Well they say summer is over and Fall is here...but here in my world, it's still summer! I do have to admit it feels like Fall, smells like Fall, the leaves are falling, the sun is shifting, and it's getting darker an hour earlier too boot! I'm not a happy girl. One good thing for me is with living in Florida, it's like summer year round, although we do get some very cold days in December, January, and February ... even this last March we had several cold cold days. The worst for me with Fall and Winter is how the daylight gets shorter and the nights get longer. I really really don't like that at all!
Well I won't let this change of season's take our dream away, the dream I have had all summer..... a house by the beach or a lake! I have been making several things to decorate this little dream place of ours in a beachy theme.
Two weeks ago it was my Mr.’s Birthday.
I have been designing a home office for him and I had this idea to make him a
gift this year. Well it was one of his gifts. I decided he needed something
beachy but it needed to be masculine too. I wanted it to go well with leather furniture,
his dark wood desk, bookcases, a few antiques, and not clash with his golf
stuff, or his collection of memorabilia of nerdy things. He's a software architect, designer,
and developer, for the medical profession. He is quite the smarty pants he is!
So I made him this! It's a sailboat paper weight!
The "SS Jack!"
I think it looks pretty masculine and looks great on his desk! It has a bit of a rustic old nautical look. I like it a lot with his antique clock and vintage books. And...he loved it!!
I use to sail a lot back in the day when I was pregnant with my first child. I miss doing that so much, and have as part of our dream place on the beach or lake, a sailboat on my list! Oh my Mr. loves sailing too! We both are water freaks and love the calm and peace we get being around the water. I hope by the time we get our dream, he will be able to sail with me. The biggest problem will be being able to get him in and out of the sail boat. I'm going to have to put my thinking
cap on and come up with a solution for that. He has been trying to recover from a bad stroke six years ago now. Still so far to go...but we are still hopeful!
I was sitting out by our pond in the back yard watching the goldfish and I spotted these stones. I thought of different rock art I have seen and thought about trying to paint something on them. I love to recycle and I hadn't tried anything with stones yet, but today I would! How it got to be a sail boat I can't tell you.....but two stones and a stick later I had the "SS Jack!" Well actually a couple of weeks later!
I stacked my two stones on top of each other and walked back to the house. I set them on the patio table and all of a sudden I got this vision in my head! Maybe it was because of sitting by the pond staring into the water and thinking about growing up on the lake, and missing what I used to love, the lake and sailing. Sailing! My vision was sailboat! Maybe I could pull this off! So I went and got some white spray paint and painted both the stones completely. While they dried I went into the woods next to my house to find the perfect stick.
OH!!! BTW! Today as I am writing this post on my back patio, I hear this big noise at the side of my yard! I get up to go look and there is this big black bear walking along side my house! Freaked Me OUT! Not going in those woods again, and probably won't be sitting out here at night anymore either! Now I know what all those noises that sounds like someone is walking around at night must be! Durn bears! Didn't know they were right around where we live! And we live twenty blocks away from downtown Mt. Dora! I called my friend from animal control to report this and she tells me, "Oh yea, there are several bears in our area! I'm now thinking, it's time to move!
Anyway....I found my stick, and once the paint had dried on my stones, I took some Gorilla Super Glue spread it over the stone that was going to be the bottom of this sailboat, then took my glue gun and spread a good amount of that on because that sets quicker than the Gorilla Super Glue does. I then set my smaller stone on top. I used both glues because I didn't want the top stone to slide off before the super glued dried. Those stones are heavy buggers believe it or not! When picking this up if it fell apart and hit your toes, that stone would bring tears to your eyes! Anyway, the two glues worked great and they are good and stuck together. Next I glued the stick on the top of the two stones again with both glues. I tried using just the glue gun but it kept falling off. I think it was because of the paint, it just wouldn't adhere well.
I set the stones now the boat, on my counter to let it set overnight to make sure all the glue had dried so it wouldn't come apart on me. Now I go looking for some fabric for my sails. I found this blue plaid shirt of my Mr. that I hate him wearing, so I thought this would make great sails...I loved the blues and yellow with the white in the shirt .... and this way hubby won't wear this darn thing again! It looked like an old man shirt on him!
Well that was as far as I got. I just couldn't get inspired any further. I looked at it every day for two weeks as I walked by it a bazillion times a day. Just couldn't see it. Maybe it was the fabric I was planning on using, I don't know.
I moved on to making a Fall centerpiece of candle holders for my table, a mummy pillow that I saw on Pottery Barns website, and some toilet paper rustic pumpkins. I had crap all over the place. As I was cleaning up, I came across some natural looking rope I had planned on taking back to the store and forgot to do it. I picked it up, looked at my stones and saw the glue that oozed out from when I glued on the stick. The rope would be perfect around the bottom of the stick to hide the glue. And.....it had a nautical look to it! Perfect!
