a silk-y house for pezza

hello everyone!

so has everyone officially kicked off the summer - kids home and lots of fun activities right!  i have a few things i am determined to accomplish this summer - one of them was to get pezza on her dang bike we got her for birthday in nov.  talk about drama!  lord i have never seen freakin' drama like this girl can do!  shrieking and screaming she was to scared to move - ok this is WITH training wheels AND mom holding her bike.  really????  and this was not the first time she had got on it - no she does this every time and then finally rides it, does fine and then the next time it's the same thing.  finally i did what a good mom does - i threatened.  i told her if she didn't get to peddling i was selling the darn thing because there was no point in keeping it.  so guess what - now she rides.  does just fine.  we live in a neighborhood with lots of hills and she can even do those - and you know what she says when we get done with the ride?  bike riding is the greatest thing ever.  i want to do it every day.  really.... :P  anyway, we went again last night and there was no fighting it and screeching down the sidewalk so i am hoping we are finally past that.  next up - swimming.  unfortunately i am not a fan BUT i am going to have to suck it up this summer and get this kid comfortable and safe in the water.  so summer pool passes it is.

another thing we are doing this summer that is new - we are on the list of volunteers who go into our local petsmart and take care of the kitties in the kitty section.  it is handled by the lost dog and cat rescue that we do foster cats for.  so today is our first day - we had training yesterday.  i am happy to be doing more to help animals :)  as pezza gets older and i am more able i hope to do lots of volunteer things if i don't have to be working.

i also worked on one of the fun wood houses i want to make to decorate pezza's room.  i got the idea from a pottery barn kids magazine pic.  of course there's a a little plainer than i plan on making mine.  i tried to find them so i could link them but now i can't find them on their site.  of course it is possible i got the idea somewhere else too i guess.  ANYWAY, i had kevin cut me some house shapes from MDF (fab stuff and real cheap!)  kevin is awesome like that and cut me a bunch of stuff from a big piece of MDF - YAY!

so I decided to cover my first one using a technique from the Taste of Silks class with Dion Dior using the deeLISH luminarte silks glazes. 

i started by painting the entire house with Pixie Pink for an all over light pink shimmer.  Once it was dry I doodled on the house with a gold paper pen (viva decor) and let it dry completely.

Next I began lightly pouncing on more colors with a natural sea sponge and various Silks colors.

I put some darker colors on the roof area.  after adding each color i gently wiped the raised gold paint but not completely and not enough to smudge the sponged colors.

the last layer i added was Stargazer which i pounced on using some sequin waste as a stencil so i got some pale blue circles in areas on the house.  i really love the way it turned out and i can't wait to play with the other ones kevin cut for me.  i think perhaps the next one may involve book pages..........

Bienvenue...

hi all!

i can NOT believe i am THIS freakin hot in the middle of APRIL!  ree-donk-ulous!  i had to put my hair up.  in april!  sheesh!  pezza is out in the sprinkler in the backyard!

we did our first trip of the season in the camper this weekend - wow was i out of practice!  the drive up went smoother than usual.  on the way i asked hubby if he had put the turquoise box in the truck from his garage...nope.  so, pit stop for toiletries and the eggs i forgot.   arrived just before dark which makes set up FAR easier.  after set up we realized i also forgot ALL of the towels AND the pillows.  AND we had no hot water.  BUT we were determined to have a good trip and we all went to bed happy.  and then made a trip to target and home depot first thing the next morning!

the rv park we went to was outside of Lancaster PA - amish country.  i fell in LOVE with the area - i am slightly obsessed with farms.  i desperately want an old house with a huge barn and other out buildings but these farms!  HUGE i mean HUGE farms with gigantic barns and three silos.  what the heck do you put in 3 silos???  love love love it!  we spent saturday in strasburg at the railway - so so cool.  if you live in this area and you haven't been there you should go.  they restore antique steam engines and run them along with antique rail cars.  we toured the humongous workshop with all sorts of engines being restored and Thomas the tank engine was even in there for his annual maintenance so pezza got to take a picture with him and even go inside the cab!  we road a mini steam engine as well as a full sized one.  then we went around the railroad museum - AWESOME.  tons of model railroads set up and lots to play with - pezza was in heaven!  i'll have a few pics at the end of this post.

i do have a project to share with you:

i made this to hang in our foyer

bienvenue means welcome.  it is done on a piece of MDF with some wood trim - both from home depot.  the wood trim is painted with gesso and then Silks.  i did a few different things for the background papers.  before i cut the left side into thirds i stamped it with a fleur de lis stamp from the Just Rite Bon Voyage set i got from terri at stamps alive.  then i cut it into thirds and stamped again with a fleur de lis stamp from La Blanche using versamark and frantage aged copper embossing enamel and shabby white embossing enamel - LOVE the whole frantage line!

on the right side i started with some beautiful paper from Creative Imaginations.  i added some fleur de lis images using a creative imaginations existencil and more Silks like I used on the wood trim.  i added more frantage to the bottom corner and then adhered all 4 pieces to the MDF and hid the seams with some copper german scrap - great stuff!

I cut the large fleur de lis out of a cereal box using a sizzix die.  i painted over it with gesso, stamped it with my exclusive cobblestone background stamp and let it dry.  then i added two colors of Luminarte Primary Elements mixed with gum arabic and water.  it accentuates the stamped texture and of course adds gorgeous shimmer.  to make it stand out i traced around the edges a few times with a black pen.  i printed the words from my computer - so easy!

and now a pic of pezza and thomas - i will be editing the rest and posting a few more later this week!

seriously...how cool is THAT?!