Pinterest Challenge Party-Summer

Boy is it hot!   Sure wishing I were at the beach.

I guess it is time to take down my 4th of July/Patriotic mantel and put up a Summer one.

I plan on using a few of the same elements from last years Summer mantel.  My favorite three items to be exact.  And since they were all knockoffs of stuff I had pinned to Pinterest.  I thought I would join in on the Pinterest Challenge, summer edition.

What?  You say that I am a day late for the party?  Well, better late than never I always say. 

My first entry into the Pinterest challenge is my "Life is good at the beach" sign.  Here is the original I found online last year that I pinned. 

I found it at Dean Miller.  The original is actually a metal sign that they sell for $19.99.   I loved the colors and it was exactly what I wanted for my summer mantel.  That is, except for the price. 

I like FREE better!  Hubby had 3 cedar fence boards sitting on the side of the house.  I asked him "pretty please" if he would cut them down for me to make this sign.

He was so excited that he jumped up and down for joy and clapped his hands.  Just kidding.  But he did say "yes".  In fact, he made me 2 wood plank signs.  The other one I still haven't done anything with. 

Here he is putting all the pieces together for me. 

Next I painted the board with some white craft paint.  I didn't want it to completely cover the board.   Then I used some aqua paint and painted 3 areas.   I pretty much copied the inspiration sign. 

 

I did more of a whitewash effect with the paint.  I wanted some of the original board to show through.  The best part about using cedar fence planks is the roughness of the wood.  Adds great texture.                       

 

I was then going to use a stencil for writing the words.  But you know how lazy I am.  I decided to just wing it and live dangerously, by free handing my words.  Scary!  But it all worked out.  Lucky for me.                  

I used a pencil to sketch my letters.  Then I used some grey paint to paint "Life is Good".  White paint for "at the" and red paint for "BEACH".  I then used a black sharpie to outline "BEACH".   I then lightly sanded it    and called it done.                                                                                                                                            

My next project was inspired by this image I found on Pinterest at Obee Designs. 

 

Aren't you crushing over these vintage SeaSide beach pails?  I know I have been ever since laying eyes on this image.                                                                                                                                               

I had to have one of these pails.  

I found one on eBay last year.  Yipee!  But wait, I'm el cheapo.  I'm not going to pay $100 for a vintage beach pail.  No matter how much I wanted it.  I guess I will have to make my own.  

Plus, I wanted an aqua blue stripe, not a royal blue stripe in mine.    And I wanted it to be FREE.  

                                                                                                                                        

Luckily, I had a plain tin pail in my stash that came from either the Dollar Spot at Target or from Michael's dollar bins a few years back.  So I painted the bucket with some red, some white and some aqua blue. 

Next I took my handy dandy Sharpie pen and lived dangerously again.  And wrote "Seaside", free hand.  The adrenaline was a pumping.    I girl can only take so much danger in one day.  I was fast becoming an adrenaline junky.  (OK, you can stop laughing now.)

Problem was, it wasn't looking very vintage.  So I shabbied it up a bit with some sandpaper.  And then used some watered down burnt umber paint and slathered it on.  Then wiped it off.   Much better. 

Still doesn't look like it's 100 years old.  But for free, I'm estatic.

And if you must have your own vintage Seaside beach pail.  I found you one on ebay.   It's only at $49.00 currently and closes in 2 days.  But if you are cheap like me.  You can make your own.  Just like me. 

My final Pinterest inspiration project is bunting made from a map.  Here is my inspiration pin from Five Brothers One Sister. 

I really liked this one.  But I wanted mine to say "Summer".  And to be in a slightly different shape.

Now I'm not that handy with making computer graphics.  In fact, I down right stink at it.  I have not a clue how it's done.  So I had to make mine the good old fashion way.

I got my neighbor to give me some of her old maps (again a free project).  Remember when AAA used to give you free road maps?  Do they still do that?

I drew me up a template for the shape I wanted on some card stock.  Used my template to cut out the map.

Now I just needed me some red letters that spell out "SUMMER".  

I then remembered I had these vintage letters saved on my computer.  I have no idea where they originally came from.  I cut and pasted the letters I needed to spell "SUMMER".  Printed them out onto cardstock.

Then I painstakingly cut out each letter & glued on top of my map bunting pieces.  

I then punched a hole at the top on each side and strung them on a piece of twine.

And WALA!  I had the "SUMMER" map bunting of my dreams.

I really like the "S" section of the map since I grew up in San Diego county.  

And just because I am nice, and some of you may be every bit as cheap as me, I scanned my Summer map bunting just for you.

I don't know how to make a fancy shmancy download.  But you can right click on the images below and save to your computer.  You know, the "I have not a clue how to use a computer much" kind of way. 

And there you have my 3 Pinterest challenge projects.  Now go check out all the rest and get crackin' on making your Pinterest inspiration dreams come true. 

Hopefully I will get my Summer mantel completed this weekend.  And even though I am reusing 3 items from last years mantel, it will look a little different.  Shall I dare say, even better than last years?  At least that is what I am hoping.  But the laziness monster is still possessing my body, so who knows what will actually happen.

