Our friends’ daughter’s wedding in Minneapolis.

Shea heads back to school in Halifax.  (I finished the afghan in the car on the way to the airport!)

My dad took a few family pictures for us before Sam and Shea headed back to school.

Summer over.  Time to return to school.  Martha’s first day of high school!

This summer I scooped up a cute little mid-century modern cupboard at a garage sale for a few bucks.  It was perfect as a place to drop keys when we came in the door.  However, it was only a couple of days into its new life when Wallace chewed up an edge and an entire corner!  (I think it was the 86th thing Wallace destroyed – something like that…!)  So what to do?  I picked up some wood filler and, with multiple layers, tried to fix the damage.  It looked pretty good but would need a paint job.  I had some leftover chalkboard paint, so that was that.  It still works as a place to throw keys and the little sliding doors protect a few pairs of shoes – from Wallace!

We had been to the big museums on previous trips, so this time we went to the Photography Museum.  And we went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.  I hadn’t been to a wax museum since I was a kid, so it took me back.

Martha and Robert

We spent some time shopping, went to a farmers’ market (best one I’ve ever seen!), found a few treasures at flea markets, and spent a little time at Times Square.

One to do on Dean’s list was a bike ride around Central Park.  The scary part was getting the rental bikes the 10 blocks to the park.  It was an adventure.  My bike basket fell off, spilling my purse onto 6th Avenue…  Once at the park, it was a great 2 hour ride!

Another to do for us was going to the Highline Park, built on an old elevated rail.

And of course, we had to take at least one jumping picture.  My dad is printing this in black and white, with the taxi in yellow, for our travel photo wall.

Mom picking Saskatoons

I also enjoyed an afternoon with my girls, getting pedicures and eating frozen yogurt on Main Street.

Shea, Martha and Meredith

And one of our favourite “staycation” activities is driving to Regina to Cinema Under the Stars on Wednesday nights.  We saw “The Wizard of Oz” (the original) a couple of weeks ago.  This past Wednesday was “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”  We just take our lawn chairs, snacks and some blankets, in case it gets chilly, and as soon as it’s dark, the movie plays in Victoria Park on a big blow up screen.  So fun!

Click here for the pattern.

Summer – time for a new door colour.  This time bubble gum pink.  I don’t know why I didn’t start with my favourite colour, but it was worth the wait!  I might not want to paint it again – ever!

We also have a front lawn at last.  Hopefully we will also have hedges some day – they have some growing to do – as does our ornamental crabapple tree, which is not in the picture but off to the left.

Summer 2011 we had a Tiffany blue door.

And our first door colour (summer 2010) was Paris green.  (I am so not missing winter!)

Go Kart

This pattern was inspired by an old photograph of me driving a go kart when I was about four.  Whoops – just realized that I forgot to put the little polka dots on my pants and a couple of other details – I’ll do that later…  I was in a hurry!!

]]> http://www.bobbysocksqc.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=428 1 http://www.bobbysocksqc.com/blog/?p=411 http://www.bobbysocksqc.com/blog/?p=411#comments Sun, 17 Jun 2012 05:28:37 +0000 paula http://www.bobbysocksqc.com/blog/?p=411 Last year I striped my hallway.  I never was very happy with it.  I kept adding more and more stripes, hoping I’d like it better and then finally decided to quit before it got worse.  Not sure if it was the colour-combo or the stripes themselves, but I knew it couldn’t stay.  A little while back I finally started deleting stripes.  It took me a few weeks, using a few minutes here and there.  First I had to sand the stripes.  Two coats of great paint later, I could still see stripes.  So I primed and put on another two coats of paint, this time flat paint.  I was now up to 5 coats, if you’re counting!  And you could still see some definition of stripes in certain lights.

I figured the only way to make the walls perfect, would be to have someone come in and replaster the walls.  But this was probably not an option so I hoped that my next plan – polka dots – would be enough of an attention-grabber that the stripes would virtually disappear.  And they did!

Polka Dot Hall

My original intention was to dot the walls from floor to ceiling, however, once I got started – and then stopped (using bits of time here and there), I kind of liked a bit of a haphazard look.  So I went with haphazard!  I can always fill in the rest of the dots later if I change my mind – or if too many people ask me “if it’s supposed to be that way” or “if I’m going to ever finish it…!”

Around the Corner with the Dots

The other day I was ironing and it hit me that my ironing board went with my new hall.  (I have had a thing for dots for a long while.  The other day I ran into one of my daughters at the greenhouse.  I was wearing polka-dotted pants and a polka-dotted shirt.  She gave me a look.  I said I liked polka dots.  She said, “That’s evident.” )  Well, now it’s more evident.  Maybe I’ll get a shot of me in some of my polka-dotted outfits in my polka-dotted hall for my next post.  (9 more days of school and then I’ll have a bit of time again!)

The Ironing Board Matches!

In case you’re interested, the walls are Chantilly Lace Aura by Benjamin Moore.  The dots are Folk Art acrylic paint in licorice.   I used a 4″ dotted stencil, purchased online, and a small foam roller.