This WEEK!

The boy will be home this week!!!

It’s been a busy weekend of packing and playing volleyball! We had 3 games this weekend. Unfortunately we lost them all but at least they were all close games. Those other girls are just killing us with the spikes. They are hitting the ball so hard that even if you get under the ball to try to bump it back up it hits you with so much force it will fly out of bounds before anyone else can do anything. I tried to get a couple of them and my wrist still hurts from one hit. Some of these teams act like they are trying out for the olympics and well…. lets just say we are still in little league. We are there to have fun though and that’s what we focus on. I’m sure we’ll win a game one day! Maybe. :)

We have had a very very dry summer and I’ve been wishing for rain and well it’s here, right now. Just hours before I’m suppose to be heading home. Of course. I’m praying all the storms will have moved out by mid morning so I can make it home without hitting rush hour or the sun sets. Isn’t that just life. I wanted to have a few days home with the family before the boy made it in, we’ll see if it happens.

Pooh says she’s all packed up and ready to head out! She did mention I should be sure to grab her food container but cheeseburgers for dinner will work just fine too if I forget! lol

Single Digits!!!

Less than 10 days until the boy is home!!! Whoohoo!!!

Dena came and got the daybed yesterday because she had a baby shoot and she sent me a picture of it! I love it!!! It’s so cool to see something I built in pictures that people will have in their house for years to come!!

How cute is the baby girl!!!

October 15!

We are half way through October already!! Woot! I love it! This month is speeding by and the boy will be home before we know it. I just hope time slows down once he gets on US soil! We are both so excited. He can’t wait to get home and see his girls and wear his crocs. lol He’s looking forward to normal clothes and not walking over a mile every time he wants to eat. We can’t wait to head to the condo for a few days, I hope the weather is good while we are there and even if it’s not that great it’s still the beach so eh, can’t really complain!

I have a volleyball game this Sunday and games next Saturday and Sunday. I’m going to help one of my closest friends refinish her dining room table and chairs and then clean my house! It’s time to get all the paint stuff out of the dining room and into the office where I’ll now be painting stuff.

Pooh is about to drive me crazy lately, she is constantly in my face! Nicholas needs to come home and give her some attention so I can get a break!

And because a post is never complete without a dog picture here I am with all the kids. After this picture Hailey got in my lap and snuggled with me for almost an hour.

Photography Prop- Daybed

What I started with….

After a little jigsaw action….

In the house and ready to paint

 

Done painting….

After glazing and a little bit of antiquing……..

 

I really do love the Caromal Colors paint that I’ve been using. It’s like painting with peanut butter and leaves a fantastic texture. If you want to thin it out for a smoother finish you can add a little bit of water. I painted the photography box and this daybed with the chocolate paint and still have almost half a jar left. Then I used the parchment color with the toner  to achieve the final color

 

I will be making a cushion for the daybed as soon as I get the fabric, Dena can’t decide what she wants to use yet. She’s going to have both of the props at a local March of Dimes fund raiser and my business cards. Hopefully I’ll get some more calls that can keep me busy.

Here is a picture of the daybed I referenced to build this.

 

It’s OCTOBER!!!!!!

And I think everyone knows why I’m excited!! I love that I can finally say that I’ll see my boy THIS MONTH!!!!

This R&R we are doing things a little differently and I’ll be coming to GA a couple of days before he’s scheduled to arrive and I’m going to pick him up in Atlanta and we will spend a couple of days in GA then head to Destin for a few days at the beach before heading back home. Instead of going around visiting everyone we are going to have a family dinner at Deon’s probably the day after he gets back. We won’t be doing anything the day he arrives home because he will be exhausted after traveling for around 36-48 hours straight prior to finally making it home. During that time he will get very little sleep so he’s always worn out. Not to mention getting used to the different time schedule, right now he is 8 hours ahead of us and the schedule he’s on right now he’s getting up to head into work around 1am our time and getting home ready to go to bed at 2-3pm our time. That is our plan thought and we are both really excited! When we get a little closer and have a firm date I’ll let everyone know what’s going on but it won’t be on the blog due to OPSEC.

