How Does Your Garden Grow

Ok I know I'm late with this entry. The deadline was yesterday at Inspiration Avenue. The challenge was "How does your Garden Grow". It was a great inspiration for my art journal.
I love gardening and spending time outdoors. I've been doing a lot of this lately. I have not finished my chairs yet. I"m taking a little break from them because I got diverted to putting up lights on the porch. It took us {hubby and me} all weekend to do this little project. Yikes! I did not know it was going to be so much work. We had to buy a 10 foot ladder and it was not tall enough, but we made do. I love how they turned out. I originally wanted to line the rafters in the ceiling of the roof but it was way too high to get up to the tip top. I compromised.
So my porch is coming along nicely. My yard/garden is too.Me and my big ideas always turn out to be so much work. But it's worth it.
Have a great week and hope you are enjoying the summer. It's summer here already. We hit heat index of 100 over the weekend. Gotta love the heat to live in Texas. 
Hugs,
Charlie

Sea Shell Earrings

Sea Shell Earrings

Just listed these in my Etsy shop. The beach lingers on in my heart and soul. I found these cute little things while walking the beach. I'm usually so obsessed with finding the biggest shells only that I forget the little ones have more finesse. These are really sweet. I broke one smaller set already trying to put the tape on. Not as easy as it looks.  Now I will rummage through my stash for the smaller shells to make more earrings. Yet another project I've gotten myself into   :)

Texas Gulf Coast

Vacation is over. Now I have to get back to normal. I could sit on the beach all day. I hated to have to come home. Oh well.
Our coastline is doing ok so far. No oil has drifted on shore! YET! I'm so upset with that oil rig explosion and the fact that they can not contain the gushing. I know it will only be a matter of time before the gunk comes to the Texas beaches. Must be a bunch of idiots working for BP! How can they not come up with a solution?????
Enjoy the pictures while you can.!

Pages From My Art Journal

Le Journal is the first page in my new art journal. I started it a few weeks ago. I did the first page on  the plane to Vegas. We were staying in the Paris casino. Get it?..wink, wink. Le Journal. It's in French. Ok I know it's not that funny.  It's a zen-tangle doodle. I find this process very relaxing and since I was on a plane I could not do much with paints and glue. 
Next page here I am wishing away. I've been doing a lot of wishing lately. I'm wishing I could find my rings. Wishing I were Jeannie and I could just wiggle my nose to get the boring stuff  done, like the house work, grocery shopping, cooking, or laundry. This list could go on and on. Also wishing my muse would come back.
Lately my muse has been on hiatus. I have not been inspired to do much other then the yard and back porch. So anyway, will see what happens next.

Teacup Tuesday

Is it Teacup Tuesday already?  Where did the week go? Here is my entry.
My life seems like a blur right now. My son graduated from Texas State University with a masters in Sociology Friday. After 7 years of school he is finally going out in the mean old world to look for a job. He has always worked part time all through collage and was a graduate assisstant while in graduate school but everyone knows it's not the same as real job. Please pray for him so that he may find a job, otherwise he will have to come home and live with us again. Lol! You know I love my son and want him home with me but I would much rather have him working.
Anywhooo My entry this week for teacup Tuesday is this lovely pink floral cup. I'm a sucker for pink and roses.  I have this set displayed in my foo foo bedroom.
If you want to play along go to Martha's Favorites Teacup Tuesday and click this link.

mOrE bOuNcY ChAiRs

More chairs to show off. I'm sure you all are just dying to see the rest of my rusty metal bouncers. lol!
Bouncy chair # 7 is a a green rocker. This one was really, really chippy.I scrubbed off all the loose chippy paint and  coated it well with the varnish . I think someone could sit in it if they wanted. I've moved it and the others way to the back of the yard. It's a cute seating arrangement that no one ever uses but me.

Next bouncy chair # 8. Another one of my favorites. It is scrubbed and coated with varnish.

Then next is this old green glider.
Can you see Max sniffing the back fence? Some how he always gets in my pictures.

5 more chairs to go.
These are the rest of the chairs I have to work on. What to do, what to do???  I think I'll spray paint all of them. There is nothing special about the old paint on these. Each and everyone of these I got at a flea market or garage sale. Did not spend over 10.00 for any. It's work but a great bargain.
So if I get all this done....I'm going to have a backyard BBQ. I can see shopping for paper lanterns and lights next. :))))
Hope you all are having a wonderful spring.

