My Home Projects!

We are settling into our Florida house

2011-11-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

http://ourflhouse.blogspot.com/

I am going to some posts on our Florida home blog. We moved into our house a year ago. But things got delayed until I could recover from my Cervical spine surgery (discs fused). So, as I 'wake up' and come back into a little more activities I am planning the house that we do not need to move from!

We decided to go with a house that would not have a mortgage and just relax and take each day as it comes. We decided we want to remodel or change some of the surfaces in the house. We are going to take our time and work as we have energy and desire to. Meanwhile the house functions and each room can wait until we work on it.
I have a design in mind and a tropical feeling. I will take some photos as we do things. But nothing is going to go fast!

The music on this Blog!

2011-05-04T23:27:00.000-04:00

I just realized that now that I have moved to Florida, this 'summertime' collection of songs is good year round! Love the relaxing sounds. Enjoy! Happy forever-summer to everyone!

2 Years!

2010-02-16T09:24:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it has been 2 years since I started Blogging!
Thanks for coming by and for leaving comments!
I recently moved to Florida, and am settling into my new life. I really am glad I made the move, I am blessed now with more family visits and a more relaxed lifestyle!
Will I do more projects in the future to post, of course!
For now it is 'Time Out' for me!
See you in Blog-land soon!

COLOR STUDY 2

2010-01-01T03:15:00.005-05:00

Pictures I got off the Internet for my color study:
I want to create the tropical feel in the yard and in the house. I do not have my house yet, that would make things simpler wouldn't it? I like the idea of using unconventional items such as yard art, plants, fabric to create touches here and there to accomplish a cohesive look without added visual clutter. The center photo shows the arrangement of tropical flowers, it is intense and used sparingly it is very affective. They are primary colors, so even mixing these, pulling in the intensity in a small area or spot to draw your eye. Will be fun to experiment. I think my next house will have enough trials and adjustments that I should do a mock-up foam core model and play with inter-relationships between rooms as well. If I am to live with this much color, I should study it first. Can you tell I have been a Black, white and brown person for too long?

I love the idea of yard art with found objects. We want to also incorporate wrought iron or metals that are welded together as a prospect. DH has a welder he is axious to use!

Check out my other Color Study on my Home Blog!

Large canvas painting

2009-10-06T16:12:00.003-04:00

Here is a Craigslist find for $20. The size is 43" X 54". I thought it would be great for me to experiment with it for a large painting in my next house! I have always wanted to have a large painting but was not sure if I could live with that scale of something on my wall! So, I bought it, brought it to our apartment, and put it up on the wall. Suddenly it was NOT so large anymore! Funny how scale changes with other furnishings and surroundings! I love Amaryllis anyway, so I knew I could live with the print if it worked out. I plan on painting the wooden frame darker. The colors matched the two settees that are a washed out red that I already own.

One settee is full sized sofa and the one on the right is a love seat size. The fact that they are both winged back makes them taller in a room, around 42" AFF. You can see from the shadows made by the lamp that they have texture added onto the canvas. This I can remove later on when I repurpose the canvas.

You know, this may grow on me, and instead of finding an 'art supply' canvas, I might have found a piece of simple (hotel type painting) art to put on my wall!

Mirror (repurposed) into a stand!

2009-09-27T09:09:00.003-04:00

I had this mirror in our old guest room, and was going to bring it to the thrift shop when the mirror tilted, and there was a different use for it, a stand! I put a candle holder on it to show you what I meant by a stand! The mirror has bolts on the sides to tighten so it won't move so it is sturdy. What a great lift for some Christmas stuff!

Curly Willow tree

2009-08-20T06:31:00.003-04:00

I had gotten this bouquet of flowers last year from my kids for Mother's day. This was from Martha Stewart's collection. See the wooden branch that came in the vase? That is a Curly Willow branch. After a week in water, I noticed it was growing roots!
I took that branch and planted it outside in my yard. The photo below shows what the branch became after only one year!

