Bonus points if you can identify what it's supposed to be:

Wednesday was the monthly craft club meeting.  I managed to snag a spot again, so that was good.  Now I knew from the meeting last month, that the regular woman who runs it was away and another woman was taking over this meeting.  So imagine my surprise when I walked in and a young-ish guy was there and was handing out supplies.

Turned out he had drawn the "short straw," and although he is a librarian, he is also an artist on the side.  He was a smashing young man originally from Nigeria; but he had such a long name that no one could pronounce in this country so he went by the initials of his name.  Unfortunately for him they were very close to be IBM.  So all I could think of was IBM, so whenever I asked for him, my mind went automatically to IBM, then I had to think to remember the one initial it wasn't.

He started handing out supplies, first there was a sheet of legal size paper, then a piece of card stock, then a paintbrush......at this point I asked him are we painting, and he said yes.  I said you do realize that I have no talent whatsoever when it comes to painting, and a couple of ladies said they were the same.  He said this project was super basic and anyone could do it.

He handed out kids washable paints and some kids stencils and told us to experiment on the legal size paper.  The card stock was to mix our paints on.  I just sat there looking like a deer in the headlights........totally and utterly clueless.  He then announced we could transfer what we had done onto a 4 inch square piece of plywood/coaster.  So I made he give me the coaster, to help visualize the finished product and everyone else wanted theirs as well at that point.

My stencil was a bee, which turned out to be useless with the brush, so I gave that up pretty soon and my neighbour took it.  We fiddled on for a while, then I gave up and did my own thing on the coaster and this is what I did.

While talking with another lady we got talking about these Tik Tok video's we watch called Andrea Nelson Art, if you click on her name it will take you to her page.

So mine is sort of inspired by what she does.  It's a flower in case you didn't know, and I won't be at all offended if you had no clue....LOL

It cannot be used as a coaster unless I decide to put some varnish on the top of it to protect it.  Did I enjoy doing it...........not really but it pushed me to do something I would not normally do.  I don't have enough imagination for this sort of thing.  Paint by numbers is more my thing.

Although he was a lovely guy, he didn't really instruct us in anything.  I enjoyed doing the mobile more.  Everyone else was a mixture of very creative too, very basic and child like, like mine.  

Again I don't have a spot for next month's session, so will have to wait until the beginning of March to see if anyone drops out.

P.S. The children's paint which was washable, stained the tables and your hands like crazy..........goodness knows what was in it!!

Two yeses and one no.

Got a couple of things recently and two things get a big thumbs up, the other one a big thumbs down; but does have a positive spin on it.

I saw these online and thought I'd order some and give them a go:

I got mine at Amazon here, and have to say they work a treat.  If you wear glasses, these are so handy to cart around with you.  Also as my fingers get stiff I find this easier to use.

Dd was telling me about these paint by number kits in Dollarama. Left one is a lion, right one is a peacock.

Now as you all know I don't have an artistic bone in my body when it comes to painting, but even I figured I could manage these paint by number ones, and at $4.25 each I didn't think they were badly priced.  In fact there seemed to be a lot of different crafts that has appeared at Dollarama.  I will post the finished article when I get around to doing them.  By the way they come with all the paints and brush.

Now for the thumbs down.  Hubby uses a CPAP machine to breath on a night.  He has a full face mask and saw these mask liners on Amazon, so we bought some here is the link.

Hubby did not like them at all.  They fit as promised and were comfortable, but they caused so many leaks, that it just wasn't worthwhile using them.  The upside to all of this, is the company offers a 100% money back guarantee, and refunded me right away.  So if you wear a mask and suffer from redness on the face where your mask touches your face it may be worthwhile trying them.

So two yeses and one no.........and I had to look up what the plural of yes was!!

(The plural of ‘yes’ is either ‘yeses’ or ‘yesses’. While there are some dictionaries that suggest that the word ‘yes’s’ could also be used as the plural of ‘yes’, this is generally considered not to be best practice, and thus you are better sticking with one of the other two.  As per grammarhow.com)

Confirmed, what I already knew!

