This Is How My Day Is Going How About Yours!

It is going to be a beautiful Friday, warm in the upper 70's maybe some rain.  I thought my day would be to weed a flower bed or two.  Fool around in blogland.  Do some laundry.  Finish up a new slipcover.  But nooooooooo my husband came home last night and said "could you use some new flowers?"  Now if you have seen some of my pictures you know I like flowers (except the yellow ones).  So now I have some a truck load of flowers to plant.

LOOK AT THIS!!

That is a truck load of Peonies and Daylilies.  And it goes all the way to the back.

And there is more!

I have no idea how many there are or what color they will be when they bloom, but how could you say NO to FREE flowers. 

So today I have a lot of weeding to do before I can put all these lovely plants in their new home. 

Most of them will go here.

I have been weeding this for the past couple of days and what better to keep weeds away than to plant flowers instead.

So now you see how my day is going, how about yours?

Garden Whites

It's my favorite time of the week again WHITE WEDNESDAY with Kathleen at Faded Charm, so make sure to join me and all the other wonderful bloggers.  White Wednesday is my favorite because I love to see how other bloggers decorate and create with WHITE. 

I thought you probably do not want to see any more of the white china and pottery in the house so I am taking you outside today.  I will be showing you some of my Garden Whites.

 I love to have some flowers potted up to put on the tables.

 

I like to have plenty of different White in my flower gardens.  The White really pops at night.

Opps, one of those pesky yellow ones snuck in there.

A little yellow I can handle.

And some that will be here in a couple of weeks.

Spring is my favorite time of year for my gardens.  I just love when all the bridal wreath spireas are in bloom all around the house and in the side gardens.  Even after 10 years it still takes my breath away.

Thank you for stopping to see my flowers.  Happy White Wednesday. 

The Way It Should Be

If you are lucky enough, you find the person you want to spend building your life with.  I don't go around SHOUTING ON ROOFTOPS, but I love my husband very much.  This weekend we were working together (we tend to do projects a lot) and when I came in the house this is what I saw.  To me it represents our marriage, we tend to show and tell each other in subtle ways that we love each other.

  I grabbed the camera before he could move them.

The rule is we are not supposed to wear shoes in the house.  When I came in the house to do some laundry, I took mine sneakers off in the kitchen instead of the mud room.  When I came up from the basement there were my husband sneakers right next mine.  It is a simple gesture and absent mined but it made me feel good.  It is the simplest ways that you show a person how much you love them, even without words.  

I hope everyone is lucky enough to find someone who shows them the simple ways to say I love you!

My 6th Picture

Pamela from French Buttons has invited me and 6 other bloggers to join in a game called 6th picture.  I am new to blogging, having only started in March, but I have been catching on quick.

 My 6th picture is of one of many bird houses in my flower gardens.  This particular one is actually three birdhouses nailed together onto one platform.  It overlooks one of our brick patios and always has at least one or two bird families renting.  We love to watch when the birds are feeding their babies.

Now the object of the game is to pick 7 other bloggers to pick their 6th picture and tell about it.

1- Crystal from Crystal's Cottage

2-Kolein from Kitchen Table Productions

3-Deb from Cappaccino Cottage

4-Debra from Common Ground

5-Angela from Angela Walker Jewelry

6-Ange-from Chair-Up

7-Anna from Wit Behind The Ears

Now lets see if the ladies are up for the challenge, post about your 6th picture and pick 7 new bloggers to pass the challenge on to.  Understanding that it is Spring time and everyone is getting busy gardening, it is alright if you ask to be excused from playing along.

Ta-Da

Ok girls, I kind of did the slipcover...sort of not finished. 

Before ugly gold chair (sorry Dawn).

 You remember the one I was having so much trouble with in Here Is The Trouble Area.  I thought I would show you my progress and revelation.

Chair in partially finished slipcover.

Now I know I am not finished, I will try my hardest to finish tomorrow, it is supposed to rain so I won't be able to weed anyway.  I know it is a little sloppy, but once I hem it and put on a cute little ruffle at the bottom and one of my monogrammed pillows in there it will be fine by me. 

 Now the revelation part.  The whole time I have been thinking of the trouble area I knew I had seen that seam before.  Then as I was taking apart my mistake it came to me, actually I really swear I could her my mothers exact words "Alaina you know how to do this, you have done this before" this particular seam is just like sewing a shirt.  It is the shoulder and arm seam where they meet.  So once I had the seams apart and held them, I did know how to do it. 

I learned how to sew from my grandmother and mother and I many years of sewing in 4-H.  I was not the best sewer, I did not always never wanted to follow the directions.  I am more of a JUST DO IT, then fix what I did wrong later.  Well that did not bode well with my mother, I understand she wanted me to do it right.  We clashed heads many a time. 

