October!

Don't you just love October? Such a fun month.
I've been even more busy than usual. Here are some of the things I've been doing.
My daughter and her husband went on a 4-day anniversary trip to Disneyland...LUCKY...
and I played stay-at-home mom to her 3 boys, which was lots of fun...most of the time :)
On one of the days, after dropping off the oldest to Kindergarden, we went to the beach.

We had a great time, running from the waves.
Everything went well with the boys during their stay, but it was exhausting!
This is the littlest, not going to sleep, but searching for toys instead.

The day after completing my Nana duty, my friend Tina and I went to the Brad Paisley concert!
It was AWESOME!

Tina and I go to concerts about once a month, mostly new Country artists.
She wins the tickets on the radio. 
Last week we saw a singer/song writer who has
a really great voice and good songs.

Every year our church has a Halloween carnival.  This year both my husband and
I are in leadership roles, so we did a booth.
He came up with a bean bag toss idea.  Hubby made the board and I painted it.

Then he asked me to sew bean bags....NOT my forte, to say the least.
I cut them out, then thankfully my friend Tina sewed them up for me.

Our Bean Bag Toss was a hit! The carnival was fun and I snagged some homemade cupcakes to take home.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Countertop creativity

In 1997, when we purchased our new home, color trends leaned more toward the cooler spectrum.
Grays and blues were popular at the time, and for several years later.
So, when I was choosing the color of my kitchen countertop, I went with a speckled blue laminate, which looked lovely next to the ultra white walls... and coordinated well with the indigo (blue) carpet.. . . .
 yeah, I know...what was I thinking?

Fast forward to 2006 and the trend had swung back to warmer, more natural colors.
We purchased light brown carpet and painted our walls a light tan, except in the kitchen, where I opted for a creamy white.
We bought all new furniture and hung sage green curtains and valances. Beautiful!
That's when I ran out of money.
So, what to do with that blue countertop?
What an eyesore.
Since my kitchen is right next to the front sliding glass door, there was no way around it.  Something had to be done about the blue countertop that was staring me in the face every day.

I started researching faux finishes on the internet.
I gathered all of the info I could, then I was ready to begin.

About that time my husband was working out of town, so I knew I could get away with disrupting our kitchen for a couple of weeks.

Here is a picture of my countertop today.

 Here is how I transformed it from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.
You can do it too!
1.  Use semi-rough sandpaper to rough up the
clean counter.  Wipe with tact cloth to remove all
sandpaper dust.
2.  Tape the edge of walls and around sink
with blue painters tape.
3.  Use mini sponge roller and apply one
coat of a good primer that will stick to a
slick surface. Let dry.
4.  Paint a neutral base color. Let dry.
5.  Mix a darker color with faux glaze,
four parts glaze to one part paint.
6.  Use a damp sea sponge to dab glaze
randomly onto countertop.  Let dry.
7.  Mix a coordinating color with faux glaze,
four parts glaze to one part paint.
8.  Again, use damp sea sponge to dab
glaze onto countertop, barely overlapping
the original glaze.
9.  Add one more glaze as desired.
10.Take off and apply the tape between
each color.
11. Leave alone to dry and cure at least
a week, preferably two.
12. Wait for the compliments, cause
people will think you got a new countertop!

Here are some close up pics.


















The colors I used are
as follows: Ivory base, reddish medium brown glaze,
light brown glaze, and black without glaze.

 My kitchen was basically not useable for 3 weeks,
but it was totally worth it.
I spent about $40 in paint supplies at The Home Depot.

It's curtains for you!

I work at The Home Depot, where I sell
lots and lots of blinds and shades. 
I am considered an expert, since
I've been doing it for the past twenty years.
But,
that doesn't mean that I think that
every window should be covered
this way.
In fact, personally, I hate vertical blinds.
I cringe, for instance, when someone
chooses to buy verticals for their sliding
glass door, after they've purchased
beautiful wood blinds for their
windows.

If you have verticals on your slider.... and
you hate them, here is a solution you might
like.

(Sorry about the pic...That's the
"summer" sun beating down on my porch...in OCTOBER, uhg!)

This is what I did for my 6-foot
sliding glass door in my dining room.
I used 3 panels that I bought from Target for
about $20 each.  Then I purchased a decorative
rod and rings from The Home Depot for about
$15.
Instead of using the pocket at the top of
the panel, I hung the bar a little higher
and clipped the rings to the top,
so it can slide.

See how I overlapped the panels
by placing the rings across each other?

My guest room has two side by side
tall windows. They used to have faux
wood blinds.
But, since they got ruined (by some little boys
who shall remain nameless), I came up with
this look.

Since these don't slide, I bought some beautiful tie backs.

And during the day I pull them back to let in light.

Did you notice the valance?

It's the only thing I've ever sewn

and yes, I'm pretty darn proud :)