7QT: Trompe L’Oeil Fireplace Project

My husband and I have been in Upstate NY since late June.  Four of our boys and their families came up here for a week in early July, but otherwise we haven't been with our gang--and I miss them.  On Sunday, we're heading down to VA to check on our house there, and to break up the long summer and see our kids and grandkids.  All five boys and their families will be there, and I'm extremely excited to reconnect with everyone.   

So I thought it was apropos to do a post about our VA house.

A little over a year ago, just after we’d just finished off our VA basement, we got a discarded wooden fireplace mantle from son #3 and his wife.  (A neighbor of theirs had done a renovation and was giving it away for free, and our kids liked it but didn’t have a place to use it in their new house.)  I love a good trompe l'oeil treatment about as much as anyone, so I decided to take that mantle and create a faux fireplace with a blazing fire in it.  Actually, this was something we had considered doing in the basement of our old house in NH, but we never got around to it.  

I  thought I’d post the step-by-step transformation of this mantle project here at the blog.  (I did this a while ago in an Instagram story—back before I deleted my account—so you might have seen it already.) 

TAKE 1

First step: paint in the gray "mortar" that will go behind the bricks.  (I’m sorry.  The first step was really “get husband to expertly mount mantle to wall.”  I forgot that part!  But as you can see from the first photo up there, he did a great job!)

TAKE 2

Add the bricks—using a template made by tracing the bricks on the side of our house!

TAKE 3

Start giving the interior a three-dimensional look

TAKE 4

Create white brick interior.  (Lots of measuring, and using a level!)

TAKE 5

Make an andiron pattern to trace; sketch in and paint two of them.

TAKE 6

Blacken parts of the interior bricks to look “sooty”; add logs in the grate.

TAKE 7

Now make it burn, baby, burn!  (Sorry, that’s a disco-era reference from the 70’s that young whippersnappers won’t even get, and now you know how old I am.)  I kind of wanted to leave it with the logs unlit (you know, so the grandkids would be safe playing near it—ha ha!).  But my husband definitely wanted a fire.

By this point, I was pretty happy with my faux fireplace, and it was essentially finished.   But the flames needed tweaking—they were a bit dull-looking.  So I added some color to enliven them, as well as some more details (such as red-hot embers underneath).

And there you have it: a fireplace safe for our grandchildren’s playroom.  It fills in an empty wall nicely and “warms up" the space considerably!

 

I had originally thought I would distress the bricks a bit, to make them look old, instead of keeping them this dark red.  But I liked the way it looked and decided to leave well enough alone.  (My middle son humorously suggested that maybe I should touch the bricks up a little bit every year that we live here, so they’ll "age" along with the house!  We shall see...)

For now, as far as this “fool the eye” project goes, c'est finis!  Now allez vous, head on over to Kelly's for more 7QT fun.

7 Quick Takes: This 'n That

Quick Takes is usually a Friday deal at This Ain't the Lyceum, and I'm a day early (for once in my blogging life!).  But I just really felt like writing today; and hopefully I can add this post to the link-up once it goes live over there.

1

I recently invited all four of my daughters-in law (who are practically my neighbors now), along with their combined 14 children, to my house for a luncheon/mother's day out/play date.  I had this fantasy that my husband and I could send the bigger kids down to the basement to play unsupervised and we could watch the toddlers and babies upstairs, even for a little bit, so the girls could sit at the dining room table together in peace.  You know, so they could relax and eat nice food and have some uninterrupted girl talk.  I even set the table all fancy for them.

Only three of them were able to come, because son #1's wife Regina was dealing with a stomach bug at her house.  (When there are 14 grandchildren aged 5 months to 7 years, it seems like someone is always sick.  Or at least that's the way it's been this winter.)

I love it that our home is in a central location for everybody.  Papa and Grammy's house is a great gathering place for our growing brood.  (As a sign my d-i-l Preciosa made for us says, it's "where cousins become friends.")

2

Remember how I said my fantasy was that the girls would be able to sit and chat in peace?  It wasn't entirely the case!  There were some little visitors in the dining room.  They were having serious FOMO, thinking their moms were getting a better deal than they were.  (But come on, Kraft mac 'n cheese at the kitchen table; what's not to like?!)

3

Our house in VA is ideally located, and it's very nice; but it's a good bit smaller than our longtime family home in NH was.  And our string of Pearls seems to be having new gems added to it all the time, so I'm anxious to get our basement finished off so that the kids have a big, safe area in which to play.

Not that the grandkids don't play in the basement already--they definitely do!  All the time.

