It started with a fund raiser. My son plays baseball for his high school and each player was tasked with raising $300 in some kind of fund raiser. I didn't want to poison anyone with trying a bake sale so I offered to hand paint ornaments of the high school logo, personalize it with the students sport and donate 100% of the fee to the team. What a wonderful response we received! With the help of my amazing neighbor who put the word out for me, I painted 25 ornaments last week and am waiting for more ornaments to be shipped to me so I can finish at least 12 more!
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| Here is the first batch of ornaments that went out Go Cougars! |
I also decided last week that I need to finish some projects around my house. Namely, my upstairs hallway. I hired a painter to paint the top part of my two story foyer and stairwell quite a while ago (I did the main floor and the lower half of the foyer) . It killed me to write the check because I like to paint, but I just couldn't risk climbing a ladder up so high - it just wasn't worth it. So I had the painter paint it from yellow-gold to beige. My thought was that I would paint the rest of the upstairs hallway shortly afterwards. Jump ahead four years and here I am, still with the yellow hallway leading to beige stairwell and foyer! Sears doesn't even make the paint I used anymore (yes, 4 yeeeeeaaarrrrrssss Andie!) so I had them color match and I finally painted the rest of the hallway.
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| Before - Two toned. |
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| After - Ahhhhh! |
As I was painting, I realized just how much the door to the Master bedroom was not centered. I decided to round it out with a bookshelf and painting that my son did for me.
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| The bookshelf from the family room and my son's painting of Okinawa that he gave to me. |
I've always wanted the stairwell to be an art gallery of sorts so I put together a collage of paintings that we've all done. When I want to hang alot of pictures, I cut newspaper to the exact size of each of the frames. I then lay the newspaper on the back of the framed picture and put a hole exactly where the nail needs to be. (you can feel the wire or hanger through the paper). Making sure I turn it over so the correct side is against the wall, I tape them all up and move them around until I find a composition I like.
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| Newspaper cut to the size of my pictures! |
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| After - The family art wall! |
During all of this craziness, a very dear friend of mine was moving and needed some help. As we unpacked her kitchen, we realized that she needed more storage. Craigslist Baby!! I surfed around and found a dresser/hutch a few miles from her house that was perfect. For $50!! The nicest family was selling it and even helped us pack it up. It was slightly longer than my friends SUV so I had to sit in the back and hold it so it wouldn't slip out the back door of the car! (On a side note, if you are going to hang onto a hutch by sitting with your butt pressed against the side window of an SUV, do not wear low slung jeans! Just sayin' and my apologies to the residents of South Riding who had to witness the horror!)
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| Before - very nice for her little girl's room. |
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| After - Perfect for my friend's new kitchen! |
My friend wanted to discard the knobs and buy some nickel ones to match the rest of the kitchen. I thought we should try spraying it with some nickel paint first and see how it goes. My base primer was apparently oil based because when I sprayed the metallic paint over it, it puckered and buckled! I found that I loved it! I think it adds a little something. I sprayed it with two coats of sealer afterwards. Not sure how they will wear, but worst case, she can buy the new ones. It's fun to try something new in the meantime!
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