Going to the dogs

This is Lonnie….peeking through the dog window that Kenny cut into the fence a few years ago……I’ve been thinking of adding a brightly colored “frame” around it….When the dogs look out of this dog window they can see the side yard and out onto the street…

This is the east side of our house….mainly shady, so we have lots of ferns….a few daylilies that haven’t started blooming yet, and a wonderful rhododendron by the gate….

If you ever stop by to visit and we don’t answer the door, be sure to clang the bell…..we might just be out back….

If the dogs look through their other window, they can see the neighbor dogs……..

This is Baxter…..he will always bring you a ball or stick to throw for him.

This is Laney…..I don’t think she has any tricks, but she likes to be petted all the same….

Lonnie is always interested in what has been newly planted in the garden….impatience planted in a log is one of the newest plantings in the backyard…..

 

The greeters…..

This is another greeter…..tucked into the hostas along the front pathway to our house.

I hope you enjoyed your visit….please stop by again.

Opinions?

Took a break from painting today and went with Sheri of Shabby Sheep to look at furniture.
What do you think of a red leather couch or chaise?


You can take a poll in the upper right hand corner of my blog.

Are you kidding me?!

I’ve taken most of my vacation days this week working on this silver wall for my husband and he comes home and says “it looks too faux”………

……okay, breathe……

This is the 2nd coat….

 

….he thought it was going to look smooth…..duh, why didn’t you tell ME that….I could have told you it wasn’t when I was buying the special roller and telling you that it was going on in a CROSS-HATCH pattern…..MEN!

Well, he’s going to have to live with it for at least a year…..I say “embrace it or repaint it yourself”

…..all that being said…going for a 3rd coat to make the mosaic pattern not quite so obvious….. “what’s a wife to do?”….

Hi Ho…..

Hi Ho-Hi Ho….it’s off to Home Depot I go…..to get more silver paint……I’m finished with the first coat, but it really sucked up the paint…..this is how much I have left……

Today, expect multiple postings….this is just too fun to watch it transform…..

I swear, I’ve never painted like this….you have to paint the silver like you are on crack! I’m using 3 brushes….one little brush to dob paint around the edges and then a 3” specialty roller to cut in and then a larger specialty roller to paint with.  Normally I cut in around the whole thing and then paint, but with this you have to dob, then cut then cross-hatch….crack I’m telling you…..or maybe it’s the fumes! Oh well, this coat has to dry 4 hours before I can do the next coat…..need to get out of the house anyway and do the errands….Home Depot and the pool store….maybe look at a little furniture too!

Embassy Purple?!

Talk about fate, karma, thoughts become things……I’ve been so worried about using the metallic silver paint…..

Went to Home Depot yesterday to pick up the silver metallic paint and voiced my concerns to the “paint experts”……. “I’ve heard good and horrible things about this metallic paint”, I said.  “Am I going to regret doing this?”

A man standing next to me at the paint counter extalled the virtues of the metallic paint…..”you’ll love it!” he said enthusiastically….. “I use it all the time”.

He uses it all the time? What?!

Yes, he was a professional faux finish painter…..he asked me what color my base paint was….I explained to him that my walls were a light taupe…..and I was planning on painting the silver over the top of it.

 

“I know this sounds crazy, but if you paint a base coat of  Purple Embassy under ANY of the metallic paints they all look beautiful!”, he said.

Okay, so what are the chances that you are going to use silver metallic paint and are worried sick about it and then you are sent this paint angel?  Who am I to argue….AND the base paint was on sale 1/2 price….I mean come on….the planets are all lining up and the angels are singing a Halleluiah chorus for me.  The man left and went to the register, but then he came back and gave me his business card (postcard actually with beautiful pictures of his paint finishes) and told me to call him if I had any problems.

Now I’m excited….I hurry home and start taping off my work area….

Here goes nothing……or something….something really purple…..

The first coat was looking pretty splotchy when it dried, so I went ahead and did a 2nd coat…..if I’m going to all this trouble I want it to look good….I don’t want to look back and say “man, I really should have put on another coat of the purple”

Much better after the 2nd coat!

So the purple is on and I woke up this morning about 3am with a horrible headache….now researching the VOC content for the Ralph Lauren paints…..primer 84grams/Liter, metallic 91grams/Liter

I normally use BEHR paint plus primer and it’s <50 grams/Liter…..well, that explains the headache.

Will have the windows open EXTRA WIDE while I’m painting on the silver today……more pictures later!