There was a particular time when I wanted to make a pair of overalls (my favorite thing to wear at the time).  However the fabric I wanted to make them from a pair of rust colored corduroy curtains (I was clever even at the young age of 15) but my mom said I did not have enough fabric to lay the pattern out correctly.  Let's just say I did it MY way, they were goofy, but I loved them and I wore them all the time, much to my mothers chagrin. 

So in my stubbornness, that I inherited from my mother, I know I WILL get this done.  Stay tuned for the final slipcover.  Ok so I thought it was going to take longer than it did.

Drum roll please!

TA-DA

Hey, guess what, I'm on TOP OF THE ROOF and I'm yelling I DID IT!!!

Look ladies isn't she beautiful, all ruffly and WHITE.  I have a few touch ups to do here and there but I was so excited when I put it on I had to share.  For anyone who knows the basics of sewing but is afraid to try, get some cheap cotton duck fabric and try to make a slipcover, that way you will never have to say I wish I had tried.

I want to thank all the ladies for their help and encouragement and there are a few blogs out that gave me help Angie from threadneedle studio and Berries from cranberry cottage.  Have a wonderful day! 

Oh and I am STILL doing the HAPPY DANCE.

Guest House Shed Sneak Peak

I am still in the process of cleaning out. 

The innards of the shed are laying in the lawn, some anyway.

The reason I am mentioning the shed again, I found some inspiration to get started on the end result.  Hey sometimes you have to work backwards.  Well in my world I do.

I found this fabric today, isn't it gorgeous!  Now I am not as particular to blue as I am green, but I do not dislike it like the yellow.  But this fabric has texture and roses and greens in it.  I just had to buy all of it and now I am using it in the shed.  I am not going to tell how yet (actually I don't even know) but at least I have a start. 

Don't you just love it.

Besides going with white, I am thinking of checker-boarding the floor in one of these alternate colors.

And I have started picking out some of the accessories.

I went to JoAnn Fabrics and found some coordinating fabric to work with.

I think I am forgetting it is JUST A SHED.

Of course I will not forget the WHITE!

A few more treasures picked up at my favorite Salvation Army we call her Sally, because we are on a first name basis and she is simply the best place to go for a bargain.

Opps, while we were there a few chairs jumped into the back of my car. 

I swear that is how it happened!  At least that is what I'm telling Mr. M.

A good place to start, now I have to get motivated to empty the rest of the shed and start painting before it is too warm in there.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

No PINK today.

I Paint Therefore I Am

      Show and Tell Friday is about different paint jobs I have done in my home.   Please join me for Show and Tell Friday at     My Romantic Home.

Those of you who have been to my blog before know I like to paint, but I do not just like to paint

FURNITURE, some of the walls in our house have 4-5 coats of paint on them.  I have also been known to  paint a floor or two as you will see in the following pictures. 

First I will tell you that I do not use rollers or tape, every thing is all by hand.  Mr. M.did help with the lining but the rest was all ME and I love every minute of it.

The first time I ever tried to paint diamonds was on the front porch.  Dark blue and white, they took me quite awhile to finish but I love the end result.  

I love to paint stripes, diamonds, checker board and an occasional lattice.  I have tried my hand at faux painting.  My way may not be text book, but if I like it, then so what.  Here are some pictures of my painting:

This is the front porch.

Painting of the porch did cause many of Mr. M's firemen friends to comment that his wife was crazy.

Hence the reason I like all of these wonderful blog women.  I have found a place where I fit in.

And yes I did do the steps.

This is the entrance to our kitchen from the mud room, I had to distract people from seeing how small it was, or that in this tiny space we have 3 doors.  So I painted lattice on the walls.

Someone must be in the bathroom DO NOT ENTER.

1

2

3

A very small space as you can see.  Ok, now imagine me on a ladder holding a REAL piece of lattice up to the wall and tracing each and EVERY little square of the lattice.  You got it ALL by hand.  I NEVER said I did anything the easy way.  I do it MY way.

The downstairs hallway.

 The color is called Everyday Green (old Martha Stewart color) and Fine White (also Martha Stewart).

Upstairs hallway, same colors different pattern.  The hats are some of a collection of my Mother's that I inherited.

The dinning room.

This is a glaze (Ralph Lauren) I wiped on and off until I was satisfied.  This is the latest room that I have painted so I still have some walls that need some shelves or plates.  I am not sure that is why it is still bare.

This is the third floor, also posted in previous post The Littlest Room.

I used the same (Ralph Lauren) glaze but in a different way, more of a vertical than the circles I used in the dinning room or master bedroom.

Yes I am one of those people who paints their outlets and light switches.  In my house it would drive me crazy not to see them either stand out (I have covered some in pretty pictures) or painted to match the wall.

More of my Mother's hats.

Oh and don't forget my favorite part, the floor.

The master bedroom.

  This is one of the rooms that has at least 5 coats of paint.  The original paint treatment was too dark, so I started all over again with the base coat and went with a lighter shade of glaze (Ralph Lauren).

