The North End Loft

Jul 13, 2012

Friday Finds

I made a new blackboard and on it I wrote

The Dog Days of Summer

My husband promptly informed me that technically the dog days of summer don't begin until August. (Thanks, Hon.) So I changed it to

A Prelude to

The Dog Days of Summer

It feels like the Dog Days of Summer when all you want to do is find a shady porch and lay down under it. Or in our human case, lay down on it.

In spite of the heat and long lazy days (of July), people are still energetically creating wonderful projects.

Erin at Rare and Beautiful Treasures turned her old dark and carpeted beach cottage staircase into this bright and cheerful one.

Jesselle at Oh for Sweetness Sake shares a tutorial for making these adorable rick rack flowers. Jesselle's a new blogger this year, like me, so I hope you'll pop over there and say hi. I think you'll be glad you did.

At On Sutton Place, Ann doesn't just make darling pillows for her beautiful front porch. She makes reversible darling pillows for her beautiful front porch. She's just so smart! Visit Ann to see the rest of her cute summery front porch.

This pretty grouping of flowers in a tool caddy is from Design Happens. I only recently learned that one bouquet from the market will make a bigger statement spread out in small containers grouped together like this. It really stretches your flower budget.

I've always loved brightly colored oil cloth, so I was smitten by this oil cloth covered sewing table made by Erin at Carolina Country Living. Visit Erin to see the rest of her awesome craft room.

These cute little salt and pepper shakers are made from little jelly jars. How cute is that?!! See how-to at the Sweet Paul Blog.

I pinned this incredibly fun and imaginative PVC Pipe Carwash project to My Grandchildren (one day :) Pinterest Board. Michelle at The Scrap Shoppe has a very well-written and well-photographed tutorial to make this. This sure makes me want to be a little kid again.

Yvonne at Stone Gable sets the prettiest picnic blanket and packs her pasta salad in pretty jars. Terrific idea!

Another great idea: watermelon on a popsicle stick! Jo-Anna from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs made these for her daughter's tenth birthday party. To see the rest of her darling party, visit Jo-Anna.

My husband just took our Friday Night Pizza out of the oven. Perfect timing.

Thanks, Hon!

Happy Friday, everyone.

Have a great weekend and stay cool!

Fire Season

As I sit here preparing my Friday Finds post at my loft desk this afternoon, branches from the 90' tall Locust Tree in my backyard are falling past the window out of the corner of my eye, and I can hear others hitting the roof above me. We're having another hot dry gusty summer wind storm that's ripping the branches off my trees and trashing my yard.

And Idaho is on fire.

Literally, on fire.

National Interagency Fire Center Boise, Idaho

This is a map of all the wildfires burning in the U.S. yesterday, and all those black circles clustered up in the left hand corner are the wildfires burning in Idaho. Pretty scary map. The National Interagency Fire Center is based in Boise for a reason; we have a lot of fires in this area every year. But this is a lot, even for here.

So this wind storm is bad news for more than just my trees.

The big slow booming tanker planes fly low over our house from the Fire Center near the airport south of town heading to the forests and mountains all around us. The valley is white with smoke, and it smells like a campfire outside.

A very huge campfire.

A campfire the size of Idaho.

Jul 10, 2012

Old Painted Milk Can

A few months ago, I shared this old black milk can and asked your advice about what the heck to do with it. This milk can was a gift from my husband via his parents. It's about three feet tall and weighs about thirty-five pounds. It's not a baby milk can. It's the real deal from a dairy.

You see, I love old milk cans. Love them!

But not old black and red milk cans.

I love milk cans that are rusty and decrepit and kind of beat-up,
like this one at Blissfully Content.

I wasn't sure how to get from black and red to grey and rusty, so my milk can sat outside all spring waiting for me to get a clue.

I finally mustered up some courage, made a plan, bought some paint, and just went for it. After all, could my milk can really come out any worse-off than it already was?

No.

I started out by priming and spray painting the whole milk can satin nickle.

After it dried, I dry-brushed a little white acrylic paint on the larger surfaces, then I mixed some metallic copper and black on a plate and applied it, also with a dry brush, where rust might develop naturally. I used the rusty milk can in Blissfully Content's photo above as a guide. Finally, I sealed it all with an outdoor waterproof sealer.

These are the products I used.