About that porch......

Good Morning!!

Whoever said "Time Flies" knew what they were talking about!

 Somehow I have lost about 2 weeks.  So here is what has been going on!   My husband and I ACTUALLY TOOK A VACATION!!!  We hardly ever go away for very long.  We both hate to leave our babies, which are the two dogs y'all see in my pictures all the time:).  BUT we have a wonderful friend who started a pet sitting business a few years ago and she is great so we decided to give her a call and see if she had any openings, she did,  so we toke off!  

Since we settled on Maine for our little get away, I thought I would brave the heat and see the beautiful North East!   It WAS SOOOOO beautiful.  We left on a Wed. and stayed in Saratoga Springs NY, which was a really cute town, then on to a small town in Maine called Auburn.  I loved that little town although it was a little depressed as the mills have all closed, soooo sad.  

This is Auburn!

These are the views from our hotel room, we walked along a little path that went by this river an took tons of pictures!

I loved the water!! it looked so pure!!!!

The next day was  my favorite of all!!  Driving through Maine was the most fun and the scenery was great!  AND GET THIS!!! :D  ALLLLL of the houses were different and most were OLD!!!  I did notice that most of the porches were~~~ you guessed it ~~ BLUE!!!!   They were well maintained and loved!  We took the back roads along the coast and I couldn't believe all the antique stores!  My "antique store radar" was going off every 2 or 3 SECONDS!  We didn't go into even one because our little car that only seats 2 was full already!  But we have decided to go back and take the TRUCK:)

Our destination was way up on the boarder with Canada and it was really cool and beautiful!

It was cloudy when we got there

The wind was blowing designs in the water!!

These are views from the deck of the little cottage we stayed in! 

We didn't want to ever leave:) 

The only thing I found a little strange was that there were no sounds 

AT ALL  during the night.   I missed the frogs croaking and the lightin bugs that are so much a part of our Southern Summers!

We saw beautiful Acadia National Park and spent some time with good friends.  

Our trip came to an end and we headed out to West Point NY and then home to VA!

 As we all know it is great fun to take a vacation, but it is GREAT to get back home:)

As you might have guessed by now,  the porch is still not completely finished! SOOOO back to work soon, probably not today though, its my day to work in the gift shop at the wonderful

Mary Washington House, George Washington's mother's home.

I have gone on tooo long about our trip but I just had to share:)

I hope you have a great day, and if you get the chance, go out and see our beautiful country, it is all out there waiting for your visit!!

A little update!!

I usually like to blog on Mondays but I decided to pass this along today! :)
I wanted to alter something that I said earlier about aging a wall.  I mentioned staining it first, then dry brushing.   You would NOT have to stain first, unless you wanted the aged look sooner, just dry brushing over the bare wood would be fine.  Just let nature do the rest!  It might take a little while, not sure how long!

I am having problems getting the pictures side by side, I will have to work on that, I have lots of wasted
space:)

These are examples of dry brushing.

These are some pictures of the almost finished porch.  I still need to do the doors and the inside of the cabinets.  Still deciding on the color, but I am thinking a light mustardy color.  I like Benjamin Moore's
HC 40 or HC41.  That decision will be made on Mon!  Hope the paint store it open since it is the 4th.

 Charlie loves the porch:)

My Favorite rocking chair:)

I liked the shadows here.

A FEW EXTRA PICTURES!!!

Charlie and Rowdy !  We all stayed on the porch most of the day!



Right after I took this picture Rowdy stole my peanut butter bagel!!
She had trouble getting the peanut butter off the roof of her mouth!!
It was sort of funny watching her, but not to healthy for her!




I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!
PLEASE REMEMBER OUR TROOPS!


So long until next time!

"SAY WHEN"!!!

Now that the porch is almost done, I am constantly thinking of what else I can do!  What is THAT about!!  I can never just finish and sometimes things look overworked!  So tonight I am sitting on the porch listening to the rain, and deciding to finish tomorrow.  I will do as much as I can in the next day and "Say When"!!  I don't think that it looks all that old.  I was going for the Old Farmhouse Porch look that I remember from childhood. They always seemed to be sort of plain with lots of wicker and plants. I was thinking that I should have stained the wood then just dry brushed it with the tinted primer.  Primer is so thick and dry that it is a great medium to use as a dry brush technique.  I think that would give the look of old peeling dry paint without sanding and roughing up the surface!

Oh well, next time!

