Don't pick fights!

I don't know if Smokey will ever learn...He got in a fight with a stray and had a huge infected sore above his eye and one in his ear. Poor guy--I could just imagine that cat having him by the eye and ear and not letting go! Apparently this isn't his first fight. When he came here, his ear was folded back as you can see in the photo. He is so much better in this picture. It was taken a couple of weeks ago so he is well now, just has a little bald spot above his eye where he is growing back some hair. I'm trying to trap the stray to get him fixed without much luck. I had a virus and was sick for over a week, couldn't even get out of bed for a few days! When I woke up with a temp of 103, I figured I better get myself to the dr. I'm better now, but you can really get behind in just a few days, can't you? I'd love to take a hint from Little Bit (below), but just don't think I have time to lie in the yard right now. Maybe soon.....

Oh, hoping to get the new countertops sealed this week so I can get the sink installed this weeked!!

Ceiling Fan Makeover

As I promised, here is one of my projects for my studio. I really, really wanted to find a vintage chandelier & spray paint it hot pink for my kitchen. I looked & looked and just never found one like I wanted. A while back I bought this inexpensive white (boring) ceiling fan at wal-mart. After I got it, I never really loved it. I tried to sell it on craigslist and never could, so I decided to use it. I only paid $20 or $25 for it, so I couldn't really do too much damage, I figured. I took it apart and spray painted the metal parts with Antique Bronze spray paint. Well, first I primed it and I should have sanded it. But it should be okay since it will just be hanging there. ;) I painted the blades black, then did a top coat the color of my cabinets, a kind of putty color, then I sanded & distressed them. I used the same globe that came on it when I bought it. Then, I got a round mirror that I bought at Salvation Army many years ago for $5.00. I broke out the mirror and luckily it has a backing on it. I painted it all black, then the color of the blades and antiqued it too and used it as a ceiling medallion. I was pretty proud of myself for even remembering I had that frame!! A little secret--the frame is plastic. But you can't tell after the paint. I love how it turned out! I really wanted to redo my ceiling with pallet wood, but my husband would have had to do all the work and he didn't think it would work out. :( Maybe some day we can do that.

I can't find the exact picture of the fan before the makeover, but this is pretty much the same except for the globe. It was just all white & shiny.

Related articles

Studio update

Baby shower tables

Ceiling Fan Makeover

What I've been up to

Lots of things have been going on and my computer was down and I couldn't even blog about it! ;) I had a virus on Saturday. I spent the night at Momma's and didn't get home until Sunday night, so I tried to work on it myself Monday. Finally I took it to be fixed and brought it home Thursday. $195 later & it still wasn't working right. I worked on it for a few more days and I'm back in business now!!

I took pics of my niece and her date for the prom. That was fun, but I can't believe how grown up she is now. It seems like just yesterday we were having a tea party at her little table I painted for her. (I even got her some vintage Moss Rose dishes for tea parties!) I posted more pictures on my facebook page at www.denisewhitephotography.com. I also have some pics of my nephews' birthday parties. One is 5 and one is 2 now.

I spent the night with Momma & Daddy while Jackson was there and we colored eggs. We found an egg coloring kit with monster stickers. They were pretty fun and I even got a pencil and added mustaches and eyebrows to some of mine. Jack loved them so much, he didn't want to eat them. On the way home he said, "wouldn't it be awesome if I had an egg collection?" I figured that meant he was starting with our Easter eggs. haha!

All the kitties are good...the outside ones (like Luke in this photo) are glad spring is here so I'll be outside more! I have some plants started, like tomatoes, squash & herbs just waiting to be put in the ground. The studio is coming along and I'll share some photos of that process soon. We are still working on the kitchen, but its the last room to finish. I'm really  looking forward to moving in!!

Be sure to check my website at www.thecatspyjamaspatterns.com. I'm having a sale on all my original patterns. 25% patterns or epatterns. I know its time to start thinking about Spring shows and getting new designs for your customers!

Update on painting!

Had to cancel the last auction & relist it. It is exactly the same, it just has PHOTOS now!! So, the new link is below...thanks!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=281085933756

Breast Cancer Awareness painting

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=281085891473

I painted this  picture for a Breast Cancer Awareness event a couple of years ago. I found it the other day and thought I'd give it an update and list it for sale with 25% going Susan G. Komen for the Cure Chattanooga. Please take a look and let everybody know...the money will go directly to them once someone pays. I always love to hear you feedback too--comments or emails are welcome. Click here  to bid!

And Happy Easter to everyone! Hope you get to dye lots of colorful eggs, my favorite part of decorating for Easter. ;)

Here I am!!

