A Box Of Fun For Thanksgiving

When my oldest couple kids were small there was no internet.

Well let me rephrase that, there might have been internet but I didn't have a computer, didn't know how to run a computer and I didn't want a computer.

My how times have changed!

Back then I had to dream up ways to be inventive either by something I saw in a magazine at the check out line, or the old fashioned way......word of mouth.

If my ideas were for throwing a kids party of some kind, then I also had to source out supplies for my vision.

I might not have had a computer to get those ideas from, but I did get tons of mail in the way of product catalogs.

Great Grandpa Herbs Vintage Toy Box

Great Grandpa Herb wasn't a handy man. 

I remember hearing that often, but it didn't mean he didn't putz around in his garage fixing things.

He could bowl a 300 with ease, sink a golf ball for a hole in one farther than your eye could see, and he was strong as a horse.

State Of The Union Address

State of the Union Address?

Of course what I really mean is the state of the blog address, I just couldn't resist a tiny bit of presidential talk with the election coming up.

Besides, my blog is in by far better shape than the union!

It might seem like I've been sluff'n with no recent project posts, and I assure you that is the truth, that yes I have been sluff'n.

For someone who has had jars of paint on her dining room table for the past three weeks I'm sort of at a loss for what I've been getting done.  In fact it looks to me like I've been getting a whole lotta nothing done.

There is one project started that with any luck will be done this weekend.

This big black 50 year old toy box.

$3.00 Halloween Banner Glittered Up

A normal Fall usually sees me making spooky preparations for Halloween, even if it's just a fake raven with an eyeball dangling from it's mouth or a few carved pumpkins.

And some years, like this year, I use whatever is handy just to give the illusion that Halloween is right around the corner. 

(What that really means is I'm too lazy to look for the orange and black bins that house the appropriate October 31st decorations).

$10 Pallet Topped Side Table

Once upon a time I picked up a side table at a garage sale because I thought it was interesting.

If I recall correctly the lady told me her son or husband had put the table together from other parts of tables and spare wood.

She was sort of apologizing for it, but those facts just made the table more interesting to me, no apology necessary.

Wooden Paint Drag For Paint Layering/Distressing

Recently Carlene from Organized Clutter did a post about a product called a layering block. 

I had never seen or heard of such a thing before she introduced it.

I was intrigued.

I was also not near a craft store at the precise moment I wanted to try the product, so I made do instead.

Making do meant making one.

I'm calling mine a wooden paint drag because the wood block needs to be pulled across the item to give it a distressed look. 

It's done with paint and without sanding.

Maple Syrup Tool Tote, Thrifty Style Team

I've got a thing for totes, and for being thrifty.

Metal ones, wood ones, ones with wood and metal, and especially free or cheap ones, which I like to refer to as the "thrifty" ones.

I picked this one up at a garage sale a couple years ago.  It was filled with tools, which makes sense because it's a tool tote, duh Bliss.

Readers Share Their Painted Door Mats

In July I decided to try my hand at painting a faded but otherwise intact oversize front door mat. 

The mat was a more expensive one that didn't last any longer than the cheap ones, and I didn't want to toss it out so figured I had nothing to lose. 

My mat would have actually looked better if all the color had worn off leaving it a solid  looking gray rather than the half worn off look it had going on.

But painting it worked, and I was very happy with the outcome.  You can see the whole easy process by clicking here.

I didn't know that posting about my door mat was going to inspire others to break out a sponge and give it a whirl, but it did, and I'd like to show you some of the door mats that readers brought back to life.

Rootbeer Mini Keg Turned Canister

Fusion Mineral Paint has some new colors, and I'm a lucky duck to get my webbed feet on some.

13 colors total, and I headed straight for the orange.

I've been waiting for something with orange, as well as a green that is less bright or emerald-ish, because you know... I don't often use bright colors even though I like them.

Whipping Up September Thrift Store Decor

Thrift Store Decor is all about taking an inexpensive thrifted item and incorporating it into your decor.

You know, like taking a ten dollar gadget and making it look like a million bucks......or thereabouts.

Just for the record I don't own anything worth a million bucks, and if I did I'd sell it.

Sometimes I'll find an item and rearrange it's aesthetic with paint.

And sometimes all I've got to do is dust it off and bring it home, which is the case with Septembers Thrift Store Decor.

Whipping Up September Thrift Store Decor

Thrift Store Decor is all about taking an inexpensive thrifted item and incorporating it into your decor.

You know, like taking a ten dollar gadget and making it look like a million bucks......or thereabouts.

Just for the record I don't own anything worth a million bucks, and if I did I'd sell it.

Sometimes I'll find an item and rearrange it's aesthetic with paint.

And sometimes all I've got to do is dust it off and bring it home, which is the case with Septembers Thrift Store Decor.

Fusion Fever Concludes With Homestead Blue And A Custom Mix

If you've been following along then you know for the last few weeks 

I've had Fusion Mineral Paint Projects fever.  

fever

noun fe·ver \ˈfē-vər\

: a state of excited emotion or activity

This wasn't the kind of fever that makes a person sick, nope this was the kind of fever that gets the creative juices flowing, and might just have sparked a Fall painting frenzy for me here at the ranch.