I did not follow any particular directions or copy anyone, sort of wax on, wax off, until I reached the look I wanted. I love it and I will hate to leave it when our new master bedroom is finished.

DID SOMEONE SAY THERE IS ROOM TO PAINT?

Not yet anyway, the room is still in the planning stages.

Oh yeah, there is also a HUGE BOUNCE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM!

Thanks for stopping by.

Now that you have seen my Show and Tell Friday, make sure you stop back and see all the others.

How To.......Make A Mosaic

I have been asked by several people how to make a MOSAIC.  I will gladly share how I did this because I love it when another blogger gives out easy tips on how to make something for my blog.  I am going to try to explain this as simple as possible, if I loose anyone, please leave a comment or email me and I will try to help.

First go and take pictures of what you want your mosaic to be about or look through the ones you already have.  You are going to need anywhere from 36 to 5 pictures, depending on the mosaic.

You will need to have a website that will host your pictures.  I used flickr.com this can be free for the mosaic you need to make.  I received a comment fromAnne- Fiona and Twig and she said that picnik.com has a super easy mosaic/collage maker on their site and I received a comment from Olivia and Me and she uses picasa, I have not tried either yet, but you are more than welcome to try either one, thanks Anne.  Special note: you can make your pictures private so no one else can use them if you are worried about privacy. 

You will have to upload your pictures into flickr, I found out there is a limit to how much memory they will take in one month.  I have been cut off already this month but I know I was able to upload over 30 pictures, more than enough to make a mosaic.

Go ahead and create a flickr file then start uploading your pictures, flickr is basic and walks you through the steps.  There are other people's pictures there, however they are not always willing to share if you do not share and many I found out are " © all rights reserved" then under no circumstances are you allowed to publish the photo without the owners permission.  So it is generally best to use your own pictures.  

Set your flickr account to upload a bunch of pictures at a time.  This may take a while so you can go do some painting (in my case) or laundry, make dinner or whatever makes you happy.

Now that you you have your pictures uploaded you will want to go to bighugelabs.com and go to Mosaic Maker.  The first choice is to choose a layout: for mine I used 4x4 with large center.  The other change I made was to change the space between images to: 0 but that was my choice. 

This is the 4x4 with larger center tile:

                                  

And

This is an example of a 4 column by 2 rows:

Now click on Choose Photo: this will give you a choice, this is where the flickr comes in, click on that and it will automatically show your photos.  Easy huh.  The first Choose Photo box is the Large box in the middle of the mosaic.

Pick out a picture and go to the next Choose Photo and do the same, and repeat, and repeat, now you have it.  If you pick the wrong photo, don't worry just re-click on the photo and you can change it. Whew thought you made a mistake.  Now hit create.

Now don't you just love it, or not, this is when you decide if you like certain pictures.  If you don't like any of it or just a certain picture, click edit at the top and it takes you back to the page you were originally working on  If you do like it, at the bottom of the page it shows you the HTML and you can save the html in your blog in a picture under add a gadget.  Or if your computer has the option you can save in files, that is what I did, I just right clicked on my mouse and save picture as: and I saved it in my pictures files. 

I hope I have made this simple enough for you to enjoy doing for yourself.  If there is any part that you do not understand, do not hesitate to send me an email or shoot me a comment and I will help you the best I can. 

I also hope to see lots of new Mosaics on MOSAIC MONDAY at The Little Red House.

Lovely White Wednesday

I was doing the HAPPY dance last Friday because: A. TGIF and B. I figured out how to do a MOSAIC, and figuring out that has been driving me crazy ever since I saw them on several blogs......Now I know how..... And I share my secrets if anyone wants to know how.  The first mosaic I made was for PINK SATURDAY the second was for MOSAIC MONDAY.

 This MOSAIC is my third and it is my favorite.  Berries, I am going to use it for WHITE WEDNESDAY instead of MOSAIC MONDAY, as originally planned. 

              Please join me for White Wednesday and make sure you visit all of the other great WHITES here.

Those who have gotten to know me and my blog, know I love WHITE, WHITE and of course more WHITE!

I was playing with the computer and camera, so I went around the house and took a bunch of photos in my home of the treasures I love.

The chair was lonely and want to join in with the other WHITES.

For anyone who has ever dreamed of decorating with WHITE, but have been afraid of it getting ruined by children. 

 Stop that thinking!

I have 3 young children under the age of 8.  Yes treasures do get broken, unbelievably more by the adults, they are bigger and knock things off walls easier than children. 

Yes children do get their dirty, sticky fingers all over everything.  However, I have found dirt shows up just as much on a green wall as it does white.  Oh and those white slipcovers you have been coveting from afar.   Stop, go now and get them.  I have more marks on the couch underneath the slipcovers.   You can wash the slipcovers, have a extra ones for parties, different colors for different seasons. 

The only WARNING I will give is... DO NOT.....use white carpet, bad bad bad. 

 Use darker carpeting, tile or wood if you can.

I hope you enjoyed my WHITE and have a great day.