Sunflowers for Late Summer

I showed you our late summer front porch.

I love it and had fun crafting my wooden sunflower.
 Once Fourth of July was over, I began searching Pinterest for some inspiration to get us through the hot, long days of August.
It is too early for fall decor and it's so hot outside that not much is blooming.

Yellow flowers, particularily sunflowers, seem to thrive in the heat.
Texas roadways are filled with yellow, wildflowers all summer long. 

 I found some sunflowers at the grocery store but they didn't really open. I thought maybe the metal coffee pot was the problem, so Bill suggested using a glass liner. 
We did that with the second bouquet but they didn't open either. Maybe it is too early in the season. 

Finally, I decided to go faux for the mantel. 
I got in the garage and started digging through my fall totes to look for sunflowers. 
I sprinkled a few sprigs around the downstairs.

I love setting seasonal stuff on the tray on the dining room table. The chicken is vintage. It made the cut when I purged my collection of roosters.   

The wildflower book is a Half Price Books find.  

The desk area got a burlap sunflower from Hobby Lobby.

The hanging mailbox was a birthday gift from my sister in law. 
It came from Joanna's Gaines shop. Isn't it cute? 

My DIY wooden box got a bird print.
I love the flower he's perched on. :)

The little chick is all that is left of a darling deviled egg set that belonged to my grandmother.

I made the primitive style flower two years ago. 

This bouquet has faired better than the first two. 

I'm smitten with the yellow and purple color combination.  

Rebekah painted the vase of flowers for me. I love it.  

That is it for now, my dears. 

How are you getting through the dog days of summer?  

Katie 

Linking with,

Ms. Toody Goo Shoes   

Between Naps on the Porch 

A Stroll Thru Life 

Cedar Hill Farmhouse  

Savvy Southern Style   

Common Ground 

French Country Cottage

Late Summer Front Porch

Sunflowers and late summer just go together. 
The Texas heat has descended upon us and it shows no signs of letting up.  
It doesn't seem like much is thriving except the grasshoppers and the sunflowers. 

We are expecting it to hover around 100 degrees all week.
I'm not ready for summer to be over but I am starting to get ready for cooler temps. 
Sunflowers are a harbinger of late summer/early fall. 

 I tweaked the front porch a little and created a hand crafted sunflower. 

I drew a circle on some wood. The brown stained center will be perfect for this project. I drew petals all around the circle. 
This was a piece of cake to cut with the band saw. 

Painting sunflowers is fairly easy. Once the yellow petals were dry, they got some definition with a dark, rusty orange. 

A very flat, small rectangle shaped brush created a sunflower seed effect around the edge of the brown circle. 
There is some brown paint dabbed in the center as well. 
Bill already had a stake cut in the garage from when we used to have garage sales. 
A coat of two types of green and two leaves finish it off. 
The leaves and the flower are screwed into the stake. 

I found the white cone flower and the little yellow daisy like flowers are the garden center. 
There isn't much available this time of year. 

The wreath got a refresh with some little sunflower picks. 

These came from Dollar Tree years ago. 

Don't skip Dollar Tree for faux flowers. 

Sometimes they get good ones. 

We have had the antique milk can for a long time. 
It has been in the back garden since we moved into this house 22 years ago. 

It seemed time to showcase it. 
The dump truck belonged to my oldest.  
I pulled it out to use a planter this summer. 

I love the yellow. 

This was a fun project for a Saturday. 

It should get us through the rest of this hot, Texas summer.
I can even add more orange to the wreath when we get closer to October. 
Have a great day. 
Katie 

Linking with,
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Down to Earth Style  
Savvy Southern Style

Mancave Makeover

The mancave hasn't been painted in years. 

I may have touched up the walls a few years ago but the color is drab and dirty. I painted everything in this house a creamy yellow back in the late 90s. 
 I used a Walmart paint that has held up pretty well for its age.
I'm just over the butter yellow walls. 

 You may see my mancave board here. 

We have most of this. 

It it strange that our loveseat looks to be the exact one I found on Polyvore? 
We bought ours at The Dump in Dallas about three years ago.
We have the chair too.

 

I need to scrape popcorn and paint the walls gray. 

I have been putting off scraping this because of the section over the stairs and entry. 

Bill said he will help but we are dreading it. 
 I also have never painted the stair railing white like I did downstairs. 

Do you think a potential buyer would notice?
Not that we are selling but the stain works up here where it didn't downstairs.   

