I Painted My Bar Black

A couple of weeks ago I painted my bar black.  I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it either.  I thought it would tie in my hutch I painted black.  I didn’t tell my husband I painted it and he still hasn’t noticed.  Silly man. 

Here’s a closer look at the hutch.

I still love that transformation.  I have been tossing the idea of painting my cabinets off white.  If I do it, I found the paint I will use. No sanding, priming, etc.  My kind of paint.  It is not chalk paint. 

I do think I will paint my dining chairs black sometime soon.  I haven’t been in the mood for projects.  I have really enjoyed family time lately.  We spent the day at the park yesterday.  It was great. 

Remember my little stencil idea for the corbels?  It didn’t work out so well.

 

Oh well…it is so dark under there you can’t see it.

Here is a before and after. 

 

Like it or hate it …it’s here to stay.  I will let you know if my husband ever notices it. 

Project 52 Week 20 Mothers

This theme was not my favorite at all.  Losing my mom to suicide 12 years ago was tough, but I got through it and I no longer dwell about the void she left in my life.

However, when you don’t have a mother to take a photo of then the sadness creeps back in a little. 

Then I thought about animals and they always make me smile.  So I went in search of a mother in the animal world. 

I don’t know if I found 2 mothers or a mother and a father goose.  I like how one of them is checking me out to see what I am doing.  That’s just like a mom to keep a watchful eye on her babies. 

Mother’s Day Weekend @ Quartz Mountain

My weekend was the best.  I have an aunt that is a year younger than me.  We spent quite a bit of time together when we were younger and sometimes our families would meet up at Quarts Mountain/Lake Altus in Oklahoma. 

 

 

(above photos courtesy of my aunt’s IPhone.)

We always stayed in a tent or a camper, but this time we stayed in the cabins. 

And we took the dogs.

And they loved it, but got lots of little sand burrs in their fur every time they went outside. 

My husband and I took some walks together.

And we found lots of wildflowers.

My husband took me on an adventure hike that involved cactus in my hand and potential ticks, chiggers and snakes so we could see some natural stone stairs.

I think he secretly just wanted to see if he could catch a fish from the stairs.

He didn’t. 

He didn’t catch one on our nature walk either, but he let me take his pic.

I bought him that hat so he wouldn’t get more skin cancer and surgery.  Not a fun experience. 

My aunt brought her boat and my nephew.  My son and nephew got to go tubing.

The above pic is so my son going Oh No and my nephew thinking yee haw!. 

I took a run to the resort one morning (up hill-it felt like both ways).  When I got there I ran across this cool bridge.

Later I took my son and nephew back to the resort to swim.

My son is practicing his floating technique. 

There were some cool huts.

You could rent a room in the lodge.

I preferred the cabins because we could make camp fires and swim in the lake.

Izzy rode like a vulture on the backseat for a bit on our way home.

I wanted to stop and take pics of the big cross in Groom, TX on our way home.

But I only got this one on my phone on the way to Quartz Mountain.  On the way home it was raining really hard.  We need the rain so I will just have to get photos some other day.

It was good to get away with my family and make memories with my son of Quartz Mountain just like I have from my childhood. 

Project 52 Week 19 Still Life

As I was getting ready for a quick family get away I passed an onion in a bowl and decided to use if for my still life photo.  I am glad I did.  I like this photo.  

Textured Stenciling

Do you ever experiment on something you can toss in the trash if it doesn’t work out before you do a project?  That’s what I did.  I have a bunch of wooden craft frames from Michael’s that I keep in my craft closet.  One of my friends commented on my chalkboard frame I did last year so I thought I would make her one and try to add a textured stencil to it.  I bought the texture and Martha Stewart’s adhesive stencils from Michael’s as well. 

These stencils are so cool.  They are bendable and have adhesive on the back.  You can apply it to anything, even a curved surface.  When you are finished you simply peel it off and wash it.  The adhesive quality is still there so it reusable. 

I used a Pampered Chef scrapper to apply my texture.  I have read that Dap dry wall repair can be used also.

I squirted some on a plate and applied it onto the stencil.

Carefully peel away the stencil and you have yourself a textured design.

After it dries you can paint it.

When it dried I lightly rubbed chalk on the stencil to highlight the stencil.  You could dry brush paint on it as well for the same effect. 

I added a photo of my friend’s son and wrote his name at the bottom. 

I have to use a plate holder to display the frame because I painted it upside down and the hole for the stick that keeps the frame standing is on the top instead of the bottom.  Do you ever make silly mistakes?  I do more times than I care to count.

Here is the stencil on the corbel of my bar area.

If this doesn’t turn out then I will just sand and remove it.   I will let you know how it turns out.

 

Linking to

Project 52 Week 18 Fiesta or Siesta

Well I really didn’t get a true shot of the theme, but I am out of time so I had to do a little improvising.  I took some engagement photos for my friend’s sister on Route 66.  Lots of food eating and partying can happen on this stretch of road in our town, however we stayed clear of the crowds and hung out at the quiet end where everything was closed for the day.  So just imagine this couple is about to have a fiesta at this little diner on Route 66 and they are talking while waiting for their food.