Created to Create

I didn't have the names of the paints I used for my mural or on my walls when I did my last post so I thought I would update this now.  The paint color we used on all the walls was Whooping Crane. I had picked up a few books of different colors, all connecting to Canada and things in Canada. It was fun to choose my colors from that. The middle stick has the whooping crane on it. The other two are the colors I used in my mural. The lightest one is Morning Mist. The darkest one is Dark Sky Preserves. These colors went very well together. Like I said in my previous post, I added just a little of the dark into some of the light to bring the mountains closer and closer. This was more of an informative post. Thanks for reading! 

I had decided a while ago that I would try my hand at a mural in my room. I chose the one wall that had nothing interrupting the rectangle shape.  We had finished the primer and 2 coats of the paint. I then took a pencil and paper and drew out approximately what I wanted on the wall. I was so nervous to get started. I sat there wirh a cup of coffee just staring at the wall not sure where to start. Eventually I got up and with my pencil, free hand drew out on the wall where I wanted the mountains to go. I knew full well that I might change my mind as I went. Maybe add one here, divide these here, combine these one here. The nice thing about this mural, is that there wasn't really ever a wrong way to do it. Hard to see here, but this is after I drew on the wall. Of course dad had to come in and call me a rotten kid cause I was drawing on the wall. I told him he didn't teach me well enough!  I only bought two different shades of one...

I am very thankful for the people in my family who are talented and gifted in many ways!  Today's experience brings us to my cousin Fergie, an electrician. We were able to take this used bathroom vanity light. This came out of my other cousins bathroom when they were renovating. If you couldn't tell, I really like to reuse as many things as possible. Sometimes makes things more complicated but at the same time, we learn things as we go. I took this apart as the board wasn't part of my plan. But the electrical part and the black part on the front side were on my useful list. I had taken this piece of wood. I would call it old barn wood, even if it didn't come off a barn. It did however come off an old building and on the other side it is very grayed. I lightly sanded both sides and then sprayed it wirh a clear satin varithane. Here we were laying out the position of the jar lids. As you'll see, this is how I will be att...

 When my dad sold his shop, we went through some things that he was either getting rid of, or selling along with the shop. This ladder was one of those things. It was too rickety to use as an actual step ladder, but in decent condition to do something with. I felt it would be nice to have something that had been used in the shop where I learned many lessons on good work habits. I LOVED it the moment I saw it. I knew exactly what this ladder was to become. It would become...my blanket ladder. I have an abundance of blankets and was thrilled to be able to give this ladder a new life. I had to start with taking off the back part of the ladder seeing as it wasn't going to be useful in this project. Hearing protection was a must. So were some helpful tools. And here's the leftover of what I pulled apart. Now, I don't have pictures of all the steps but I will try to tell you all I did. I did sand it all. Lightly of course. There is some very distinct paint splatters on this ladde...

In the last two years I have done a few things here and there for my room, I just didn't get around to sharing about them.  This first one starts down in Idaho. My aunt and uncle had a woodshed that they had replaced sometime in the last little while. Me, with my love for old falling apart wood, asked if they had any of the old wood left. Turns out they did!  Did any of you know that bringing wood across the border is looked down on? I can understand old, dirty, big infested wood not being able to come across, but this stuff was well taken care of. And this is what we had to explain to the border crossing guard. Not only had this wood been treated (it was painted red), but when it was taken apart, it had been stacked neatly on a cement floor in a closed in shop. After some debate, we were let across the border... with the wood.  I had big plans for this special wood from the beginning. Now, I am very sure there are much easier ways to d...

 It has been a real hot minute since I have posted anything on here. Mostly because not much has happened in my room reno. However...things are now getting done! Let's go back to where I left off.  March 2019, wow, it has been almost 2 years. So, there was summer, and a trip to the states, and taking care of grandma. There were other trips, other small projects, grandma passing away, 2 Christmases, taking a course, covid... busy life and really, I wasn't sure where to go next on my room. I did manage to get the wallpaper taken down.   Here I am armed and ready for demolition. Andrea came the next day to help me with the other wall and we got it all done. I was told that fabric softener diluted with water worked wonders on wallpaper. Where I looked for directions, I was told to do a 50/50 mixing. However, that was a little on the strong side. Did it work? Yes, like a dream in some cases. Did it stain the walls and make the whole room smell like fabric soft...