Curly Willow, Willow bushes, Oak Willows and Willow trees all have growth hormones in them, so they self root. You can also take a small piece of the branch and add it to your water to root other plants that propagate this way. We have sold the house where this is planted, and I can see over the fence that this tree is now about 8' tall! And all from one little branch in a bouquet of flowers!

2009-05-22T12:30:00.004-04:00

This is a great simple project for a padded headboard!

This photo and link are to Centsational Girl's Blog. Please go there and check it out for yourself! The instructions are well done with photos.

This is an example from Restoration Hardware of what you could build. Click on photo to go Centsational Girl's Blog (link embeded). This type of headboard can be hung on the wall or made with legs to attach to bed frame.

Flowers

2009-05-10T13:53:00.001-04:00

A little bit of my Open House bouquet of flowers.
They can help you smile no matter what is going on around you!

Thinking of a future project for landscape lighting

2009-04-04T09:53:00.004-04:00

I found this photo in Zillow for homes for sale in Florida. I love the look of uplighting and saved this photo as a motivational INSPIRATIONAL photo. When I saw this photo it got my mind wandering to the day when I will be tending a yard (again, lived in S FL before) and hearing the breezes russle the palms. Love the mood that the uplights give to palms. The gold color of the house is nice too.

2009-03-07T11:00:00.001-05:00

ONE YEAR!

It has been one year since I started this blog!I can't believe that much time has gone by!Thanks for staying with me during the incredible year and for all the new friends I met and wonderful things I have learned from all of you!

Since our house is on the market, and we will be relocating, that means Another house! Another house to turn into a HOME! That means all new projects, photos and ideas to gather! I am so happy I have a wealth of inspiration out there with my Blogger friends!This next year of Blogging will be interesting!

Faux pearls w silver Rub'n'Buff

2009-02-27T09:05:00.004-05:00

I don't have a picture of these pearls 'before'. I got them last year as a 36" bead garland from a Christmas store. They are plastic and came in white only, the beads are 3/4" round in size. This was a pure white and was rather harsh around what I already had for decorations. Then, I thought.... silver!!! I put on vinyl gloves (thin, more flexible type) and put a dab (about a teaspoon size) of Silver Rub'N Buff in the palm of one hand and then pulled the beads through, I massaged each bead so that the waxy Rub'N Buff would spread on each bead. Within a few minutes I was done! They are so much prettier than when they were white! And the Rub'N Buff is a waxy oil based paste so it spreads well and lasts. They have a nice luster too. I wiped them off with a clean rag after so as to take off any extra residue so they would dry well. After 24 hrs, they are ready to put anywhere! Thought I would share this idea! I showed them in the box I was working in and added the remote (Cable) to give an idea of the scale of the beads. That is a letter file box cover they are in.
Below: close up on a grass round placemat

Blog into a book on Blurb!

2009-02-05T14:20:00.003-05:00

I had looked into Blurb.com some time back and now they let you import your Blog right into a book format! The books are under $50 and have lots of choices. I wonder if anyone has tried this yet?

I found this information: "Works with many blogging platforms – Supports LiveJournal and TypePad blogs. Edit in real time – Allows you to customize and edit your book as little or as much as you like".

Purging things I don't use!

2009-01-31T17:46:00.004-05:00

One of the items I sold this week on Craigslist was this clover leaf table. This table was made in the late 1800's. It is a parlor table, probably used for holding a plant.

I found out it is the craize for the coming year! Even Ethan Allen is copying it! Loved this table when I bought it, but, this week I saw the face of a young professional woman who called and met me to buy it that she was in love! She said she looked all over for an authentic clover leaf table! I made a profit and she bought a bargain! All smiles here!

This table was just too delicate for my use, and I didn't want it to get damaged during the move. Also it was pieced together in such a way that if it had fallen during the move it could have been damaged beyond repair! I felt so good, like someone was adopting this wonderful table and would care for it gently. Ahhhhhh a sigh of relief! AND it opens up a space for a new treasure I have NOT found yet!

Layered table setting, chargers!