Bill would like a different entertainment center. 
He has hardware to mount his new T.V. on the wall. 

Bill made a crate coffee table and a log end table. 
Those will stay.

The other club chair isn't exactly what we have. 

Ours has a kilim sort of tapestry on the sides which is why I put the poof in the collage.
We also would need to switch the end tables. 
Bill is over these country tables.

There you have it. 
It is supposed to be 100 all week so this isn't getting done yet.
This was one of my summer goals but I'm not sure I'll make it happen before school starts. 
What are you up to today?
Katie   
Linking with,
Savvy Southern Style

Sentimental Crib Repurposed Into Headboard

I have been on the hunt for the perfect bed for the guest room.

Nothing was right. 

I just could not find what I was looking for. 
I'd always envisioned a white, swirly wrought iron bed. 
I have never been able to find one in the right size, in good condition and for a price I was willing to pay. 

This room has had several headboards since I have been blogging.

This is how it looked a few weeks ago. 

It is cute but I don't have anything else in the room with that mahogany stain and I didn't want to paint this piece.

A few weeks ago we started cleaning out the attic.

We pulled down the crib thinking we could give it to the thrift store. 
Bill thought the stain and style outdated.  
They wouldn't take it because it's a drop side crib and they are no longer allowed to resell them.
I can't tell you the horror I felt that our beloved crib would end up in a landfill. 
Bill knew better than to set it by the curb even though that is what he wanted to do. 
We already felt sort of silly for hanging on to it for 22 years. 
We knew that crib standards change and that someday our adorable crib would be deemed unsafe, yet I stubbornly kept it anyway. In a "baby boomer" way, I felt that our generation would have the safest crib. 
It was deemed unsafe and I knew that no grand baby of mine would ever sleep in it. 
The plan was to have it at our house and buy the kids a new one should that day ever happen. 

I set my mind to repurposing this special piece. 
I played with the pieces trying to find a configuration that would work. 

I saw some great inspiration on Pinterest buy

I went back to the headboard idea. 

I looked at it and pondered every time I went into the garage. 
I decided to do some measuring. The side rail plus two 3 inch boards were exactly the width of a full size headboard. 
I spent about a day brainstorming types of posts. 
I looked at Jenny Lind style beds. 
I finally ended up doing a search for spindle beds. 
Bingo. 

The newel posts used on the green bed would be perfect. 
I searched online and found them at Lowes. The dimensions were perfect. It wouldn't have worked if I had to attach a top or bottom rail to the turned portion of the newel post. 
There was ample room for attaching the side rails to the post. 
The dimensions were all listed on the website. 
I could basically shop from home and pick them up at the store.  
They came completely smooth and ready for paint.  
I do not like sanding!

They were only $36.00 each. 

I took the bite guard off of the rail. 
I guess I've watched too many crime shows because I wondered if DNA was still evident after 22 years. 
How is it that my baby graduated to a big boy bed 22 years ago? 
   

I spent about two days painting everything. It was a trip trying to turn it every which way to get at all the cracks and grooves.

Once all the sides were painted, Bill and I had a consultation concerning the next step. 
I wanted to make sure he was thinking what I was thinking. 
We agreed that dowel joints were the best way to join the newel posts to the crib rails. 

This is where it could have all gone horribly wrong. 
I envisioned splitting rails or having things not level. 
In the end, after measuring and marking, my lipstick method checked my work. 
I put lipstick on the end of the dowel and lined it up to the newel post. The dot ended up in exactly the right spot. 

After eight hours in the pipe clamps, it was ready for a reveal.

I am thrilled.

I love the white.



I love the white headboard with the white wall. 
It provides texture and dimension. 

 I love the cottage, farmhouse look. 

I am completely content that at least one piece of the crib has been salvaged.
 I've never joined furniture with dowel joints before and I loved learning a new skill.
I'm also pleased that this idea came to me and that it wasn't all over Pinterest.
  There were tons of repurpose ideas for cribs.
There were tons of bed making tutorials.
There weren't any other crib makeovers like this.
You know what else I love about this?
I could easily make another one for one of the kids.
Thanks for stopping in and have a great day.
Katie  
Linking with,
Ms. Toody Goo Shoes.   
Between Naps on the Porch    
Savvy Southern Style   
From My Front Porch to Yours
Share Your Style 
Down to Earth Style   
Funky Junk Interiors  
Cedar Hill Farmhouse  
Amaze Me Monday
The Charm Of Home