Spring Brings out the Imagination in Me

I have been working on a few things and wanted to share.  

Our home was built by my Mother and her husband back in 1996.  The colors for outside and the plan aren't what I would ever pick out, so I continue to try and work with what I have.  I want it to look cottagey (my word).   I'm slowly getting there.  One day I will be able to truly call it....

The brick on the bottom I love, but the blue siding and black shutters do not go with the brick in my book.  I have thought about painting the shutters, but know the up keep will be a pain because "all" paint starts to chip and peel eventually being out in the elements.  So, I decided to keep the black.  

Now, all that being said.  One thing that drives me nuts is the garage door.  The front of the house is so massive and long. 

Here's is the before.

 To try and make it have more of a cottage feel, I painted faux windows onto the door and added a carriage door kit bought from Home Depot for $18.  My kinda makeover...cheap!

And the after.  I love how it turned out!  I am planning on taking the brackets down and painting two more windows on the ends.  I'll use the brackets out back on the deck (smiling).

I'll be building something special for the two windows hopefully this weekend.  It's too high for planters and real flowers.  I'd have to leave the screens out of the windows for daily watering but would allow bugs in when the windows were open....NOT!

My mind is racing with the possibilities, but I sure do hope the old pocket book makes it and the hubster too.  We always spat when I have these brain storms, lol. 

Now off to another project.  I made some applique molds a few years ago from a gift my Mother bought me for Christmas.  She had to order it and was quite pricey then.  Now it is more affordable and goes a long way.  

You can order it through Walmart.com for around $18.

I mixed up a recipe of what is called cold porcelain.  It dries super hard and has some shrinkage.   The photos of what I made are still drying.   

5 cups of cornstarch

4 cups of white glue

2 cups of water

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

3 tablespoons of baby oil

1 tablespoon of hand lotion, for kneading the

dough.

I used half of the recipe that was given and look at what all I was able to make!

First add the water, baby oil, and glue then the cornstarch slowly to an old pot.  Make sure there are no lumps once stirred all together.  Bring to a boil, stir off and on until it starts getting really thick.  It becomes hard to stir then.

Scatter some corn starch onto some wax paper then pour out the dough and knead.  

Now comes the fun part!  Pull off some and make an applique with a mold.  Keep existing dough covered up with saran wrap or on a storage baggie.  You can add more cornstarch to keep it from sticking to your hands and molds.

Very easy to work with in the molds I had made.

You can even use chocolate molds from Michael's...your imagination is the limit!

Make sure to lay your pieces flat, how you'd want them to dry to be able to add them to other things with hot glue.  

I'm so excited and can't wait for these to dry and set up all of the way.  It has been 2 days...thinking by Sunday, they will be ready!

So there you have the scoop on what I've been up to.  Please , if you do not mind, keep my Mom's husband Carl, in your prayers.  He's in the hospital with blood clots and an infection in his colon.  Very Scary for the both of them and very tiring.  I know they need all of the prayers they can get and would greatly appreciate them.