2008-12-14T13:18:00.005-05:00

I love the old siver plated trays (showing a 13" wide one at the bottom). This setting has 5 plates. The bottom is the charger (silver plate tray) then a plate with silver stripes from Target, this year's Christmas plate collection. On top of that is a real bargain! At the dollar tree store they have (like a thick foil catering grade at 9 3/4") a smaller silver toned charger type tray for one dollar. I have that Dollar tree tray on top of the silver striped plate, then a white lacy plate, then my green leaf/flower plate. This is one way to add a metal layer when you want more bling to a setting.

Another setting using this 9 3/4" silver toned charger tray.Picture shows them taken apart. You can see my silver plate tray is starting to tarnish here, IRL the two trays look more alike than in this picture.Here is the luncheon size with 8" plate on top of that 9 3/4" charger tray, then picture below that takes the setting apart. And here I used this small tray for a backdrop in my china cabinet, and the best part is no polishing! Helps to reflect light and balance where you might have silver displayed in another part of the cabinet and it is not a symmetrical display.

Small lighting used for cone trees and villages

2008-12-14T13:07:00.003-05:00

I love my little cone trees and decided to put them in my china cabinet (being used as a bookshelf). The first picture shows my attempt to light the cabinet with regular Christmas lights. If I had planned for this display I could have researched what would be best, but it was one of those spur of the moment decisions (and frankly running out of horizontal space to display things!).Thi next picture shows the same cone trees with a set of small LED lights that are made for small village and train set display. I found two sets at Lowe's! They come with one battery pack, about 16" of wire to two small (black box) spot lights. I think it makes the display more interesting with shadows and more texture. I had also tried an overhead small light (the type with a nightlight 4W bulb that fits into a night light. but it gave the 8" height-paper houses a flat washed out look.This shows the cabinet with the houses and the cone trees lit with these tiny LED spot lights. The light bulb is supposed to have 700 hrs. And I have lit these spot lights every night for a few hours each for a week now. They are still going strong.

CHRISTMAS Mantel-cover shelf!

2008-11-12T14:11:00.010-05:00

I have not done much for Thanksgiving decor except show off my mercury glass pumpkins!I am working on my Chirstmas decor now. It takes me longer to work on things now so I wanted to start early. Our living room mantel as was constructed and we beefed up with molding. I took the mirror and items off to start decorating.This picture below, shows how we made an over mantel shelf cover so the decorations could be stapled, glued, tacked on to stay in place without damaging the original shelf. This shelf was actually screwed (with two screws towards the back) to make it more secure. This shelf is 2" larger all the way around so that things will fit better. Here it is unfinished, the wood is poplar that we happened to have in the garage (left over from another project).Below: this is the shelf as I stained it dark mahogany (3 coats, last coat not wiped off) I saw a couple of finials at Lowe's and decided to attach them to the corners pointing them down to create more style.This picture (below) shows a close up of the corner (after 2 coats of stain and not sealed yet)Below: shows the cut outs that my husband made to accommodate the pilaster and the outlets that we have on that mantel shelf. The shelf here has the three coats and I waxed the shelf after it was fully dry (waited a few days). I used Briwax clear wax which hardens and can be rubbed to a sheen. I played around with some of the items I worked on last year for the mantel look for this year, you can see how the shallow shelf didn't allow much on there. Below, another look for the mantel.
Link back to my Traditional Tropical Blog

My finds this week! Pottery barn idea!

2008-10-17T20:54:00.007-04:00

Click on picture for link to Pottery Barn! I had seen this Pottery Barn item in their new catalog online and wanted to try this for Chirstmas decoration this year.
This first picture is from their Holiday decorations in their new catalog! They are called Natural display lanterns ($39-$69) I found this wood frame lantern at a thrift store yesterday! Along with these other finds. The leaf is made of alabaster. I love the wire tray.
Picture below shows how the teak wood box opens, was made for a candle. I want to use it for a winter scene as the one from Pottery barn is done (one in center of picture above).
This last picture shows the price I paid in black marker on the right. I also got 15% off that!

Here is the box I filled with my faux trees and snow for Christmas!

Painted Pumpkins!

2008-10-15T16:39:00.005-04:00

I didn't do these, these are an INSPIRATIONAL picture from a great Blog!