Fusion Mineral Paint Grays

Fall is approaching, kids are back to school, and I told you that my fever for all things Fusion Mineral Paint wasn't going to end just because summer was coming to a close.

Today I'm showcasing two more bloggers and their Fusion painted projects.

My hot summer fever might be cooling off, but my temperature goes right back up when I see what my fellow painters create.

Tones For Tots Speckled Frog and Little Piggy

Not only do I have an end of summer fever for all the Fusion Mineral Paint projects I see, but in this 5th post I'm running extra hot for anything that uses colors from the Tones For Tots line.

Fusion Mineral Paint with My Salvaged Treasures and Team Sutton Designs

In the past three posts I've mentioned I've got this fever, and quite possibly this fever could last not just for the rest of summer but into Winter and beyond. 

It's Fusion Mineral Paint Fever and I've got it pretty good.

For the end of summer I'm introducing you to blogs who use Fusion Mineral paint just like I do.  These are non sponsored posts, and these gals aren't slackers like I've been this summer.

When it's cold and snowy outside I'm going to be wondering why I didn't paint more this summer while it felt good to be outside.

My friend Betsy from My Salvaged Treasures, has painted a project or two and inspired me countless times - COUNTLESS TIMES I tell 'ya twice because it's worth repeating.

Fusion Casement With Funky Junk and My Patch Of Blue Sky

Have you caught the fever yet?

This is the third installment of Fusion Fever.....

Fusion Mineral Paint fever that is.

Things are really heating up with two projects from Fusion Mineral Paint in Casement.

I've gone through my fair share of the neutral warm white that is Casement.  In fact it is such a go-to shade of mine that I panic if my jar starts to get low.

Little Piggy Pink With Q is for Quandie and I Restore Stuff

I'm back with some more high heat, I've still got my FEVER!  

Fusion Mineral Paint Fever.

Call it painting fever, call it a hot fever, call it a flushed face, whatever you want, but it's all about Fusion Mineral Paints and the ladies that share the same love of this paint brand that I do.

I mentioned in the first fever post with Homeroad and Orphans With Makeup, that these are not sponsored posts, I'm just burning to introduce you to some other blogs and their Fusion Mineral Paint projects.

My fever is real.

This post is all about the pig.

The oink.

And a couple Tones For Tots projects in Little Piggy.

Fusion Paint Projects By Homeroad and Orphans With Makeup

Go get a thermometer and take my temperature!

This post has Fusion Fever.

Fusion Mineral Paint Fever that is.

fever

noun fe·ver \ˈfē-vər\

: a state of excited emotion or activity

I am definitely in a state of *excited emotion* marveling at the pieces of painted perfections I'm going to share with you, all using Fusion Mineral Paint.

As the last bits of summer fade I'll be highlighting some Fusion paint projects each week and the bloggers who create them.

These are not sponsored posts, I'm just sharing the awesome works of my painting partners in crime who also happen to use Fusion, my paint of choice.

So while little 'ol me may have been slacking this summer, these ladies have been killing it with their paint brush.

Oh Hail!

This is a long post.

I'm not in the mood to do any two or three part'ers, in fact I might be downright cranky lately.

If you stopped in today to see the latest dresser I painted you will be disappointed.  My apologies to both you and my sponsors, but you'll have to get over it.  And if you don't want to read a few condensed real life chapters in the book of Bliss Ranch without pretty DIY photos, well then -  auf Wiedersehen, adiós, and sayonara.

Everyone knows that life comes with ups and downs, major and minor crisis's, and then there are the things that are really nothing more than an inconvenience and a pain in the butt.

This is a post about nothing more than inconveniences and pains in the butt.....and maybe a silver lining.

For those inconvenient things that are just more of an annoyance I am pretty able to see the humor and make a little lemonade.  Just not the kind of lemonade Beyonce makes. 

This is where I announce there is no need to leave pity comments like I'm soooo sorry you have to deal with this.  The truth is - no one is more annoyed than me that I have to deal with these messes - it's all gonna pass - and it's not a big deal in the overall picture of life, so lets laugh about this schmidt shall we? 

Reloved Mirrors, August Thrift Store Decor

I'm not sure how it's already time for August's Thrift Store Decor, but it is.

We're in the dog days of summer.

Why is August referred to that way anyhow?

Maybe it's because by August folks have grown weary of the heat and practice more of a dogs life just laying around doing a lot of nothing?

I can't say I've been doing a lot of nothing, but I sure haven't minded taking the easy route on a few things.

Like mirrors for the Jack & Jill bathroom remodel.

Hanging Laundry Hampers

There is a Jack & Jill bathroom shared by a certain five and eight year old, and 'ya know.... they wear clothes and those clothes need a resting place before the duds hit the suds.

Not that I know a thing or two about dirty clothes - although there were at least a few of my six kids that did actually make it a habit to wear clean ones.

Desserts From Pinterest - Two Winners

Like I do every time I start a post about food I must once again announce....

If you are just joining me here at Bliss Ranch, what that means is I've cooked and baked more than my fair share, but when the food is done I want to get right to the tasting, and while you won't usually find me taking pretty photos of my grub, it doesn't mean I don't know how to cook.