A Little Red, White and Blue

Remember the Fallen for this Memorial Weekend

Be Blessed!

New Paint for Our Old Bathroom

Good Sunday Morning!

I am hoping ya'll had a wonderful and productive week.

Work has been slow at the plant so my department has had to take some additional time off.

Being big on time and short on funds was bringing me down. 

Looking at the state of my bathroom was also bringing me down. Instead of focusing on what I couldn't get done I just went at the week and the bathroom with the do the best with whatcha' got mentality.

We only have one bathroom in our home; so through the years it has been used to a frazzle.

Between the kitchen, the kids rooms and the bathroom I don't know which has been repainted and repaired the most but I'm pretty sure it's been the bath. When most of the kids was home it would take some strategic planning to get anything done in here. I could have done well to have installed a revolving door . Now we're down in numbers to just The Ole' Man, Jack and Me. Getting things accomplished and keeping them that way is becoming a bit easier. 

I think I have surely avoided taking pictures in the bathroom so to show some real good before and afters I'm not going to be able to do. 

Honestly from looking at this picture it doesn't seem that there was a change in color at all.

Previously my walls was much more blue in tone.

To tell the real truths, the last time I painted I mixed a half a bucket of dark blue paint I had used in Jack's bedroom with a smidge of yellow paint I had left over from painting the kitchen walls. I don't know what color I could actually claim it to be but it was definitely blue.

Our bathroom was old and when I first moved in we didn't even have a shower. With that being said when the shower was added a vent fan should have been added as well.

But it wasn't...

So fighting mildew has been a real struggle.

Someday, I'm sure the ol' man will do it but until then the fight continues.

Above the shower was yucky!!

I can't even show a before picture because it was yucky!!

I would have gone nuts overs a picture of that. Even after trying numerous cleaning products and hacks off pinterest, after being cleaned the paint remained somewhat stained. 

The Best cleaning hack for cleaning mold and mildew I found was plain old Hydrogen Peroxide.

I would buy the big bottle in the health and beauty department and mix about a half a bottle with two big squirts of liquid dish soap in a smallish bucket of warm water. then scrub like crazy. 

It did do a good job of cleaning it.

The next big deal with this little redo was the ol' man researching the heck out of the internet and reading, who only knows how many reviews for a good primer.

What he found and bought was Zinnser's Mold Killing Primer.

Zinnser's primer was the only primer that not only claimed to cover up stains from mold and mildew but claims to continue fighting it.

The price for this primer was about $35 at our local home improvement store. 

It definite covered well and I'm feeling good about it's claims.

If  I become a doughter  I'll let you know.

For my wall color I chose Pacific Pines Sage.  

It's one of Glidden's Paint colors 

but 

to save on the dollars, I went with the Color Place Paint from Wal-Mart. Most the time I have used it in the past and it's seemed to do as well as when I've paid more for higher priced paints.

It turned out to be a true green, which I was looking for.

I trimmed out my doors and painted the ceiling with white gloss enamel. I didn't repaint my doors.

The sink vanity I painted Hedgegrove Olive. Also a glidden color with Color Place Paint. 

I wish you could see the contrast as well in the picture as in person. It was definitely darker green but still gave a good harmony to the room.

I have been addicted to the stenciled and distressed furniture for some time now but an artist and a painter I'm not so I aided myself with a stencil to add the Ivy that runs up the side of the cabinet.

I lightly sanded the edged and a little here and there before the stenciling began.

I also gave the stencil and the bare wood a spray or to of clear enamel paint to just seal it from the moisture that's prone to be in the room.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit!

As Always
Be Blessed!

Flour-Sack Hand Towel DIY

Good Monday!

I  think I'm going to ramble for a sentence or two and then I'll give you 

the low-down on

My (faux)Flour-Sack Hand Towels.

I hope every ones weekend was a wonderful one. I can truly testify that mine was. We had a lazy Saturday here around the house. I had some wants to run off to a Vintage and Greenliving show just down the road but it just didn't go that way.

My Sunday I enjoyed going to my sister's church for the baptism of her daughter. 

It was truly uplifting and I do have to say I enjoy her church family!

I started out today feeling very positive. You know how that goes this world we live in 

will do it's best to steal that joy..uggh..LOVEe thy Neighbor..Right?

But I got back on track and finished up this little DIY.

I started out with this beige and very natural fabric I found. 

It is very soft and absorbent. I've incorporated it for some time in many projects.

My thoughts are that I really do like the grainsack, feedsack, or floursack designs and look but those clothes would not truly be enjoyable to use as a hand towel, even though I bet in times past the nice terrycloth towels we use today were not used. 

I'm sure these clothes were used more times than not.

Here I go again with my handy stencils and sharpie.

