Summer has begun, I am behind as ususal!

A Happy Summer to everyone!! It is hard to believe that the year is half way passed.  I always have so much that I want to do and learn (about blogging and marketing online).  My latest excuse... Family has been up visiting this past week.  And I have had a wonderful week with my aunts, uncles and cousins.  I really enjoy doing genealogy and have spent hours reviewing and scanning old documents and pictures.  But this does keep me from doing the necessary things to that I should be keeping up with.  Oh well, those things aren't going anywhere, I can do them tomorrow ;-) 

I did get my stairway stenciled.  I haven't added the color accents yet, haven't decided exactly what I want to use yet.  But I like the simple look of the two colors at the moment.  They brighten up a dark stairway.  

  

One thing I did find out about my stairway is that my stair's riser heights vary.  A couple were 6 inches, 6.5 in., 5.5in  this made for quite abit of adjusting and frustration. Things are never as easy as one hopes.  I repeated the stencils on the upper section of the stairway.   I am really happy with the results so far.  I decided not to put the faux bois graining on the treads of the stairs at this time.  I am afraid that it will make the stairs too busy and take away from the stencilling.  Before I finish with the accent colors, I am going to be doing my son's bedroom floor. (This is what I am behind on).   I hopefully will get the rest of the furniture out of the way and get the old carpet out.   I did order my Large Feathered Damask stencil  (www.royaldesignstudio.com) that I am going to use on the floor.  I am getting excited about finally getting this project moving.   I will post more details in the next posting.  

I do want to repeat that stencils are great tools to use.  They are useful to DIYers, artist and crafters.   I have been inspired in many way by looking at projects others have done using stencils.   The Royal Design website shows many of these. 

One last thing,  If you live around Clark county Kentucky,  The public library is having an art show of local artist during July.  I put my gourds in that I showed in my last posting.  I also put in a Altered Mirror Window and an acrylic  painting below. 

I have to brag that I have a fantastically talented friend whom will have artwork on display also.  This would be a fun day trip for the family or a group of friends.  I hope that my Rowdy Golden Girls homemaker group will met up together and go.   Clark county has a wonderful library.  They do alot of activities for the community and a great research department.  I hope that everyone will come by and visit.

See you all when the month is half past. 

Working on Transformations

I have not been ignoring my friends and customers.  When to Florida and got Mom to bring north for the summer.  I have been stripping a table to ready to apply a decorative finish too.  I have been working on gourds with my friends Pam and MaryAlice.  These are fun once you get past the mold.  Here are a couple of things we did in May.  

 

I also have had a yard sale and am trying to get ready for my son to move back home.  He is tired of not having any money.  Welcome to my world   ;-).  Of course, I had taken over his space as soon as he left home.

One last thing that I would like to mention is that I am basecoating my stairs today.  I have for several years been inspired by Melanie Royals of Royal Design Studios.  She did a set of stair that are stenciled all the way down.  I pulled up my worn carpet and will hopefully have this completed in the next couple of weeks (maybe three).  I have many stencils from http://www.royaldesignstudios.com/ and http://www.modellodesigns.com/ .  Hopefully my stairway will be as nice as Melanie's is.  It took a long time to decide what colors to use with my log walls.  I went with a dark gray base and will use light gray for a neutral design.  I will faux bois the treads with the light gray also.  I will do many coats of clear top coat.  And then I will use what ever accent colors I am in the mood for, to complete.  This way if I desire to change the accent color, I can do so with out changing the main works.  Here is how the stairs currently look. (only not sideways, I haven't figured  everything out yet) .  Hopefully I will do better in keeping you up to date.