Give the ocean what I took from you

I have so many things on my plate right now it's almost maddening. Being the huge procrastinator that I am, I waited until the very last second to get all of the projects done that I needed to finish. With Troy Night Out on Black Friday this month and the Victorian Stroll sneaking up very quickly (for those of you who aren't from this area, the Stroll brings 20,000 people into downtown Troy every year), I find myself running around frantically, trying to build up as much stock in the shop as I possibly can and that means many, many, MANY hours at the sewing machine. I've decided to lock myself in my house this weekend and just sew until I can't sew anymore. Fun!

photo used with permission courtesy of Alicia at Posie Gets Cozy

And yet as if I don't have enough on my plate at the moment, I'm fantasizing about things I want to work on at the house. We're waiting for the official word on the wall that's coming down in our living room...I'm still determined to get that done before Christmas. We have an architect in the family and we're just waiting to find out if we've chosen the right wall to take down before any sledge hammers come out. Probably a good idea, right? On top of that, I have this huge desire to paint my fireplace. Like most people, I am completely and totally against painting brick. It's a crime, really. But this fireplace needs a huge pick me up. A while back, I flagged this post because I was fascinated by the idea of it. I haven't forgotten about it since then and I think I'd like to give it a shot. The process seems simple. Plaster of Paris is mixed and poured into candy molds. Alicia used molds of roses for her fireplace and then piped the stems in with a piping bag, but I'm thinking of using bird molds for mine. I like these:

Once the plaster cures in the molds, you pop the shapes out and plaster them to the brick. Once that plaster hardens, you simply prime and paint the entire surface and voila. I think it's pretty. What do you think???