Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

I had the wonderful chance to attend an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint workshop taught by Janet from The Empty Nest! If you are not familiar with chalk paint, it is not the same as chalkboard paint. It's a gift from the gods (or Annie Sloan herself) because of how easy it is to apply. It is a highly pigmented paint that dries very fast into the most beautiful matt finish. Unwaxed, it almost looks a bit chalky- hence the name. You can use it everywhere, on top of practically any surface! And here's the best part, most of the time you will not need to prime the surface. Janet took her time explaining the different types of finishes you can do to create varied looks. Everything from weatherd to old leather. The colors are gorgeus and are all compatible with each other so you can layer them. I mean really folks, it doesn't get any better than this.I'm so eager to start on my front door! French Grey with a cream trim. I'll let you know how it weathers outside! For more info on Annie visit her blog and if you live in Virginia, do take a class with Janet- she's really fun and knows her chalk paint techniques!

Happiness is { flying a kite }

We spent this past weekend with our wonderful friends at Bethany Beach and boy did we have a time of it! The weather was quite windy and the boys had a great time flying their kite. As it was the first weekend in May, there were not a lot of people on the beach yet so we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. I think we'll graduate from our Nemo kite to a more advanced one. (One that we can do tricks with) How did you spend Cinco de Mayo? Hopefully with lovely margaritas!

Imaginawesome

Imaginawesome is a sweet site by Garret Miller that I just stumbled across.  Using his super awesome talent, Garret reinterprets art that children have created and submitted to him into a more precise interpretation of what they drew. Instead of kids recreating art they have seen, it's the other way around. Have a look at some of the work he's done.

To have your child's drawing "imaginawesomed" you can follow this link! 

Happy Weekend

And so the week has come to a close and I hope you had the best week yet! I finally got the courage to post my first video webisode out into the big wide interwebs. It's not perfect and as my friends say to the first try at something, "it's the first pancake" but I'm happy I did it and am ready to tackle some more projects! Doing something really scary is not something I like to take on for many reasons but once I had, a huge relief swep over me! This got me thinking about a project I'd like to try for a year. I'll share my ideas next week but it involves doing something scary over and over and over again. Yikes! Till then, I'll leave you with this wonderful quote by Eleanor Roosevelt... "Do one thing every day that scares you." Or maybe just one thing this weekend...

Ginger Sparkler cocktail via

Webisode : How to make a placemat using a serger

I'm happy to share with you my first web tutorial! I've shown you how to make a very fun placemat using a serger (also known as an overlock) sewing machine. The whole project took about 20 minutes to do one and it was quite easy for a beginner. Please leave any questions you have in the comment section below and I'll be sure to answer them. Enjoy!