Found this picture on Blog: A storybook life, click on picture for link to Blog! You have to go see.... because there are MORE! You must see these, what a GREAT idea!

Guest room gets shelving!

2008-09-29T19:55:00.004-04:00

DH (dear hubby) finally got back to working on the guest room closet upstairs. This is the left side, still a few shelves to go in yet. We had some wire basket systems so we decided to use them here instead of making drawer units. The counter is there to put your suitcase on to unload when visiting! DH made it out of left over oak stairtred. I will have lots of room for a place to put things as I decide where they go (packed or out)
This is the right side of the closet. There are lots of shelving for shoes, folded clothing and linen closet type bedding storage. The room in the back is small and it is part of the closet, that is where the hanging units are.

Link to Master Closet pictures here.
Link back to my main Blog here.

Frame for Master Bedroom

2008-09-13T22:11:00.002-04:00

I love Sepia shell prints, and just finished assembling another one for our Master Bedroom. This one hangs above our bed on our paneled headboard wall.
See rest of Master Bedroom project on My home Blog.

FRAMES from flooring

2008-09-13T21:59:00.007-04:00

I was going through my frames this weekend. And got rid of a couple through freecycle. Felt so good to get rid of a couple of 'unfinished' projects! The gal was so happy to get them! That feels good.
We did hardwood flooring in our home and had some pieces left over. We had done some mahgany inserts in the flooring. The guy who finished the flooring for us had some left over boards he gave us, we didn't use them all and stashed them away. Well 3 years later, we pulled them out of the garage and finally did something with them.

DH worked on machining the wood and cutting to the size I wanted. I then applied mahogany stain to make the woodgrain tones more even. When they were dry, I applied paste wax for that hand rubbed patina finish.
For an idea of scale, the prints are 9 1/2" wide and the opening of the frames are 14 1/2".

Here are the pictures DONE! I am now looking for a place to hang two 23" square shell pictures! Just two weeks ago, this was wood in the garage and prints were in a drawer!

Painted chairs

2008-09-05T18:08:00.006-04:00

Quote from HGTV forum from Magnaverde:
"Of course you can paint a sofa. Forget all that nonsense about teensy bottles of expensive paint medium from the crafts store. You don't need anything more than regular latex semi-gloss paint and a lot of guts. I found a beautiful Baker Chippendale camelback sofa, with cool curved arms and a fat down cushion, but it was covered in a hideous glazed chintz in the ugliest colors I ever saw. I found some great yellow wool damask to reupholster with, but it would have cost me $3OOO for the fabric alone, and I was in a hurry anyway--people coming in 2 weeks--so as a temporary fix I painted my sofa instead. Everyone freaked out when I told then the plan, but it worked. I was planning on painting my living room dark green, so I decided to go with red leather. First, I painted the whole thing with bubblegum pink semigloss latex paint, using the widest foam brush I could find, and brushing it on in long strokes front-to-back and up + down. Think of that as the primer coat. I let it dry 2 days, then sanded it super lightly with fine-grade sandpaper to get rid of the burrs--and there were a lot of them. When I couldn't feel any more sharp things, another coat of paint, spread thin. Dried & sanded again. Then spread--with my hands--a thin coat of raspberry red semi-gloss paint I had deadened a little with brown to make it less vivid. Because it was a deep color, there wasn't much white filler in the paint, so it was almost like a glaze or stain, instead of paint, which is just what I wanted, anyway. I just smoothed it on, like suntan oil, and worked it into the pink paint. I let it build a little thicker on the back, on the inside of the arms and at the back edge of the loose cushion, so that the paler, thinner red took on an air of wear at the high points. I let it dry 2 days, then CAREFULLY sanded the few new sharp things, and touched up those spots with my fingers. I let it dry 2 days, then waxed the whole thing with regular paste wax. After it was dry, I polished it with a soft cloth, then dusted it with talcum, and vacuumed it all off. It was a little stiff the first few days, but now it not only looks like red leather, it feels like it.This worked great on my ugly glazed chintz, and probably would work on any smooth fabric, except that some may have more burrs and therefore require more sanding, but I wouldn't try it on anything with a heavy texture. And no, the paint doesn't peel off. And no, it's not stiff, either. Think about it--it's latex and essentially, that's what's in those little bottles of fabric medium." Regards, MAGNAVERDE.

