Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Steve’s DIY Project #1.
Hi everyone and welcome to something sort of new for Steve’s Country. Though I did do a DIY before but hopefully I will be a bit more regular with some ideas. Perhaps once a month anyway. Today’s DIY is really something for fall which I wanted to post a month ago, but this and that came along and it never happened. So, fall being done up here in the north, it seems a bit odd to post this, however, fall is still happening in some places so I’m not completely out of date. But it will show what a person can do for decorating that doesn’t really have much, if any, cost to it. Mostly I only used items I had on hand, leftover things from other projects and only bought one new item to use, the urethane to spray it with at the end. So, here we go… First I gathered up some scrap pieces of wood I had laying around and then glued them together.
I also used some small 3/4 inch finishing nails to hold it together a bit better, helps until the glue dries. Then I did a bit of sanding with some fine sandpaper, which I always have on hand. It only requires a little sanding, by hand. No major electrical tools needed here with this project.
Then I painted it with a yellow acrylic paint, only one coat as I wanted the grain of the wood to show. I chose a light yellow since it is a fall project and it fits nicely with the balsam cones I used. After the paint was good and dry I sanded it a bit to really allow the grain to show nicely. On one of my walks I picked up some balsam cones to use for this project, shown above. Balsam trees are like spruce trees, though they really smell much nicer. And they always produce lots of cones. I picked out the ones I wanted and placed them on the wood making out the words “Happy Fall”.
I just did this free hand because I was looking for a nice home made look sign. Then I used some wood glue, which I have on hand always as well, to glue them all in place.
I let this dry until the next day then took it outside to spray it with urethane for added protection and give it a bit of a shine too. I used a glossy finish urethane. This is not good to use indoors, always use outside. Once dry I glued some colorful plastic leaves on it and there it is. All finished and the only cost was the urethane, but there’s lots of that left for other projects too, so the cost is really very little. It can be set outside or used indoors. Hope you enjoyed this easy little project, have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Daily Pics #296.
Good morning to everyone! And it’s a very beautiful morning indeed! The sun is shining and it’s already 41F (5C), which after the last couple of weeks makes it feel like spring has arrived already. And it’s supposed to be 12C (54F) this afternoon. That will make it perfect for working on my bird feeder setup out here. Hopefully this new idea will make things better…no guarantees though. Muffin will be watching carefully out the window while I work. I’m sure she would like to be outside with me, but, that is just not possible. It’s much safer for her to be indoors, too many dangers out here if she was to run off by herself somewhere. Wolves come into town regularly and grab cats and smaller dogs. Plus the greatest danger coming from two-legged types. People, that is. I’ll leave it at that. So Muffin can sit in the sun and watch me make things better for the birds, and for me too.
Very little activity this morning, there’s even less blue jays than normal. Still a few juncos, who showed up first this morning. It was barely getting light when I went out to put food out there for them and they were already showing up. A white-crowned sparrow showed up yesterday. He must have been trapped by the cold somewhere else and now that it’s warmer he is on the move again. First time I have seen one in November actually, normally they would be gone by mid October at the latest. I tried for a picture since he didn’t seem to mind being on the deck with me out there too. So I get my camera, he sees it and he’s gone down to the ground, where it’s harder for a picture among all those raspberry plants. Sigh. I need to camouflage that camera somehow. There was 3 pine grosbeaks at the feeder yesterday afternoon, so they are still around, perhaps when the cold weather returns they will be more regular visitors. The redpolls are still here as well. Nice enough this morning to enjoy sitting out there with my coffee. The blue jays still came down for their peanuts. No one else was around, except the juncos on the ground. No chipmunks. No Jasper. No Theodore. Sigh. A brief reprieve from winter’s effects, but winter has not gone.
Well, we are continuing with some of my favorite summer pics this week, and these are certainly not all of them. I might do this again at some point. For our featured image is Pocket, I had asked him to stop and look at the camera and this is what he did. I know he didn’t understand me, but it was perfectly timed. Right after he left, a young Jasper made his first appearance sitting on my knee. Not the best pic, but because it was his first time makes the pic one of my favorites. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 