest.  The problem arose on how to transfer the image to the plate.

Regular carbon paper has too heavy of a residue.  I tried the 'rub the back of the drawing with a pencil and trace onto the surface' method.  Didn't work at all.  I just ended up with dirty hands.  I tried several stores looking for graphite paper and no luck.  

So I ended up cutting a stencil and tracing thru it onto my plate.  From there I filled in with a paint pen.

I love how it turned out!!

Day Five...

Alter some clothes pins.

I painted my clothes pins first.  Then I used image strips from a National Geographic travel catalog, picking photos with a good abstract design.  The pin on the left is of buildings in Scotland and the one on the right is a scarlet macaw wing.  On the back I glued a magnet strip cut from an advertising refrigerator magnet.  I knew those old calender magnets would come in handy!

Pretty cool, eh?  I plan on doing more.

Day Six

Make homemade chalk paint and paint something with it.

I had a container of a 'mistint' I bought at Lowes that was exactly the 8 oz the recipe calls for.  To that was added 2 T of baking soda mixed in 1/8th cup of warm water.

I've never used chalk paint before but so far I like it.

I painted an old bottle, then sanded off some of the paint to bring the texture of the bottle out.

Done for this project... but I have a plan to take it a bit farther along...

Day Seven...

Take our unpainted wood item from day two and paint it with chalkboard paint.

Didn't it turn out cute?  I mounted it to a piece of 'drift board' and will use it as in inside decoration.

I couldn't find (yet) my pieces of chalk to 'prime' the chalkboard with but I'll be writing such things on it when I do.

While I had the chalkboard paint out I did something for another project too.  You'll be seeing that one soon.

Week One was a blast!  Wait 'til you see what we did for Week Two...

http://countrydesignstyle.com/

The Gardens of Babylon at the Nashville Farmer's Market

There's one place I know I can find about any garden plant I want... The Garden of Babylon at the Nashville Farmer's Market.  My latest trip was to pick up some FRENCH tarragon... not that Mexican 'tarragon' being sold at all the big-box stores (which BTW, is NOT tarragon at all).

They are located on the south end of the Farmer's Market.  Just look for the bright pink sun cover... which looks kinda cool from the outside but is awful when you are under it.  It changes up the colors of the plants and merchandise.  And I found it a bit disorienting too.  It was a strange feeling and I spent as much time as possible out from under it.

I found my tarragon, then started looking around at all the fun plants.

Like artichokes!

Surely I can grow those... my yard is FULL of thistles...

Lemon grass.  It smells so good!

Fennel.  I might get some next trip.  The black swallowtails love it for their caterpillars.  And there is usually enough from us to have some too.

Figs!

Calamondin.

Mexican limes.  I was hoping to find Kaffir limes for Thai recipes.  I'll look a little more next visit.

Dill... I think...

They also have a great selection of flowers.

Don't know many names but they are all beautiful.

There's a nice selection of landscaping pots.

Loved these metallic ones!

These were great too.

There is a section of fun 'Mexican' style garden decorations.

And I really like these fun patio furniture pieces.

I do recommend a visit as there is so much more to look at than I have shown!

Inspiration Photos

In decorating around my computer desk, I decided I wanted to have some inspirational quotes to hang up.  I found a couple photos I'd taken that looked good in black and white.  In Picasa I did the switch to B&W then added the quotes.

The first one is my "manifesto" so to speak.  It's what I want to remember every day.

This second one how we view our home.  I haven't decided the size and where I want to hang it, so it's not printed and framed yet.

It's been a while since I've done anything with my photos.  This was a fun boost to get my back to working with my photography.  I have several other projects in mind now!

http://www.punkprojects.com/p/craft-challenge.html

A Visit from a Regal Walnut Moth

The other night I had a close encounter... of the moth kind.

I was outside and saw a fluttering, then that flutterer flew straight over to my pants leg and started working his way up!  I had to call Himself over to get it off of me.

Here's my little friend... a Regal Walnut moth.

It was in no hurry to leave.  Himself had to push it off of his fingers.

Isn't it absolutely beautiful??

Definitely an interesting face.  (He was momentarily in a jar so I could get this photo.)

It was a treat to be able to watch him.

It's a Girl!! Introducing Persia!

A little more about the cat show I told you about yesterday.

The Music City Cat Fanciers club gave space to a no-kill cat rescue to bring in some cats and kittens to be adopted.  They also let them be shown under the "Household Pet" (meaning beautiful non-pedigreed feline) competition.

Sweet Faces Cat and Kitten Rescue

http://awos.petfinder.com/shelters/TN804.html  

Here's two of their cuties up in the show ring... sister and brother.

Look at that face!