Fall is here! It’s suppose to hit 36* here tonight and our high today was 60* and very windy! Brr! I am actually cool enough in the house to have on socks and a long sleeve shirt! The leaves changed overnight it seems. Everything was green and now the trees are beautiful. I have a feeling though that the leaves are no going to last long though because it’s super dry. We haven’t had any significant rain all summer and everything is just dead. I’ve been watering the yard and it’s still crispy. Tomorrow I’ll plan on getting some pictures of the leaves.

Here is my latest project. I’m working on painting it right now. Letting the latest coat dry. I need to get the fabric to make the seat cushion now and it will be ready to go!

 

And here are a couple of pictures with 2 of my closest friends up here. These girls are a blast. These were taken at Gracey’s daughter’s Sweet 16 party so that’s why we were so dressed up!

Me with Gracey

 

Me with Mari

Being silly because it’s not a party til you have this pose! The kids thought we were cool.

New Toy!

Nicholas told me he never thought he would see the day that the garage was my workshop instead of his and now it really is my workshop!!

Meet my new toy.

It has a LAZER which is one of the coolest things EVER.

I also built myself a new work table because the other work bench wasn’t deep enough for the new saw and this one is more my size! The project on the table is the daybed prop I’m working on for Dena. I was just setting it up to see where I wanted the sides to sit.

Dena sent me a picture she took of the prop and I’m really excited about how it turned out and it looks great against the red back drop!

My neighbor’s hubby is home this week for R&R and I’ve had Sam and Hails a lot because they were out of town. Those mutts are always a mess.

Pooh looks like she’s mid sneeze, I thought it was funny.

That’s better!!

It is SO dry up here right now. I’ve been watering and the yard still looks rough. The weather this year has been so bizarre, huge flood in May and a drought the rest of the year.

See that nice path they have going through the yard. Sharon has one on her side also. Travis came home and said “um yeah I see where they walk!”

Usually I have the gate open but somehow the kids managed to get out a couple of days ago and thankfully Sharon’s neighbor saw them and got them all back inside. She thought they dug out, I’m not sure but since I was keeping them I decided they needed to stay in my side of the yard.

So that’s my life lately. And now the countdown is really on for the boy’s R&R!! Only a few more days and we’ll be able to say he’ll be home THIS month!! We both agree that this deployment has really been flying by and I know after he goes back time will really pick up because of the holidays and when they are over we’ll only have 2 months left. That’s no time at all!! We’re on the downhill slide of this thing!

Photography prop and lid

Dena brought me the fabric for the lid and I finished the box up on Wed, she LOVED it and I’m soooo glad!! She already wants me to make another prop for her!! In a couple of weeks my town will be do a “Best of ------" and she’s one of the featured photographers that will have a table, she’s going to take the 2 props and have my business cards there so hopefully I’ll end up with some more business!! I’m really excited about that. I have a few projects lined up that should keep me busy until the boy comes home for R&R. I found a place about an hour away that has reclaimed wood from barns and old buildings, I really want to get there and check it out. Barn wood items are really popular now and if I could get some wood at a decent price it would be great!
I told Nicholas yesterday that I want to buy a nice sliding miter saw when I get paid for my next project and he told me to go for it. He said “I never thought I’d see the day that the garage would be your workshop instead of mine” I said “life is full of surprises isn’t it!”
I’m hoping over time I become a better or at least cleaner painter. Every time I paint (or stain) something I end up with paint ALL over me. Right now one foot has a lot of paint that won’t scrub off. I guess I’m going to let that wear off?? I think a drunken monkey would stay cleaner. I’m not sure how I do this.  Oh well.

Since I made the box with 2 different looking sides I decided to do one side more feminine and the other side more masculine. This is the feminine side, at first I had toned down the champagne color metallic by mixing it with the darker chocolate color but Dena wanted it to stand out more so I went back over it and this is how it turned out. 

The fabric for the lid. The lid just sits down on the ledge inside the box and it will be super easy to make more lids in the future to change them out with the season or event. I made the cushion the same way as I did the ones for the chairs, it took me about 30 minutes! After doing all of those chairs I have it down to a science!

The masculine side of the box. I used a dark chocolate metallic paint on this side.