This was a post that was made by MAGNAVERDE on HGTV decorating forum. I used his directions to paint my chairs.
A few other people have done the same since.

The only thing I would change now is that there are fabric or textile additives to add to paint which I would use. Then you really need to wait between coats long enough for each to dry thoroughly. The textile medium can be purchased at a craft store for less than $2 because you only need a small amount, and they do sell them in small craft paint sized bottles.

The feeling is that of vinyl though now with its worn areas mine do 'look' more like leather. I shock people by lifting the pillow up (not painted underneath) and they react!

Good luck and please feel free to ask questions!

I have added these two current photos to this post to show how the chairs are holding up in 2009!

Verdigris clock project

2008-08-04T09:45:00.006-04:00

http://www.misterart.com/store/view.cfm?store=003&group_id=2177 (link to site showing products I used on this project)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdigris (meaning of the word Verdigris)

. I used the copper under coat and the patina chemical on top. I also bought a light patina (green) craft paint and a black/green craft paint (they come in small bottles in craft stores and have all sorts of colors for around $1). I used the paint to deepen the shadow areas and highlight the high spots.

I used the chemicals and sealed the whole surface once I achieved the finish I wanted. Then after all dried and cured for about 24 hrs, I added the painted highlights and sealed again after dry.

The clock (sorry I can't find my 'before' pic) is resin and is battery operated. I found this marked down at TJMaxx. It is a gift for my sister and the existing finish was not going to fit in with her style and garden type items she had. I refinished this clock to make it fit in with her accessories and home.

Bird plate stand

2008-06-21T00:45:00.002-04:00

I got two brass bird candle holders and I had two white porcelain saucers (without cup ridge) and epoxied them together for a friendly way to hold my scones the next time I have tea! The brass is a gold color (don't use that color) so I used Rub'N Buff (silver) on the brass and it gave the little stand a more antique silver look.

Master Bath face lift!

2008-06-21T00:27:00.002-04:00

We gave our Master Bath a facelift. We had vinyl on the floor and wanted to replace the short baseboard. We had the old hollywood lights (with dusty bulbs).

Playing with Photoshop filters

2008-05-11T23:15:00.003-04:00

These may look the same at a glance, but the first one is the original (altered with Photoshop).
Double click on images to see them up close and you will notice the differences. It is fun to see the changes from the manipulations. Photoshop posterize filter
Photoshop texturizer filter
Photoshop watercolor filter
cut out with translucent background.

Orchid

2008-05-11T18:14:00.004-04:00

One of my Mother's Day gifts was this orchid plant, so I decided to play! (taking pictures) Time to meet the scapes!

Orchid meet my palms (in my living room)

Played with Adobe Photoshop and took the lighting way down and the contrast up.

More Scapes

2008-05-10T19:59:00.007-04:00

I went outside today in my yard and gathered some buds from my lavender plants, onion scapes that are breaking open, some petunias and put them with reindeer moss I had. This arrangement has a vintage look to me. Here the same arrangement on a baby banana plant leaf.

These below are leek scapes.

Green onion scapes!

2008-05-07T23:01:00.014-04:00

My husband gathered the seed pods, or scapes, to his green onions and brought some in to cook. I grabbed a bunch and took a few pictures to remember them by!

Finds and Repurposed Elevated dishes!

2008-04-27T18:54:00.002-04:00

My recent FINDS! This was a good stash! Had fun repurposing them! Double click on picture to enlargen.

Milk glass, Fenton 3 horn Hobnail Epergne

2008-04-23T17:47:00.001-04:00

I can't wait to use this in a table setting!

Stands for dishes #2

2008-04-22T14:56:00.005-04:00

My small cake stand from TJMaxx (Home Goods). Some pictures you can double click on to see a much larger view.

showing side view

a small glass jar with lid (not washed yet, you can see the .75 price on the bottom still there. A Pewter candle holder

next picture shows them combined

A cheese board with cover permanently attached to a wooden candle holder

Below: many uses for a crystal glass 'top' or whatever that I found.

