Nothing Says Summers Here

Like grilling!

Baskets of Vege's for me and chicken for Mike. YUMMY!!!!

And for all of You who were wondering - that bird in the last post turns out is a female Baltimore Oriole. Sharen's buddy tracked it down for me.

What Bird?

For some reason this year we have different birds around the yard.
We get the usual Robins, cardinals, Woodpeckers, Blue Jays and Sparrows.
 Right now we have 2 geese that must have made their nest along the creek this year, because they have not flown further north and just seem to hang around the yards.
They sure like to squawk when the old, grouchy neighbor scream  and yells at them. (better them than me, right)

I have been trying to get pictures of the rare ones so I can find out what they are.
I have narrowed down 2 - One is a Eastern Bluebird and the other is a Nuthatch.

This one has me stumped! I caught this picture only because this sucker had been trying to get at the string I had tied for my Clematis to climb. I have been putting extra string and twigs out for it so it would come back. I haven't seen it again, but the goodies I leave are always gone.

I hurried and emailed these pictures to Sharen for John, one of her firefighters, to look at. He is a Birdwatcher!! He didn't know off the top of his head and is going to get back to me.

In the mean time he told me of this wonderful website to look up birds.
Whatbird.com and since then I have gotten the old binoculars out and walk around with a stiff neck looking up in the trees.

ROKU

I got my Mother's Day gift from Bryan and Mary. It was in a bag and I noticed right away my June to June calendar of the grand kids. Mary, you're the best! Of course I had to look all through it.
Bryan cleared his throat and said that there was another gift in there!
I pulled out this box - it was a ROKU.?.
No idea what it was but Bryan was very excited for me about it.
"You have to hook it up to your TV."
Couldn't help but groan. "No son, YOU have to hook it up to my TV."

Turns out this thing is amazing!!!

Back story on why on earth Bryan would buy me more electronics.
He calls me the other day and he could tell that I was preoccupied. "What are you doing?"
I AM WATCHING 'ALL MY CHILDREN' ONLINE.

Yes my favorite television show of all time is back! I stated watching this show when I was pregnant with Bryan and taped it for 33 years. Most everyday after dinner I would settle in and catch up with my friends from Pinevalley. Well it's back on Hulu and I am back watching it, sitting at my computer !!

No More - with this ROKU I can watch it on my TV. There is so much more to this thing, and eventually I will get to some of it. But for right now I am just enjoying my favorite TV program of all time again on my television. Thank You, Bryan!

I also had to go to my computer and download the song from their card. All Mothers should listen too - "The Perfect Fan" by the Backstreet boys. Never heard it before, but I love it!

I Don't Know....

What makes me think that I can do anything just because I want too.

If you have been to visit my Mother over at Linda's you have probably sat in the chairs that they had in the living room.
They were very comfortable and sturdy, but a bit outdated.

Linda didn't want them.

SO, of course, I said I would take them - paint them - recover them - and Bryan and Mary could use them in their basement.

 

Well, last week I finally went over to Linda's and picked up the chairs. When I was there Linda showed me some material that she had and wanted to know if I was interested in it.

Some of it looked like the drapes that hung in our living room when we were growing up. And, of course I thought that it would look amazing on the chairs, so I took it too.

 

My project this week was to  tackled the chairs.

What was I thinking?

It was not easy and I cried to Sharen that I was in over my head, but she kept telling me that I could do it, so I kept on going.

Took them to garage and sanded the heck out of them so the paint would hold.

Chair all primed with the seat cushion off. The padding was what made it so comfortable so I tried to save it for reuse. I wasn't too happy with the horse hair center, but I kept that too.

 

 

I took the vintage material down to Joannes thinking I would find a trim to match it. The cheapest cord that I could find was $6.99 a yard and I needed 5 1/2 yards. There was nothing that caught my eye for that price, so I put that on the back burner and head on over to Menards to find some paint to match.

I found a spray paint that I liked for the caning and then had the man behind the counter mix me a quart to match for the rest.

 I was ready to paint. It only took 2 coats.

 

That folks was the easy part. Now to put the chairs back together and cover them suckers.

 

 

I was thinking I would just cover the old fabric. No, it was nasty so I pulled it off and used it as the patterns.

 

I soon realize that I needed the right tools and I for sure did not have them, so back to Menards.

They didn't have the right staples for my antique staple gun so I just bought me a new staple gun that shoots nails too. Excited!

 

A light bulb went off over my head and I thought why not just get some rope for the trim. (Do you know there are so many different color of rope out there?). I bought some window sashing rope and welllaaaa!

 

Two beautiful chairs.

Roger can climb in them without tipping them over. Me and Lloyd can get in and out of the chairs with ease. AND they are still very comfortable!

 

Mom would be so happy that one of the grand kids have her chairs.

 

And I feel awesome that I DID it and now know that I CAN do things if I put my mind to it.

 

 

Surprise - Surprise

The BULLS win!!!

Luke told me he is happy too.