I Been Tagged, Chickadees!!

Happy Easter early, ladies! I love this graphic because of the roses.

Miss Rhea, our Ray Ray, has tagged me. Here are the rules:

1. When tagged, place the "tagger" URL and name on your blog.

2. Post rules on your blog.

3. Post 7 different things about yourself.

4. Name 7 of your favorite blogs.

5. E-mail or leave a comment for those 7 people so they know they've been tagged.

Oh my gosh, where do I start???
1. I love beans, coleslaw and cornbread together. One of my favorite meals.

2. I knew Jack only about 2 months before we became engaged. Married after only knowing him for 4 months. It's been over 46 years so far.

3. I once put salt in my sister's iced tea and never told her. The look on her face when she drank it was so funny and she asked if anyone else's tea tasted funny, but I kept a straight face and have never told her to this very day!

4. In Mexico once I threw up in the plate at the restaurant and emptied the closest tables around us. It was totally embarrassing but I've gotten over it. Things happen!! I got over it........

5. I once owned a little convertible Italian sport car called Pininfarina. I loved it for the looks and comfort but it was a dud "electrically"! It was always stopping on me. I'll never ever own another Italian sport car.

6. I once slept with my boss on a business trip. Hah. Gotcha on that one. It was a woman and we could only get a single room in a small town and we slept in the same bed. Boy, did I hug the edge of the bed that night!! Nooooooo, nothing exciting happened!!

7. I didn't get my driver's license until I was married and had 2 kids. I kept failing the driving test and could walk to everything I needed anyway and we only had one car so it wasn't a necessity. But try telling that to your kids when they passed the tests the very first time! Not a pretty story I tell ya!

Seven different blogs I love???!!! I love many of them. Hmmm..... let's see. I love Natasha's, Katie's (because she can grow anything), Esther's (because we've become I-dee-ho buddies), Jennifer's, Ele's, Karla's, and Vickie's because I love Vickie and her house is something else to view. Love her sofa! Actually I love all my PRH sister's blogs. ALL OF THEM! You need to check them all out.

More Romantic Cottage Vignettes!

I've talked many times about vignettes, but they can be just about anything you want them to be. I'll explain about them below each picture.

Above are some of the aprons I've made. I use them as eye candy around my kitchen. Most of the aprons above have been sold on ebay but I plan on making more from the gorgeous fabrics I have on hand. Besides I use them! Try this in your own kitchen, dining area or even a boring hallway.

This is one corner of our family room, which is small by many standards but there is only me and hubby so it suffices. I probably break all the rules when it comes to pictures. Most decorators say to group them together according to subject, artist, colors, frames, etc. I say to heck with that! If I love to look at it then it goes where I want it to go. Of course, I want them pleasing to my eye, but I want to see all I can see when sitting in my favorite chair. I know I'm quirky but hey, that's just me! Here we can see things I've made, gifts of painting that have been given to me, favorite books and boxes I use for storing LOTS of things.

Same thing on the other corner of this room. More books, gifts from friends and souvenirs of our travels.

This little table "hides" in plain sight my brushes I use to paint. I do NOT have room for everything to be hidden in this house so I've used space creatively by sticking things in cups, pots or beautiful containers to make a home romantic, which is the style I love. Throwing in a little life-like fern to add a garden like feel to that tiny area.

Go ahead and experiment with your own things and style.

Easter Eggs in Pink Carton!

Look what I did yesterday! These are so cute. I painted some wooden eggs with pink and blue and then added pink and yellow roses with leaves. It's my first time of painting roses on wood eggs or any eggs for that matter. Oooooh, how scary that was! I was so nervous. The egg carton I had to steal from Jack's eggs! He asked me where the eggs were. I said they were in the fridge. He asked me what I was going to do with the carton. I said, "paint it, of course." He's used to these conversations by now. Hah.

I then added some little chenille chicks, grass I cut from green raffia and little posies. I'm rather pleased with myself. Maybe someday I'll be a rose painter of note! Sigh......................

Bird Nest and Roses Painting

I am so excited!! This is my first painting on canvas. I'm just learning and hubby gave me a few "critiques" on how it could have been better but it's my very first one I'm offering for sale. But look at it this way: there's only one way to go from here - UP!! Hah!! I'm on a roll now.........yep, I do have a tremendous sense of wit and humor!

Papier Machè Bowl Making

To make a papier machè bowl, I started with this old stainless steel mixing bowl. Start by coating it with vaseline for easy release after medium has dried. I started with homosote (found in any craft store and dries very hard) or you can use medium specific for papier machè or plaster of paris. Tear up strips of newspaper or old brown craft paper. Make the paste of the medium, drag the strips of paper through it and start covering bowl. As you can see I made it less deep than the bowl and started forming a "lip" out from it and just started molding it the way I wanted it to go. Very easy.

Let it dry; take off from the bowl. Then paint it whatever color you want. I decoupaged some old paper onto it.

Curve or form it any way you like.

Bottom of bowl.

Side view