2020 Summer Therapy

So this is kind of a long and not the happiest of stories but I want to share some of what this past year has been like and why I’ve been a little “absent” lately. I’d been wanting to paint my back patio for a long time, it was just horrible! My before pic wouldn’t load but you can only imagine the crud i pressure washed off of it and what a satisfying job that was lol! I started this in the Spring of 2020 and decided to go all in and stencil the whole 120 square feet of it, I must’ve been crazy! It started off great, I was loving it, although I think going with 3 colors was a bit much. I measured time and time again to make sure it was all going to be even. Going back to Thanksgiving 2019 my older sister was diagnosed with widespread cancer and had begun going thru all of the treatments that involves but handled it all like a champ and really did well with it. We don’t live near each other so it had been about 5 years since I’d seen her and then Covid hit as well. So I spent my days stenciling, talking on the phone to her and praying every day as well as getting a really good tan! Well the closer I got to the end of the job, I believe I had done around 98 squares at this point and knew there was no way that I could pull it off and even it out. Somewhere along the way my pattern had gone wonky and I was so over it and frustrated I was just at a loss. Well my sister had finished her chemo and radiation in May and was doing great! Her positive attitude and faith in God were unwavering the entire time. One June 2 she found out that it had returned with a vengeance and there was not much else to be done. She passed away on July 18 and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that, she was only 5 years older than me but cancer does not discriminate. I will forever be grateful for our daily phone calls while I was painting away on my patio, it was very therapeutic for me. Well I gave up on the stenciling and decided to just go with one solid color and am so happy that I did, I love the final outcome! I used Rustoleum stripper and a big scraper at first to try to remove as much of the stenciling as possible but that didn’t work very well so I pressure washed it all over again lol. I used the Rustoleum Decorative Concrete Paint and is was so easy to use and has an anti slip texture already in it, so it’s perfect! I used a brush to paint around the edges and along the house and the roller that was recommended for the rest. It took 6 gallons, so it ended up being a pretty expensive job especially when you add in all the paint I wasted doing the stenciling lol. But it was worth it to me and probably a lot cheaper than going to an actual therapist 🤣. I think about my sister, BeaAnn, every single time I sit out on my beautiful new space and it’s dedicated to her for sure.

Sorry for the long post but I appreciate all of you and have missed being around and am really gonna try to pull myself out of this funk and get my groove back!! ❤️