Spray Paint and a weekend

I was left alone this weekend.  Well I am also along til probably Thursday, but I’m much more productive on the weekends. I’ve had one project that I’ve been trying to finish since Thanksgiving.  Yup! November…… yeah. I also have another project that I did for Christmas that I never blogged about, maybe I need to get a round to that. At this rate, next month sounds great for that! Christmas in Ireland? Ya’know for St Patties day?

Anywho, back on track.  Two projects.  The first was really simple.  Really Really simple.  One of my parents friends moved houses and decided to get rid of a bunch of stuff.  I scored: a horribly 70’s yellow rocker that is the most comfortable chair EVER, a peacock blue IKEA lamp, an old trunk that she wanted to give her son and he didn’t want, and 3 mirrors.  One of the mirrors is super awesome, perfect size, nice thick frame on it, reflects stuff, its great! Except its gold. Well, was gold.

Here is the before:

Before

I roughed her up a little bit, and discovered that she had also been green (it was a match made in heaven, she has a green heart), pink, cream, and then original wood. I didn’t sand all of the old paint away, but I did sand off the shine and any nastiness that was left (like the coffee that Dad spilled on it, that I didn’t bother to clean off).

Next step: taping the mirror off. You know, so you can still see yourself in it when your done.  At this point I discovered a few things.  1. I have no painters tape. 2. TJ used up the rest of my packing tape. 3. I was almost out of scotch tape. 4. TJ has electrical tape in his work bag! And he’s not here to tell me no! (Example #1 of why I shouldn’t be left alone for long periods of time).  I started taping pieces of thick paper over the mirror and then set the mirror up on a box so I was able to get all sides and angles easily.

In Progress

I used this paint for my frame:

I don’t know about the 2x coverage claim, I still ended up doing about 4 passes over the frame.  I’m sure its just a marketing pitch, but it was the color that spoke to me.

And drumroll for project #1 *insert drumroll noises here*

Here she is:

I need to get a better after pic, and one of it actually hanging but this chick isn’t hanging a mirror above the fireplace by herself.  Nope. Not happening.

Cost Breakdown:
Mirror: Free
Sandpaper: Free, had on hand
Spray Paint: $5
Total: $5

Now for project #2! This was inspired by this post that I found on Pinterest (picture is clicky to the blog:) )

Puff Paint Vases

This is what I was starting with, a free peacock blue IKEA lamp.

Before

This project was full of lessons learned.  Unfortunately I don’t have any progress pictures on this but I started off by sketching out my design on the lamp with a sharpie.  Mistake number one.  Turns out spray paint doesn’t stick to sharpie. After that I used white puff fabric paint and went over the final design a few times until I get the desired look.

Now its time to paint.  Originally I picked out a mossy, army green and it was a little darker than I preferred.  Good thing was that it wasn’t sticking to the sharpie spots.  So I primered over the entire lamp until the sharpie was completely covered.  Let it dry for roughly a month (just to be safe 😉 ) and then a few coats of my final color which ended up being perfect!

Since I don’t have any in between photos, here is the final product.  This is going in my office, but its a wreck in there and no one deserves to see that.

So final cost breakdown:

Lamp: Free
Sharpie: Free
Puff Paint: $0.50
Primer: $1 (sale)
Spray Paint: $5

Total: $6.50

Warrior Training Challenge

I’m sure by now, you have figured out that this isn’t a blog just on DIY.  Its not a blog just on cooking.  Its a blog on life. Right now my life includes a lot of getting into shape.

The gym I workout at is starting a Warrior Training Program with two different divisions, Body Weight Challenge 1000 and Body Weight Challenge 500.  I’m going to try the Body Weight Challenge 500, which has 16 different exercises that when combined equals 500 reps. I’m beginning to think I’m crazy. As of right now I can’t do a normal pushup, not a one. I can do girlie push-ups, but not sure if I can even do 25 of those.

So here’s what it is:

50: Rope Jacks
25: Squat Thrust
25: Step Up Right
25: Plank Jacks
25: Step Up Left
25: Push Ups
25: Box Jumps
25: Inverted TRX Row
25: Stability Ball Leg Curls
25: Sliding Disc Crunches
25: Walking Lunge Left
25: Rotational Rope Slams:Right
25: Walking Lunge Right
25: Rotational Slams: Left
25: Alternating Power Lunge Slams
100: Jump Ropes

Total: 500

Whew, my body is screaming already! The program starts next week and goes until December 17th, so this gives me something to work towards all year long.  Plus I get a free t-shirt! So if I drop off the face of the earth, you’ll know why.  My gym murdered me.

Awesome little giveaway @ DIY Showoff

DIY Showoff is one of my most favorite blogs, easily in the top 5.  Roeshel does such an awesome job making old things look fabulous and completely liveable.  No couches that aren’t for sitting in her house!

