Painted Canvas Curtains!

I love this time of year! It's warm and sunny and nice to be outside doing just about anything. My latest project is a pair of striped canvas curtains for the front porch.  I bought a great outdoor rug that became my inspiration for the curtains.  I wanted a black and cream/white theme.  I'll walk you through what I did to create the curtains.  Everyone's doing these drop cloth curtains so it's nothing new but this is what I did and how I did it!

 

First be sure you wash, dry and iron your canvas. I will warn you that the ironing part is going to take you a while so find a good movie and put the ironing board in front of the tv and just iron your little heart out. I used steam and a squirt bottle of water too, just to help get out the wrinkles. 

Next, measure and tape off your stripes.  I used frog tape and it worked beautifully!

To paint the stripes I used regular craft paint mixed with textile medium to turn it into fabric paint.  Mix the paint using 2 parts craft paint, 1 part textile medium.  The use a foam roller to apply the paint.  Be sure to put down something under your drop cloth because it will leak through as you apply the paint.

Once the paint was dry I ironed the backside to set the paint, at that point it is washable. 

I hemmed the bottom and hung them it up, done!! Okay, done with one, still working on the other, but couldn't wait to share!  I'm impatient like that ;)  At first I liked the way it pooled but I will be hemming it soon.

I will also share the newly made over porch in another post!  Thanks for reading!




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Welcome to the Land of Dot Com

Finally decided to go for it and convert to a dot.com!  Yeah!  I hope to do some much needed design work on the blog soon. 

Crazy Dog Antics

I have the sweetest dog on the planet!

She has been with us now for 6 years and she makes me laugh and smile every single day.  She turned 6 years old on April 1st, but I was so busy with life in general that I didn't even put the silly crown on her head and take her birthday picture (yes, I did that once or twice). I know that sounds totally crazzzy, but it's fun and I don't have kids so indulge me, k?  She also had surgury on her leg which she is recovering from nicely.  Stitches have been out for a little over a week and she is really wanting to go run around all day in the yard, but I won't allow that for another week, at least. 

Anyway, I just want to share some of her antics with you all today. 


You see, my sweet Maggie is a bit of a food thief.  She doesn't eat furniture or mess in the house or dig in the yard.  She steals food. 

She steals under the cover of darkness or when we leave her unattended in the house.  She steals anything that is left on the counter and smells good (what dog wouldn't). 

She is particulary found of meat and carbs.  Since meat doesn't get left out, she steals bread, yes....entire loaves of bread!  I am about ready to set up a web cam so I can keep an eye on her.  One that I can mount right over her dog door or perhaps on the back of the house.  It would be entertaining, I'm sure.  

I have learned my lesson about not leaving things out on the counter because I know she is a master at retrieving even things you have no idea as to how she got to them. My hubby on the other hand is still learning not to leave things. 

So, a couple weeks ago she committed her latest crime.  My hubby left an entire loaf of sourdough bread on the counter and she made off with it!  I went outside to find barely a remnant of the plastic bag, but not a stitch of bread...by the way, she has also done this with chips too.  I usually discover the bag in the yard and not even a single crumb in site. 

I came back into the house to find she had eaten some of it on the love seat and that's where I found a piece of crust and some crumbs, which lead to me taking all the cushions off the furniture and vacuuming.  No harm there, I try to do that once or twice a year anyway so I guess it was time, right? 

Even though she is a crazy little food naber, I love her to pieces and I am her human. 

Table Makeover

So excited to show everyone my table makeover today! I've had this table for a while now.  I move it around the house a lot depending on my decorating mood and needs.  It has found a great home near the front door and I was itching to give it a face lift. 

Enter...spray paint! Oh yeah, my fav. 

I've been spending a lot of time lately painting (the latex kind with rollers and brushes) and I have to say I love spray paint!  It's easy and well, it's easy....all I did was remove the hardware, spray and put it back on. done. 

Here is the little table before....

After a coat or two of Rustoleum in Black (satin) here she is now...even though this table is near a bay window and a door, I had a heck of a time getting a picture that was not dark in the middle of the day! 

