Floored

During last evening's walk I was excitedly talking about how when we got back home, I would be ready to apply the crowning touch to some paint that was finally dry, down in our basement studio.

The night before, I had taped off this section of the basement floor.

And using this color . . .




I had painted it to resemble an area rug.





And when it dried, I would give my area rug, a painted on pattern, using a stencil and some of this.



So anyway, almost back from our walk, I mentioned to Henri that the floor paint should be plenty dry for me to finally begin painting on my fleur-de-lis pattern.



So when we arrived home, I headed down to the basement to begin painting.

And a little while later when I had finished and gone back upstairs, Henri took a break from watching football and decided to check out my work down in the basement.

It was then, that I realized Henri had no idea what a fleur-de-lis was.

Because when he came back up from the basement he looked at me in true amazement, and said, "You know that symbol that you painted all over the floor down there . . . did you know it's the same symbol the Saints have on their helmets??!!"

Shabby Art Perfect For Tea Time

Using up some of my toile fabric and stencils I had an idea to make some wall art.

Trying to decide what to use for contrast, I pulled out this shabby pink fabric with names of exotic teas written in gold script, that I had all but forgotten about.

Zigzag is the only fancy stitch my sewing machine will do. Good thing I'm going for shabby.

I just love these scissors.




And, I like the way the reverse side of the toile adds another shabby dimension to the focal point.

The finished piece is mounted on an old masonite white board. I just used a staple gun to attach the fabric to the back of the board.

At project finish, it was time for a cup of tea.

Shabby Art from scraps I already had on hand.

Boxing Up Tiny Treats From the Kitchen

The smaller the box is, the richer the treat should be.

I always find bargains at our local Mardens.

I found this fleur-de-lis stencil there too.

The brush I used, gave the stencil a wood grain look.

So I added some paint to the sides.

Some pink tissue paper and polka dot ribbon (more bargains) and it was ready for my freshly baked Russian Tea Cakes.



Here's the recipe I used and they were ready in just 35 minutes.