Long weekend plans: DIY and dogs

What’s better than a long weekend? An extra-long weekend! Can I say I’m just a littl ebut excited about having the next five days off? :-) WOOT! And it’s a good thing too, ‘cause I have a lot of projects on the agenda!

For starters, I’ll be starting my next PARA Paints Blog Crew project. I’m turning a small room in the basement into a craft/painting room. Hubby has installed the ceiling and crown moulding, and now it’s ready to paint. I was originally going to do something bright and funky and graphic, but now I’m leaning towards trying something different and doing an ombre effect. Like this:

Image via P.S. - I made this…

Now I just need to decide on a colour palette. I’d love to do navy, but it’s a small room with a low ceiling and no window, so I may have to go with something lighter. I really love the colour I used on my little chair, P5168-51 Time Will Sell. I might use a series of colours from that colour chip.

I’ve picked the ceiling & trim colour for the room – white! I know, pretty exciting, eh? ;-) It’s P5216-14D Climb the Mast. It looks a bit pink in the picture, but it’s not at all. It’s a yellow-based white, so it’s slightly creamy.

So that’s project #1. I’m also planning to paint a bookcase and desk to go in the room. I’ve had the Mulholland china pattern by Kelly Wearstler in my head for a while now…

…to do a little something like this:

Image via Timmy the Weiner Dog {blog no longer exists}

I think I’ve figured out how I’m going to do it – now I just need to get it done! That’s project #2.

Project #3 is easy – upholstering seat cushions for the four stools that hubby built for the kitchen . I bought this fabric from Tonic Living – it’s called Make Waves in the Latte colourway. I love the pattern, and the colours tie the kitchen and family room wall colour.s together.

FYI, the ladies at Tonic Living are super-nice and their service is super-fast – my fabric arrived two days after I ordered it :-)

I’ve been transforming a couple more pieces of furniture with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. The first is a side table that I gave a driftwood look to. It still needs a few touch-ups and a new pull for the door. Here’s a peek:

And this little table is taking forever – the stupid spindles are a lot more time-consuming to paint than I thought. It’s almost ready for its debut, but for now, here’s a little preview…

Besides these DIY projects, we have a lot of dog stuff going on this weekend. Jackson & Toby are going to a photo shoot on Saturday morning, and then Toby is meeting potential adopters in the afternoon.

They seem like a great couple, and they have a home that’s right on Lake Erie, so Toby Won Kenobi {that’s my nickname for him} will be able to do lots of swimming and playing on the beach. I want them to adopt me too!

I’m really going to miss Toby when he leaves for his new home – we’ve been fostering him for almost two months and he’s become a part of our family. But this will probably help with the transistion – we have a new foster dog arriving on Sunday. His name is Malcolm. When I saw this picture of him on the Catahoula Rescue Ontario Facebook page, my heart broke and I just had to help him.

Have you ever seen such a dejected dog?! Poor guy! He was scheduled to be euthanized the following day, and I just couldn’t let that happen. I told Gloria who runs Catahoula Rescue Ontario that I would foster him if she could pull him from the shelter. Luckily, we were able to rescue him just in time. I’m really looking forward to meeting him so I can finally see what he looks like – he didn’t face the camera for either of his shelter pictures. Assuming there are no glitches with the transport or issues at the border, he’ll arrive in Ottawa Saturday night and Gloria will bring him to our house on Sunday. I’ll post better pictures then :-) By the way, if there’s anything you want to know about Catahoulas or if you’d like to adopt or foster a dog, you can find all the info on the new blog. I designed it with lots of help from Heather and Tanya – thanks girls!

We’ll be having our Thanksgiving dinner on Monday with my dad and mom #2. If there’s time, I want to do a little crafting with them and paint some pumpkins for Hallowe’en…

Image via Landee See Landee Do

And finally, I need to put the finishing touches on this painting and mail it to its new owner. It’s my first official sale – thank you Janet :-)

Of course, just because I plan to do all these things doesn’t mean that I actually WILL do all these things! Come on by next week and I’ll let you know what I manage to get done!

Oh, and one more thing – I’m just $65 away from my goal of raising $500 for the Growing Our Pits For Tits campaign! Thank you Chuck, Diane, Lana, Stephanie, Vanessa, Sarah, Suzanne, Lisa, Janet, Kate, and Pam & Oded for your support! If you’d like to make a donation towards breast cancer research and awareness, click here to go to my donation page.

What are your plans for the long weekend?

Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Columbus Day!