Well she is doing a giveaway on her blog for a $50 Wallums credit.  Wallums is a San Francisco based company specializing in 100% removable, unique, and even custom wall decals.  There are tons of options for about any room or idea and they come in about a million different colors.  I’m addicted and I have yet to buy anything from them!

My favorite??

This would be perfect in the guest bath!

Roeshel made this wonderful piece of art with a little elbow grease and stain, and now she has something that she can move around and work into future bathroom designs. Isn’t it neat?

Click to see how she made it!

The giveaway is open until Saturday (2/25) at midnight EST, so run over there and check it out!!

Pinning my home into perfection

I’m sure by now everyone and their momma has heard of Pinterest.  If you haven’t, you need to, its fantabulous.  Basically, it is the evil love child of pinboards and bookmarks. You have a collection of boards (I’ve been told there is a limit, this scares me.) that you can choose what they are for (LO’s playroom, Bathroom Remodel, DD’s first birthday, etc.) and you can “Pin” things that you see online to them.  They give you a cool little link to put on your toolbar and whenever you see or read something that you need to save for the future you Pin It.  Then you pick which board, add a message that means something, and Voila! you have saved that little piece of internet awesome-ness so that you can find it later.  Even better, Pinterest links back to the original source so that you have that as well, these kids had their thinking caps on!

Well even though we have a pretty new house, and we did get to choose how certain things were done, things are always perfect, and some things are missing.  This is wear Pinterest comes in and makes my home perfect.  Even though we haven’t completely our first project yet, almost though!!

All of these things are completely realistic and obtainable goals, and things that I actually would like to complete in the next year or so.

traditional exterior design by minneapolis general contractor Stonewood, LLC

We currently don’t have a walkway to our front porch, heck we don’t have one to the back deck either.  The builder didn’t include it in the price, and we didn’t think that it was a big deal and we would do it in time.  I’m pretty sure that our pizza delivery guy would hug us if we put in a walkway. I really love the look of square/rectangle slate with natural stone and a slightly irregular pattern.  We would have a larger square landing area at the bottom of the stairs, the walkway would go out towards the driveway and then down the little hill towards the garage, we will need some stairs built into the hill here.  We will probably need a little retaining wall there as well, and conveniently enough, this picture has one of those too!

This picture was posted on a forum I frequent (she’s aware I pinned it) and I am in love with the backsplash.  Our countertop is pretty neutral and I like how this lightens things up a bit.

The lovely Roeshel over at diyshowoff.com made over her stair landing with this great wall stencil.  I’m still not entirely sure where I would put a wall stencil with so many walls sharing spaces (*shakes fist at open concept floor plan*), but I know that it needs a home in my home somewhere.  Plus she made it look easy!

We don’t have a headboard.  Surprise right? The couple with nearly no furniture, doesn’t have a headboard. I have found a few that would work, but I only liked them.  I need to love something in order to spend money on it, if its free I’ll take it, but spending money on it….man its hard. Well this, I love! I would probably do a medium tan linen type material that has texture but no real pattern. And big props to the awesome Beth for making it look easy! I love tutorials (I originally wrote tortillas, I’m hungry) that make things look easy!

We have absolutely horrible builder grade, wall of mirror, mirrors. I hate them. I also hate the price tag on mirrors that I like/love (see previous explanation on things I like).  The Idea Room solved this problem, way to go Amy!

There are a ton of things that we need to do to the house, like painting, and it will be never ending but this is a start 🙂

Linking up to:

Inspirational People

I have met several people in my life that have left a lasting (good) impression on my life.  Some are family, some are friends, others are random people you meet at the grocery store, or on the street, or in the gym locker room.

This morning I was running a wee bit late getting to the gym, still completely within my safe window of not messing up anything else today, but still a little later than I prefer. Almost every morning as I’m changing into my gym clothes there is another girl changing into her work clothes, she is much more of a morning person than I am.  We say our pleasantry’s, she listens to music, I change clothes and we go on our ways with a smile and a quick “hi”.

Today was different. We started talking, she asked what days I came (there are sometimes she’s not in there) and how long I’ve been coming.  The typical gym type questions.  We got to talking and turns out this girl who is maybe 5’6″ and 130 on a bad day, used to be over 200 pounds. She showed me the stretchy skin on her belly that hasn’t tightened up yet. She had the same experiences that I had, the friends that told her “Oh your not fat, don’t beat yourself up” “Your “shapely” you don’t need to lose weight”. And just like me she wasn’t happy being that person anymore, so she did something about it.

It is really hard to explain our conversation, but she was the most up-lifting, positive, and inspirational people that I have talked to in a long, long time. She kept telling me that I was doing a good job, and that every step is a step in the right direction. She’s right, every little bit counts. It is nice knowing that there are people out there that are happy to be this nice and supportive of someone they just met.