Making my own chalk paint

This summer I have embarked on the most amazing journey of crafting. After I fell in love with chalk paint I simply had to paint everything I own with it. However, sadly dear sweet chalk paint is a pricey friend and with only a small budget to spend on crafting I needed to come up with a viable solution.

Chalk Paint Experiment: Patio Cushions

I am sure crafty dare devils have been painting fabric cushions for eons but I just discovered this clever little trick. We were the proud owners of a nasty set of patio cushions. We are ashamed to say that we grossly neglected them. We left them out side all winter (twice). At this point a new set was needed. So I got to researching cheaper, craftier options.

Patio Furnishings

Our patio finally looks finished and complete! We finally did something right. I am amazed at how many people we can seat back there. I am just itching for a party! Almost all our furniture was pre-owned and then re-loved by me. Our pots came from our rehearsal dinner and the end table is war relic. Like always we could do more but we are gonna settle into what we have and enjoy. We are halfway through the summer and we both just wanna flop into our comfy love seat drink wine and stop fretting about it. After all that work we can sit and say "it is good." :) I imagine thats how God felt about humans when he made them - a wonderfully imperfect masterpiece. Enjoy our tour of our masterpiece. Marvel with us at that hand lain patio. All the aches and pains were well worth it.

Newly Stained Patio

We weren't really thinking of staining our deck - mostly I have been sick of painting. I don't know why painting is such a love hate thing for me. I love colors and the idea of making something new with paint but to be honest I am not a very good painter. I am impatient and hasty and sometimes I don't even tape - I just wing it. Needless to say we have some touching up to do all throughout the house. Sorry hub I just wanted it done. 

Laying a patio: Oh boy we're Jimmy Jacked

The last and final step (what step are we on even) is to sweep Quickrete Power-loc Jointing Sand into every crevasse and them use a shaker head (I call the Jimmy Jack) to force all the pavers into a locked positions. Then you wet everything down every 10 minutes for an hour and your patio is as solid as a rock! The only thing left to do was to fill in those edge pieces with halfzies. Because we had an alternating pattern we needed to cut half pieces for every other edge row. We attempted at first to cut these piece with various power tools. It turns out a good ol fashion hammer and wedge did the trick. Hub got so good he could split them with one whack.