Almost Summer

Hello friends! I'm still here, just been working on the house inside and out. We have so much to do and it's going to take time but I'm looking forward to things progressing, especially having a front lawn!

I know it's not officially summer yet but it sure feels like it lately. All the signs are there, mosquitoes, hot days, thunderstorms, snakes, ticks and green grass.

The snakes are the worst, I saw my first one a few weeks ago and now walk more cautiously when I go out, they will be around for 6 more months, yikes! We've had two rattlesnakes on the property in the past two years so I've started doing a snake check before I let the dogs out, it gives me a little peace of mind when they are running around. We have a resident 6-7 foot black snake that lives in a wood pile and is not scared of people, he completely ignores us. I've seen smaller black snakes too and as soon as they see you they take off like lightening. We have named the big snake Elvira just because it's creepy, could be a boy but I'm not getting close enough to find out so it's getting a girl's name.

Elvira decided to check out the dog kennels last week. I saw the snake before it went in the dog kennels and moved all the dogs before it went in. Then Elvira proceeded to go back and forth nice and slow visiting both kennels for about an hour. I stood by and watched outside the fence with rake and shovel in hand, not sure what I was going to do with a rake and a snake but it was my protection in case it came close because like I said, this snake is not scared of people. I was really glad when it left, that was a little too close for me. Since then I see Elvira quite often and keep my distance and eventually it moves. We also have a resident King snake that came out about two days ago and he's been hanging out by the guinea hens looking for mice. There is usually two king snakes, we call them Mr. and Mrs. King.

I do love living out in the boonies but I do not like the snakes. I have never seen so many snakes so early in the year and they are the worst part of my summer days.

With the weather being so warm I decided it was bath time for the dogs. We have 6 dogs so it takes a few days to get them all washed. I washed Kaila's mom Rachel first, she's a Sheppard so she's pretty big and takes a lot of shampoo. I learned a lesson not leave the dog shampoo on the ground as the other dogs will take it and run, first it was Marley who lost his grip on the bottle then Kaila stole it after he dropped it and was looking for a place to bury it, she loves to bury things. Rachel was half way washed and soapy while I'm running around trying to get my stolen shampoo and I finally bartered with a treat and Kaila dropped it. I ran out of shampoo after 2 1/2 dogs and gave up, plus the hose I was using had a big hole in it about 6 feet from the nozzle and I kept getting squirted and decided to wait on the dog washing until I got another hose. It was a hot day so I didn't mind getting soaked, I just need to plan my dog washing better! I think next time I'll get Terry involved to help, I think it will be a lot easier with two people!

I painted the dining room a few weeks ago and worked on the kitchen and entry way yesterday, it took all day long but I finally got it done, yay! We are planning on getting our hardwood floor installed on Saturday, it will be so nice to have a floor finally!

I got all my tomatoes and veggies yesterday, just need to get them planted. There's nothing like a fresh picked tomato from the garden, it's the best part of summer!

I've squeezed in a little crafting here and there, mostly been making cards.
The rose on this card was a large white rose from a craft store. I took it apart and cut all the petals off, threw the plastic parts away, then put it back together using a glue gun and made it smaller, added glimmer mist, acrylic paint and glitter. The center of the rose is a vintage pearl clip earring from the Antique store, I just clipped the backing off. The heart crochet doily was white and I added glimmer mist for color. The chipboard frame was covered in paper, then painted, inked and glittered. The leaves were a dark green and I painted and inked them and coated with glitter.


On this one I used a vintage Bingo card, painted and glittered chipboard frame, seam binding and roses. The velvet rose already had glitter and I added some stickles to the other rose so it would match. The paper rose and rose stems are ZVA Creative that I got from Custom Crops, you can find them here.



And a couple cards that aren't pink, can you believe it! I painted the chipboard frame red and added some white acrylic paint polka dots and then glittered. I made the felt rose and added glitter and a pearl bead center. I cut the leaves out of felt and highlighted with paint. On the second card the sheer rose was white and I added glimmer mist to give it color. You can get the sheer rose trim from the craft store and make your own colors using glimmer mist. The die cut images are Crafty Secrets.




I thought I'd share some photos of my new craft room, just got two for now but will have more in future posts. This is my sewing desk which Terry found for me at a yard sale. The legs used to be yellow and I painted them white. He got the desk from a lady who had to sell a bunch of her things as he toddler son was ill and they were trying to raise money to help pay for his medical bills. She said her dad made the desk for her when she was little and she used to do her homework on it, I love that it has special meaning to it as I just adore the desk even more because of it's history. I love having my sewing machine set up all the time, it's usually always has pink thread in it. I have to keep it covered though as Rocco likes to eat the thread, bad kitty! One of the large boxes is filled with Tattered Angels chipboard and the other with vintage doilies and lace. The round one was a Custom Crops project and it now holds all my paper doilies. Another favorite is my sink that Terry installed, I use paint a lot so it is wonderful to have running water so close. The paper towel holder was brown, a flea market find from Terry that I painted white. It holds a pretty pink crochet doily that my friend Jennifer made, a jar of buttons from the antique store and a Christmas paper mache' house that I made that I thought fit in with my decorating so I just left it up. You can see a little peak at my curtains that I made, I'll get better photos to post next time.



And one more card, I made this on a cold and gloomy day, I thought I'd bring a little sunshine to my craft room! The edges of the roof was a pine cone that I took apart and painted each piece white, then added to the roof after I had the lace down. The lace on the roof was part of some eyelet trim and I cut the scalloped part off. It also has some painted burlap trim, a vintage bingo card, real sea shells, sea shell buttons, and a Melissa Frances chipboard sun which I painted and glittered.


Hope you have a great week! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Annette