The Dog Days of Summer

The dog days of summer are here at the ranch and so is party time with week #3 of Hot Fun in the Summertime.
  Miss Flibbertigibbet, Somewhat Quirky, Little Miss Maggie,  Bella Nest and myself have been having a blast seeing all the projects and ideas linked up every week.  Cruise on over to Bella Nest to see the features from last week.

My project for the week was a dresser drink station  and it's kept me hopping in blogland, so nothing crafty this week.  But I did take my camera around our yard to have a look at what's hot fun, and what's not fun in my corner of the world.  (By the way Mo the dog isn't dead he is taking a sun tan and drying off from the forced swim we gave him).

Here at the ranch the temperatures have been hovering in the 90's.  That makes for hot fun for sure and also qualifies for not fun.  We have had a few 100's and a few 80- somethings tossed in between the nine-oh's.  Keeping cool is a priority.

 Over winter we thought this thermometer was broke.  Now I'm not so sure.  

The numbers are all faded which works good to pretend it doesn't actually have a negative 60 mark on it.  60 below zero, and sadly with a windchill it has happened a time or two.  

I'll take the heat thank you very much.

As I was wandering around the yard I had one of those what the heck? moments when I realized I have quite a few thermometers.  I have two other ones in addition to these three.  I didn't know I had a mini collection, but I did notice almost all of them are within sight of another one. 

This thermometer is a Pottery Barn thermometer grouted in with some smashed china for sort of a Victorian mosaic.  It's big too, about 3 1/2 feet tall and standing about 5 feet from the Pepsi one hanging on the stucco.  Apparently I don't like to travel too far without knowing the temp.  Speaking of the temp, that was in the cool of the evening.   And while many of you might regularly hit that, if you live in a nice dry heat state the added humidity doesn't leave you wet and sticky.  We get humidity.  Wet & sticky = not fun.

 Something that is definitely not fun in 100 degrees, is climbing on the playground or digging in the hot sand.  I have to pull grass out of them both from lack of use.  

Someone must of been practicing how to be a sommelier.  

Can anyone tell me why there is a set of glass grapes in my sandbox?

 An empty rope swing qualifies as not fun in the summertime.

Soaking in a cool body of water on a starry night is big time hot fun in the summertime.  

Lake Minnetonka is a popular lake here.  

I picked up the sign at a garage sale and plunked it on the side of the spa as a joke.  

Grilling all summer lonnngggg is hot fun at it's tastiest.  

Tomorrow I am making manacotti on the grill.

Unused torches are not fun in the summertime, 

but this fall when it gets dark earlier we will light those puppies up.

Every spring we say "gotta knock down that old tree fort before it falls on 

someones head".  It's not fun anymore and dangerous.

As I walked around I counted 6 bird houses/feeders in close proximity to the house.
And I wonder why there is bird doo on the patio furniture????  Bird doo = not fun.

This squirrel feeder was hung at Christmas.  Brawn made it for the caboose, child #6.
I announced at dinner one night that it must even be too hot for the squirrels, I hadn't seen any at the feeder in a month.  No wonder - there is no food in it.  Not fun, for the squirrels anyhow.

The pressure washer was used on the deck in May.  People it's the middle of July.  Why isn't this put away?  We just keep walking around it like it's one of our summer accessories now.  Should I put a plant on it?  Seriously lazy, not fun.

I don't like starting out with good intentions in Spring only to have July already here and stuff on my list to tackle didn't get tackled.  Like painting these two milk jugs.  

I've had them for 30 years and they have never looked good.  

What would you like to see me do to these?  

Give me some good ideas and I will make these my next post.  Ugly milk cans = not fun.

These tomatoes getting ripe right outside my window are definitely  

hot tasty fun.

My window boxes are at least alive, if not huge and lush.
I have tried to keep them wet, and they like the humid air,
so hot fun is good for the plants if they are watered.

And what do you do when life hands you lemons?  Well 'ya make lemonade of course!

And we've had plenty of lemonade which is hot fun.

Staying by the water is the ultimate hot fun in the summertime 

and there has been plenty of this...........

Along with lots of that............

Why does everyone run away when they see the camera?

This is Clyde.  It's so hot he wants to come in where it's cool.

Get off my porch you pooping fowl.

Old Dresser Turned Portable Bar

Time for Part Dos of the dresser redo.  Also known as the project that almost drove Bliss over the edge.  (See the whole sordid affair of the dresser's before in Part Uno).

Dresser Redo Part Uno & Party LInk

I picked up this old dresser for FREE!

 I had no idea what to do with it because I no longer have room in the house for my dresser addiction, but it was FREE, how could I pass that up?

It was in pretty rough shape, kept in an old barn just rotting away with peeling veneer.

This is only part one of the dresser redo.  Or is it part two based on the teaser from before?  

Whichever, the dresser isn't quite done.  It needs some details finished up on it tonight with photos tomorrow, so the final reveal will have to wait till Saturday.  Call me a tease if you must.

Besides this post is really to give you the link to join the 

Hot Fun in the Summertime Party. 

Five blogs, five Fridays in July.  Link to one be seen on all 5.

 (Scroll to the bottom to link up your project).

But back to the dresser..... the veneer was bubbling up and peeling off in places.  I would have probably painted right over that because I'm too lazy to peel, but as soon as it was loaded off my vehicle Brawn started picking away at the veneer.  