It's still hot.  I still would rather be at the beach.  But I guess my pool will just have to do.  

Linking to:

Centsational Girl: The Pinterest Challenge  

Winter?

The Calendar says it is January.

Last time I checked, January was smack dab in the middle of.....


I should be saying.....

And seeing.....

Not angels silly. Snowflakes.


But wait......

I live in southern California. We don't get snowflakes here. Well a couple of times we did.

But not this week. As Mother Nature has her calendar messed up, or at least her hemispheres.

As she is making the weather here seem more like....

As in 88 degrees.

The warm temps are making me long for the......


Or a.......

Don't get me wrong. I love Summer. I just don't like it in the middle of Winter.

Even if.....

Is a snowflake too much to ask for this time of year?

Summer or School?

Can you believe that August is halfway over? I sure can't. And school has already started in our neck of the woods. But I don't have to worry about school since my kids are all grown and my grandson is only four. But he is going to attend Preschool for the first time after Labor Day. So I will have to think about him attending school. But not for a few weeks.

Besides, what would you rather look at, or think about now? Summer or School?

I'm picking Summer, as thinking of school just gives me an upset stomach. And why does thinking of "school" give me a tummy ache? Probably as I hated school when I was a kid. Even to this day, when I pass by the "school supplies" at the store, my stomach gets all queasy on me. I hate it, a 50 something year old woman shouldn't still have such a reaction to school supplies.


Since I have chosen to think about Summer instead of the dreaded word "school". I thought I would finally get around to showing you my Summer china hutch. I've had it this way for about a month, but I've been too lazy to post about it.

I started a collection of blue canning jars last year or the year before. I only have 5 of them. I placed 3 of them on top of the hutch. At first I filled them with shells, but then I decided I liked the look of them empty.

On the right side I placed this framed print of children at the sea. Don't you just love this? I stole the image off the Internet. But don't tell the Internet police. The frame is a cheap plastic one I picked up from Dollar Tree a few years back. I painted it white & distressed it.

I think my favorite thing on my hutch is this fun bunting, banner, garland or what ever you want to call it. What do you call it?

Flash cards with beachy, summer words.

The flashcards are actually part of a scrap booking paper collection from October Afternoon from their Seaside collection .


I sure wish I was at the ocean today. It's about 100 degrees here in the Inland Empire in SoCal. But thankfully, nothing like those of you in the South and Midwest have had to bear this summer.

We've actually had a cooler than normal summer thus far. So I'm not really complaining. At least not too much. Plus we don't get a lot of humidity here.

I picked up a set of 4 of these "Shell gas" shells from an antique store in Arizona a couple of summer's ago. The pencil starfish came from Walmart about the same time. I didn't see any pencil starfish at Walmart this year.

Speaking of Walmart, I hate how they have downsized their fabric and craft department. It sucks! There, I said it. I don't go to Walmart much anymore because of it. Take that, Walmart!

But I do miss seeing all the interestingly dressed clientele that frequent there.

Sorry to get off on a tangent. I'll get back to my hutch. All of my white ironstone came from thrift stores. My cloches did too.

The blue glass candle holders came from Tai Pan Trading last summer. I'm itching to make a trip to the Tai Pan Trading store in Rancho Cucamonga. I feel for those of you who don't live in Utah or SoCal, as you are missing a fabulous store.

But then, pay back is a biotch since there isn't a Hobby Lobby store in SoCal. There is one in northern California, but it is hours away from me. Probably closer to drive to Phoenix to shop. And Phoenix is a 5-6 hour drive.

To the owners of Hobby Lobby,

You need to put a store in the Inland Empire in SoCal. We need one here, real bad. Like real, real, real bad.

Thanks in advance.

Your friend,

Kim aka: Starshine Chic.

My mind keeps getting off track.


It's got to be the heat.

How long can I leave my summer hutch like this? I'm thinking at least a couple of more weeks.

I'm feeling cooler just looking at this old photo of the beach.

I guess my Summer hutch is helping me feel more relaxed and cooler.

I Just keep thinking about the beach and it's cool 68 degree, maybe 70 degree if we are real lucky water. You guys or gals who live on the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf are real lucky with how warm your water is. I am so jealous.

But then, not so much when you get a hurricane. Then I'm glad our water here in the Pacific ocean is too cold for a hurricane. So we don't have that worry. Earthquakes are enough worry.

Thanks alot! Now you have me worrying about "The Big One", earthquake, that is. And when that happens, all my pretty glassware will break into millions of little pieces. And I will be soooooo sad.

At least I'm not thinking of school.

After taking all my photos of my Summer hutch, I decided my glass Mason jars needed some sprucing up. I decided to make a number tag for each and a map tag. I guess I could have put a number on each map tag. I may just do that and take off the plain ones.

But now I realized that numbers remind me of school. Dang it!!! I didn't want to think about school. Now I need to go and take a Pepto Bismo for my tummy ache. I think I'll take a nap too, so I can forget all about school.

Wake me up when Halloween decorating time gets here. Is it too early to think of Halloween?




Linking to:

VIP Party @ Designer Garden

Wow us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style