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!

An Original Porch Sign For Under $20.00

 Happy Monday one and all.  Hope you had a great weekend.  It was rather soggy here in middle Tennessee and when I say soggy, I thought we were going to have to get out the gopher wood and start building an ark.  It rained and rained and rained some more.  I know we need rain, but it is not my favorite weather condition.  I prefer moderately warm, 70ish something and sunny.  But then, I guess we would all prefer that.  We are about to say goodbye to April (where has it gone).  It has been a real mixed bag weather wise.  It has been much cooler than the last two springs we experienced here and a whole lot wetter.  Guess we just have to live with it, although we live right across the street from the Cumberland River and mama, it is rising.  

Since we had such icky weather and no baseball games this weekend, I worked on some projects for our out of doors living space.  One of them was to make the sign above.  I have seen signs with "porch rules" on them, but I didn't want to make them rules.  There are enough rules in the world and no one wants rules for sitting on the porch.  Right?  I just thought of things we like to do on the porch and then put them on our sign.  This is for whomever wishes to join us on the porch, young and old alike.  Porch sitting is all about relaxation, putting your feet up, dreaming, napping, enjoying company, and making memories.  So, that is where my list came from.

Dan built the frame for me out of 1 x 2 wood.  The frame is 3 feet by 2 feet with a support in the middle.

Then, we used wood that is for replacing broken pieces on lattice.  It's thin and easy to work with and  comes in a bundle of about 12 pieces, 8 feet long and 1.25 inches wide.  It is available at Home Depot and Lowe's.  He cut the pieces the width of the frame and nailed them to the frame after I had spaced them where I wanted them to be.

Color was my next decision and I chose a green color because I thought it would look good against the yellow house and the white lettering would show up nicely.  I spray painted the front and the back with several layers to make sure there was good coverage.

Next, I hand lettered my "list" onto the boards because I didn't want it to look like a pre-made sign.  I used a small square shader brush to do the lettering.  No, it's not perfectly even nor does it look like a professional did it, but that's the look I wanted.  The final step was to spray the sign with a clear acrylic spray to help protect it from the weather.  The sign hangs under the eaves and will not get totally soaked when it rains, but the extra protection will help.

 The sign is rough and somewhat rustic - just the way I wanted it.  Have to say I am very happy with it.  Here are a couple of views.

The sign helps fill a big blank space on the deck wall and it adds a lot of color and "hominess."  Since we spend as much time as we can out of doors in the summer, I want our space to be comfortable and inviting.

You can see some of my concrete planters on the deck rail and they look really great there.  I have so many flowers to plant and hopefully it will dry up for the next few days so I can get that job done.  We are having company later in the week and I want everything to look spiffy for our guests.

This project was under $20.00 to make and it is colorful and original.  Hopefully, it will make all our porch/deck guests feel welcome and relaxed all summer long.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Making original art makes your spaces unique and inviting.  Pinterest and the "blogging" world have so many ideas to draw from.  Have fun.  Be creative.  Make art.  donna

Giant Bubble Blower, Hand Held Bubble Blower and Bubble Solution Tutorial

 You are looking at this picture and wondering what in the heck is that?  It is a giant bubble blower!!  And you say "A what"?  It's a giant bubble blower.  Really.  We made these for our grandsons for Christmas with the idea that when it got warm outside (if it ever does) they could make GIANT bubbles with them.

Last August, while attending the East Nashville Tomato Festival, there was a man on top of a building blowing the biggest bubbles I had ever seen.  The biggest.  Not lying.  As a lifetime lover of blowing bubbles, I had to know how he was doing such a thing.  He was quite a distance up and all I could see was the top of two poles and what looked like a string between them and these giant "holy smokes" kind of bubbles.  They were simply rolling out of this contraption he had.

Sorry, it's not the greatest picture - wish you could have been there.  Needless to say, I could have stood there all afternoon and watched him, even in the blazing heat.

Let's discuss blowing bubbles.  Do you still love them as much as I do?  There is almost nothing I love to do more than blow bubbles. especially with the grandsons.  Listening to their giggles and oooohs and aaaaahs, is worth the spills and the mess.  Once again, you return to the wonder days of summer, sitting outside in the sunshine, watching the bubbles float through the air in careless abandon.  It is a joyous memory.

There were always bubbles in our cabinet when our children were growing up.  There were no reasons or excuses needed to head outside and enjoy some good old bubble blowing time.  Great memories indeed.