Teacup Tuesday

"Violet "

It's time to show off another one of my teacups for Teacup Tuesday! Join in the fun by clicking the link.


Last Tuesday I had a Dr.'s appointment with the gynecologist but totally forgot to go and I blame Teacup Tuesday lol!  I was so intent in posting for this that I forgot I had an appointment. I was probably still in shock about losing my rings too. So it's not all Teacup Tuesdays fault. I guess I'm losing my mind. I'm so forgetful these days. Yikes! It's scary. My mind is constantly trying to relive where I could have lost them. Also another stupid thing I did  was try to open our front door after we had gone to lunch without the key. Of course my smart mouth husband  had something to say about that. Oh well wish me luck so I can get my head back on straight. 

My Back Porch

The past few weeks I have been working on my back porch. I have been obsessed with it is to say the least. I finished the staining of the concrete part but not quite through with the painting of the chairs. I have about 13 metal bouncers. {That's what I call them.} Most are old and rusty. I found them at garage sales and flea markets. Some are usable, some are way to rusty to sit in. I had them scattered all about my yard for decoration.

In this picture I painted two bouncers white and the lounger white. They were white to begin with, but the rust was showing through. I also painted the cupboard. It was really neat before. The old paint was chipping. I decided it needed to be painted mainly for  protection. This is what it looked like before. It has been like this for years. I had it on my porch all along, but with the new floor I felt it needed a face lift.

Here are two of my favorite rusty bouncers. No one would sit in them before so I decided to varnish them. They are in really good shape. They are sturdy enough for my hubby to sit in, so now they are usable. I love the rust and the old layers of paint showing through. They look really pretty on my rusty concrete floor.

This is  the other heart back bouncer painted white. I did not paint the cart. Maybe next year. It's not that bad.

My patio table set pictured here. I did not paint these. A little rust is showing but I like the rust. I bought it like this. I will probably not paint it for a while.

Last but not least my red bouncers from my mom. They needed a face lift too. They were red originally, but faded and ugly.

I 'll post pictures of the others as I finish them. For now I'm taking a break. I really need to concentrate on my etsy shop.
Hope you all had a great Mothers Day!

P.S.   I still did not find my rings. :(

Teacup Tuesday

There are a few people who participate in Teacup Tuesday.  Bunny at "I'm Just Say'n" got me into this. I'm not sure how long its been going on but it must have been started by Martha at Martha's Favorites.  I thought I'd share some of my beauties. I have a nice collection of teacups. This one is one of my favorites. I love pink combined with either black or brown.  I've never seen a black teacup like this. I wish I had the saucer but I snagged  the cup for only a buck so I thought I got a bargain. 

I have to change gears now and say how depressed I am. I lost my wedding rings this weekend and I'm just sick. I feel as bad as if I lost a loved one. I know that sounds awful, but I am. I can not say how I lost them either. I noticed I was not wearing them Saturday while we were out having lunch and shopping. I thought to myself oh I must not have put them on this morning. I thought they were probably in my jewelry box, but when I got home and looked they were not there. We have searched everywhere. I called the restaurant but of course nothing. I dont' take my rings off when I wash my hands. I'm really pretty anal about things so I'm just plain baffled. I guess somethings just happen. I'm praying and hoping one day they will pop up out of nowhere. For now I'm trying not to let it get to me. I'm trying to stay positive.

Tutorial Altered Art Journal

I will be showing you  how to make an altered art journal from a vintage or discarded  book. The fun thing about this technique is how the type/print can show through the art.






First step take a trip to the thrift store, or garage sale and find a book.
Then decide on a theme. I did an ABC journal about me.















Next step is to divide the pages in your book to a desired number of pages. I needed 26 since I'm doing an ABC journal.

Use a glue stick to glue the in between pages together. This gives substance to each page so you can add paint and elements. I like this blue colored stick so I can see where I put the glue. I've tried other glues for this project but this one is less messy and doesn't warp the pages. Make sure your cover every inch of each of the pages.

Use a credit card or a plastic piece like this to remove the air bubbles. Press and rub each of the pages together as you glue. If there are wrinkles don't worry this adds to the distressed look.

Next step is to add the paint and elements. At first the paint will make the pages buckle but as it dries the page goes back to normal.

Creativity is all that is need next.
I use acrylic paints, scrapbook papers, stamps and  found ephemera. I doodled and added my own art or found objects.

Last step is to paint and decorate the front and back covers.