A group of us try to get together every year for a catch up, a meal etc.  We generally do a gift exchange and this year we had to buy something that we love and give that to everyone, with a $10 limit.  As a side note, I think only myself and my daughter listened, the others went way over🤨

One lady gave us these painting supplies along with a candle.  As you can see she even included how to's on painting Christmas pictures, they are all for beginners.

I have been stressing about this for the past few days.  I kept looking at the instructions and I wasn't overly fussed about doing a Christmas painting.  So I looked at online and decided on something else; flowers.

Here is what I did.  Now don't feel you have to comment or tell me it's fine for a first attempt I know it's pretty miserable.  I am no painter.  Painting is not my thing.  I over think it all.  Realistically I am a paint by numbers type of gal.  Being told where to paint and with what colour.  Funnily enough I have even looked at those paint by numbers kit as I think that would be fun.  This wasn't fun for me it was stressful.

After looking at it over the day, I decided it looked better this way round?

Our daughter regularly does those online paint nights and does a super job.  The girls had a water colour artist come into their school and they both did super.  In fact here is Nora's painting and she is only 9!

So I am going to quit while I ahead.  I can say I have tried it but it's not for me.

Meanwhile below is the tutorial that inspired my painting.

No before's, but plenty of after's!

We finally got the front hall closet finished.  It's all freshly painted and we redid the interior as the existing closet shelves, did not make the most of the space.

First we purchased a ClosetMaid 7-ft to 10-ft White Adjustable Mount Wire Shelving Kit from Lowes.  They are available in other places and you can find other brands that are similar.  We priced out what we would need and this kit worked out much cheaper than individual pieces.  With taxes this worked out to be $247.47.  We bought an additional $113.11 in individual pieces, so in total this whole project cost $360.58.  

We normally buy our closet organizer's from the Solutions store, but they have closed a number of stores down, I am assuming due to the pandemic and our closest store is a good 90 minutes away.  Plus it would have cost twice as much as this one from Lowes and we would have had to order it.

So now for the photos.

This first photo, show's the front hall closet.  There are 9 foot ceilings here and full mirrored doors that are both are curse and a blessing.  They are great that they reflect so much light into the main floor rooms.  They are a curse when small children put their sticky fingers and faces all over them!  However we are winning the battle with small children and only have one more to go who will do that!

This side of the closet is a little over 36 inches wide.  The kit came with 12 inch deep shelves.  We ended up purchasing a 16 inch deep shelf for the lower of the two shelves to make it work better for us.  This part is the same as the old configuration.

Now on this side is where the biggest change has been.  These shelves are only 17 inches wide.  Originally there was only the top shelf with some hooks underneath and the two shoe shelves at the bottom.

With adding all those extra shelves it has made a world of difference.

All our winter hats, scarves and gloves are in individual plastic shoe boxes I have used these for a while and they are a perfect way of storing these items.  I have ran out of labels, but I need to add more labels to make it easier to see whose items are in which box.  I bought mine at Walmart, but I couldn't find them online, but here are some.  Not sure if the dollar stores sell them, which would be cheaper.

I am missing a couple of things for the closet.  I have put up a couple of Command Hooks for a couple of dh's baseball caps, but need to find a Baseball Cap Holder like this one.  I also need to find another boot tray for under the shorter shelves to put there for winter.

Overall very happy with the results of this project and it's something that will last for years.

3 months old already.........

Little Evan was 3 months old yesterday.  He's a cutie; growing like crazy.  Eats like a horse, total opposite of his brother!!

Finished painting the two closets.  Finished painting the door frames of the garage doors.  So having a day off today and going shopping with dd; I am tired as is dh.  He will have a day pottering around the house while I am out.

Monday September 20th

Well today is Election Day here in Canada.  As usual wouldn't trust any of the leaders with my life.  Full of promises which will no doubt never amount to anything.  Have to say at least they're all the same in that respect.

I will vote, because it is a privilege to be able to vote and that privilege should not be wasted.  I am one of those undecided voters and it will a last minute decision I am thinking.  We forgot to vote early; missed the deadline, so fingers crossed it's not too busy when we go.

