Flowers flowers flowers

OK, so this is what I found when I came home this evening…this morning this pot was jammed with 4 inch tall zinnias and salvia.  This evening only a few remain…the dirt was all rooted out.  Oddly enough the coleus in the next pot was eaten, yup, just the stalk remained.  And the creeping jenny had been chomped on too!  And my water fountain was empty (its only about a gallon of water in it) and it had been pushed across the deck and the stones in it were displaced.   Would a deer come up on the deck, cause this sure sounds like a deer to me…

I got this hanging plant at a green house this spring…not sure what it is but it sure has striking blooms!

And…

my hydrangea has finally bloomed!  One bloom is pinkish and one is slightly purplish/bluish.

I love all things blooming…

Pinterest Inspired Fancy Envelopes

I pinned this project, knowing I had lots of scrap paper and maps and sheet music which would be perfect for these cute envelopes.

I love the map envelopes!

My loyal assistant helped of course…can’t do much without Frosty close!

The original post is here at The Creative Place.  I used her template and enlarged it so I had several sizes, I glued the paper template to an old atlas cover so it is easy to trace around.  And then I even got more creative and added some embellishments to the envelopes.

The petals/leaves were left over from this project, so I have quite a few of them!

I am linking to these great parties!

Brady’s Baby Quilt

Meet Brady…my newest great nephew!

I wrote here about making a quilt for my niece Jess and her husband Mike’s new baby…well that baby came a few weeks early so I didn’t have his quilt done yet. 

Silly baby!

So cute!

And so happy!  Love those newborn smiles!

I love that face!  He’s only a week old and I can’t wait to see him!

My aunt Marge quilted this with a cloud pattern.  It’s perfect for the banner design…

I used polka dot flannel for the binding…it is so soft and raises the cute factor lots!

I am linking to these great parties…

 

Peacock Tote Bag

I have this thing for peacocks and their feathers…I even have a Pinterest board full of them!

I have been practicing making peacock feathers and think I finally have it down pat!

I bought a $3 (after my 40% off coupon) canvas bag at Hobby Lobby and used a black paint marker (around $4 before coupon~I had one already) to create this design.

I free handed mine but you could also use a stencil…I saw a peacock feather stencil today at Hobby Lobby! 

I am linking to these great parties!

Summer, is that you?

Beautiful butterfly…they love the lizard’s tail plants that are blooming.

Hot and humid…92 degrees this afternoon…

It’s like Where’s Waldo!  There are six frogs in this picture!  Maybe more, but that is all I could find…

A lounging lethargic cat…

A nearly camouflaged tree frog…

The first nasturtium bloom…

Sure feels like summer!

Chest Makeover

I found this chest at an auction…my son needed a chest in his room.  He had been using baskets on his closet shelves so he really needed a chest.  This chest was really solid, with dovetailed drawers and simple but functional design.

There was some veneer damage on one drawer and one side, so I decided not to refinish it but to paint it instead.  I removed the hardware and sanded it really well. 

I used Clark and Kensington Primer and Paint in One, in a soft grey color, it was a quart I got free during their promo at Ace Hardware.  Anyway, I guess I was expecting not to have to use two coats, but you can see in the pic above on the drawer on the left the difference between one coat and two coats.  The paint has a really strong ammonia smell, but otherwise worked well. 

I spray painted the knobs and then glazed them with Valspar glaze.

I distressed and glazed the dresser as well and my son reassembled the pulls (each of those pulls was in 7 pieces!) and it was carried upstairs to his room before I had a chance to take good pictures.  We are getting ready to paint Sam’s room a soft grey, so I am thinking this will look great up there!

It’s not one of my favorite projects, didn’t quite turn out how I envisioned, but then again, I won’t be looking at it every day! 

After I started writing this post, I realized Sam put some of the pulls on backwards!  He’s not going to be happy when I point that out to him!

I am linking to these great parties!

Vintage Stool Makeover

I bought this sweet little wooden handmade stool at an auction, I think it was $20, but I really liked the size and the style.  It has approximately 412 layers of paint on it, ranging from pale green to aqua to dark green to white. 

It had some great crackling, but there were several spots where it looked like some kind of stripper had been dropped on it.

I tried to strip it but only got about the first 50 layers of paint off, at that point I gave up and sanded the heck out of it.  Well, that didn’t work so well either, so eventually I just caved in and painted it, just right over the top of everything ugly.  Love this hand hole for picking the stool up and moving it…it is such a petite hole only 2 of my fingers fit in there!

I used an off white and then glazed it with a brown/grey Valspar glaze.  Some of the original crackling showed through and I am really loving the way it turned out.

The cool thing is that it has some writing on the underside, which had never been painted. Looks like a name there and the date 1917, in an old time script. 

I am linking to these great parties!