Hornets

So apparently this sucker had been growing on the side of the house for about 6 weeks. Our trusty kudzu.com rated pest removal guy came out yesterday to assess it. He said he's bee in the business for decades, so little surprises him. This surprised him! Good gravy this surprised him! He said there are between 2,500 - 3,000 hornets in this nest!!!

Well worth the couple hundred to take it down!!!! It's being removed today, but wow! Yuck!

Finished Room

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

It's been a busy few weeks with work/life, so this took a back seat. Seems just as easy to provide one update and start anew!


The wonderful floors! So we realized the stain was not even (the downside of two people doing the room...one had a heavier hand than the other). Since we were already 3 weeks into sleeping in the living room, we decided "screw it" let's do another coat!

First, we put molding around the floors. I initially painted the molding white to match the baseboards. That didn't quite work as planned...so we decided to just stain the molding the same color as the floors. Then we stained & varnished again.


In the mean time, we began painting our furniture to a Cabernet color. It was a little too pink at first, but turned into a very nice shade of red that really pops with the room. We still have a few more pieces to paint.

These were pretty easy - prep - prime - paint.

So the 3rd piece that isn't painted is a dresser that goes underneath the paintings. I have to hem the curtains, because they hang on the floor. But all in all, I think the room looks great!

These are the curtains. that other piece goes against the wall on the left side.

The artwork looks great! I can't wait to try more! We have a dresser that goes against this wall now too. We just haven't painted it yet..oops :)

Here's when you first walk in....as you can see Lucy was all about being in some pictures!!

And here's the view to the closet, where you can see the red dresser...and Lucy posing...again.

Memory Prisms

My mother knows an artist who does these prisms. When my great grandmother passed away in December, my mother had these made. We gave the artist a few trinkets that reminded us of her and she made these prisms. I think they're great! We gave one to my granddad for his birthday and he really liked them as well!

Mine had a card (we liked to play cards), an amber earning (we went to the Museum of Natural History in NYC one year when they had an amber exhibit), a purple bracelet (her favorite color), a dolphin (we went to Sea World one summer), and a few other little pieces. The artist is local to Georgia, but the prisms are awesome!!! She has different sizes. This one is about 3" on each side.

Memorial Day Weekend

Holy crap! After looking at the list, we accomplished A LOT! I mean a whole lot. We had already planned to do the floors, which were so much work, but turned out fabulous!

Friday:
I did the heart frame map art to give to my in-laws. I need to think of a better name for it, but I can't think of a good one off the top of my head.

Saturday:
Alex's parents & sister came over to look at the floors. I added the flowers to the bathroom & created the craft room! Alex was trying to throw furniture away, and his sister said to use it in storage for the craft room. Go her! Saved an argument & the furniture! 

Sunday:
My parents came over to see the floors. I attempted the curtains (both the Roman Shades & the Kitchen ones). I also did the art work.

Monday:
Alex's parents & sister came over again to use the pool for a few hours. I burnt myself (it was cloudy...I thought I'd be lucky and not burn...oops). Then we did the Beer Bottle-Cap Trays & the Conversion Chart.

It was a jam packed weekend. We got a lot accomplished, still have a lot to go, but it felt good to cross things off our list!

Beer Bottle Cap Tray

We've been collecting beer bottle caps for about 4 years now. We had a bucket and just tossed them in when we grabbed a beer. We've been trying to figure out a way to use them, and I stumbled upon this blog from Inspirations & Decorations. I had two different designs, and this was my first attempt with Modge Podge & Resin. I did one tray with both. After several hours - Modge Podge is the way to go. It's cheaper, dries clear, and is much easier to put on.

Where I got the Idea: Inspirations & Decorations

Time: 4 hours (plus overnight to dry)

Shopping List:
2 Trays
A whole lot of beer caps
1 Bottle of Ice Resin
1 Bottle of Modge Podge
Cheap Foam Brush
Black Spray Paint

Instructions:

1. Prep
I decided to start finding all of the Sweetwater & Terrapin caps first to make a Georgia tray. I've learned we drink a lot of Sweetwater & Terrapin caps bend way to easily. I was hoping to do a cool design, but because most of the Terrapin caps were too bent, I stuck with a Terrapin boarder.

I started putting them on the tray to figure out how many I needed. I did the same thing with all of the other craft beers. It's fun to see how our tastes have changed between the "Old Faithful" - Sweetwater; "Cheap" - Bud Lime or Miller Lite; or "Trying something new" - Red Hook IPA. We also drank a lot of Stone IPA, which has a lot of cool caps.

2. Paint - We painted both of the trays black and let them dry. Seeing how amazingly hot it was this weekend, this took no time at all!

3. Arrange  - So now is time to put all of those bottle caps back on the tray. There is clearly a better way to do this, rather than doing it twice (i.e. wait until AFTER you paint it to do this), but I didn't want to do that for whatever reason. Anxious maybe? So here are the two different trays.

 

4A. Glue Part One 

 Okay so we had  bought Ice Resin, at Hobby Lobby. I'm not convinced this is the greatest thing ever. I also bought a bottle of Modge Podge. I decided to use the Modge Podge on the Hodge Podge of caps! Okay so the Modge Podge, I poured out over the tray and pushed it around with the foam brush. I was a little nervous about the white, because well I had never used Modge Podge before! Turns out...it does eventually dry clear. This morning we had about 1/2 of the glue had dried up. I'm very pleased with this attempt!

 4B. Glue Part Two

So we decided to use the Ice Resin on the Sweetwater/Terrapin trey. That one didn't turn out quite as good...meaning it didn't work. So I guess we need some more Modge Podge. I may change the design too...I'm not loving it.



****UPDATE: The Modge Podge eventually dried (I do think I used wayyyyy too much, but for my first experience with it, it was a breeze!). The Ice Resin never really worked. I rearranged the design making stripes (two diagonal rows of Sweetwater followed by a row of Terrapin). Next time I go to the store, I'm getting more Modge Podge to finish the tray. All in all easy peasy!