Now, we all know about those teeny weeny wands that come in bottles of bubbles and many times they are completely useless!  And, why blow teeny weeny bubbles when you could make HUGE bubbles!  I have found the solution to this dilemma.  I found this solution on Lowes.com in their diy section.  Thank you Lowe's.  Not only did they show how to make the giant bubble blower, they had a recipe for the bubble solution that is fantastic.  Thanks again, Lowe's.  Here is what you need:

1 36 inch dowel rod, 1/2 inch in diameter
2 3/8" inch eye screws
1 1.5 inch washer
cotton string cut in a 60 inch length
paint (not necessary, just makes them more colorful)

First, cut the dowel rod in half so you have two 18 inch pieces of dowel rod.  Place an eye screw in the center top of each dowel rod.  Paint them now if you want them to be colorful.  Put the washer on the 60 inch piece of cotton string and run the string through each eye hook (make sure the washer doesn't slide off) and knot the string together.  The string should form a triangle like in the picture above.  I knotted the string many times so it would not come apart while in use.

We added some colorful duct tape to the ends of the rods to help with grip in case your hands get slick from the soapy bubble solution (and for contrast).  Here is how they looked finished.  I wrapped the string around the rods so they wouldn't tangle when I wrapped them.

Don't you just love the bright colors?  Now to use them, this is what you do.  Place a good amount of bubble solution in a wide mouth container, like a bucket.  Dip the string (with the washer at the bottom) down into the solution holding the rods close together.  Step back, pull the rods apart and let the wind catch the solution in the string.  It produces amazing giant bubbles.  It may take a few tries to get the hang of it, but you will.

The older grandsons tried theirs out a few weeks ago when we actually had a warm, sunny Saturday and they really, really work!  I don't have a picture of the bubbles, but take my word, they are awesome.  The boys and their neighbor playmates played all afternoon giggling and squealing with total delight.  Yes, that was a good gift to make.  Now, I have to make one for myself so I can join in this summer when they come over.  I can't wait!

Also, I made hand held bubble blowers for all 6 grandsons so the younger ones would be able to join in the fun.  Their parents will have to use the big blowers for a while because three of them are under 3 and using the big blower will be difficult.    The hand held bubble blowers look like this.

They also blow good sized bubbles and the three year old and 2.5 year old can do it alone.  The older boys like them too.  They are a nice change from the giant blowers.

For these, I used 20 gauge copper wire and a bunch of beads of all variety.  They all love animals, and I found the adorable animal beads at Michael's which made me very happy.  Everyone has different animals so they know their bubble blower.  These are about 8 inches long finished.

I started by pulling out a long length of wire (maybe 2 feet).  I left a length of about 8 inches and  wrapped some of the wire twice around a metal tea container that I had.  It is about 3.5 inches in diameter.   I carefully slide the wire off the container and wrapped the longer length all the way around the two circle pieces so it looked like this.

This gave the "blower" part strength and stability.  Then, I wrapped the wire over and around several times where the base would be.  If you look closely, you can see what I mean.  Then, I put the remaining wire alongside the starting piece of wire and threaded beads on in a pattern that I liked.
Next, I cut another piece of wire, wrapped it around the circle above the beads several times and crimped the end with a pair of needle nose pliers.  I wound the wire around and between the beads in a random fashion to hold the beads in place and to give the handle even more stability.

The handles will bend slightly, but are stable enough for blowing lots and lots of quality bubbles!  They were all so colorful and pretty, one of our daughter's said they looked like heirlooms and she hated to use them.  : )

When I got to the bottom of the beads, I wrapped the wire around the bottom bead, several times, cut the wire going through the beads and the outside wire to the same length and curled them up with the needle nose pliers.  Done.

They take a little time and patience, but they are worth every minute.  They are original, unique, one of a kind bubble blowers.  It's kind of like having your own pool cue or ping pong paddle.  It makes you a bona fide, no nonsense kind of bubble blower.  

Here is the recipe for the bubbles.  We made up a large quantity of it and put it in plastic canisters so that they each had a supply to start with.  Here is what you need.

a bucket
11 cups water
4 cups regular Dawn dishwashing liquid
1 cup white corn syrup

Mix all ingredients in the bucket and let is sit overnight before using.  This makes amazing bubbles!

Now, if the weather will ever cooperate and warm up, we are going to have ourselves a bubble blowing good time.  Today, we are having snow flurries.  Hopefully, this is the last of this crazy weather and spring will finally come to stay.  

By the way, these would be really fun gifts for children or grandchild this Easter Sunday!  I'm just sayin'.  Maybe you should get to work now.  It is supposed to warm up next week (fingers crossed).

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Carried on a soft whisper
Of a breeze
Little bubbles float aloft,
Delighting little children
With such simple pleasures;
A kaleidoscope of colours......

Paul Holmes