Austin ! (And a DIY fireplace surround upgrade)

 

 

 

Whoo-eee !  Austin, Texas isn't the fastest growing city in the county for nothing!  Just big enough, careful planning to save lots of space for outdoor fun, great river front,  fantastic  restaurants, bookstores and fun, funky vibe with just enough urban sophistication. It's the  first time I've seen so many boats (non-power only - it is, after all, "the people's republic of Austin"!) on a river that runs right through a city and there were  people paddle boarding on the river.  Plus there are swan boats and Duck Boat tours a la Boston.

 

 

And a statue of Willie:

 

 

 

Lunch at  one of Sandra Bullock's Austin restaurants:

 

And everything really is bigger in Texas - check out this chi-chi outlet mall in San Marcos.  Gucci, Tory Birch, Prada, Restoration Hardware - this is one F.A.N.C.Y. outlet!

 

 



 

 



 Enough play, though - we had some serious work to do first. Stacks of boxes everywhere and each one filled with a mountain of paper. 

 

 

There was outside work, too  Austin Daughter turned into Junior Woodsman, wielding loppers and clearing brush:

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't this a lovely spot for morning coffee?   We did sweep up all the debris, just not before I took this picture.

 

The previous house owners liked color, LOTS of color.  Austin Daughter likes any color, as long as it's white, so clearly there was work to do.  She had the walls and kitchen cabinets painted before we landed and the house looks so bright and airy.  But, there was this pesky fireplace surround.  She thought it looked like an explosion at the Fiestware plant.  SIL hated it - not surprised - all that chaos must set his math-genius brain searching for a pattern.  I kept trying to find the theme, or see the magic picture if only I could stare at it long enough.  Clearly it had to go.  We talked about options- chipping it out, covering it up and then I suggested my solution to nearly everything - paint the dang thing!  Brave Austin Daughter agreed.

 

We sanded it down to remove some of the shiny-shiny and then painted on 2 thick coats of oil-based paint (windows and doors open to let the bad smell and bad color juju out).

 

It took lots of paint and some serious dabbing into each little space between the tiles. 

 

 

We're pretty happy with the results.

 

 Before:

 

After:

 

 There is a better fitting screen coming!

 



I told you she likes white.  The kitchen cabinets got a coat of white (too much wood , too much brown before) and the bar light shades swirled with blobs of vivid color got switched out for some plain white ones.  So much nicer! And behold, the fireplace that is still a focal point, just  not a seizure-inducing one.

I'll be going back in July as Yaya to our first grandson.  I did try hiding in the agave plant, but decided The Captain had been home alone long enough.

 



(Please excuse the weird fonts, colors and sizes as I TRY to redo my blog template.  Clearly it's a work-in-progress.  Some changes work, some get lost!)

Tablescape

The Captain and I just got home from Scotland (much more on that later!).  We had a great trip, and as always, there is a point when I'm on vacation that I'm ready to come home.  My head is swirling with new project ideas and I feel  lost after so many days with no creative outlet. Vacations aren't just a time for new experiences; I always come home all fired up with things to do.

Practical things had to take first place - like mountains of laundry, weeds apparently on crack that have taken over the gardens, and over 1,000 pictures( there's no success like excess!)  to edit and organize.  Then there's that jet-lag problem - I've been falling asleep early and waking up at 4 a.m.  I was weeding at 5 a.m. yesterday - the neighbors are beginning to wonder!

But today I had fun making a new tablescape for our dining room table. I've had the Pottery Barn runner and love the text and images.   I used things that speak to my obsessions - old mirrors, shells, letters, stones and bird nests.   I started with an old mirror as a base since I like to be able to pick up all the doo-dads at once when we need to use the whole table.  You get a two-fer using a mirror with the reflected image - a nice bonus!

I separated the nest from the candlestick  base and added a small glass candlestick to it to  hold some limpet shells I collected on a beach in Scotland.  The pottery heart was a find from Paris.

I love Scrabble tiles and use them in art projects, but never thought about displaying them.  I had to play around with them in this beaker.  At first I just dumped them in and for some reason, most were turned to the blank side- go figure!

We live near the beach and it's hard to resist smooth, flat beach stones.  I embellished these - one with a stamped star, one wrapped in a strip of dictionary page and one wrapped with twine.

Feels good to be making things!

Another Pottery Barn Knock-Off

I love these numbered jars from Pottery Barn.  It dawned on me that I already HAD jars so making these would be easy and {gasp} require no new supplies!

Here's what I used:

Black acrylic paint, cosmetic sponge, stencil, tape and glue to secure stencil to glass.  Really simple project - decide where you want the numbers, tape on the stencil and sponge on black paint.  I tried some repositionable glue to help keep the stencil flat, but it didn't stick very well.  Taping kept the stencil secure and I just held down any areas that wouldn't stay flat.

The paint on the PB ones looks a bit scrubbed up.  My stencils didn't have  smooth lines and the cosmetic brush left a nice texture, so I didn't do any additional distressing.  If your stencil had really clean edges and your painting isn't textured, you could dab off some paint with a paper towel and scratch it up a bit with something sharp. 

Here are my knock-offs:

The jars are Burken jars from Ikea.  They  come in many sizes and have silicone inside the lids so there is a pretty decent seal. I use them for all kinds of storage.

Isn't the little guy  - "1/2" cute?  I smile every time I see it!  Love my new PB-inspired jar upgrade.