Today: Paint!

I spent the morning yesterday making ornaments. I added names to the two I made Tuesday and crafted two more from scratch.  I also did some laundry, typed and sent off the table of contents for the eBook I forgot to include in my haste, and made pasta salad (previous post) which we ate in its entirety at lunch!

The afternoon was spent cruising around on Pinterest, discovering new blogs and ideas, and finishing off the last ornament for the special order. The request was a blue ornament for a little boy, and since it is my least favorite color I had a limited selection of paper to choose from.  I ended up with a dark turquoise base, dark blue faux alligator toe and heel and a deep royal suede-like flocked cuff with a pinked edge, a bit of glitter here and there, a shiny blue light and bead letters for the name. It is cute and all sorts of songs come to mind...

I put together hobo dinners and Ornery grilled them along with a couple chicken breasts. I have started making at least two meals when I fix hobos--it isn't any more work, and I have an extra meal already made that only needs reheating, which will come in handy today.  After dinner, Ornery worked on a new project. He is making nesting bowls that are not really bowls; they look more like baskets. The rings are cut out of a solid 1" board and stacked. He bought some oak to make them out of, but has decided to try it first on a piece of scrap pine. He is being very attentive to the directions, so this project will probably turn out well.

Once the rings are cut, he is giving them to me to stain. I think alcohol inks will work well on them, and I have such a wide variety of colors to choose from. Since this first set is just for learning on, I think I may experiment with some different colors.  Each bowl/basket in the set of three has about 5 rings (I think) and a solid bottom. The color combination possibilities are endless!

Today I need to put the blinders on and just paint, paint, paint!  I really want to get the alcove outside my studio painted so when I sit at my table and look up I don't see ugly dead color on the walls.  It distresses me every time!  I also need to get the studio table cleared off so I can work again. It doesn't take long for it to become unmanageable. Part of the mess is a pile of finished projects waiting for homes, leading me back to the need to paint!

Just one more day until the weekend; my goal is to finish off all the incomplete painting projects, including the two alcoves. Next week I hope to get the guest room painted during the week, and the living room done over the weekend. Then we can stamp PAID to the painting projects for a while! Ornery is starting to get antsy about putting together the raised beds for next year's garden since the weather is finally cooler, so I imagine we will also try to cover the grass in the areas we plan to put our boxes to kill it off.

It is hard to believe we have only been here a little over three months. We are finally starting to feel like the place has our stamp on it, and we are loving the changes!