He picked at the top and the drawer fronts and at that point I decided it was going to be a joint effort because he was making a mess.

There were a million other things Brawn should of been working on but he had an idea. 

An idea to replace a previous idea I had for something else I picked up.  He didn't have a vision, just an idea. 

And I didn't have a vision for his idea.  Yet.

One thing I knew, I didn't want to paint over the back of the dresser.  It had the name of the furniture company stamped on it.  So we taped it up to preserve it.

As I sat and watched Brawn pick away at the veneer I started to see the diamond in the stuff. 

I directed him with the power tools, after all he is the Brawn of the operation and I'm the brains right? 

For my vision the top needed to have a place for a container. 

Saw into it honey..... zzzziiinnggggg.

I decided it needed one less drawer. 

Can you cut some wood and turn the top space into a shelf?  

Anything for you beautiful.  (Yeah he calls me that, I think his eyesight is going).

I had to make a trip to the store.  I was trying to match the color of some boards on the patio.

That's the color we picked????  WTH???  That is NOT the color I was trying to match.

Boy did we get that wrong!
 

But we gotta use it anyway, too cheap to buy another. 

The artist formally known as Prince who hails from our land would no doubt be happy with the purple/pink color, however I was not.

The fastest way to get the dresser painted was to spray that bad boy with purple rain. 

And when we need something we can't find or don't have, we improvise.
 

No funnel?  Make one.

Coke bottle funnel.

It really wasn't planned that Brawns shirt was going to match the paint, but convenient nonetheless.

 That taped up spot on the back is some original lettering that was on the dresser.  I didn't want to cover it.

The purple rain dries a little less purple/pink, but I'm sorry that color is just NOT going to work.

Old wood that we used on our wood scrap art wall here, is put to good use again on the back and in the drawer.  

Looks like it's gonna be a giant bird house huh?

This stainless steel planter thing belongs in a black wrought iron holder that hasn't had any plants in it for a while, so it is getting repurposed for use with this dresser. 

Looks like now I need a new use for the black holder too.

 

Remember these crackle globes from one of my garage sale finds?

Three of them have become part of the dresser redo as well.

They are the coolest candle holders EVER!

And because it was hot in the garage that sweet man lugged the dresser inside to the entry way so I wouldn't have to sweat. 

I made a bit of a mess getting that purple/pink color to disappear, but it was worth it - I now love the color.

Purple pink no more - it now matches what we were trying to match.  

 

Stay tuned for Dresser Redo Part Dos, and while you are here...... link up for the Hot Fun in the Summertime party.  It opens at 8 pm tonight.

** See the finished dresser, part two {here}

Hot Party Features

Week #1 of Hot Fun in the Summertime has concluded.   Week #2 opens at 8 pm Thursday night. I'm suppose to pick the features.  Huh?  Me?  The one who procrastinates for.ever. has to pick within a few days?  Yikes!  How can I pick?  How many can I pick?
 
We had 90 entries.  Wow!  You guys are awesome, thank you so much for making the party a success.  So I did math, and I suck at math by the way, and I came up with the rule I could pick 9 features, that's like 1 feature for every 10 entries.  At my blog I'm the boss applesauce, and that's what I went with, (although I did count the mason jars only once even though it's two sets).  I also did some eenie meenie miney mo because a couple times I could not pick.  I guess the rules of this party thing is that I can't pick all 90 entries.

Here is a cute beach-stripe end table from TheUpholster'sWife.  

Nothing says summer more than the beach to this (old) California Girl.

I'm always looking for simple crafts that I can actually do.  

These little containers from TheDecoratingFiles are made from paper plates.  Helloooo, I have a cabinet full of paper plates,

and it's endless how you could decorate them.

CreativelyLiving took us for a walk around her yard.  Not only does she have an adorable little play house, she has this huge pergola to sit and sip a beverage of choice.  When you have a park at home to enjoy why go anywhere else?

Mason Jars are popular and versatile.  Is there anything they don't look cute with?

Kristy at 4theLoveofWood (Hi George!) shared these painted beauties in the color of summer.

 

I gotta mention these jars too from TheSimpleCraftDiaries

I am so gonna give both these jar ideas a try.

This armoire below didn't start out looking all pretty to hold towels.

SimplyVintageous made it over.

A bud vase garland as a new way to display all your fresh cut summer flowers?  This simple idea from Angie at KnickOfTime sparked some other ideas for me.  

Too bad I don't have any flowers though!

Shannon from FoxHollowCottage made a pool noodle wreath with flip flops.
Yeah, I'm copying this one, but I have to get to the dollar store first.

Stacey at EmbracingChange took this dresser and made it all stylish.  

I may try my hand at this style.

And last but not least I'm giving you a sneak peek at my next copy cat.  Yup, you heard it right here, I am copying this idea.  Might not be for a few weeks, but this will be the next furniture piece I do.  If you have not seen this dresser - so sorry - because it is Awesome with a capital A and it's right up my alley, with a lower case a.

From Becky at GenerationToGeneration

Grab your button everyone and come back every Friday in July.

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And now, because I can.........
if you don't know Kirby from KirbAppeal go meet her.  She freaking cracks me up.  Are you brave enough to post a dance video as you get ready to paint your living room?