The Rustic Brush

Every February my financial advisor at Houston Asset Management has a luncheon for his clients who are widows.  At several of these I've passed out my "Eleven Commandments for Widows."

This year, instead of a luncheon, we were invited to a craft event at The Rustic Brush, a place where you can decorate items like trays, lazy Susans, door hangers, signs, even doormats.  I was a little nervous.  I am not a crafty person.  The only thing I do well with my hands is type.  But why not join the fun?  I chose an easy item to make--a tray with the words "Enjoy the little things" 

When we arrived, we found our chosen items laid out on tables.  We donned aprons and selected the color stain we wanted for our wooden trays.  I picked dark walnut. We sanded the trays and brushed on the color.  That was easy.  

After the stain dried, we selected colors for our decorations.  I picked a bright aqua I thought would contrast nicely with the stain.  Some people used several colors, but that was too fancy for me to even consider. We were given stencils--thank goodness we didn't have to draw the patterns ourselves.  We pressed the stencils on the wood, and painted them with our chosen colors.  We then removed the stencils and, voila, there was the pattern on the tray.  

Handles were attached to the trays, we had a light lunch and then we were ready to take our creations home.  One problem--the tray is too large to fit in any of my cabinets so it is currently residing in my newly emptied speech therapy closet.  I plan to use it the next time I host a Mah Jongg afternoon.

I'm pretty pleased with myself.  This was my first successful craft.
Good thing because, at my age, I may not have many chances left.