Are You Going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, Kale, Bananas and Pears...

My sister-in-law, (pictured above) a  woman of many talents, sent me a huge bunch of kale so this morning I got to have garden fresh kale in my smoothie, along with parsley, bananas and pears. Oh , and a few purple grapes.  It was deee-lish!  This kale had tender stems which meant I didn't have to remove them, making the whole process much easier.

And I did paint a lawn chair...or two.  These chairs have been in the family for about 20 years and while not exactly heirlooms, they are still serviceable chairs.  I bought them as Christmas gifts for Mom and Dad to use here in their Tucson home, knowing that Mom could never sit for long in a chair that didn't rock.  I have inherited that proclivity and when my parents could no longer come here for the winters and we sold their place, I laid claim to the chairs.  They were showing their age so I thought some paint was in order.  When is some paint not in order?

Here's a before and after.  As I looked at all that blue, it came to me that I needed to add something.  How about a big mod flower?  I used some cheap adhesive-backed shelf paper to cut out a stencil.

If you're following along at home, remember that your stencil is the negative space of the flower.  It only took me one oopsy to figure that out. I applied the stencil to the chair and sprayed away.  I then cut a round stencil for the center and free-handed the accents.

Groovy, huh?

I must say that I like Rust-O-Leum paint much better than the other brands out there.  I bought another type for the green chair and it just didn't cover like Rust-O-Leum.

 I have many more projects in the works.  Home tour is T- minus 3 days!

Seeking Comfort...Food

I was on call last night and while it was a good night as call nights go, I still didn't get to sleep until 2am.  My eyes flew open at 6am and so here I sit.  Attempting to muster up the energy to do something, anything. The home tour is 8 days away and I have so much to do.  I am painting lamps (for which I have no shades), finishing headboard, creating a window surround, painting switchplates, painting the shower...I'm sure there's more.

I do love my comfort food on post-call days.  I had soft-boiled eggs with toast for breakfast and this Potato Soup just now. ( I know it says Cauliflower Soup but work with me people, exchage one white veg for another.)  As I was making the soup last night #2 son said:  "It's perfect weather for potato soup!"  70 degrees and it's perfect weather for soup.  Desert rat!  Anyway, is it ever good and just the right butter:comfort ratio.

Remember this post?  Here's the border that I did to create the illusion of a flat wall.  If you don't know the story, I had intended to plaster these walls so had the dry wall hung differently and not taped.  I then changed my mind and went with clay paint.  Bad wall prep allowed the drywall joints to telegraph through and it was devastating.  Well, not really but it looked awful and I walk this hallway, oh, maybe 50 times a day!

My solution: clay paint stenciled and then a little gold added to add some interest and glitz. I then distressed it a bit to make it look like it had been in place for years and covered with paint...or lava.  You know, that Pompeii look.  The good news is, you can't tell it was a screw-up.

I've got to quit because I feel that there are probably egregious grammatical errors in this post due to my sleep-deprived brain.  I leave you with this beautiful Tucson sunset.

I think I'll go paint a lawn chair.

Why Do I Do These Things?

Last weekend I repainted the living room and hall.  Not such a big job you say-unless you're MAKING the paint!  ARRGHHHHH!  But I love how it turned out.

This week I'm putting a border on those walls to cover up a mistake made while building.  Has to do with the photo above.

More photos to come, I promise.

Why am I doing all this?  Our house is going to be on a home tour in a couple of weeks.  The last time we did a home tour, we had only been in the house a short time and it was OK to say, "We're going to fix that" or "I plan to blah blah blah".  Well, now I have no excuses...and I will be happy the end of October when all these little jobs are done.

In other news:

The curtains arrived from Target in perfect condition but Target then refunded money for the purchase. I think the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing .  I emailed them and we are getting that worked out.  Great customer service.