So I added it and liked it! But then I thought I should put some rope around in between the two stones. Did it and, I liked it a lot too. Now my brain is getting inspired and I see my boat vision, but better than the first vision! With my other projects I had been working with my drop cloth fabric, love that stuff! The color I have is in a natural off white, which played along with my rope. Now I'm on a roll and thoughts and pictures are flying in my mind!
Side note: That photo in the frame behind the sailboat is a picture of the old house I grew up in on Fine Lake in Michigan. It went through a couple of remodels and that screen porch became more living area, and then it was a kitchen. A year and a half ago it was torn down to the ground and a one story took its place for my mom. It was on that lake, I learned to sail. If things work out, my hubby and I hope to be living there in the summers. My mom passed away this last May and left it to my five sisters and I. We've rented it for the time being, but hopefully next summer we will have it back and be staying there and, I will be sailing that lake again all summer long! Two of my sisters sent me that picture in the frame for my birthday this last July. At the bottom of the frame it says,
"Where memories are made." Our whole life of memories are at the place...with the new house being built by the hands of my moms family to boot!.......That place is staying in this family! We aren't done making memories yet!
Now back to my sailboat paper weight gift again!
I laid my boat over on it's side on my drop cloth to draw a line for the shape of the stick. Then from there I drew the rest of the sails from that and cut them out. Then I decided I wanted stripes on the sails so I found some nautical colored fabric paint I liked and taped off my stripes using some painters tape and painted in my stripes. I let that dry, but thought the sails needed something to frame them, plus keep them from raveling. In jumps the twine! When the paint dried I got my glue gun and little by little I edged the fabric with my glue gun and laid the twine in place. After that was done, I decided to put a strip of the twine around the rope pieces too. That just seemed to be the perfect thing to enhance the rope. Now it just seems to all play together.
Yea! I was happier with it now!
Then I remembered sails have numbers on them! Why I don't know, but I needed to add some. As I was pondering what I wanted as numbers, I came up with two important dates. That would be just perfect and as my hubby is big on every date that pertains to everything in our life together, I went with the date when we met fourteen years ago... August, 11 back in 2000. That was the day we were to be married on too, but his stroke messed that up. Now because this was for his birthday, the other set of numbers became his birthday. September 6. I got so excited because I knew knowing my hubby like I do, he was going to love this! I drew those on by hand with a black gel ink pen.
Next I needed to name this boat.....this boat was for him so "SS Jack" it was! I got out my stamps and ink pad for the name and stamped it on.
I added one more piece of twine to represent that thing you hoist the sail up with....can you tell I don't know sailboat lingo lol. One more thing...a flag for the top of the mast is it? I don't know but I cut out a flag shape, painted it and attached to the top.
As I was sitting looking at it being so pleased with my little gift and myself, I was playing with the twine and thinking knots. That lead to making a knotted loop for a throw line to hook the boat up to a imaginary dock.....oh and one more thing, port holes.....had to have port holes using the twine for them too....and DONE!
Not bad for two stones and a stick aye!?
Hubby loved it....I loved it! My vision went from here to there, to this. I am amazed with myself in how it turned out! It's amazing how bits of nature can be used to create fun projects that can become a nice little accessory to decorate with and with a purpose. And this one with a dream attached with it too!
Now when that house by the water where ever it is comes along, and hopefully my moms so I can go home at least part of the year....(no winters for this girl), this is going to be even more perfect in hubs office! And while he is working I'll be out sailing! Or maybe I'll figure a way to get him out sailing with me too! I hope!
When dreams come true!
Oh remember that ugly shirt I was going to use for the sails and didn't, well I hid it at the bottom of my fabric stash! Shhh....don't tell!
If you want to try this all you need is:
Two thin oblong stones..(not sure what they call these.)
One stick
Fabric for your sails (or masts?) & flag
Scissors
Twine
Rope
Glue gun and glue sticks
Gorilla Super Glue
White spray paint for your stones
Fabric paint for the stripes on your sail
Small craft paint brush
Painters tape
Small letter stamps and ink pad
Black Gel Ink Pen
Follow what I did up above! Or do it whatever way you see your sailboat to be. It's amazing what can be created using natures gifts, and a bit of imagination and a vision! This would be a fun gift for kids to make for a dad's special day! It's definately unique! You can't buy this in the stores! I'm beginning to believe you can recycle just about anything! It's one cool sailboat!
I really love mine...or I mean Mr. Jack loves his....and it made the perfect paper weight and birthday gift too!
Hope you love yours too!
Always a pleasure to have you visit!
Would love your thoughts, but play nice!
With
Sincere Appreciation I Would Like To Thank
for featuring my Two Sticks and a Stone Sailboat
Paper Weight! Thank You!
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