Playing with spraypaint

I feel like a deliquent when I say this, but I love spraypaint. It's so much fun, and I like being able to transform things with just a quick spray of paint.

Here's a peak at what I did this weekend . . .

Waiting to be painted.

Painted.

Most of these items will be going atop our kitchen cabinets to break up some of the ultra-whiteness. The basket will hold our cloth napkins.

I haven't quite decided what I will do with the orange pail. I'm thinking of stenciling something on it . . . haven't decided what.

I also tried using a doily as a stencil on a plate.

Picture above:  Doily, Plate. You're welcome. Love, Captain Obvious.

I painted the whole thing orange, and hoped that the doily/stencil would leave a white doily design on an orange background.

That is not what happened.

This is what happened.

You can't tell, because I forgot to take another picture, but the doily didn't sit quite flat on the plate, so paint got under the edges. So, I ended up with fuzzy edges. Which stinks, because what did come out crisply was beautiful. Oh well, life goes on.
 
So now I have the orange plate, which is still awesome - on account of the orange - but I don't know what sort of design to put on it.
Maybe something like this?

I love what Jen at tatertots and jello has been doing with Quatrefoil lately. You can your own free, downloadable quatrefoil stencil here . While you are there, check out some of Jen's other projects. She's amazing.

And if you have any ideas about what I should do with my poor orange plate, I'm open to suggestions!


Love,

Curtain upgrade

I love my kitchen. Well, let me clarify. My kitchen is a glorified apartment galley kitchen with white laminate cabinets (about 4 of them) and no counter space. So I don't love that. BUT, I do love the colors in my kitchen. We have an olive-ish green accent wall, white cabinets, and black tables and chairs. Very pretty. I'm in the process of adding some decorative touches - mostly black, but also ORANGE! (I'm very excited about the orange)
When we got the new table a couple years ago - at Ikea  - we also got some black and white striped curtains. Which I loved.

At the time.

After a while, I started getting bored with them. They complemented the room nicely, but they were kind of . . . eh.

They also needed to be hemmed. But when I went to hem them I accidentally butchered the bottom edge and it was all crazy short on one side. (I swear, it really was an accident) In trying to figure out a fix for my butchery, I came up with an idea to make them a little more interesting.

Here they are before . . .

Excuse the horrible picture, I couldn't find my real camera.

Butchery. And wrinkles.

This is what the kids did while I had the curtains down for surgery.

Spelling practice is much more fun with window crayons.

I don't have pictures of the process, because I'm forgetful like that, but the whole thing was fairly simple - albeit time-consuming. All I did was attach a big piece of black fabric to the bottoms - about 18 inches or so. Then, because I thought it looked weird where it just transitioned from stripes to black, I topstiched a ribbon over the seam. Very simple, but I love the results.

Love.

The big picture - it was actually exceedingly difficult to get a picture that showed both the table, and the bottoms of the curtains.

I love love love my new curtains. It was a very inexpensive fix. The black fabric is upholstery weight (which is good, because the rest of the curtains are lightweight and this helps them lay better) and I got it for $9 a yard at Joann's. The ribbon was $3 a spool, and I had to buy two spools to get the right yardage without piecing it.

But it looks like I spent gobs of cash, and I love it. Love it love it love it. Did I mention I love it?


Love,

I heart ikea

I need to win the lottery. Because even at ikea prices I want waaaaaaay to much stuff. But everything there is so wonderful. I can spend hours in that store. Hours.

Babe just goes for the meatballs.

meatballs.

Today, whilst sitting in my incredibly boring computer science class, I spent some time surfing the ikea site took very good notes. But magically, all these images of new ikea stuff appeared on my screen. Who knows why?

If anyone is looking for a gift for me, here's where to go.

Lookie, lookie:

Happy Little Trees

I love green stripes.

I'm pretty sure if I had this in my office, I would totally be more productive.

Happy Little Tree fabric!

Cool rectangle vase.

Recycle bags!

I love this picture.

More stripes!

House fabric - so cute!

I love this gray rug. I have no where to put it, but I don't care.

Pretty ghosty flower fabric.

Polka dot fabrics make me smile.

Pretty blue.

More houses - this is my favorite.

Princess fabric!

Words! On fabric! I love words!

See, I really need a large influx of cash. HUGE. Because I need these things. Need them, you understand. As in, these items are necessary to my survival.



Love,