Hopefully when I get the old furniture back out it will look better.  My favorite porch was in the North GA mountains I loved daydreaming as I sat on the old swing.  ~   Ahhhh that was so much fun! ~

Well the sun has set and the frogs are croaking so I guess that means it is time to hit the hay! 

I hope y'all have a great day tomorrow and don't forget to take a little time for some Sweet Tea and a little daydreaming on the porch!

JET SKIs and WEEDS!!!

We have just returned from NC where we celebrated my husband's mother's 89th birthday!!!  We had so much fun on the lake with the jet ski and the boat.   Even my 89 year old Mother in law sailed away on the jet ski, I was scared to death that she would just FLY off!! But she did great.  It was a sort of family reunion, with our children and their cousins and my husbands siblings!  The food was delicious!! We ate all weekend.

I didn't have a chance to work on the porch, but I was able to get the top coat on before we left.  Today I will try to get the wall paint and hopefully tomorrow get that going!

While we were gone we had lots of rain, which we really needed, BUT NOW I have tons of weeds!! I don't know where they come from and how they get here so fast.  I use vinegar for the weeds in between the bricks on the walkways but I am a little afraid that I won't get my aim accurate and end up killing the plants in the garden along with the weeds.  So I guess I will spray and pull!  In the words of "Miss Scarlet" I"ll just think about that tomorrow!

I hope everyone has a great and productive week!

PAINT AND WHITE BREAD!!

UHMMMMM Just WHOSE Idea was it to paint the ceiling?  Oh yeah, I think it was MINE!!!  What a PAIN!:)  The grooves in the boards have to be filled in AFTER I used the roller!  This may take a while! AND this is just the PRIMER!!!:) YIKES!!!

I hope Ya'll had a great weekend!!  I was away a lot this weekend so I didn't get a chance to paint more plus the HEAT was terrible!!! Our heat index was 112 with high humidity!   So it was just as well to do inside things!

The porch should be completely done today. Josh is here now so I will begin to paint again tomorrow!  The color is ALOT brighter that it shows here so I may have to make some adjustments!  I chose the blue because I am sure that at some point I read SOMEWHERE that the old homes have blue painted porch ceilings to keep away the flies?  Has anyone heard of that?  I can't remember where I read this!
I asked the guy at the paint store and he had never heard that, he said maybe it was "An Old Wives Tale"   sooooo since I AM an Old Wife, I decided to paint it blue anyway!!!
I haven't decided on the wall colors but I am thinking Navajo White by Benjamin Moore!

OK about White Bread!!  I decided today to make White Bread instead of the usual Wheat!!!  I am soooo tired of whole grains:)  I am dreaming of some fresh white bread with a huge slice of tomato and a slice of vidalia onion and fresh basil!!  We have tomatoes but they are not ready yet.  That just says summer to me!!  I can't wait!!   I will savor it on the porch!

I have enjoyed our time together, I hope you have too!!  I have to get back to work!  I am working on some aged fabric covered journals!  I have a few orders to fill, then I will post new journals with new fabrics  on the Picture Trail site!

Have a Happy Day!!

The screened porch Saga!!

Happy Monday!!
Well today is the first day of a new week! It is sooooo hot!  I got out to the porch today around 6:30 and ended up staying there until almost 9:15!! I am reading a great book by Ron Chernow about the life of George Washington!  Since he lived a good bit of his life here it is fun to read how he and his family lived!

Well the porch has been worked on and has some nice tongue and groove siding.

This was left open originally but really didn't look so great so Now it is built in and I really like it!
It helps cooling!  This porch did have 3 open sides which was great, but we added on to the house and now it only has 2 open sides!

So NOW I have to decide how to paint it!  To faux or not to faux!!! Everything in the house almost is a glazed finish or a mural soooooo I am thinking maybe try to make this look like an old porch.  My first thought would be to paint it in layers the sand some off, not sure HOW LONG that would take!

 Rowdy and Charlie love to be on the porch!

My pals are helping me make a decision!  I will make it today and get back to you:)

I hope you all have a safe and happy week!

Just a little note!

Good Morning!
 It is beautiful morning here in VA, very cool and nice outside!
 I thought I would give you a little update on the Porch situation!  As it turns out the County did not approve the project of turning the porch into a room SOOOO I get to keep the porch! YAAAY  I thought this might be a good time to do a before and after!
Here is some before:

Me and my best friends:)

The poor little thing is a little messy:)  I am in the process of taking it apart, but took a little "Break" for some good ole tea!
 Well here ya go!  Hopefully in a few days it will be finished and looking at least a little different:)

Have a Happy Day!