This stand is a cut glass cover, a cut glass small plate placed on top of an inverted drinking glass (also has cut glass detail). (3 pieces)

This same butter dish combination on top of an inverted cut glass drinking glass makes a whole different look.

Another view with a small bowl placed in between plate and stand (4 pieces)

My Home Blog

2008-04-11T10:04:00.001-04:00

Pictures of my home are at my Home Blog. Visit me at:
http://tropicalfeel.blogspot.com/
There is a permanent link on this page as well (upper right hand corner under title picture)!

Playing with photography!

2008-03-26T16:48:00.007-04:00

We had an over-wintered leeks and I was preparing them for the freezer, I decided to play! I love the color green with the off white that showed up on all the slices! Then I played with the images a bit with Abobe Photoshop.

Some of you will recognize the black and white from my kitchen floor cloth. And the green leaf is a placemat I picked up at TJMaxx (got a set)

My Spring collection of BEADS!

2008-03-20T17:59:00.005-04:00

I love this set of old glass beads I have had for years! They always remind me of Easter time or Spring!

Pearls & Shells

2008-03-20T15:14:00.009-04:00

I have been collecting faux pearls for decoration. I do love them in a dish just as they are mixed with shells! Below is my collection of 12 metal shells (from Target called table scatters) shown with another set of faux pearls I found from a thrift store in silver metalic finish.

Stands for dishes

2008-03-20T14:54:00.013-04:00

This is my thrift store stash. A few of the candle holders are from the dollar store (crystal). All for less than $5. The arrows show which parts I combined to make the stands shown just below.This is a clear glass votive that could be used upside down or as shown. I used hot glue to hold these together while I decide which will stay permanent. Then, I will use glass to glass glue to make a permanent bond for those I want to stay paired. Below is that votive at the bottom, an antique plate, then the little stand shown above sitting on top. I have this picture on share my craft (HGTV )I have been collecting some wooden plates and candle holders (thrift store trips) for my Tropical settings. I combined a few of them to create these elevated food serving surfaces. The plates were made in the Phillipines and are treated with food safe mineral oil.

I had a large candle holder, a wooden platform/plate and a cloche. I covered a bird's nest we found in our yard lined with the hair from our Siberian Huskies.

My husband made a more substantial base for it and permanently joined everything. This is a heavy piece now and won't topple (safer for that glass cloche now)! Then we used a darker gel stain to make the whole base more uniform (since we had used different types of wood with different finishes. I wanted to coordinate with my mahogany furniture.

Accessories

2008-03-05T20:07:00.005-05:00

Above, my antique store finds! The smaller silver bowl put into the pineapple motif milk glass bowl in picture below.

Then the cut work milk glass placed into the silver plate bowl (that is inside the pineapple motife bowl) Looks interesting! That is one of my coffee filter roses that I made from the natural color filters. And some faux pearls I picked up to use as decoration for Christmas.

Roses, Coffee filter

2008-03-02T18:09:00.011-05:00

Have you seen this? This is an image from http://www.mommymakesroses.com/ It is one of the assortment of colors and types that she makes. I am trying to make something like this.

This is the link to the Martha Stewart site. The directions are written, click on the 'video' part to watch them being made!
http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=225e759a91841110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&autonomy_kw=coffee%20filter%20roses&rsc=ns2006_m1
by Cassie Mae Chappell.

The gal has a website to sell them, I put the link here cause they mention it on the MS site.
http://www.mommymakesroses.com/

They LOOK so REAL! All with a $4 package of cone coffee filters and some water colors!

