A New Branch on Our Family Tree

How the weekend started off:

Story coming soon...

Ketchup

Summer is nearly over.
It is.
School starts in a couple weeks!

I have been awful about blogging--just too busy living life to keep up.

SO here we go:

June.

Lotsa Home Staging...some of them are models for a local homebuilder.

Dani and her two boys came to visit us for a couple of weeks,

before they left for Idaho:

My neice from upstate Georgia came out West for a couple of weeks:

Dean. I love this guy!

Then we all headed over to the Utah side of the Rockies:

At Mt. Timpanogos State Park:

Yes, there's still snow in Colorado in July:

 Aaron's Camp for Joseph.
A visit from our Georgia peach cousin, Abi, whom we came to love and adore!
She gave Bee "southernese" lessons while we showed her all over Colorado and Utah.
I have to say that I have a mental block against ever visiting Utah in the summer.
Too dang hot.  I know you Arizonans are scoffing right now.  I know Arizona summers are worse.
I lived there for 8 summers.
But 16 years ago, I promised I'd never spend another summer in AZ and I have kept that one.
That's beyond hot.  I don't know that there's a word for the kind of heat that exists down there in the summer.  Maybe "sweltering".
But, man.  I'm a pansy. Can't do heat if I don't have to.
Lotsa staging homes here in Colorado.  Homes are moving quickly for the most part.

July.
July was the month of sleepovers, hiking, Water World, and a blossoming romance
for our new RM, Diana.
Oh and a new calling for Kent and I as Temple workers.
Lotsa of staging homes for me and Kelly.
A few evenings with Deano.  Everyone asks about him so this is a good time to share that he is stable.
His health continues to decline--he cannot remember his siblings names, but he knows their faces.
His needs to support continues to grow. He sleeps alot.  He still has a decent appetite, tho he is losing weight. He is mostly quiet these days. And he glows.
I think my new calling in the Temple came because I will need spiritual reservoirs in the coming days ahead
and I can think of no better place than in the Temple to prepare.
I have so much more to write but as usual,
my attention is needed elsewhere.
Arianna went to Girls Camp in Rye, CO. where it rained every single day and they still had a memorable experience.
Oh and I also hand-lettered a few hundred wedding invitations:

August:
Well this weekend is going to bring about the engagement of our Diana.
I'm sure there will be pics to follow soon.
Dani & Brad are moving to Saudi Arabia this weekend.
Dara's getting ready to go back to Idaho for school.

I think that's it for now.
Life is good.

Latest Annie Sloan Projects

I didn't have alot of summer projects,

but this is one of them.

I bought it from a staging client who was selling nearly everything in her house

for a big move to Arizona.

It was solid brown, but I knew as soon as I saw it,

I'd chalk paint it!

That was sometime last fall.

Oh yeah, I paid $40.00 for it.

I just happened to get a wild hair a couple weeks ago

and thought "IT'S TIME!"

So I used the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

that I had on hand 

and went to town on this beauty.

Ok so here's the recipe:

Base Coat: ASCP Old Ochre

Wash: Old White

Insert panels:

French Linen with a teeny tiny bit of Henrietta

Clear and Dark Wax

Eventually, I want to decoupage the panels.

So look for that to happen in, I dunno, two years, maybe?

And these two:

A handmedown dresser for Diana and an old chair....

The dresser and chair were both originally a cherry finish,

but look how cute they turned out?!

These were each done in ASCP Old White, Clear and Dark wax.

Simple, Simple.