Sunday, June 7, 2015

Five Years Ago Tonight


It has been five years ago tonight that Amber was killed. Chandler is now seventeen. Oh, how I wish this happy picture could be a picture of them together and well today.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Sunday, August 3, 2014

It has been a long time....
since I posted.
Too many projects and not enough time.
Not to mention I have yet learned to use my camera
although I have excellent online lessons.
Obviously, though I say I want to learn to be a good photographer,
I choose to do DIY projects instead of learning my camera.
This is one of the reasons I have not posted.
I got so tired of going to blogs, that I loved, by the way, and
reading apologies for the pictures. Their pictures looked 
GrEaT
to
me
So, I thought, " If theirs aren't good, mine are horrible!"
AnD
they are just that
Horrible
taken
with
an
IPhone
and not
doctored...
so if you dare
read on...



This project started with this...a small refrigerator
which used to reside in the guest room closet.
We are remodeling our kitchen ( among other things)
in our Gilbert home
and I needed to
practice
for I do not want to spend $6,000. and upwards
for a new
panel
refrigerator.
I currently have a Stainless Steel French Door.
I despise Stainless Steel
but my refrigerator is not very old
and sooooooooo
practice was in order...
Practice doing what, you ask?
Painting and Embellishing 
to
get 
rid of the
Stainless 
 Sides of the refrigerator are black. 
Luckily, I had brought to Pinetop some blue, off white, 
and white Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I forget the color of the blue.

On the fridge, in the valley, I will be using Duck Egg Blue.

  I warned you the pictures are horrible and do not do justice
to the real thing.
This is the fridge painted with the blue.
I know...it looks white. It was cloudy and the light was awful, even
for IPhone pictures.


  A view of the side
  After painting the fridge blue...and I used 3 coats of paint,
by the way, I white washed the entire fridge. This lets you
see the background blue color a little better.
I mixed equal parts of Old White and Pure White and then added
about the same amount of water. I wiped it away, with a rag, as I painted.
  A view of the front white washed.
 I purchased moldings from Home Depot. We had measured
the lengths we wanted our frames to be so we could
miter the pieces at the store. Since the fridge is small
we used small moldings. I painted them and then antiqued
them with Valspar antiquing glaze. I had not brought my
Annie Sloan waxes up here with me. Oh, I bought the glaze at Lowe's.

  Picture of the glaze. I like to use the glaze out of the lid.
I shake the bottle and then open the bottle. I wet a rag, dip it
in just a tad of the glaze and then wipe it on whatever I am antiquing.
If there is too much to your liking, you can get a clean wet rag
and wipe away more. It is nice to try to leave some of the glaze 
in the grooves of the embellishments.
  I like to work on top of garbage sacks. I also use
gloves ( most of the time ) when using the glaze.
 The above picture shows the front of the fridge and the one below
the side after I had used the antiquing glaze on the fridge.

 I am showing you a level, in case you want to try a
similar project. We used it to make sure our frame pieces were level.
 And here she is completely finished.
We used contact cement to apply the moldings.
A hint....follow the directions....place the glue on
the object and where it is to be glued. Wait the 15 minutes
the directions say to wait.
We did not, at first, and the pieces would not stay. Lesson
learned.

  I glued, with E6000 glue, vintage buttons on two places
on the front of the fridge where there were little pieces that
were not flat.

  Finished Sides
 I lightly used Minn Wax Paste to protect the finish.
I am not really sure this was necessary.

Here it is, out of the closet. Sadly, I moved a vintage 
table into the closet to make room for it. For now,
I could not bare for it to be hidden.
I am pretty sure I will be painting that Stainless Refrigerator,
in Gilbert!

Also, I need to mention the below containers for housing Chalk Paint.
They are wonderful. They keep your paint from drying out and all you
do is squeeze the bottle to get out some paint.
I purchase them at
The Green Table 
in Gilbert, AZ
Visit their blog here.


Lastly, I got my inspiration when I was blog hopping and found Victoria's blog.
Visit her here and you will really enjoy her post!



Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Plants on The Deck

Our Deck

We arrived back in Destin, FL, on Saturday.
By the time we got to our place,
it was dark, so we did not go
out on our deck until Sunday.
My neighbor and friend, Brenda, takes
care of our plants while we are gone.
I was amazed that not only was everything
still alive, everything was thriving.
I told her if things started to die I would
need to leave, as I do not have a green thumb, at all!

Below is one of my Boston Ferns
and my little Lime tree.
Some leaves of my ficus are sticking out
in this photo also.The Ivy is starting to really grow and has a good start on covering 
the trellis.

See one of my Limes...
There are seven of them on this
little tree. :)
You can see another one
hanging over the bottom of the
pot in this photo.
You will also see the pot is
sitting on an ottoman.
My honey is going to cover it
with a solid piece of wood..
I don't have my Annie Sloan Duck Egg blue paint with
me, so it might need to wait awhile.
When I left here,
four months ago,
this fern was a tiny thing.
I am not even sure what the
name of this fern is.
I bought it after seeing Brenda's
beautiful plant. She told me the
name but I don't recall it, at the moment.
It resembles a Boston Fern but the leaves are bigger.
My African Violet.
Brenda said it bloomed while
we were gone. She also said she
has never had any luck with
African Violets.
Well, she had luck with this one.
We will see if it stays alive.
See the deck over there?
That is Brenda's beautiful Jungle!
Today is so wonderful here.
The sky is overcast and there is a
breeze which makes it perfect for
sitting on our deck and looking 
at our plants Brenda kept growing for us.
I hope your weather is as lovely as here today!


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

 The name of the store?
Guess...
Embellish
This is the sign they have
in front of each parking 
space..
and now meet

 Trisha,
The Owner,
The Designer,
The Lovely...
BUT,
I
had
to 
BEG
her 
for
Picture!
I was going to Photshop me out
of the picture taking,
but
time
got
in
the 
    way...
Imagine that..
Below are pictures
of her 
FABULOUS SHOP
in Pinetop, AZ.
It is my favorite shop in AZ.
Yes,
everywhere
in 
AZ.
It is a Boutique.
It is a Scrapbook store.
It is MAGNIFICENT!
Enjoy some photos 
she allowed me
to snap
with 
my
cell
phone...
No Manual Practicing Here..
I was too busy 
shopping!










If there was ever a reason to visit
Pinetop, AZ,
This store is IT!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Mother Nature


In just a week and a half,  Mother Nature has 
certainly been transforming our
new Aspens and our Maple tree!



I purchased an iron bed to turn into a 
"flower bed"
at an antique shop in Miami, AZ.
My hubby dug some holes and put the bed in.
We discovered the pegs were not given to me with the bed.
Randy bought some at Ace and secured the bed.
Next spring/summer when we return to Pinetop,
we will place rocks around the bed to hold the
compost, soil, and manure.
Then we will fill it with flowers and hope they live!
 The only thing, so far, that we have had any
luck with up here are roses.
Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing my
new vintage bed transformed.
I gave it a couple of coats of lacquer to help protect
the choppiness of the paint.


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Practicing in Manual Mode

 I am practicing Manual mode
on my camera.
I took the first class of Photography 101 from
shootflyshoot.com
and I highly recommend it.
I love that it is available to me forever.
I plan to take their second class
but I still need to practice what
is taught in the first class.
Today's post was chosen because of a party hosted by
Funky Junk Interiors. See the link at the end of the post.
I decided to practice photographing my
 yellow vintage door turned shelf
 and my whitevintage door
turned into part of our headboard
in Pinetop...
See all those Pine trees...
We have 28 of them in our front yard.

Side View
Even my husband said he loves seeing the
scrolls on the sides when out in the yard.
The door used to be in our pantry.
Now it is on the deck and holds
dishes I use for Mosaic.
It also holds vintage bottles and a what not here or there,
waiting to be transformed.
This was the first picture I took this morning.
I looked at it and my first thought was
Oh My...
But
Then
I decided it was sort of
Artsy
and 
liked
it!
I also could not get enough light
in our Master Bedroom
to showcase the Vintage French Door
Turned into our headboard.
I worked with it just a little in PSE
and I also decided I sort of liked the
graniness ( is that a word?! )
Linking up with the party below!