I set out to try a couple of these roses! Here are my pictures! I got the coffee filters at Costco as was recommended! Under $4 for 400! BTW, this stash makes about 50 roses! It takes 8 to make one depending on the size. If you print the directions and then copy the pattern again at 30% shrinkage for example, you can get a smaller rose. I want to try this next for a white topiary I want to make!te in the crevices and interior. Then I used white water based paint on the individual petals. I dried them with my low-air hair dryer. This made the petals more opague.
Below: shows one rose made with painting the edges green and leaving the petals alone. The light from the sun through the window shows how see-through it is. The 'rose' on the right shows how opague the watered-down white water color paint made that rose. I did want the rose white on purpose.
I played with natural color filters I had in my home already and that we use for making coffee.Here are two pictures of how that rose came out. I am going to try another one with the petals stained in coffee first.

I used this spray sealer on the roses after they were dry to keep them with more body and to preserve them longer. It makes removing dust much easier.

I took the orginal pattern from the Martha Stewart site and reduced it on my copier to 60% and 75% of their original size. I am playing with scale to see which sizes will work best for the topiaries I want to make for Christmas decor.

The next picture down shows the roses from the front view. I have painted the (two smaller ones) this morning, so the petals are a bit limp. The 60% is on the bottom. In that picture it looks like the two smaller ones are so similar in size, but in real life the 75% does show more volume.

Since the petals stay limp for a while, I used a small dixie cup (bathroom size) to hold the rose until it is completely dry. I just poked a hole in the bottom of the cup and slipped the wire through.

At the smaller sizes, the roses take up 1/2 the wire length and 1/2 the cone filters. So, instead of yielding 50 roses or so from the 400 pack, you will get about 100 roses out of it!

Below: Pictures of the 8 more 50% sized roses I made along with the ones I had done. Double click on picture to see it larger. In that bottom picture are MY roses too!

I got these elements together for a topiary arrangement. This is why I wanted to make roses in the first place. Light green reindeer moss, faux pearls, and the coffee filter ivory/white roses.

Tropical flower arrangement

2008-02-29T16:18:00.003-05:00

Double click on picture to see it larger (then you can read the text also)
I had saved this as one file to see if it would make it easier to post 4 pictures at a time. Not so handy after all!

Frames 2

2008-02-28T11:44:00.006-05:00

I found this dimentional frame at a thrift store and painted it black with Rub'N Buff pewter highlights. I had my husband cut it to fit over the shadow box pictured below.

Above: this box was (from Marshall's) a shell in a shadow box. I know the glare from the window behind blocks the actual contents of frame. Below: the results. A more textured substantial picture. I placed a bracket shelf I found at Ross under it to appear as holding it up. They were similar in carvings.

Below: This frame was made out of left over Red Oak flooring. I used gel stain to match my cherry furniture and stamped leaves on it with gold paint.

Below: When we were in a different home we made this mirror for the buffet below it. We used stair tred left-overs from a job and made the large frame and put the mirror in. I used to work where they sold mirrors and we could have the left over pieces. They polished the edges for me and we made the frames around those sizes. We made the smaller mirror and I gel stained the cherry bands you see, then we siliconed the smaller frame onto the mirror in the larger frame. We had a maple wall unit that we wanted to match at the time.

Beaded necklaces that are sold at yard sales and flee markets that are no longer in style (or not your style) can be put on a picture frame like this one I did on an 8"X10" frame. I just glued it on an existing frame.

Picture frames

2008-02-25T23:27:00.005-05:00

FRAMES:

I found a few of these old frames at antique stores and cleaned this one up for my Sepia photos I got off http://www.allposters.com/ and had it tripple matted.

This project BELOW: (frame above in clamp) is on Share my Craft.
I added some more moldings to this mirror frame I already had from Pier I. I got it on sale and always thought it looked unfinished. I wanted to do a redesign of it so it would fit my style. We used wood we cut into 1" square, scotia molding, and cut colonial crown (top and bottom off) using only the center portion. You can see below when hung on the wall, it has more presence. First picture is the 'BEFORE' as I bought it.

shell cone trees

2008-02-25T23:12:00.003-05:00

In this area in Virginia I have seen these cone trees made with Oyster shells. I made one, and then one with mussel shells. The one on the right in the back is made by Liz and shown at http://www.tropicdesignsinc.com/

Cork wreath

2008-02-25T23:01:00.003-05:00

Was working on this wreath for some time. The base is a straw wreath form that I got at Michaels. I put one end of a 2 1/2" finish nail into hot glue and pounded it into the cork then the other end into the wreath form with a hammer.

