Claudia — Page 1423

What I’ve Been Up To

February 6, 2013 at 8:57 am by Claudia

What I’ve been doing, gazing upon and generally up to the last few days:

Wearrings

Sorting, listing, keeping track of, packing, sending: our heart shaped earrings. On Monday, I spent a couple of hours wrapping, writing shipping labels, and packing all the earring orders. On Tuesday, I took them all to the Post Office and they are now winging their way to you. We have a few more in the shop if you’re interested.

I love them.

Wquilt

Quilting in the evenings. I’m more than half way through. Maybe almost 3/4 of the way through!

Wdishgarden

Tending Riley’s Dish Garden. I’m trying not to over water these succulents. I’ve been missing my boy so much lately. I’ve always sung a lot to my dogs and sometimes I find myself singing a lyric that includes “Riley and Scout” and I stop short, with a jolt to my heart of missing my boy and the realization once again that he isn’t here for me to pet and love and take care of.

Wdollhousebath

Putting down the bathroom floor in the dollhouse. Lots more to do in that room. I don’t know why, but every toilet, bathtub or sink that I find looks silly. There are so many miniatures for other rooms that are completely realistic, but bathroom pieces? No. This is a problem.

wnest

Thinking about spring and birds and nests. We had a little dusting of snow overnight. More snow is due on Friday. Spring cannot come soon enough.

wpencils

Thinking of ‘freshly sharpened pencils.’ I will be working on the script for Twelfth Night soon – that means a batch of pencils needs to be ready and waiting. And maybe it’s time to watch You’ve Got Mail again?

Wheartrocks

Hearts. It’s the season. Earrings. Rocks. They’re everywhere.

And painting. The jury is still out on Chalk Paint.

An update on my parents: Dad called 911 yesterday morning because of chest pain. They discovered a blood clot in his lung, so he’s been admitted to the hospital where they are working to dissolve the clot. Mom had some sort of episode over the weekend – we think it might have been another Transient Ischemic Attack. She’s had at least one in the past. She’s better now, but we were rather worried for a while there.

Aging parents = worries.

Happy Wednesday.

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A Study in Scout

February 5, 2013 at 8:22 am by Claudia

Scout wants something. No doubt food.

scout1

scout2

scout3

scout4

scout6

scout7

Definition of “Scout” in the dictionary: Demanding.

Happy Tuesday.

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Chalk Paint? Not So Much.

February 4, 2013 at 9:42 am by Claudia

chalkpaint

I know everyone in blogland is on the Chalk Paint Bandwagon. I’ve read countless posts on how wonderful it is. And I’ve seen beautiful results. But so far….I’m not a fan.

I have a few pieces in our bedroom that are wood. For the most part, the wood is dark. This piece is from our Craftsman days in San Diego when the trim in our house was a darkly stained wood and so many of our pieces of furniture were, too. I’ve been wanting to paint the various pieces in some sort of cohesive color and, hopefully, brighten up the bedroom in the process.

You can see the dark finish this piece had originally if you look at the top of the blanket chest.

One of the selling points of Chalk Paint is that it goes a long way. The instructions always point out that you don’t need to use a primer. And one (or two) coats of paint is enough to cover the piece. I had to use 4 coats of paint. Believe me, if I had known, I would have primed the piece first. At $36.95 for a small can of paint, 4 coats of paint is pricey.

I was frustrated. A small project that I thought would take a short amount of time took much longer than expected. I’m still not entirely happy with it.

I don’t get what the big deal is about Chalk Paint. Has it been overhyped? It’s awfully expensive. If I thought it was worth the effort, I’d rather make my own. There are plenty of recipes for it on the internet. But is it worth the effort?

And I wonder – why not just use regular old paint like I normally do? Why go to all the expense of chalk paint if I can use flat latex and some wax and come up with this?

tvcabinet

It isn’t a great photo, but this is a $5 cabinet that I painted and aged and waxed. For the price of some latex paint and some paste wax (which I still have) this ends up being much more affordable.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m spending $36.95 on a quart of paint, it had better be fabulous.

So far? Not fabulous.

I know that some of my readers use chalk paint and love it, so maybe I’m missing something? Or doing something wrong? If I am, please let me know! I’ll be happy to adjust my current attitude.

By the way, has anyone else received a Malware warning while on PicMonkey? This morning I was editing a photo and was about to save it to my computer when I got a big old Malware warning (I was on Chrome.) I quickly closed that window and ended up editing in Ribbet. I wonder sometimes if these warnings are real or are the result of an overactive and extra vigilant browser. So now I’m running my virus software to make sure everything is okay. Edited to add: Saw this explanation today. PicMonkey and other sites must have been advertising partners with this site. All is okay now.

And my wireless router appears to be acting up.

Happy Monday.

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What I’ve Been Up To

A Study in Scout

Chalk Paint? Not So Much.

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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