Touring St. Paul, Part 1

I suppose you think all I do is sit home and upcycle, repurpose or paint old ugly pieces of furniture?

No, sometimes I hit the road to see what I can see.

If last week was mosaic week at the Ranch, this week would be Mid West week.  

*I need to add a disclaimer right here...... many of my photos are drive by's.  Brawn doesn't pull over in the city just so I can take a photo, which is hard anyway on a freeway right?  So I just kept my mouth shut (for the most part) and snapped through the windshield.

So back to St. Paul.

Stained Glass Mosaic Tray

I mentioned in my last post that it's mosaic week at Bliss Ranch.

The first project {here} was like stormy seas and this one is like a sunny day at the beach.

If I had any sharks we would have shark week too, but I'm fresh out.

All I've got is shards.... of glass.

I know, lame pun - just humor me.

Stained Glass Cook Book or Ipad Stand

It's shaping up to be mosaic week at Bliss Ranch.

I finished up a couple projects that graced my dining room table for a couple weeks.

If you spend any time on Pinterest or reading blogs like Homeroad, you know exactly what a trivet ipad holder is.

Bliss Ranch Takes a Turn on the Blog Tour

Angie over at Knick of Time invited me to participate in a tour around blogs - the proper introduction would be a Blog Tour, and it's sort of a "what makes you tick" type tour.

Angie passed the torch to me, so click over to check out her tour, then you can learn everything about her creative mind and what makes her tick.

And creative she is, so there is a LOT to learn!  She ticks a lot as well as tocks, hence her blog name, Knick of Time.

How about a piano turned into a desk?

Piano Desk 

Best Burgers?

Bliss Ranch has this gig over at Kirb Appeal - sometimes-usually-but not always - once a month.

I get to write stuff and I don't have to create a new project or even use any pictures, but I throw some in for visual interest and for Fiona.

Habit Burger

July's post, that really was done in August, is about burgers.

Huffington Post had an article about the best hamburgers around.  My pick came in at #2, and I don't think some even belonged on the list.

But different taste-buds for different folks, right?

Stop by Kirb Appeal and bite into my post to find out who was #1. 

Stargazer Lilies

I am sort of an accidental gardener.

About 5 years ago I picked up this bag of mystery flower bulbs, buy one get one free.  They were only .99¢, and I figured if they didn't grow or if I killed them, I wasn't out much coin.

At that time I really wasn't sure what a lily was, nor did I know there were over 100 different varieties.

Projects and Pillows

August is just about here.  Seems I spent so much time waiting for it to warm up that now Fall is right around the corner.

But I'm not done working on summer projects outside, in fact I've barely got started!

If I said my patio was a bit blah it would be accurate.  Sure, it's nice, peaceful, has lots of things to do, but it has almost no color.

There are lots of stones and natural elements, but nothing vibrant and happy looking other than some potted flowers I'm surprised I have kept alive.

This photo is from last year.  I hung the buckets again but I planted hostas in them instead of flowers because we have an over abundance of hostas.

Throw Back Thursday with Peter Alsop CD's

When my older kids were little it seemed appropriate on occasion to turn off my AC/DC or Queen and tune into something a bit more kid friendly.

Not sure that really worked, or mattered much, since when a certain 6 year old was 3 he walked around singing We Will Rock You.

And I'm also not sure why I thought kids had to listen to kid songs.

When I was seven I wasn't listening to Mary Poppings sing about spoonfuls of sugar.  I was listening to how Mick Jagger couldn't get no Satisfaction and working on being a California Girl for the Beach Boys.

Pink Play Kitchen Transformation Details

Last post I introduced you to a nightstand turned play kitchen, (you can see the pretty pictures {here}), and I thought it was so stinking cute I inserted pictures of the finished product without even a before photo of the nightstand.

Today I'm going to remedy that.

This is the before and after, in all its' basic nightstand glory...

Maison Blanche Debutante Pink Play Kitchen

Let's see now... I posted about plans to make a play kitchen back in March.

I included crazy cute ones from my Pinterest board for inspiration.

I had been stalking cast off entertainment centers and nightstands, but ultimately it needed to be compact in size, so nightstand won.

Plus I got a two'fer - two nightstands for a song.