I have been a little depressed. My bees are all dead. I can’t talk about it but it’s been on my mind for three days. I’ll do that later. Let’s talk about something else.

Well, here’s the news in Mendota, Virginia.  See the white smoke…

Did you really think that the Pope was selected at the Vatican?

In addition to our Papal activities, we moved the new entertainment center storage unit into the den.    The reason we wanted the entertainment center/table was to hide wires, but we haven’t finished the re-wiring behind the table to actually accomplish this. Still, here it is…made out of reclaimed barn wood.  Mike did a nice job. 

Excuse those stars. They will be taking a vacation this summer.
I got the three baskets at Target over 7 months ago for this entertainment center. We don’t move very fast around here. When the entertainment center was finished, I could not find them!! One was being used for bread. One had toilet paper in it. And one holding just junk. Now, however, they are all in place and ready to hold television remotes, DVD’s and magazines that are in the den. 

I like the look of the baskets but they needed a little something to make them feel fancy. I added the burlap numbers. This was very easy and cost almost nothing. Here’s my tools for this little task…

I did have to make a stencil with the  Cricut since I didn’t want to buy one. Stencils that are used frequently require that mylar or something similar be used. However, in my case, I just used construction paper since I was only using it once. I dipped the paint brush in black acrylic paint and blotted it on a paper plate until it was almost dry. Then, I blotted the stencil placed on the burlap.   I let the stenciled burlap dry about one minute and then pressed it into the canning jar lid.

Something funny here…I did this on the table top that Mike, Jenna and Ashley refinished this week. All three of them would have cringed if they’d been watching. No worries! Here’s the table top AFTER I finished my project. Still lookin’ good!

Back in the den….If you look on the  new entertainment center/table, you’ll see some books…they belonged to my Uncle Johnny and my father.

Here’s a close up…

The book that says Robert Lee on it was Daddy’s…look at his handwriting. I loved him even though he gave me his ugly feet!

Every time I see these books, I have a good feeling.