(BTW, I loved this judge!  She was so patient and gentle with the kittens.)

That pretty girl won Best Household Pet Kitten for that ring.

She also won our hearts!

And she won a new home too.

Yep... we have a baby in the house!

Her new name is Persia.

She has settled in very well!  LOL

I expect she will be photo-bombing my posts soon...since she is right now 'helping' me to write this post!

http://jannolson.blogspot.com/2015/06/share-your-cup-thursday-152.html

Music City Cat Fanciers Show

This last weekend Himself and I headed down to Nashville to see the TICA cat show being held at the Fairgrounds.  You may not know that we used to raise CFA show cats (Ocicats) about 20 years ago.  But anyway, we wanted to see the exotic cats that CFA doesn't allow... such as Bengals.

And see them we did!  Isn't this baby beautiful?  

This 'clouded' pattern has developed since we left showing.  I really like it!

Here's a couple of cats having a good time destroying their ring numbers.  LOL

A lovely 'chocolate' (actually I'm not sure what that brown is called in Bengal... in Ocicat it is chocolate).

A 'silver'.  They've always been my favorite.

Of course there were more than Bengals at the show!  Most of my favorite breeds were in attendance.

There were Cornish Rexes.

Abyssinian.

Siamese too.

And even a cousin of Grumpy Cat!  LOL

It was so much fun to be back in the show hall again, I asked the show club's (Music City Cat Fanciers) president if they were looking for members who were not and will not be breeders and/or exhibitors and know nothing about TICA but who enjoy cat shows and like working on them.  I got a huge YES.

Looks like we'll be working on a cat show next summer!

Look At The Sky: June

The Solar System in JUNE 2015 : (http://www.arksky.org/index.php?pid=254 )

NOTE that in June virtually all planets with the exception of MARS will be visible, although at different times; Saturn and Venus are evening objects and are very well placed for observation in warm summer skies!

Mercury - The elusive planet MERCURY will likely not be seen early this month, but will reach its greatest WESTERN elongation from the sun on June 24, when it will be a bit higher than normal above its rising point on the eastern horizon this month;  So for several days before and after this date, you should be able to spot the tiny planet in binoculars.   - In GEMINI

Venus - The brightest of all planets reaches its greatest elongation east from the sun as we see it from Earth on June 6; this means that it is about as high in dark skies as we can expect for a planet closer to the sun than we are.  The brightest of all planets, Venus will be very high in the sky at dusk and visible in dark sky for several hours.  Telescopically, Venus appears as a "half moon", about 50 percent illuminated from our viewing angle.  - in CANCER.

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Mars - Mars is now in conjunction with the sun and not visible this month, emerging in late July during dawn in bright skies - In TAURUS.

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Jupiter -  The mightiest of planets, JUPITER is now receding from our view both in terms of visibility and distance.  You can spot the bright planet right after sunset in the western sky near the head of LEO the Lion ("the Sickle"); however it quickly sets during dusk and edges closer to the sun as the month progresses - In LEO-CANCER

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Saturn - Saturn is high in the sky at dark, rising about the time of sunset low in southeastern skies, very near the head of the Scorpion.  It will be at its highest (south of overhead) about 11:15 local time  .- in LIBRA

For June, there are no less than 13 (!!) meteor showers, some of which provide for wonderful spring sky shows, provided that the light of the moon does not interfere.  However, as with a months and times during the year, observers should always be aware that new sporadic meteor showers can occur at anytime from seemingly unknown sources and radiants. Unfortunately for June 2015, the full moon occurs on the 1st, which means that pretty much the first five of these showers are going to be less than impressive in terms of faint meteors.

(Teri's note:  most of these seem to have a peak time of around 3am.  If you are interested in knowing more about the late owl showers, check it out on the web site noted at the top of this post.)

June 13 - Theta Ophiuchid Meteors - Coming from the border of Ophiuchus, Sagittarius, and Scorpius, this radiant rises about 9 p.m., giving a window of good observing ALL NIGHT in spite of the moon is a waning crescent and absent from the sky all night, hence most shofaint meteors should be seen as well as the brighter members of this shower.  However, those that do grace our skies are bright and spectacular, so be alert to these meteors if you are observing and happen upon a fireball from this area.

Comet 29P (Schwassmann-Wachmann) - Always a fun comet to keep up with, 29P has recently experienced some celestial fireworks and attained a brightness in early 2015 two magnitudes brighter than anticipated; currently at opposition this month, it is far south of overhead at about sunset and will be setting in the west about 11 p.m. local time.  Look for this to be magnitude 15 or so, with a broad fanned tail and very bright stellar like nucleus!  The comet is at MINUS 31 degrees declination, so a good view of southern skies will be necessary.