I taped my lines with some regular scotch tape 

and 

colored in my lines.

I then added some lettering.

Afterward I simply turned the sides and straight stitched them and cut about a 2 inch black strip of cloth;

Sewing it to the ends for binding.

This was my first go around at this project. I feel like I'll be tweaking and trying it again. 

Especially since I ordered some stencils this weekend with this DIY in mind.

My Ole Man doesn't have any idea about this one yet.

It's fun to see his face with some of my zany projects.

Thank you for the visit!

Be Blessed!

Finding Rhododendron

Hey..I hope you're have a great Wednesday.

My quest yesterday for mountain laurel left me then wanting for Rhododendron.

I think I was also in need of some solace and I usually  find that in the woods for some reason.

I did run across some tall and scraggly Rhododendron. 

Most of the time, you will find it in some mountainous region a whole hill or mountain side covered and the limbs and leaves will be plum to the ground. 

What I found wasn't that way but I'm assuming if I walked much further up this mountain we live at the foot of I would have come across a much more substantial find.

I saw these two yesterday when I was digging up some mountain laurel. Today before I went to the woods I looked up Rhododendron on line to see how to gather some and get it to take root. Nothing I found exactly applied to me for the simple fact all the branches are so high and I was really not seeing any evidence of new growth at the ground.

After pulling back some leaves I saw these shoots. A few of them had a small dark green leaf on them. I felt pretty sure it was baby Rhododendron. 

I took my spade and dug up not much more than a handful or two. I also snipped a few clippings from the branches with some leaves and may try to root it. 

I'm not sure it will take. They are mighty tender and sometimes things just don't do well once disturbed. 

 If it's meant to be hopefully I'll see some growth. 

Oh my word, I know it will be a lifetime before seeing any real return on this endeavor but it has been fun to see what may come of it all.

Thank you for stopping by to check in on my unconventional gardening methods.

I wish you a very

Blessed Day!

Foraging for Mountain Laurel

Hello and Good Thursday!

Here in Stuart, Virginia we are enjoying an absolutely glorious day. Yesterday, was much the same and I have to say I am ready for these warmer temperatures. 

The past week was filled with a good bit of sunshine but between the high winds and the deep drop in temperature during the night it was basically chilly. It didn't make me desire to do much outside or gardening. I'm glad today is another story.

What I've had on my mind today was Mountain Laurel. If you travel here in the mountainous south you will see it hanging over a rock wall or peeking out the side of an old country road. It's especially glorious on the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

It strikes a genuine heart-note for me. I love it! I love to see it. As a child many days was spent in it; making playhouses or playing hide-and-seek. For quite sometime, I have been wanting some of it here at the house;

mainly here, at this patch of ground between 

our driveway and the neighbors driveway.

I got a little stand of hostas started from some when my sister split hers a couple of years ago.

I was a bit stingy with it. I spread it a little thin as I put it all the way along the whole side of the driveway but it's starting to make a pretty good show of itself. 

I really want this to take on a look as if it just came along on it's on anyway. There's some rambling rose and some forsythia that blooms here as well. As it probably shows I don't really do much in the way of maintaining. At least not like a bona fide flower bed. The mountain laurel should work real nicely to help and a little more privacy and backdrop. 

Once Jack was on the bus, I finished my cup of coffee and gathered my tools to take to the woods to dig up a stash I found a few days ago.

My short(broke) handled shovel, limb snips, and my trusty maddox .

The maddox is my go to tool!

I will remind you to be sure not to gather your plants off the side of the public road or out of any of the parks.

You would stand a good chance of being fined.

Here a nice pic of Rhododendron which also grows wild here in the mountains and foothills. I wish I had found a good patch of it 

but 

I had to go with what was here. 

It can be somewhat mistaken for each other but side-by-side pictures you can see how much smaller the leaves are.

I will say they both grow quite towering and full.

This is a small little bunch and a little scraggly

but I think it will come along.

I start my easily raking the leaves and sticks away to start to determine where the root is running. It's not really as much digging as it is pulling away the dirt. 

You wouldn't want to take a big swing or plunge right into you root and cut or break it off. 

Looks at my little find as I pulled the leaves away.

That leads me to another caution.

Do be mindful of other reptiles such as snakes before just reaching in to grab.

They really don't want any part of me and I don't want any part of them either but these are the kinds of places they like to be.

Pulling the dirt away deep enough you can see 

I've found a good strong piece of the main root. 

When I went to plant back at the house, I  dug up this old license plate from 1955.

I thought that was kind of neat so I wiped the dirt off and scrooched it in here with one of the plantings.

I do hope the next year or to I can share some pictures of my  little bank filled with blooms of roses and mountain laurel.

I also want to thank you for stopping by for a look at my cheap and come along gardening style.

Be Blessed!