Today is also hubby's birthday.  He is a few years past 29😏 We had a get together with the kids over the weekend, so that was good.  I have asked him over and over what he wants for his birthday and what he would like to do for his birthday.  His answer is nothing on both counts.  So it's a nothing day for him!!

I have finally got the last of the trim painted in the living/dining/kitchen, so now have to put everything back together.  I still have to paint the front hall closet and the linen closet.  That is a three or four day job.  One day to take everything out of the closets and remove all the shelving.  One day for me to paint two coats of paint on the walls and for it to dry.  One day to paint two coats of paint on all the trim and put up all the shelving and one day to sort everything out and put back in the closets.

Before and After

 Still painting, and probably will be for the next week or so......

However, I am finished the walls in the front hall.  Here is the before, as you can see it was quite a bright turquoise colour.

Dh hasn't put the light fixture up yet, and I still have all the trim and doors to paint.  I am loving the colour, it's more subtle; more us.

Marigold, still has pride of place on the wall!  By the time you read this, I will have hopefully finished painting all the walls.  

Chaos

 chaos

NOUN

1. "complete disorder and confusion."

That's how everything is at the moment in our home on the main floor.  I am busy decorating/painting the main floor.  We have discovered that we cannot do as much in one day as we used too.  So we painted the ceiling on Monday.  That about did us in.  Luckily, we neither smoke or cook a lot of greasy food, and neither did the people before us, so it only took the one coat.

Due to my hands being bad, I am splitting up the rest of the painting so I do a bit at a time.  I don't like the house being so messy, but what else can you do?  I am using Sico Muse paint, which is on sale until September 22nd.  It is still $52 per gallon which is still expensive if you ask me.  We have one feature wall, which will be the Grey Fin; that actually looks more green with a grey undertone.  The rest will be the Avocado Cream Colour.  If you click here and here, you can see the actual colours on the website.

Our main floor is all open concept.

Dh has made a moveable platform, so we can paint above the stairs that go down to the basement.

This is the kitchen end of the main floor.

It's a big job, but when done it will be well worth it.

Today's Music of Choice when painting was:

Queen's Greatest Hits:

I can't decide which song I like the best, it's a toss up between these two songs:



or this one:
 
What's your favourite Queen song?

The 1980's called and they want their paint colour back...LOL

Busy painting the back room downstairs a delightful Seafoam Green colour.

Now before you ask, no I didn't go out of my way to pick this colour, I thought I would try and save some money by picking up a mistint colour and when I saw this colour it was darker.  So mixed in a can of white and out popped Seafoam Green...........am I lucky or what!

The saving grace in all of this is that the room has no windows and it is closed off with a door.  So unless you want to go to this particular room, or the cold cellar, you don't see it.

I think when I get the whole of the room finished it will look fine.  I am painting all the trim and doors white and we are putting down a vinyl plank floor that looks like wood (I think).

At the end of the day we are using this room for mainly storage, and possibly a sewing room.  Now should I paint the rest of the basement peach.............okay, okay I am joking, it will be builder's beige, except on my paint chart it's called Feather Stone.

I do have a recommendation for primer/undercoat for the folk in Canada and the States.  I used Behr Premium Plus Primer.  I got it from Home Depot and was very happy with it.  You are buying it for it's sealing powers more than how white it goes on the walls.  There is not a lot of pigment in the primer, so it goes on very patchy.  However I found because it seals the walls well, it does not suck in as much paint when you come to put your top coats of paint on.

I will show finished photos of the rooms when done.

Some goals for July:

Figured I would set some goals for July, can't hurt can it?

1. Paint ceilings and walls in basement.  Biggish job, but doable.  I hope to get a good start on the trim, but that all depends on dh, as it's all to put up.
2. Knit 31 Hexagons for my beekeeper's quilt.  That's one per day and doable.
3. Reduce spending.
4. Have no MacDonald's coffee or muffins Monday through Friday.  It's getting an annoying habit popping out to WalMart to grab a coffee and muffin at MacDonald's.  We do have a gift card for there, so will use that if we go on a weekend.
5. Don't eat out more than twice this month.  To be fair, we don't actually eat out much at all.  We had our wedding anniversary last month and used a gift card we got at Christmas.  We still have one other gift card to use, but I was saving it for dh's birthday in September.
6. Try and keep a handle on the grocery spending......with the rising prices easier said that done.
7. NO buying magazines other than Pretty Patches at the end of the month......this is a hard one for me!
8. No shopping online........even harder!!