As you can see, there are plenty of toys to play with down there, and there's lots of space (and we even had a full bath put in).  There's a couch to sit on, a table to draw at, and a TV to crowd around.  It's not bad, as far as basements go.  But I'll be happy when it is finally truly finished off--something we've been planning to do since we moved in two years ago.  The toddlers are starting to get a little too interested in investigating the dangers hidden in the storage space.  Not to mention Grammy's sewing area.

4

Speaking of sewing, I have been working on a special project for our oldest grandchildren, identical twin girls who will be making their First Holy Communion next month.  Their mom (knowing how much I enjoyed making christening gowns for all of our precious grandbabies) asked if I would be interested in making white dresses for their big day.  Would I ever!

The dresses are about 90% finished--I just need to sew in the zippers, put elastic in the puff sleeves, and then add some embellishments, like big satin bows and perhaps some pearl buttons.

Yesterday, I took one of the dresses over to the girls' house so they could try it on.  I wanted to make sure it fit and the length was okay.  "It's perfect!" cried Bonny Babe (the older twin, by a few minutes), twirling and looking like she was on a cloud.  How sweet was that reaction?  And when Cutie Pie found out that it was made of satin, she oohed and aahed.  "It's satin?!"  It was adorable.

I'm hoping these dresses become family heirlooms and get used by lots of granddaughters.

5

Speaking of heirloom garments (wow, my segue game is on point today), I have several special outfits worn by my boys when they were little that I put away many years ago to save for the grandchildren I dreamed I'd one day have.  It is such a thrill to see this sailor suit, worn by son #2 in 1985, being worn by his three boys, Junior, Jedi, and Topper.  (Thanks to my d-i-l Ginger, who put together this wonderful photo montage.)

6

Seeing our grandchildren wearing clothing once worn by their dads is pretty touching; but what is even more amazing is seeing how much they look like our boys did when they were wee lads themselves.

I recently came across a photo of son #4 that reminded me so much of his identical twin boys Pumpkin and Peanut (who have a triplet sister, Paquita!), particularly Peanut.  After I showed it to my d-i-l Braveheart, she sent me this side-by-side comparison that she'd made of our boy next to his boy Peanut.

What do you think of that resemblance?!  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?

7

I just have one last tidbit of information to share here (now that I've shown you how cute my grandchildren are and what lovely daughters-in-law I have):  My husband and I are taking a trip next week, to his favorite city...ROME!

He has been working as an airline pilot for over three decades, and flying internationally for much of that time.  He estimates that he's probably been to Rome about 200 times in his life; but these trips were working trips.  He would fly the plane over on the first day, have a one-day layover there, and the third day, he'd fly the plane back.  Over the years, he was able to see many of the city's treasures.  But he's never done it as an actual vacation.  And he's never done it with me.  Once our boys were mostly grown and I overcame my separation anxiety and fear of flying, I tagged along on a handful of his working trips to some beautiful European cities.  But I've never been to Rome.

It will be the adventure of a lifetime!  And you can be sure I'll be sharing pictures and stories about our trip here at String of Pearls when I can--and definitely on Instagram.  (I'll be like those friends who invite you over and make you watch their vacation slide shows...but the beauty is, you can leave any time you want--and I won't know, so I won't be offended!)

That's it for me.  Ciao!

(P.S. It's Friday now.  Here's that link to the link-up!)

7 QT: Refinishing Bigfoot's Chair

I thought I'd join the 7 Quick Takes link-up today, because I don't have time to write anything lengthy these days but here I can be quick!  Also, it's fun to attend a "get-together" (in a virtual reality sense, anyway) with other gals in the Catholic blogosphere whom I admire and whose writing I enjoy.

The link-up, as you probably already know, is hosted by Kelly Mantoan, of This Ain't the Lyceum fame.  (Kelly recently signed a book deal with Our Sunday Visitor.  Congratulations, Kelly!)

Okay then, here we go: I'm going to tell you a tale about a dining room chair that was once owned by Bigfoot.  That sounds like a tall tale, I realize, but I assure you it's absolutely true!  That is the nickname by which my dad was known, and what all of his grandchildren called him.

1

When I was in junior high, my mom found a treasure at an estate sale: an enormous antique oak dining room table with 10 matching chairs, and if I remember correctly, she got it for about $200.  She refinished the top of the table, but as a busy working mother of 5, she never got around to refinishing the chairs. Despite that, it was a beautiful set--solidly built, with exquisite carved details, packed with history.

