I got the newest Lowes Creative Ideas magazine and I am in love with this one. Make your own fabulous old world wall art with a rubber doormat as the stencil! Go figure, huh?


Here are the details:

Lowe’s List

Skill level: Beginner

Rough cost estimate: $110*

Rough time estimate: 1 day

• 2 poplar boards, 1 x 12 x 6**
• oil-based stain (Minwax Wood Finish, Dark Walnut, #45810)
• rubber doormat (24- x 36-inch, #132070)
• painter’s tape (#53140)
• spray primer (#45553)
• spray paint (Valspar, Porcelain, #282281)
• fast-drying polyurethane spray (Minwax, #45863)
• self-leveling picture hangers (#62958)
• appropriate fasteners for your wall type

*Does not include applicable taxes, which vary by market, or the cost of tools.

**Availability varies by market.

"Inspired by antique ironwork, this sophisticated piece is surprisingly easy to pull together. The spray-painted scroll pattern on the wood boards comes from an unexpected source—a rubber doormat."

Step 1: Ask a Lowe’s employee in the lumber department to cut each 1 x 12 x 6 in half, creating four approximately 3-foot-long boards.

Step 2: Sand the boards, and wipe clean. Wearing gloves, apply stain to the boards following the manufacturer’s instructions. Let dry, and repeat with additional coats if needed to achieve the desired finish. Allow to dry completely.

Step 3: Cover a flat work surface with a drop cloth, and place two of the boards side by side. Position the doormat face up and centered on the boards. Use painter’s tape to cover any exposed areas outside the border of the mat, including the boards’ side edges.

Step 4: Apply a coat of spray primer to the boards through the mat, spraying from straight above. Then apply two or three light coats of spray paint. Note: Heavy coats of paint will blur the stencil design. Allow each coat to dry.

Step 5: Remove the doormat, and repeat Steps 3–4 for the remaining two boards.

Step 6: Spray the boards with clear polyurethane. Allow to dry. Hang the boards using picture hangers and appropriate hardware for your wall type.

While we are honestly pretty tried and true Home Depot fans, I do adore this little magazine, it's free and they have some great ideas for indoors and out. Check it out and subscribe if that's your thing.

Just a tiny jab at the still wonky government... grateful for all the freedoms I do have, working for more for other people. Education is always the answer! Happy Fourth people - be safe out there... -e

I have never been a huge MJ fan. I didn't listen to much "secular" music when Michael was truly the KING of pop. Aah, how things have changed. *grin* I have since, however, married a man who is a true fan. Sean doesn't dance. Period. Unless, that is, he hears Michael on the mix. That fact alone has made me become a tiny fan. Dirty Diana, Blood On the Dance Floor, Billie Jean, Rock with You, these are the ones that I love. The faster, more upbeat dance-able songs.

I have rather abhorred the way that the press has covered Michael's death in the last days, with everyone who commented using it to plug their own latest musical ventures~ even his own father (though no shocker there.) However, I have had in my head and on repeat on my iPod a little Man In The Mirror for the last few days. I've had on the brain the changes we could see, we should see, we would be if we only tried a little bit. Though they were very different, it had me reflecting a little bit on the sometimes similar messages of Michael and another man. Go figure, huh?

We finally watched MILK this weekend. I've been thinking about it ever since. I was truly blown away by the performances and story in this film. I've been mulling over in my head how far we've come, and yet how far we have to go still. How in that time of free love, that there was SO much hatred and judgment towards adults who just wanted the same rights and freedoms as their fellow citizens. The scene that keeps coming back to me is where they are in the basement and Harvey challenges each of the members of his team to come out to everyone they know if they haven't already~ if they know one of us, they're more likely to vote in our favor. I can't quote it directly, but that was the gist. Who of us now doesn't know and LOVE someone who is gay? Who of you now doesn't know and love someone who is in a loving, healthy homosexual relationship, so much more loving and healthy than half of the straight relationships out there, and yet we are still denying them the rights that they could have? It blows my mind. I truly don't understand how people think.