Do you have any monthly goals, you would like to share with us all?

end of June already?

It has gone by fast hasn't it?

A month ago this little cutie was born, yes she is already a month old.

Then we had the arrival of this little cutie two weeks later:

Plus our son and girlfriend got engaged. No photos to share there, they are pretty private people.

I managed to get the basement ceilings and walls primed.  Shouldn't have been as hard a job as it was, but being sick isn't helping the situation.

So all in all a pretty exciting month for us around here.  How was your June?

Hanging in there like a bad smell........

me being sick that is.  I don't know what I have got but I am so over it.  I finally had a little bit of energy yesterday morning, so did some more priming down stairs.  Even swept out the garage, but all that ended up doing was making me more tired than ever.  I spent half an hour down the stairs this morning, finishing off the priming, so at least it's all done now.  Not planning on doing much more today than just the odd job or two that needs doing.

Dh is off on Friday for Canada Day, so our plan of action is for me to cut in and him to paint two of the rooms ceilings down there.  The ceilings are the hardest job for me.

Had a question for any of the gardeners out there.  My tomatoes have black bottoms, do you know what causes that and how I can prevent that from happening?  None are ripe yet, and none will be edible if they have black bottoms.

Look at this link  you will not believe the devastation this caused.  They were lucky more lives were not lost.

Then there was this in Instanbul, what on earth is going on in the world?

Off to read a book, as I am pooped..........have a good one.

Let's see............

1. Been contemplating the results of the Brexit vote.  I know we don't live in Britain, but have to say this result will affect us all wherever we live.  For dh and I it will also affect us in our wallet.  We did not vote although we are dual citizens.  If I had of voted, I would have probably voted to leave.  However let's just leave it at that; don't want to get into any political arguments with anyone.

2. Still sick, but I will live...LOL  Our Little Munchkin has had a cold, so I'm blaming her...........despite what her mother says!!

3. The basement.......well nothing has been done since Wednesday.  Although I did take back my receipts to Home Depot, to "return" all the paint and then re-buy it with Saturday's date on it, so I could claim $80 in mail in rebates.  That will pay for another couple cans of paint..........oh wait the rebate will be here in 8 to 12 weeks........I have better be finished painting before then!  I am hoping to get more done down there this week.

4. Started putting together the Beekeeper's Quilt:

Have a long, long way to go, but do like the colours, so know I am going in the right direction.

5. Having another hot spell, not happy.  Being sick, being a certain age and having hot humid weather, equals one not happy bunny!!

6. Tomatoes are growing, so am happy about that; will be a couple of weeks though before they are ripe, can't wait.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.........

Down the basement painting..........

Will resurface later today!!

On schedule, so that's the main thing.  Glad though I don't do this as a living!!!  Ceilings are doing my neck in and  my poor right hand is suffering.  Still onwards and upwards as they say!

Schedule

When growing up my mam had a schedule of doing things on certain days.  Over the years my schedule hasn't been as rigid and has changed depending on who was home and the seasons.

For the next month or two I do have a schedule that I hope to stick too.  Here it is:

Monday: Housework

Tuesday: Basement painting

Wednesday: Basement painting

Thursday: visiting children or at knitting

Friday: grocery shopping/housework

Weekend: who knows!!

It's not written in stone of course, but I think if I could stick too it at least for the rest of this month and July, I could get the walls and ceilings painted in the basement, and if dh gets some of the trim up and doors, I could get a lot of that done as well.  The space I am painting is probably around 800 square feet split into three rooms, plus under stairs and closets.  Yes you could live down there quite comfortably.  

So wish me luck that I stick to this schedule.  Do you have a schedule?

Still painting...........

Still painting.  Should be finished today.  Thought I'd share with you some interesting facts about painting I found on the internet:

The use of paint has been linked all the way back to the first century. The first place on record to use it is in China. Archeologists have also unearthed evidence of paint in ancient palaces built around this same timeframe. They figure ancient craftsmen applied ground pigments such as ochre to wet plastered walls to “paint” those interior surfaces!

Paint colors can affect your mood. Cool tones invoke feelings of calm, peace and happiness. Warmer tones can provoke feelings of anger or energy.

The surface coverage of a gallon varies between 25 and 44 square yard depending on the color of the paint.

The Golden Gate Bridge has been the same color since it was erected. That color is called International Orange.

In the United States, lead-based paint was banned for use in residential paints in 1978, but many other countries banned it prior to 1920.

Latex paint is recyclable, but oil-based paints are considered hazardous waste and should be disposed of by a qualified waste management organization. All paint should be properly eliminated to avoid contamination of public utilities.

The first known residential paint application of any kind are cave drawings.

The oldest house paint was made of lime mixed with milk and sometimes natural pigments. King Tut’s tomb was painted with milk paint! Even the White House was originally painted with a lime-based whitewash.

Throughout history a red front door has symbolized many things, from a safe place for travelers to stop for the night to having a fully paid mortgage.

House painters and artists alike were once expected to grind their own pigments with a mortar and pestle, which may be why there was a time when only well off people in the US would have had a painted house.

The first painters’ union was formed in London in 1502 and was called the Worshipful Company of Painters-Stainers.

There tend to be more shades of green than any other in commercially available paint colors because the human eye can distinguish more variations of green than of any other color.

In 1940 Canadian Norman Breakey invented the first paint roller. He didn’t profit from it because he never patented it. During World War II, an inventor working for Sherwin-Williams also created a roller brush because the hogs’ hair used for paintbrushes was unavailable thanks to the war.

It was the Greek philosopher Plato who discovered that you can mix two different paint colors together to produce a third color.

Doing this:

(photo credit)

Makes you feel like this:

(photo credit)

At least the ceiling is done, now to do to walls...........

Decorating..............

One of the goals for this year is to finish painting the main floor of the house.  We still need to paint the kitchen/breakfast area.  Front hall and stairs to the basement.  Powder/laundry room and our bedroom. 

Before Christmas I painted both the living room and dining room.  The living room was hard going with the nearly 12 foot ceilings; although I did not paint the ceilings, just painting the walls that height was enough.

I like to use Beauti-Tone paints, which is carried by Home Hardware.  I bought a lot of paint in June of 2015 (see here) basically at half price, so am working my way through those.  If I run out of paint it's easy enough for me to pop into the store to get some more.  Also they have a programme where when you buy six cans of paint you get one free; you don't have to buy them all at once.  So it's well worth doing that.  Plus I like the paint, which always helps!

I am choosing the paint for the main floor from the Colour Confidence series, which just happens to be the colours I like.  So far I have painted the living room in Oak Tone and the dining room in Feather Stone and the kitchen/breakfast room/front hall in Earthling.

Sorry about the quality of the photo.  When you paint what colours tend to be your favourite?

Busy, busy

No photos today.  Busy painting the trim.  Everything is to prime first, then I paint two coats of top coat, so it generally take two days to get all that done; as with the humidity and damp weather we have had it's slow to dry.

I am also knitting something.  I will post photos of it on Wednesday.  You will have a chuckle when you see it.

Then I don't know about you, but I can spend hours talking on the phone........well not hours, but quite a bit of time.

(image credit)

Actually that can't be me, as I have no idea how to put rollers in mine or anyone's hair!!

My computer is behaving itself at the moment, only because as soon as I have finished doing whatever I turn it off.  I used to let it sit all day and only turn it off on a night when I went to bed.  It does go to sleep mode when I leave it on, but I found it was freezing up and taking forever to load a page.  So we'll see how this goes and go from there.  

I am hoping to try and get caught up with everyone's blog later in the week.  I have just realized it's the last day of June, half way through 2015 already, gosh the year is just flying by.