Decisions

My husband thinks we need to paint our family room silver…not gray, but silver. I’m going into this with trepidation, but diving in none the less……shouldn’t paint be the LAST thing you pick when you decorate the room? Oh well, we were never ones to follow rules anyway.

So, I’m headed out to Home Depot to buy this Ralph Lauren Regent Metallic paint in the color “Silver Plated”

I’ve read mixed reviews on how easy/hard it is to get it to look right, but I’m going to soldier on with dreams of new color schemes in my head. (I’m painting one big wall, because I can’t imagine the entire room painted with this….at least not yet) This is what it is supposed to look like when it’s finished. Not so much the color, but the luminous look….we’ll see. Keep me in your thoughts today :)

I’ll be keeping thoughts of maybe some new furniture in my head.

Here are a few color schemes that go with “gray” aka “silver”….do you have a favorite?

 

Gray, olive and maize

Gray, chocolate and citron

 

Gray, chocolate and teal

Okay, so this is not gray, but thinking gray, chocolate and red/coral

I call this pewter and parchment….looks fancy schmantzy here, but I’m loving the earthy qualities of it.

A Day in Pictures

Sunday, my husband and I, traveled to Mansfield, MO to the “Spring Planting Festival” at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

We live less than an hour away and we never really realized what a “big deal” this was…..until we showed up, drove down a LONG gravel road and parked in a field.

Then we got out and walked, along with everyone else…..and their dog….

walk….hike….call it what you want….but it really didn’t matter because it was a beautiful spring day in “The Ozarks”….we’re almost there….it’s just over the ridge….

There were GOBS of plant vendors and one lady making her own soap….

There were large coops with various chickens in them…..

A man roasting peppers….now that was quite a contraption….he turned the cage that the peppers were in while hot flames shot up to roast the peppers….I’d never seen such a thing before….You can see a restaurant in the background….it is run by donations only so that everyone can eat….the line was VERY LONG and we ended up eating at “Tastee Freeze” when we left….not a lot of eating choices in a tiny town on a Sunday ";)

We finally made it into the seed store and it was packed….hard to get pictures because of so many people….I’ve never seen so many seeds in one place….

 

We were after a few things that we had seen in their catalog….one was called “nipple fruit”….click on the name to read about it.

The other was the tumorous looking tomato…..

Again, the lines were so long to wait to pay that we gave it up and decided to come back on another day when they were not having a FESTIVAL.

More pictures from inside the seed store….

Not to be thwarted by the crowds we headed out of Mansfield and started on the way back home….it’s been a while since we junked together so we stopped at “Come On In Antiques” in Seymour, MO

I really loved this birdhouse, but we totally have no where to put it…..

Need a bathtub…they’ve got several….

It’s a pretty cool place, but we left empty-handed……

On the way home from Seymour we did see a few of the Amish headed home from church….it’s hard to get a picture when you are driving 65mph and they are in a horse and buggy….but I did my best for you…

This horse here at Spring Fever Farms  in Rogersville, MO was a lot easier to capture on film….

So here’s my synopsis:

Admission the the Spring Planting Festival: $5 each

Amount spent on a small “fiber optic” plant planted in a little Frankoma vase: $3

Lunch at the Tastee Freeze: $16.57

Money spent at Spring Fever in Rogersville, MO: about $45

Spending the day with your husband: PRICELESS

Details matter

Saturday I was lucky enough to spend the day hooking with friends at the country home of Jo Lynn…..who could ask for anything better…..hooking on an outside porch looking out at such a beautiful spring view.
Between all of the hooking, eating and talking I didn’t get many pictures.
However, I did make sure to get pictures of Sandy’s (hooking above) footstool that she finished.  She started this footstool at “Rugs on the Rocks” HERE when we went to Maine  in August.
Isn’t this fabulous?!  Perfectly finished…..you can’t even see any seams where it is stitched together.
…..and then there is the bottom……Kim Nixon  (our teacher)would be proud! “Make the bottom of your footstool just as beautiful”
Yes, details matter!

The thing about holiday rugs

I love to hook rugs for the different holidays…..love it….rugs for:

4th of July

Christmas

Winter

Valentine’s Day

Easter

Halloween

Thanksgiving

….you get the picture.

But what do you do with them when it’s not their turn?

I’ve resorted to rolling mine up and putting them in a basket….there I can still enjoy the colors while they are rolled up and waiting their turn.

The doll sitting on top of the rugs was my great-grandfathers….it has a turn-able head….smiling, crying and sleeping. It used to sit on the bed in my hooking room, but the dogs liked it a little too much and I was afraid it would get knocked off and broken.