Don't you just love that I left the giant shoe basket for the world to see?  I say, whatever, we live here, right?  Seriously, it's convenient and keeps us from tracking in dirt because we take our shoes off at the door (I don't have a mud room) and the door to the garage is behind the front door.  Ultimately I want to create some cubbies in the garage, but it's low on the list at this point.  Also, my hubby has size 13 feet, his shoes take up so much real estate... ;)  We like having a landing spot for shoes and keys right here.  See the white thing with all the keys on it?  That was a mug holder that I spray painted! 

Hope you all have a great week.  I'm off to do some more spray painting and maybe a little shopping today.  I'm working on a few other items for the front porch summer makeover.

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So Many Projects, So Little Time...

I wish I could be a stay at home mom (dog mom that is) since I don't have kids.  I wouldn't have to spend my day looking after little ones, and my dog pretty much takes care of herself.   I dream of all the time I could spend around the house, working on various projects and actually want to learn how to cook, I mean really cook.  I could have an amazing blog and an etsy shop full of treasures to share and the dishes and laundry would be done all the time, *sigh*.  Sometimes I just wish...

"No one is perfect... that's why pencils have erasers."  ~Author Unknown

"Nothing that is complete breathes."  ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

I have about a half dozen projects going right now and not a one of them is really complete and ready to share with all of you.  I have pictures of the before and not the after, or I do, but haven't taken the time to load them, etc. etc.

It's been busy around my house lately...the dog had surgery, I've been cleaning and painting and organizing and cleaning out closets, taking things to consignment and slowly, ever so slowly getting it together.  The master bedroom is still torn apart and is next on the list for some attention. 

Have a lovely, productive week everyone!

When Life Gets In The Way of Art

If my creative fellow readers and bloggers are anything like me, you find that the moment inspiration strikes you are up and out the door ready to tackle your latest masterpiece. 

I find it very annoying that life (actual, real life) sometimes get in my way!  I'd love nothing more than to daydream all day about projects and then actually finish one in the same day (gasp).  But instead I go to work each day outside the home 40 hours a week and try to cram as much as I can into that coveted WEEKEND.  Can anyone else relate?  Feel free to share! 

I am working hard to try to finish the stairs (it will happen this weekend, come hell or high water), but I have been interrupted by running all over town picking up dog kennel panels for my sweet Maggie's upcoming surgery.  She will need to be in a cast and confined with little outside area to roam for about 6-8 weeks.  My poor fur kid!  But, the achilles injury can only be fixed with surgery, so...surgery it is.  Thank god for pet insurance, that's for sure!  If you don't have it, you really should get it.  Worth every penny.  

So, once I get the errands finished tomorrow I will hopefully have time finish those stairs up and share with you by Monday...that's my goal.  In the meantime, let's imagine that it's really spring and that we didn't actually get a wee dusting of snow last night.  Seriously...come on Mother Nature, let's do this spring thing, okay? 

Here are a few garden photos that I hope inspire you and tied you over until actual spring decides to show up (at least for those of us in the northern part of the country). 

I love this...this would be pretty easy to do with clamps and mason jars!

Contemporary Kitchen by Richmond Interior Designer Portico Design Group

Traditional Landscape by Mercer Island Specialty Contractors Shepherd Stoneworks

Traditional Landscape by Walpole Landscape Architect NatureWorks Landscape Services, Inc.

Traditional Landscape by Pasadena Design-build HartmanBaldwin Design/Build

Office supplies as plant holder? Why not...

Contemporary Landscape by Other Metro Architect Carolina Katz + Paula Nuñez

Photos courtesy of Houzz w/credits below each photo.

Still Painting....

Yep, I'm still painting! I have been working on the stairs for the last two weekends.  It is a long process, which I will share soon.  I'm almost done, just one more coat on the railing and the touchup and I'll be ready to share!  The livingroom is painted but still needs to be put back together and I need to hang everything back on the walls...problem being that I'm rethinking what I had on those walls (darn it, us decorating girls are never happy) are we ladies???  I will truly never be "done", will I?  Such is the curse of the decor freaks!