This Week {illustrated}, a Painting Tip, and a BIG Thank You

You may have noticed that we do a lot of painting around here.  I've had several questions from people who are wondering if we have any special tips or advice.  We are certainly not pros by any means, but over time, we have found some things that work and some things that don't.  There is, of course, the usual: paint thin, even coats rather than slopping it on in a hurry.  But you can get that from anywhere.


When I get done painting something, I want the whole process to be done.  I want to be able to just stand back and admire my work.  You do have to wash out your brush if you ever want to be able to use it again, but you DON'T have to wash out your tray!


I read somewhere that a great way to keep the paint tray from getting messy is to wrap it in foil.  Well, I guess I must be a messy person, because that didn't work for me.  Plus, foil is too expensive to waste on something like that.


After that failed, I tried using plastic bags, and they work like a charm!  Even though I use primarily recyclable grocery bags, I still end up with a lot of plastic bags.  I use two per tray each time I paint.  The first one goes on over the top, and the second goes on over the bottom.  I wrap the handles around the feet on the bottom of the tray to keep it from moving too much.  I just let the whole thing air dry, and then I toss the bags with the foam roller inside.

 

The rest of our week in pictures:

We finally had enough produce from our garden to make something!  I made salsa and saved the  juice from the veggies for vegetable broth.  Don't you love those labels?!  I found them here.

Marshall made a new friend!  He found this teeny tiny softshell turtle.  People joke about how slow turtles are, but this one was a speed demon!

Marshall also discovered this extremely disgusting clam.  It has this... stuff... that comes out of its "mouth" that it uses as a lure to catch minnows.  The "stuff" looks really feathery and wispy, and then it folds back up inside and looks like lips.  Gross.

BREAKFAST: It's what's for dinner.  That is, if you haven't lost your appetite.  Do you have "Hoedown" from Rodeo stuck in your head now?  You're welcome.  :)

Finally, we owe a big thank you to tipnut.com for featuring our canning storage idea.  That particular post has seen over 700 views and 150 pins!  If you haven't seen it yet, check it out.  Click here to see our post on tipnut.

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