Hydrangea Bedroom at the Cabin

We're almost finished with the Hydrangea bedroom upstairs at the little cabin in S. Utah.  We had to start by demolishing the old closets that my son and I had built 13 years or so ago, then peeling off the old sheetrock and wiring, then tearing out the old adobe, repairing and sealing the walls, then put in new vapor barrier, insulation, and wiring, then we hired a talented Mexican man to do the final sheetrocking.

BABB did the painting and I did the decorating, including making all the curtians (the lace curtains were hand-me-downs from a friends mother who had them clear back in the 80s. I used some of them to make the lace bedskirt as well. I purchased the bedspread fabric and other complimenting fabrics from a local quilting store and then sewed the top to a duvet cover to make a really lightweight but smooth looking bedspread. 

We got the carpet as a remnant from a local shop and I paid another Latino man to install it. Then I painted the old dresser and side tables with a high gloss bright white latex paint. A friend bought the little table and chairs and I made the table cloths and cushions and then decorated with a bunch of other thrift store finds that matched the theme and gave some sculpture and detail to the room.

BABB helped me cut the latitice to size and I installed it with screws over the top of the wainscott where I'd already mounted the green leafy fabric and fabric border with a heavy duty wallpaper paste.

Not one wall is perfectly straight or level and so it made every part of this project ten times harder than new construction. It wasn't cheap either, but now that it's done and done well, I am absolutely in love with the room. We've turned it into our own very special love nest and Christened it with very high praises and beeseeching of the almighty.

Wilson the Amphibian Muse

This was an old 8 person fiberglass hot tub that had broken pipes and was not worth repairing so I turned it upside down and am in the process of glueing artificial stones to the fiberglass, interspersed with little resin knick knack statues I got from a thrift store. I cut the holes for the blue windows (cheap plates from walmart) and the holes for the door stained glass window. Those colored circles are tealight candle dishes and I just cut holes in a circle and glued them to the surface with clear caulk, then glued glass marbles to the painted surface. My sweet BABB helped put the hinges and handle on and there's still some work to do to finish it.

The rocks take some real work to glue on and then I'll still have hours in mortaring between them but it'll be really cute when it's done.

The frog on the top is a fiberglass sculpture BABB got online from a place in Nebraska that makes gorgeous yard ornaments. I painted it with various colors of acrylic paint using some images I found online that showed this same kind of frog with all sorts of shapes and colors on their skin. I loved the purple and green together so did purple instead of brown. The eyes were even more fun and I used a little symbol from sign language as the highlight in his pupil. The hand sign spells out "I Love You".

I mounted him on a piece of marine grade plywood that was mounted on an old rotating office chair base and served as a base for a television. Then I glued Cd's, marbles, rocks and a lampshade mounted to a piece of aluminum floor tack.


He's supposed to be a quiet muse who listens to your woes and inspires helpful personal answers as you confess your issues to him while sitting comfortably on the inverted steps of the hobbit hut. If you need extra time to talk to him but it's raining or too hot, you can go inside the hobbit hut and Wilson will hear you through the holes in the fiberglass mountain.


The frog inspired me to call him Wilson, after Wilson the Soccer ball  on the Tom Hanks movie, "Castaway".  It could be a girl frog too but I didn't notice the indicators while I was painting him/her/it.


From what I've read, some species of frogs are ambidextrous, meaning they can go both ways.


I'll post more pictures when I finish the whole hobbit hut. My grandson is coming next week and I think it'll be really fun for both of us.