Tonight we are going to a town hall meeting on health care reform. They are showing the Frontline documentary Sick Around The World. Then there will be discussion with these panelists:

• Dr. William Ferguson Reid
• Dr. Lerla Joseph
• Dr. Margaret Flowers
• Ms. Brandyn Keating
• Mr. Charles Robideau

I will be very curious how this line of thinking plays into the conversation with the panelists and audience. If you're in the RVA area, it's going to be at 7:00 at the VCU Commonwealth Ballroom.

Hands in line

Arms close to my side

I'm fighting tides of an ocean's undertow

And I figure I might not make it

And I'm taking empty

But seldom keeping

And the words retreat breathing histories into stories untold

And I unfold.



My hands are high

And I'm holding out, holding up

Because I figure that I just might make it

And I'm waking empty but seldom sleeping

And the words repeat breathing histories into stories untold

And I unfold.



Quality is what you see now in the corner of your eye.

Don't be surprised if you hear the bells ring

They form from the sky and they sound bong, bong, bong

And I'm holding up because I figure that I just make it.



And I'm waking empty but seldom sleeping

And the words repeat breathing histories into stories untold

And I unfold.
-Jason Mraz

So here's the thing. I think most of those blog awards are ugly. Not just not cute, but ugly. Tacky, crummy, I would never post them on my blog- fugly. So I saw one I liked on another blog, stole it, tweaked it, made it my own. Finally, an award that I would post on my OWN blog. *grin*

And the awards go to:

Drollgirl
This gal is the best- terribly funny, super clever wit. I adore reading her blog, she always makes me laugh and smile... Love it.

Pacing the Panic Room
I am waiting with anticipation for this fabulous family to have baby number two. I can only hope that when we have kids, Sean will handle it as well.

*e* Life is Beautiful
This crafty fabulous mother is what I truly aspire to be someday. She is my heart laid out. I dream of being the kind of creative, spirit-filled mother that she is.

KindnessGirl
I love this lady~ I haven't met her, though she lives close by. I feel like we should be friends but it's just not quite time yet. Our paths aren't laid across each other at this precise moment in time, they are still winding about... I love reading her words and have a heart for her passions...

Feeling a little lost lately- I really enjoyed this today. Hope it touches you even a little bit.

There have been times
when, after long on my knees
in a cold chancel, a stone has rolled
from my mind, and I have looked
in and seen the old questions lie
folded and in place
by themselves, like the piled
graveclothes of love’s risen body.

from R S Thomas - The Answer

This Old House has posted the list of this year's Best Old House Neighborhoods~ coming soon to a newsstand near you! And Richmond made the list- Church Hill specifically. Such an exciting little plug for RVA! I have to say that This Old House is not just a guilty pleasure for Sean- I sneak his magazine each month and look forward to the new season's houses just as much as he does. Click here to read more about Church Hill's write-up and check here to see if your neighborhood made the list!

PS- if you don't subscribe to the magazine, check out the site, you might just adore it like I do!

The Leader of the Band
by Dan Fogelberg

An only child alone and wild
A cabinet maker's son
His hands were meant for different work
And his heart was known to none --
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a gift I know
I never can repay

A quiet man of music
Denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once
But his music wouldn't wait
He earned his love through discipline
A thundering, velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand.

The leader of the band is tired
And his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument
And his song is in my soul --
My life has been a poor attempt
To imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy
To the leader of the band.

My brothers' lives were different
For they heard another call
One went to Chicago
And the other to St. Paul
And I'm in Colorado
When I'm not in some hotel
Living out this life I've chose
And come to know so well.

I thank you for the music
And your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go --
I thank you for the kindness
And the times when you got tough
And, papa, I don't think I
Said 'I love you' near enough --

The leader of the band is tired
And his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument
And his song is in my soul --
My life has been a poor attempt
To imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy
To the leader of the band
I am the living legacy
To the leader of the band.