Paint to the rescue, old lampshade/new look

I cleaned this old lampshade as well as I could but some of the spots and stains just wouldn't come out.

I tried covering it with spray paint.

I started with liquid acrylic paints and a size 0 paintbrush.

A few basic brush strokes in red, yellow, blue and green combine to make this cheerful border.

I can't wait to see how it looks back on the lamp!

White Flowers from the Front Garden

2 of the flowers came from my sister in law but the rest are from my garden.

One of my sister's made this vase and I love it both for the design on it and the fact that it's heavy enough that it almost never blows over no matter what the weather. I also love it because she made it for me.

As you can see a lot of the bulbs I planted last fall made it fine through the winter.

My drawings weren't  going very well so I ended up using them to write letters on for a couple of elderly aunts that like to see what I'm working on.

It was a lovely experience for all of us. After such a long, long winter it's great to have some sunny days and warm weather.

The mess in progress

We do a little bit out here every day that the weather is good enough for it.

Progress is slow but we're really enjoying it...so are our families and our neighbors.

Why rush? We really don't care what anybody thinks, the whole point is just to relax and enjoy ourselves which I'm happy to say we've got down to an art.

The flowers out front

The Summer Studio

This little basket fits nicely on the seat of my walker and holds outdoor paints, brushes, a pitcher of water, rag and a paint tray.

 This chair was cute painted red but I couldn't resist adding a bit more color to it. 

I'm starting to like it better already and I plan to make the border around the edge of the mesh into red and white checks to match the dishes and table linens I'll be using this summer. Will I stop there? Keep reading and watching to see what else happen with this project.

Goldfinches

Pink Tulips and Ivory Daffodils

This doesn't look like much now other than to roughly mark the area that I want turned into the new flower bed here. They're also handy  for cutting and I resist the urge to bring too many into the house so that I can let guests cut and take fresh flowers home with them.

I'm planning a gravel area with plants and flowers that will run from just in front of the tulips and go back past the pine tree. I'ts going to be a long time before I can afford  to do that but  looking at the flowers here give me hope that it will happen some day.

In the meantime we're all enjoying them, aren't you?

New tulips and lilies along with violets from Grandma make this garden fell wonderful, you can almost feel the generations of love that have gone into it.

Purple Tulips

Arbor Photos

3 color,2 brushstoke small outdoor table

I came up with a design for this table that incorporates all the colors of my other lawn furniture to "tie it all together".

This couldn't be easier. It only takes 3 colors and 2 different brush strokes.(dots and commas)

The Front Garden

There are birds living in 2 of the birdhouses on the arbor and there seem to be babies in one of them so it's fun to watch all of the activity there and listen to them.

One of the things the birds seen to like is having a pool by the house and an assortment of feeders a few feet away.

I transplanted some of the violets from the backyard and love the fact that they came from a grandma over 30 years ago and have been taken along wherever we go ever since.

 Here are a few of my new favorite tulips.

Quite a contrast to the old ones which remain tangled in the rosebushes. That's been going on for 12 years now and I never quite get them all dug up and sorted out.