Staining wood

I am attempting to stain one of the pocket doors in my house.  It was an unfinished door that I have been trying to ignore.  I got out my power sander, sanded it thoroughly, wiped down the dust and started to stain.  There are several places where the stain is "taking" in a blotchy manor.  Some places are too light and some are too dark.  This is not the first time I have stained something so I do have some experience.  I just can't figure out what is going wrong.  I am going to let it dry for 24 hours and then hit it again just in the spots that are noticeably too light.  My fear is that the door may be poplar and it will never take the stain correctly.  If I try another coat and it still doesn't work, I am going to just paint the darn thing.  That will mean it will need sanding again and a coat of stain blocking primer BEFORE I can paint.  I am going to be really cranky if this door ends up having to be painted!

Found it!

I went shopping this weekend and found the fabric for my kitchen.  I wanted something with a "country French" feel to it.  Looky!

My kitchen is large enough for the dark print and I love this little chicken vignette.  I may need to go to a lighter shade of olive for the paint but with vaulted ceilings and so much light, I think this fabric is perfect.  Now, do I do a cafe' style or just use this fabric for the valence and keep off white ones on the bottom?  Maybe this on the valence, off white on the bottom with a band of this at the bottom of the curtain?  I haven't purchased the fabric yet and I need some help making this decision!

New profile photo

So - I updated my profile photo.  It was time to get real.  The other photo was 4 years old, taken in Hawaii and I was tan and very blonde.  My son was sitting across the table when he took the shot.  He is a pretty decent photographer and I love that photo.  Brian referred to it as "Mom's money shot".  (I am not exactly sure what that means!)  This one is me at 57, hair definitely graying and I now have squinchy lines around my eyes when I smile.  I thought I should post one before my face starts sliding down to my chest...

Mama was right!

You DO get what you paid for.  I bought two cans of white paint (one is flat and one is glossy but in this regard it doesn’t make a difference).  I paid a dollar for the can on the left and roughly $3 for the can on the right.  

I have been trying to paint a couple of small faux pumpkins to go in an arrangement for my dining room table.  I have painted them 4 times with the paint on the left which I will now refer to as “Crap Paint” (or CP) from WalMart.  I used the Krylon which was left over from another project to paint a larger craft pumpkin.  Two coats and it is perfect.  With the CP I can still see orange coming through.  I tried to put a coat of the Krylon over the CP but it bubbled up so I am guessing they are not compatible.  I have 3 cans of CP and I don’t know what to do with them.  I guess I can save them for freshening up my white wicker porch chairs next year. 

This is what happens when you try to take the “cheap” route.   Next time I will just pick up the Rustoleum which I already know I love and use that exclusively.  Live and learn.  (Why do I seem to learn EVERYTHING the hard way?!)