When I put the nail into the wall to hold the wreath (used hemp string to hold the wreath) to the wall, I carved out a space behind a champaigne cork and covered the nail head after looping the string on it.

The finished wreath showing two wooden ornaments I hung on it with fishing line. Below: I put a small vine wreath in front of the cork wreath for Christmas decorating.

This wreath has approx 1,000 corks in its construction. I saved corks and got donations from friends and restaurants for 10 years. If those corks represent a bottle of wine each, at a medium price range of $10 each, that would be $10,000 worth of wine! WOW!

Plate rack

2008-02-25T22:40:00.002-05:00

I got this 3-tier plate rack at Target for $7 and it didn't fit under my cabinets in the kitchen, so I had my husband cut off the top portion that holds the 3rd plate.

Ceiling fan

2008-02-25T22:36:00.000-05:00

I got two of these ceiling fans at Home depot for $89 on sale! I painted and antiqued them to match my decor and wood tones.

One is in my living room and one in my Master bedroom

Living room fireplace

2008-02-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

Above, fireplace before and below, fireplace after

New refrigerator before and after

2008-02-25T22:26:00.000-05:00

Stainless contact paper (alluminum) applied to side of new refrigerator to take that harsh black area and make it blend in with the refrigerator doors

Kitchen before

2008-02-25T22:23:00.000-05:00

This is the kitchen before with off white vinyl flooring (refrigerator and Dish washer have been replaced since this was taken on move-in day.

Floor cloth finished

2008-02-25T22:05:00.002-05:00

This is the finished floor cloth (painted behind left over vinyl flooring) put in place in my kitchen. This is the kitchen floor cloth finished and in place in my kitchen to protect the work triangle area of the new hardwood flooring. Go here to see how I painted it & taped it.
And another small one I painted.

Compass design floor cloth

2008-02-25T21:54:00.000-05:00

I had painted this small floor cloth in the same way (used back side of vinyl flooring) for the front hall a few years ago. It is an old compass design. I added the gold paint color.

Floor cloth 2, taping

2008-02-20T22:15:00.004-05:00

This was how I taped off the square shapes. I started with the center square first so that both top and bottom would be equal in how they fit on the cloth. I put a piece of tape in the squares that would not be painted so that I would not get confused.
1st Step: here

Go here to see it finished.
Another floor cloth I painted here.

First Step in making floor cloth

2007-11-15T14:35:00.000-05:00

I used a piece of vinyl flooring. Measure the area it will be used in. Trim to fit.
I turned over vinyl to paint on the back side. I also sanded (with a fine sandpaper block) the edges of cut to size piece of vinyl to rid the sides of any loose vinyl pieces and rough look/feel to them.

I placed the vinyl piece on a thicker piece of plastic (for a drop cloth) so that I would be ready to paint.

I applied primer on the back side of the vinyl piece and the good side will be against the floor. I also put primer on the sides of the vinyl since they will be visible from across the room when looking at this mat on the floor. I ended up applying 2 coats of primer (used Kiltz) to seal the vinyl.

I had the paint I used for the trim in our home (Sherwin Williams Pacer White, Latex in satin finish) and used this (so that my whites would not clash in the room) to apply 3 coats of paint to the top that is getting used and a couple of coats to the sides (edges) too.

I let this all dry over night (the primer, Kiltz leaves the vinyl feeling tacky and damp, but is OK). Ready for the next step.

New Floor into completion in our kitchen

2007-11-15T14:27:00.000-05:00

This picture shows the work triangle in the U-shaped kitchen that we have in our house.

This new hardwood flooring will get a lot of wear and tear in this area mostly.

I wanted black and white tile in the kitchen, but not really in the whole space (also has laundry area, breakfast room, and stairs to second floor sharing the same floor space).

I had some left-over vinyl from a job and it measured around 5' wide by 7 ' long. I decided to re-purpose it for use in this kitchen area.