This dining room set was used for many a family holiday dinner when I was growing up, such as this Thanksgiving (circa 1973 or 1974, when I was 15 or 16).  This is my dad, affectionately known as Bigfoot, toasting with his eldest daughter.  Dad is sitting in the only chair with arm rests, the only one big enough for a giant of a man such as himself (he was over 6'3" with size 13 feet).

2

When my parents downsized to a condo a number of years after that photo was taken, their tiny dining room could not accommodate such a large dining room table.  By then, I had 4 children (which was more than any of my siblings at that time) and a new house with a huge dining room, so Mom decided that the set should go to me.  (Woo hoo!  Just one of the many perks of having a big-ish family!)  I got the table, 9 chairs, and a matching sideboard.  The only piece of the set that I didn't get was Dad's man-sized arm chair.  He just couldn't part with it.

For the 26 years we lived in our NH house, this dining room set had a perfect home in a space so oversized that there was plenty of room to spare.  I eventually refinished the 7 chairs that still had their cane seats intact--which was perfect because we eventually had a 5th son, so there were enough chairs for all 7 members of our family.

When we moved to VA and experienced a downsizing of our own, however, I was worried that I wouldn't have room for my parents' dining room set.

But I made room!  It's a little more crowded than it used to be, but I think it works.

3

My dad, God rest his soul, died almost two years ago, and when my mom sold their house about a year later, she took what she wanted for the assisted living room that would become her new home and encouraged her kids to take whatever they thought they might use (before the rest was sold in a giant garage sale).  Everyone agreed that I should take Dad's chair, because it belonged with the dining room set.  So I did.

4

Dad's chair has been sitting in the basement ever since we moved to VA, because I have been too busy to deal with refinishing it.  Well, yesterday I decided that it was time to get it spruced up so that it will be ready to use at our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners this year.  It will become my husband's head-of-the-table seat, just like it was Bigfoot's.

To refinish an aged beauty like this, I find that stripping the piece with Formby's antique furniture refinisher and then rubbing Formby's tung oil into it afterward gives the best results.

I actually love doing this.  I find it so satisfying to see the old varnish melt off to reveal the beautiful grains of the wood underneath.

5

This before-and-after comparison shows how dark and dingy the wood looks before Formby's works its magic.  What a difference!

6

Here is what Bigfoot's chair looked like, after I'd stripped off the old finish but before I'd rubbed in the tung oil to give it a protective glow.  It is so much more beautiful now!  It still has imperfections in it, like any piece of furniture that has been around this long; but what an improvement from the first picture up there, taken before I started the refinishing process.

7

The after picture!

Bigfoot's chair now has a home in our VA family room, providing extra seating in there when our large and ever-growing brood comes to visit.  And it can be easily brought into the dining room when needed for special meals with our kids and grandkids.

I am so grateful to have this piece of my family's history--and a reminder of my dear dad--in my home.  I'll be toasting Bigfoot this Thanksgiving...with fond memories of the guy with the 70's sideburns and the full head of brown hair, who used to call me his "Ickle Aurie-Do" (which translated means "Little Laura-Do").

They weren't that Quick after all, but those are my Takes.  Now head on over to Kelly's for more!

7QT: The Hopeless Hibernophile Edition

It's been a while since I posted anything in the 7QT link-up, and as I'm trying to get back into a rhythm of blogging more regularly, I thought this was a good time to join the party.

I know the Takes here are supposed to be Quick; but I have to warn you that this first one is a tad on the long side.  (I promise to make up for it with the next 6!)

1

The Irish I's Are Smiling!

Well, my eyes are smiling anyway.  Because I've completed the I pages for the ABC Book that I've been working on for my grandchildren. It's been a work in progress for more years than I care to admit, but I am finally seeing the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. 

I was able to incorporate some of my favorite things on these pages: IRELAND and her patron saint...and also, something we all scream for, ICE CREAM.

Nice photo bomb, Finding Grace.  I see what you did there.

If you stop in here from time to time, you might know that I'm a huge Hibernophile (as in: a person who is fond of Irish culture, Irish language, and Ireland in general.  Its antonym is Hibernophobe.  The term originates from "Hibernia," the word used by the ancient Romans to refer to Ireland).

As proof of my Hibernophile tendencies, I actually found myself sighing with relief when our middle son got back the results of his recent 23andMe DNA test.  Faith and begorrah, look at that high percentage of Irish blood!

So of course, given the letter I to illustrate, I just had to include the land from which St. Patrick drove out all those pesky snakes. My map of Ireland would not pass the cartographer's smell test, I'm sure, but hopefully it approximates the shape of the Emerald Isle closely enough for the wee ones for whom this book is being created.

I am not that adept at maps, buildings, and inanimate objects; my favorite subject to draw or paint has always been people.  Like this guy.