I knew it had been a while since I'd written on my blog. But today when I looked back, I couldn't believe the last time I wrote was Oct. 8. So I apologize for any of you who have been wondering about me!! We've had a lot going on--of course all the holidays, birthdays, remodeling my studio (still!) and we lost our 17 year old kitty Mr. Spock. I spent a lot of time taking care of him last fall and into the winter. He died a couple of weeks before Christmas and I guess I'm still adjusting to being without him after so many years.

I was thinking that since we are doing a lot of remodeling and DIY projects, maybe y'all would like to see that here on my blog. Let me know your thoughts--you can comment here or send me an email. I do some updates about my etsy, magazine articles, etc. on facebook if you want to follow me there, but I will try to include them more on here now. I have had some projects in Create & Decorate & in Prims magazines if you have been watching for those. I have new patterns & supplies at www.thecatspyjamaspatterns.com I started dying my own wool curls, so I have some new colors available. I have new artwork at www.thecatspyjamas.com too. I've been doing more paintings lately....

We are SO CLOSE to having my studio ready on the inside! I think my husband may have gotten a little carried away in the kitchen. I was thinking we could just paint the few cabinets in there now and put shelves on the one bare wall. He was on a job and saw someone had thrown away some cabinets. We were at Home Depot one night to look at some sinks because I HATE the sink that was in here and I wanted to pick out a sink and faucet. (The faucet was worse than the sink....) While I was looking, he mentioned there were cabinets and a sink. So we took off to look and the sink actually looked really good and so did the cabinets! It was really cold, so we went home, got bundled up, cleaned out the van and got all the cabinets, sink and can you believe it had a good faucet on there too? Maybe not the one I would have picked, but it still looks good. The sink & faucet are practically new. We got a set of 4 big cabinets to hang on the bare wall. The two in the middle have glass, the other two are open. Then I got a smaller set of 4 to go above my desk, one base cabinet that fits perfectly in a spot where we didn't know what to put there and another that my husband made an island bar out of, with casters so I can move it around. After that, he built more cabinets--corner cabinets, shelves, cabinet for my broom, mop & trash can. I finally had to say I thought that was plenty of shelves. Ha ha! He still has to make doors, then I can paint them! Then I talked him into making me a wood counter. We've made light fixtures, fireplace from old wood, made over the front door. We've just been so busy. As soon as I can, I will get some pics on here for you to see what we've done so far. I am looking forward to getting in here to work, then of course, getting outside for some landscaping and gardening projects!!

31 Days of Halloween

Well, I had this bright idea of having my own "31 Days of Halloween" and my husband didn't even disagree with it! A different Halloween show/movie every night. I want to do some Halloween/fall things to, but not necessarily every night. So on the first night, we had homemade vegetable soup in the crock pot and caramel apples. I made hot chocolate to drink while we watched Hocus Pocus....my husband fell asleep before the movie was halfway over! The second night we watched The 'Burbs and we both fell asleep...it took us 4 nights to get that movie watched! I watched Monster House with my nephew on the way to a reunion on Saturday. Sunday I spent the day taking pics and visiting with my sister and my new niece. I have a new movie coming tonight and thinking I'll do a Pumpkin Pie. Here are a few of my favorite Halloween movies. I subscribed to Netflix and I have way more than 31 on the list:

1. The Great Pumpkin/Charlie Brown

2. Monster House

3. Hocus Pocus

4. Frankenweenie (the old one--can't wait to see the new one!)

5. Nightmare before Christmas

6. Young Frankenstein

7. Ghostbusters

8. Edward Scissorhands

9. Beetlejuice

I will watch some scary ones, but I really prefer the fun ones, especially Tim Burton stuff!

Some fun ideas for Halloween/fall:

*Hayride

*Haunted House

*Caramel Apples

*Pick out/plan Halloween Costumes

*Sunday Drive to look at and/or photograph fall foliage

*Visit a Pumpkin Patch

*Bake a Pumpkin Pie

*Roast Hot dogs

*Roast Marshmallows & make smores

*Make Popcorn balls

*Make popcorn & watch an old scary movie (The Blob, anyone?)

*Tell Scary stories around a bonfire

*Decorate your porch or yard for Fall or Halloween

*Visit a store and try on masks

*Make your favorite soup in the crock pot (ours is potato soup) when it starts to get cool

*Paint each other's faces

*Melt caramel in crock pot and have apples ready to dip with extras to dip them in after the carmel (mini chocolate chips, nuts, crushed candy corn, pistachios would be soooo good)