Boogie Down

I am not the only one who loves the new keyboard.

Not only does Kendry's love of playing give me hope for his musical future, but those hip movements lead me to believe he just might defy his genetic code and grow up to have rhythm.

Holiday Wreath {P}inspiration

Have you heard of a pinterest project yet?

Pinterest Project [n. pin-ter-est proj-ekt] - the act of a Pinterest addict getting off their heinie, pulling themselves away from their computer screen displaying pin after pin after pin, and finally completing one of the great projects they have spent countless hours pinning.

I am not even going to tell you how many pins I have.

It is borderline embarrassing.

But I am all about pinterest projects.

What fun are great ideas if you don't put them to use?

This project is a combination of two ideas:

1. Cutting up a foam pool noodle, taping the ends together and using it as a wreath form.

(source)

Can you say FREE? I snatched Kendry's worse-for-wear pool noodles and hacked them up. Hey, he won't need more until next summer anyway. Have you ever used a carpet knife? Serious sharpness. Those pool noodles sliced apart like butta'.

2. Crafting with coffee filters.  

(source)

Coffee filter crafts are everywhere right now. They are super cheap and very easy to work with.

Pool noodle + coffee filters =

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Slice up your pool noodle, shape it into a circle and tape it securely. My wreath form was 13" across, which looked small at first, but we all know first impressions can be deceiving. Once completed, this wreath is the perfect size and quite full.

2. Tear some long strips of light colored fabric (I used muslin), keeping the width about 4". Wrap the fabric around your wreath form to hide the ugliness that is a disintegrating pool noodle, pinning or gluing the fabric in place. The light-colored fabric is necessary because it blends with the coffee filters and disguises small gaps; plus, you want to avoid putting any hot glue directly onto the foam noodle. Trust me, it will melt. Fast.

3. Gather up your hot glue gun, lots of glue sticks, lots of coffee filters, and a Diet Coke and start working. I scrunched the bottom of each filter a bit and then attached it with hot glue. In all it took me about 4 hours of scrunching and gluing. Put a fall movie on in the background to help pass the time.
I have a thing for Pauly Shore in Son-in-Law.
We all have our vices.

NOTE: I don't advise starting in one place and going all the way around your wreath form. The filters start piling up on each other and it gets tough to make them fill out the wreath in a uniformed fashion. Instead, I would complete a 5" section, then go out a few inches to a bare spot and start a whole new section. When you think you are almost done, step back and look for tiny bare spots that could accept one more filter. The fuller the better!

4. When your gluing is completed, step back to admire the beauty you have created and exclaim "Wow is that white!" (if you used white filters like I did)  It is almost hard on the eyes white. So I brewed a little coffee, put it into a spray bottle and repeatedly spritzed the entire wreath until it had the slightly browned color I was going for - all the while listening to the hubs complain because he hates the smell of coffee. 

Oh the price my hubs pays for my crafting addiction.

Its a tough life.

5. Put a cute accessory on the front of your wreath, then hot glue a ribbon scrap to the back and hang it up. I suggest attaching your front accessory (in my case a ribbon) with something other than hot glue, like a small safety pin. This way you can swap out your accessory with each season without damaging the filters.

Coffee filter beauty!

Are those ruffles not totally gorgeous?

They remind me of a wedding dress.

And because I am a total movie dork - always quoting lines, pointing out references and such - I couldn't resist posing for this hilarious Chevy Chase similarity:

{Spies Like Us}

The kiddo thought this was pretty funny too.

HAPPY CRAFTING!

I Will Be Here

{2005}

Tomorrow morning if you wake

up and the sun does not appear
I will be here.

If in the dark, we lose sight of love

Hold my hand, and have no fear

'Cause I will be here.

I will be here

When you feel like being quiet

When you need to speak your mind

I will listen
And I will be here.

When the laughter turns to cryin'

Through the winning, losing and trying

We'll be together

I will be here.

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up

And the future is unclear

I will be here.

Just as sure as seasons were made for change

Our lifetimes were made for these years

So I will be here.

 

I will be here

And you can cry on my shoulder

When the mirror tells us we're older

I will hold you

And I will be here.

