Texas Friends And Some Stars!

 Howdy y'all.  How was your weekend?  Mine was spectacular.  Why, you ask?  Because I had friends visiting from Texas and we had an absolutely fabulous weekend.  There was so much food and laughter and creating that it makes me wish you all could have been here to share in the fun.

You have to remember I graduated from high school many, many moons ago - like 1966 - moons ago.  Linda has been my friend since high school, but she has lived in Texas for 35+ years.  I had not seen her except at one class reunion way back some time ago.  Then, my daughter moved to Dallas and we reconnected and would have lunch when we were in Dallas visiting.  It was so good to see her more often.  Then, our daughter and her family moved here to Nashville a year ago last December.  That meant no more trips to Dallas.  But, Linda and I stayed connected on Facebook and a year ago we began to plan for her to visit Nashville.  A YEAR ago.  Now, it has come and gone.  She brought three of her long time friends with her and now I have three new friends.  How fabulous is that?

We toured around town, ate, talked, laughed, ate, and laughed some more.  These women have traveled together for years and do they have some stories to tell.  My sides hurt from laughing.  I have lived such a quiet life in comparison.  They are adventurous to say the least.

On Saturday, we had craft/creating time.  Since Memorial Day and Fourth of July will be coming up, I thought something for those holidays would be nice.  I came up with the idea to make these stars from some of the lattice replacement strips that I used on my sign I posted about last week.  Also, Texas IS the lone star state.  There can never be too many stars in Texas (or my house).

Dan cut strips 18" long, 5 per person.  That is where we all started.  We worked at the kitchen table and everyone came up with their own creative idea.  I had paints and brushes, hot glue, decorations, scissors, needle nose pliers, and treats.  All settled down with cinnamon bread and coffee, it was time to begin.

Suzie offered to glue all the stars together while I got all the supplies ready.  Excellent.  She just laid the stars out by overlapping the sticks to make a pentagram and hot glued each point of the star.  Now, we were ready to decorate.  Here they are at the table.

From the left we have Diana, Cathy, Suzie, and Linda.  Everyone chose their paint, method of application and went to work.  There was never a quiet moment - and lots more laughter.

It's so interesting to see the creative ideas that everyone comes up with.  That's the part I really love and appreciate.  Diana decorated her star in honor of Texas.  Cathy made hers adorable with polka dots.  Suzie went for a very shabby chic look and even added some buttons and jute to hers.  Linda went more traditional with a red star, white stenciled stars and blue dots, and mine is red, white and blue.

I had some berries with rusty stars on them and burlap that we cut into strips for bows.  Look at the picture above.  Aren't they all fantastic?

For my star, I painted the front and back with an ivory color to cover the raw wood.  Then I painted the left side with a blue color, some red, and red stripes on the top.  I painted it with a paper towel to give it a rough look.  After stenciling some white stars on the blue field, I "antiqued" the whole thing with a paper towel using brown paint.

This shows you some of the detail.  To finish my star, I made some loops from burlap and tied them at the bottom with some cotton twine and jute.   After attaching the "bow" to the left side of the star, I glued some of the berries to the star and used one of the rusty stars.  LOVE it!

Ta da!  Finished.  Here is a close up of the finished product.

Such an easy project and everyone's looked great!  I would be happy to hang any or all of them in our home.  Great job ladies!!

We all discussed where we would hang them or how we would use them.  I think I might put mine on a wreath to give it more bulk so it shows up better on the front of the house.  I also know that I will be making a few more of these to use other places!!

Linda and my new friends left on Sunday morning, heading back to Texas.  I was sorry to see them go. They let me know they arrived home safely.  They are new found friends forever.  We are already talking about a return trip.  Can't wait.  And, I'm sure we will head to Texas at some point.  We definitely know how to get there.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Make new friends, but keep the old
Some are silver and the other's gold!

Thanks Linda, Diana, Cathy, and Suzie!