My Niece Skyler Davis Played with Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum

I am incredibly proud of my niece Skyler. She is a budding and beautiful musician who is extremely talented. The first time I heard her sing was a few years ago in my parents basement during our Christmas get together. Shy and unsure of herself she sang beautifully. Here she is just a few short years later belting out confidently in various places and on stage with a man who is well known all over the world. Check out her facebook page and see the video of her performance with Dave.

Skyler Davis performs with Dave Pirner


Way to go kid. We love you and are very proud of you!!

A Weekend Full of Redo

This weekend was very productive. I finished 2 furniture pieces. The first is a chair that we found at an Estate Sale on Friday for 3.00. My grandson Bryson aided in painting this piece. He was so cute just a painting away. I keep forgetting to take before pictures so this is slightly painted.

I love this chair. The woman had painted it white and recovered the seat. First I painted it a blue chalk paint that I mixed up with 2 colors. After 2 coats you could still see the white which is what I wanted. Then I used a chalk paint in White Chocolate and made a wash out of it. Just mixing 2 parts paint to 1 part water. Then brushed it on and wiped it off. Using a palm sander I distressed it. Then finished with MinWax finishing paste. And I love this little chair even more now.

Here it is in the sunroom in it's rightful place.

My son had this little table and didn't want it any more. I didn't realize the detail this table had until I started cleaning it up.

Once again I forgot to take a before picture before I started painting. I used White Chocolate chalk paint mix on this. After 2 coats I mixed up some Valspar in Pine with water to do a wash coat. Then sanded again with the palm sander and finished with paste wax. This little table turned out so cute.

A few weeks ago we found these brass knobs with back plates at the ReStore for .49 a piece. They are gorgeous.

I bought Rustoleum Hammered spray paint in Dark Brown and look at these babies now.

They are going to go beautifully in our kitchen. I also did a wash coat on the cupboards over the stove with the Valspar paint in Pine. I have too many projects going right now. So this weekend really helped in wrapping a few of them up.

Oh The Joys of Yard Work

Wow we have been so busy I did not realize how long it has been since I have written anything on my blog. The title to this post is an understatement to say the least. I have never really enjoyed yard work but I am building a slow dislike to it now. Earlier I said someone partially filled the backyard around the fountain in. We have dug enough dirt I believe we would have made it halfway to Texas by now. But is it ever coming together. Remember this picture.

Well here is where we are now.

Big difference so far. We have uncovered the left side of the wall. We have a sneaky suspicion that the rest of the wall is gone. I wish it were still there because it is pretty cool.

We have uncovered an amazing amount of rock, cement, broken and complete cinder blocks. Here is a pile of cement and blocks. 

And another pile.

And we are still digging. The side yard had around 50 large size garden rocks. We had no use for them so I put them on a message board at Facebook and a very nice couple came and picked them up. We were very  grateful to them with us both being disabled there is no way we could have picked them up and moved them. They were very grateful to have them and get them for free. It was a win win situation for everyone. 

Last night we dug out more around the fountain. We have also found an amazing amount of sandstone. This is the area around the fountain. It's pretty cool also.

We have been trying to go slow because we just do not know what we are going to run into. Here is Dave playing....LOL....he is amazed at the amount of cement and rock we have uncovered. 

We are not sure at all what the landscaping was back here and it may have been really pretty in it's day. But oh what a HOT MESS it is now. But we have been having a really good time as a family doing this. The kids have even been helping. Sophie keeps asking if we found any treasure today. We have dug up everything from a sole to a shoe to balls for the kids to play fetch with Bella. 

We have beautiful trees and bushes out there. The tree just behind the sunroom is a red maple. The other big tree is an apple blossom. We put rock gardens around both.

We have also been doing the kitchen slowly. A few weekends ago we put the beadboard and shelf over the stove area. We started the wooden countertop on that side too. I painted the cupboards green and I absolutely love the color. I antiqued and distressed the shelf over the stove and it is so cute. The cupboard door have been antiqued but I am not sure I am going to leave them that way. We may leave the kitchen for the fall and winter. It is starting to get hot here and I can't do anything in the heat. The basement has become a priority so I can stay out of the heat and we will not have the cost of cooling the whole house.