To watch you grow in beauty

And tell you all the things you are to me

I will be here.

 

I will be true to the promise I have made

To you and to the One who gave you to me.


Tomorrow morning, if you wake up

And the sun does not appear

I will be here

Oh, I will be here.

-Steven Curtis Chapman-

 

 

Celebrating 6 years of marriage today!

 

 

DING! DONG! The Door is Done!

What can I say?

We like to drag out our home improvement projects around here.

Case in point: we began painting our home in May 2010 and did not finish until four months later.

Why we didn't paint our front door when we painted the house in 2010 is beyond me, except that I know we would not have picked orange back then.

Nope, a year ago we probably would have played it safe with a dark ink blue or even {gasp!} stayed with the white.

Boooorrrinng!

No offense if you have an ink blue or white door.

Its just that Justin and I are finally discovering our design tastes and, as it turns out, we like a little bit of funky now and then.

Cue the 80's disco music!

"Won't you take me to funky town,
Won't you take me to funky town..."

You should know I have killer dance moves for this song.
Just ask my kiddo.



Anyhew...
I touched on some of my pop of color inspiration back in July.
After trying two different paint samples and taping about twenty different swatches on top of that we finally settled on Bird of Paradise.

Justin bought the Behr paint and primer in one, which I didn't realize until I was already shaking up my Kilz primer on paint day. When Justin pointed out that I didn't need to prime I was ecstatic! I might go so far as to say that the time consuming 'prime, dry, then paint' process was the reason I dragged this project out for so long, but who am I kidding.
I am just lazy sometimes. And impatient.


Any job worth doing is worth doing well, right?
Which is exactly why you should be slightly suspicious when a product claims to simplify your painting by elimating the priming stage.


Mistake #1
After two coats of the Behr you could still clearly see the spots of green paint underneath.
Grrr!
In hindsight, I should have done one coat of primer first, especially with the beatings that doors take.
It also didn't help that I was using a sponge roller.
Lesson learned.
(NOTE: we don't intend to buy the paint and primer again; we haven't been impressed with it)


For the third and fourth coat I used a roller with a longer nap.
Much better.


Mistake #2
No matter how great a multi-tasker you are, never attempt to paint while watching a kiddo and preventing two cats from sneaking into the warm house while the front door is open for painting.
In fact, remove the cats from the equation altogether if you can.
Otherwise you will find yourself scrubbing a path of orange kitty footprints off your carport cement.


I'm convinced I cannot complete a home improvement project without drama.


But at least the end results are worth it.
The combination of our house color with the white trim and orange door is funky awesome!

Let's recap the transformation of our door/carport, shall we?

{Dingy white with a screen door through May 2010 - blech!}


{Still dingy white with no screen door in October 2010}

{Still dingy white and covered with orange paint samples in July 2011}



{Nekkid door in September 2011}


{Today}

Somebody please ask for directions to our house.

I am dying to say "Its the house with the orange door."



{Disclaimer: we still need to do a clear protective coat and add a kick plate at the bottom before she is completely finished. I also want to add some typography below the window. But like I said, I am impatient. I wanted to show you a photo already.}



Linking Here:

 
 

Adventures in Chalk Paint, Chapter 2

To my fam in Alaska that bought me my first two cans of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for my birthday:
this post is for you.
I love showing you the latest fun I am having with this paint.

My first chalk paint project was a repurposed yard sale frame turned tray for our dining table: 

My second project was this wood caddy, which I found at my local thrift store for $2.

Although you don't need to prime when you use ASCP, I did anyway on this one. I really didn't want those those purple grapevines showing through.

Here she is after spray primer, a coat of ASCP Louis Blue, and some light sanding.

This paint distresses beautifully!

I wound and hot-glued jute around the handle for a little more character.

Unfortunately, I had a little shelving mishap in my basement last month and my can of Louis Blue suffered some major spillage. I managed to salvage a little paint in the can, but the majority was lost.

Booooo.

But instead of crying over spilled paint I think I will go chat with the hubs about my Christmas wish list.

Do I have you inspired yet to go scrounge your local thrift store for something to paint?

Linking Here: