More spray paint magic

I have always loved the shell embossed pictures of my mother-in-laws, but the frames were dated- shiny brass.

I thought I could take them apart and replace the frame, but they are not just stuck in frames, but professionally framed with no easy way to remove them ...

So, I decided to carefully tape the glass and spray paint them just they way they were. I used the same primer and silver paint that I used on the starfish and they turned out great!!

It really changed the dated look, silver is the new brass!!

It's not a great photo, I put them in Laura's blue sea themed bathroom and the tans in the artwork tie in great with the new granite and the silver is fresh and clean.

For the love of spray paint!

We are right in the middle of garage sale season and I have found a few treasures this year. This weekend I found this starfish:

It is a lovely brass with a circle hook on the back. I paid $1. But, heart racing, I knew exactly what it was going to become!! I scrubbed it and primed it with metal spray paint primer:

The next step was shiny, silver spray paint:

It turned out according to plan, beautiful! Funny thing- later in the afternoon Karl and I were in Park City and found this display in a gift shop there. The price they had marked on their (much smaller) starfish was $30!! This is theirs:

And this is mine:

I'm pretty happy, I worked with brass pictures frames at the same time, they also turned out great...I still need to take the "after" pictures. Family will recognize the artwork that used to hang at grandmas Tobler's house for 30 years.. .(Next post)

While in Canada, eh

I was in our hotel gift shop in Toronto, Canada last month found an item that sent me into giggles instantly. Mixed in with souvenirs including Canadian Royal mounted police stuff, maple leaf candy and syrup I spied this mounted hunting trophy....

He was coming home with me.

I bagged a teddybear. (Note: no real bears were harmed on this hunting expedition) My last houseguest said he was smiling.

Splash!

Just had to post this picture!

This was a happy, giggly fun activity! (Think Brian Regan)!!

Trying to teach Ashton to say "no" to crack!

Happy Summer!

My own little garden

This is my favorite time of the garden, when the weeds are somewhat controlled, the plants aren't overgrown, and there is something to harvest.

Today is pea harvesting..

We are dripping in peas, the most I have ever planted of this crop.

You have to shell a lot of pods to get a bowl of peas. Actually, there would have been quite a few more if I could stop eating them! Fresh from the garden peas, Yummmm!

I'm going to help at the Church Cannery in a few weeks, I'm excited to see the machinery they use to shell peas commercially.

Land of the Free

It was nice to visit our nations capital so close to the holiday we commorate:

Viet Nam War memorial

A truth- Freedom is not free....

Korean War memorial, haunting and real.

God bless America!!