Shutters

Our new house had some pretty sad looking shutters, we decided to make our own. Ryan is rather handy with a circular saw and a nail gun. I hand stained them to match the trellis's that I also stained. I think they look great and will match the deck once it it stained!

I also attached a picture of what we did to one of the old shutters. Hello, mail/ key station! That's the blue distressed shutter. Love it!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and I hope you do something crafty soon!

Emily

Strawberry rhubarb crisp

One of my favorites to make. Follow the below link to get the full recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/rhubarb-strawberry-crunch/

I am lucky enough to have a great-uncle and mother the supplied me with the strawberries and rhubarb from their gardens. I feel that buying local is just as good if you can. YUM!!

   

Late Planting

My life is a tornado lately. But... There is something I must do every year and that's planting annuals. They only last the summer and I always buy to much.

Who cares though right? Its sooo fun! I usually plant the weekend before memorial day, but i was moving.

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures.

Hope it inspires you to do some gardening of your own. I don't recommend planting in 95 degree heat like me though  hehehe. Happy Planting!

DYI Tree

I have had a lot of people question how I did this tree. I honestly hand drew and painted it on the wall. There are a lot of ways to get the same effect if you are not as creative as me. I have included how I did my tree and how else you can get the same look below.

Drawing:
I started by drawing the stump of the tree. Use a good quality pencil with an eraser. No one is perfect and you will need to erase at some point. Avoid straight lines while drawing. Makes the tree look more natural. When you get to drawing the branches I recommend you start on one side of the tree and move the other direction. I'm left handed so it was more natural for me to work right to left.

Painting:
I used one large brush and one small brush. You can use as many sizes as you like. When I paint I tend to stick to one to two brushes. The paint I used was behr ultra flat antique copper. It was a sample can from my dining room that I used here instead. When you paint try to paint high to low as you will avoid putting your palm in the already painted part. Another tip is to paint the opposite of your dominate hand. ( right to left for me since I'm a lefty)

It took me five hours and was worth every moment!

Want the same look but don't want to paint or are not creative?

Other options are:
Use a stencil and then paint
Buy a decal and apply it to your wall
Hire a muralist

The first two options you can google search or use etsy. :-)

I hope my adorable tree makes you want to do something creative of your own.

XoXo Em