Paintin’ Place

Hi there! Yes, I am posting again, and weeks have not passed this time! I’m actually taking a little break this morning…so I thought I would give you all a glimpse of what I have been up to recently while I have my morning coffee.

I’m trying to decide what has been my biggest project as of late…There were two rather time consuming things that I got myself into since last posting.

I am so my own worst enemy!

I guess I’ll start with this one…I was sitting here at my kitchen table a few days ago…reading all of my favorite blogs, with my morning coffee, again… :) and was looking out into my livingroom.

I was thinking how much I’d really like to paint my fireplace…Scary thought!

I knew if I started and messed it up that it would all need to be sanded off and brought back to what I originally had to begin with. I also knew that if I didn’t get the courage up to do it, I never would. So, the more caffeine I consumed, the braver I got! Liquid courage!

So, here is a picture of my fireplace, before I became '”Woman ~ Conqueror of all things.”

Ok…Did this not stick out like a sore thumb? Nothing blended. The trim is the Laura Ashley Cocoa Rose, the brick color I have used throughout my home. The corner TV cabinet is done in Olde Ivory and the fireplace is/was Oak with that lovely/butt ugly, 90’s brass trim surrounding the fire box……Blech!

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to paint it to match the trim or the cabinet…Here is another picture that shows the window trim and cabinet…Hmmm, what to do???

BTW…Do you notice anything in that picture above? Do you see that crooked candle on top of my corner cupboard? It’s been driving me crazy for weeks! You’d think I’d get a chair or a ladder & get up there and straighten it, huh? (Mental note: Straighten candle on top of cupboard!)

So, after much thought/debate/anguish, I decided it needed to match the trim work, even though I worried about starting to have too much of the brick color in the house.

Here is another before picture…

And after…Ta-Da!

 

I have to say I am really happy how it turned out, and so glad I did it…So much warmer than it was, don’t you think? And see, no more brass trim!

Caffeine is a wonderful thing! 

I haven’t placed any of my decor’ on the top of it yet as I want it to cure for a few more days before I do.

Now onto my next project…While reading my favorite blogs one day, I came across a post from Karen/My Colonial Home on barn quilts, and that totally inspired me to make one for our barn. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to head over to her blog and check it out. It screams Americana!

Now I am only going to give you a little peek at the barn quilt I made…

Here is a during “tease” picture…

                           Can you figure out the pattern? Haven’t I given you enough?

Ok…Here is a little more. All the pieces are there, you just have to “fill in the blanks!” I’m sure all of you quilters have it now.

Now I didn’t go with the primary colors that most barn quilts are done in…I went with warmer, more earthy tones…and here is why…When you are inside my home, it would catch your eye out that large picture window in my livingroom and I wanted it to blend with the interior colors of my home…Call me crazy!

It is all done, I just have to seal it with some poly today and hopefully it will be hung on Sunday and then in my next post I will show you the finished, hanging quilt. Love it!

Here is a picture of my barn, I just snapped this photo this morning while I was outside taking a picture of something else that I will show you in a minute.

How pretty is this sunrise over my pasture & barn?

Good Morning!

 

Looks like a Folgers advertisement doesn’t it?

I just love country living! Give me this view over a cityscape any day!

What’s that old saying? A day in the country is worth a month in town? So true!

I already know how the quilt will look on the barn as OCD me had hubby put it on the top of his car and drive it out there & hold it up on the front of it.  :)

Well, I had to make sure it wasn’t going to look too big because I made mine 6’ x 6’ which is quite big for a barn our size. (Or the Taj Mahal of run-in’s as I like to call it.) Really large barns typically have one that is 8’ x 8’.

The reason I was outside taking pictures this morning was because of something I mentioned in a previous post…

Remember this?

 

My garage door that my neighbor damage with his plow blade back in January?

Well we finally had our new replacement door installed. I went with a colored door to bring out the roof colors a bit more and to also add a third color to the exterior of our home.

Here it is…As you can see, it was white before. I don’t remember putting much thought at all into choosing our garage door when we built this house.

So much warmer…again.

 

Now if I just had $8000 to pave our extremely long driveway…Not with two kids in college soon. Not going to happen.

I now have another project I need to get started on. An awesome $40 Craigslist find…A Harvest table with breadboard ends.

Here is a picture of it…this is the picture from the actual listing…I do not ski!!!

 

Oh how pretty it will look when painted and babied a bit as I do not care for the green stained legs at all.

So that’s it for this post…I will be taking Emma out driving again later as she finally got her learners permit. We were out last night and she did really well for her first time, other than the curb she drove up on. I should have checked my tire while I was outside. :)

I will be having knee surgery on Monday…I had a tendon repaired 30 years ago after falling down some stairs…Graceful, I know! It’s been giving me a lot of trouble lately so I’m going in for a “tune up”. Actually I’m not sure what has happened in there so my surgeon is just going to repair whatever he finds and hopefully I will be back to my falling apart old self in no time.

Take care all and Thank You for inspiring me with all of your posts, I look forward to them daily.

“Oh and Char…Still waiting on another house update!”

Have a great day, and a better tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Debra