A painted piano? I think not!

Painted pianos seem to be big right now, and as my old piano needs some love, I started pinning a bunch of painted pianos on my board on Pinterest.  I liked a lot of the ideas; I didn't love any of them enough to take a paintbrush to my old guy.

The more I looked at it, the more I loved the wood grains in it, even if it was mostly veneer.  I knew I couldn't sand it hard, but I wondered what would happen with a light sand an a new coat of stain.

 I wonder no more!  I lightly sanded with high grit sandpaper (150), dusted it off, and added a fairly heavy cover of stain. 

What a difference, huh?

 

That is a really beautiful grain....I think I will have to stick with it.

 

 

Two days later the first attempt on the main part of the piano still looks good.  I still want to do a little more research to see what types of finishes I have to choose from, but I'm thinking this is a go!

It's definitely summertime!

Summer is here, and we are going full force and wide open already!  Last week we enjoyed the always fun times at VBS and learning to "Stand Strong" with God's help! 
Afternoons were filled with guitar practice, baseball practices, friends, pool and more.  Tomorrow starts 5 days of Lego camp at "college", and then we'll have some free days to be lazy!

So yeah, the list of things to get done is still there, and not getting any smaller, but that's OK.  Summer is about fun and laughs and down time, so we're going to enjoy every minute of it. 










I did have fun this week with a new lens for my camera!  I bought a 50mm lens for my Canon, and the best thing to use it for is closeups with blurry backgrounds and portraits...right up my alley!

 

I was thrilled to see my calla lily come back this year.  It was the first time I had planted one, and have enjoyed the beautiful bloom this week.

 

This is another one I want to play with...but for now, I need to get back to sorting out closets! More on that soon!

Thing 1

Thing one is in the books and on the wall.  Yes, I got it done and no, not in the time frame I wanted!  Welcome to summer!

When I had my walls repainted last year, I just couldn't bear to mar them with nails and indecision; it has stayed bare this entire year.

This is a great and simple Ana White design.  It is three pieces of wood, any length.  The back and bottom are 1x4's, and the front is 1x2.  I simply attached them with glue and nails and applied the first coat of primer.  Then it sat in the garage for ..... a while.  I just can't decide whether to paint it a crisp white, or keep it the wall color and let it blend in.

unfinished ends before sanding and wood filler

 So I decided to hang now, paint later.  I really can only make one decision at a time.

 

Not planning on having a lot of weight on the shelf, I didn't need to go to a lot of trouble to anchor it, but since I had three studs along the length it was easier to use them.  I pre-drilled into the board and the studs at one time to make sure I wouldn't have a hard time drilling in; the fourth screw went into the drywall only, and I used a drywall anchor to secure that.  The pictures hide all the screws, so I didn't spend a lot of time and energy (well, none really!) filling or hiding those.

It's not going anywhere!

 

And now I get to play: arrange, re-arrange and change as the mood dictates. 

My only regret? That I didn't make it longer!  I'm thinking this one will be moved at some point to make way for one that fills up the space more. 

At the whopping cost of $11 for this ledge, I think that won't be an issue.  I see a lot more of these in my future!

Does the lovely golden wall plate bother anyone? Well it does me!  I have new switches and plates on hand, and am slowly replacing those!



Check out Ana's original plan for the "$10 picture ledge" here: http://ana-white.com/2010/10/plans/ten-dollar-ledges!

3 Days-3 Things

Three day countdown to summer and we can't wait!  Until then, I have three days, and oddly enough, three projects that I need to wrap up and get done.  So I'm taking (making my own) three things-three days challenge to wrap up these projects that have been in the works for....a while.

Project one: A cute shelf from Ana White designs that was finished a long time ago.  I made the project from the plans with a place in mind, and then decided that the spot I needed it was way too small.  Last week I took the shelf apart, cut it down, and rebuilt it.  It's going to be hung this week.  It's going to make the entry way a little more organized and fun. 

Project two: also from Ana White, it will take a simple, ten minute project and make this blank wall a lot more interesting. 

Project three: Part of project "replace all the blinds in the house" project, one long blind for a spare room will be hung and a tutorial will follow.


And somewhere in this week, a project #4 for Father's Day needs to get going! 

A Summer "to do" list

School is almost over for this 4th grade year, and we have 9 glorious weeks to fill with fun and interesting things!  I want to start a "bucket list" to help us stay on track.  We both tend to be "home-bodies" and enjoy being here, so some of the list can include fun things to do at home, but I also want to add some fun day trips and ideas outside of the house.   I want it to be a mix of playtime, crafts, leaning something new, day trips and bike rides in addition to vacations and visiting family that we always enjoy in the summer.  There are also "must do" types of things here, but we'll do them together and try to enjoy it at the same time! This list is for when dad is working, we have the day to fill: let's make it and awesome summer!  My aim is for 100 ideas.

Here goes:

1. Go to the Science Center of Virginia for the day
2. Take Amtrak to DC and visit the Spy museum
3. Go to one of the county lakes
4. Pick something fresh from a county farm 
5. Visit the local farmer's market
6. Make Rock Candy from sciencebob.com
7. Create a new photo idea for our Father's Day gift
8. Build shelves under his new loft bed
9. Tame the toy clutter, purge and organize, and rebuild the closet for him 
10. Have a picnic at least once a month
11. Have S'mores more often than that
12. Ride our bikes on the river trail
13. Hike UP the trail to Monticello
14. take the walk/hike up to the UVA Observatory
15. Listen to a book on CD in the car.
16. Find some old TV shows to watch (Brady Bunch, Get Smart)
17. Watch an old movie together he hasn't seen 
18. Swim at one of the county lakes
19. Make Gak
20.  Find something to do in our immediate area that we've never done!
21. Visit the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton
22. Visit the UVA Observatory at night
23. Go to a Kings Family Vineyard polo match
24. to be continued

It's a start!  I want to keep going, find more ideas, but I came up with this list in a very short time period and I'm 1/4 of the way there!  Now on days where we don't know what to do, hopefully it will give us both some inspiration and ideas to get going. 

Now to just get these last few days done so we can bring on the fun!!