Although anyone who knows me will be surprised to hear me say anything positive about my artwork, I am actually pleased with how he came out.

I'm NOT entirely pleased with my little ice cream-eater, however; and it's entirely possible that before this book goes to print, I will re-do that second I page.  Her hair looks kinda weird.  And then I added all that dark shading around her to take attention away from the hair.  And I don't know, she just didn't come out the way I'd envisioned her in my head.

But given that it's taken me almost a quarter of a century to get this long-dreamed-of book [almost] finished, I think she may end up making the cut, if only to save time.

Now for more proof of my Hibernophile tendencies, I'm going to share some photos of the breakfast nook of our kitchen.

2

The former owners had already given the kitchen a green accent wall (and this was one of the things that made me fall in love with this house when we first looked at it just over a year ago).   That lovely verdant shade makes a perfect backdrop for my various Irish-y décor items.

3

Our youngest son made a trip to Ireland and had pictures of himself taken on the Cliffs of Moher, so obviously a couple of those had to be included in my homage to Ireland.  There is also a plaque of St. Patrick's breastplate, a housewarming gift from one of my husband's sisters.  I found the painting of the little boy wrapped up in a quilt of Ireland online, made a copy of it, and framed it; it is one of my favorite pieces of artwork in the house.  The small resin wall hangings to the left of the large "Team Pearl" family picture are gifts from my boys.

4

I have a Kelly green Kitchen Aid mixer, a gift from my kids a few Mother's Days ago.  I can't imagine a color that would make me happier.  (As if cake making wasn't fun enough already...)

5

A new addition to the kitchen is this Irish Kitchen Prayer plaque...a Mother's Day gift that I picked out for myself this year and then told my husband he was giving it to me.  The framed Irish Marriage Blessing on the green wall was a gift from my very Irish mother-in-law.

6

Even our Yankee candles are Irish-themed--as are our twin granddaughters (the oldest of our 12 grandchildren).  Their matching t-shirts in this 2012 photo of them say, "'Tis Weeself."

7

Our two St. Patrick statues (both gifts from our boys) watch over this nook while we eat our meals together.  I'd say we're in pretty good hands.

I could go on, but that's 7 Takes.  So I guess I'll end here--and now you should head on over to Kelly's for more 7QT posts that might not be quite so Irish-themed, but are bound to be worth the trip.

7QT: My Little World Traveler

Let me start right out by admitting that the title of this post is a bit misleading.  It IS about my youngest son, my baby; but it's been a long, long time since he was little.

I mean, these days I have many grandchildren who are older than he was when that photo of him was taken in 1994.  He's 6'2" and has been for about a decade now.  And he no longer allows me to dress him in round-collared shirts.  (Sniff, sniff...where do the years go?  Okay, snap out of it, Laura!  Moving on.)  He's not only tall and broad-shouldered, but also smart and funny and talented and kind and sweet and handsome (said his mommy), and he's a 25-year-old Army officer stationed overseas, with a serious girlfriend he's been dating for over a year.

So.  Now that we've got the size of said traveler straightened out, as well as enumerating some of his finer qualities (and now that I've embarrassed him, if he's reading this), I can tell you that the world part is absolutely true.  This boy of mine has taken snapshots and selfies in some of the most beautiful cities and countries around the globe.  And I thought I'd join Kelly et. al. over at This Ain't the Lyceum and share some of them with you here.

1. My Boy in Ireland

2. My Boy in London

3. My Boy in Finland

4. My Boy in Croatia

5. My Boy in Switzerland

6. My Boy in Germany

7. My Boy in Prague

That's 7 already, right?  7 Quick Takes of 7 really cool places.  And those are just some of the far-off lands our boy has had the opportunity to visit since he graduated from Notre Dame and started his Army career.

I can add another Take, though, can't I?  A bonus take, perhaps?  Yeah sure, why not!  So here's one of the other places where he got to play tourist.  In case you were interested.

8. My Boy (and His Girl) in Venice

Gosh, I could add some pictures from Rome, couldn't I?  And from Poland, where his girlfriend, my husband, and I all met up with him a couple of days after Christmas.  (Now that excellent adventure is a great subject for a future post, let me tell you!  I posted pictures from the Poland trip on Instagram, but never got around to blogging about it here.)

Anyway, I am incredibly happy that during these years that he has been fulfilling his military obligations, my baby boy (and that cute mug of his) has had the opportunity to visit so many spectacular places when he's been on leave.

But I miss him...and I can hardly wait until this little world traveler is stateside again!

(Now don't forget to click on that helpful link I gave you!)