summer fun

And that bring me up to date and most of the mini projects I've been up to.  Of course, I change my mantels every month and that drives J nuts too.  Whatever.. it's pretty!  Here is my summer theme.

I whipped this little beauty up with some leftover pallet wood.  I'm out of mini starfish but there will be a 3x3 square after a quick trip to the store.  I like it because it doubles for Independence day kinda sorta.

I was bored today and hot.  I was looking for something fun to do out of my big pile of scraps and this is what I came up with out of junk I already had.  Good enough for now I think... we have been traveling all summer and I haven't had the motivation to decorate the house as much.  It broke my heart today when I was at the craft store and all the fall decor was set out.  Isn't it too soon yet?  I mean, it's just now summer and I am not excited about my favorite season at all yet!

I see a red door and I wanted it painted black!

I know I haven't posted anything in a very very very long time.  I do have a very very very good excuse though!  My excuse is that I have been spending time with my family and making decisions on what projects I want to tackle next on the house.  The things we have done are not major projects, but alas, here they are:

I got bitten by the black door bug.  I started when I realized how dirty the exterior garage door was.  I had to do something about it so naturally, I painted it the same color as I had the exterior doors; a dark blackish blue color called Cracked Pepper by Behr.

After I did that, I started noticing how ALL the exterior doors had finger prints on them and I wanted to break up all the white we had going on.  (My husband hates that I am constantly changing my mind FYI!)  I went and bought more black paint in a different shade of black for the doors and before J could stop me, the doors had paint all over them!  He did end up liking what I'd done though... he always does!

before...

after!

Garage door (interior)

Front door

before....

After!

Spring Teaser

I just posted Valentine's stuff but I've already cleared all that and pulled out my Spring and Easter decor.  Wishful thinking I guess....

Door Decor in Entry

There is a large space above our front door and I really have NO CLUE how I'm going to decorate after Christmas! However, I decided for the holidays to go with a nostalgic scene right out of my childhood. The tree is decorated with brightly colored ornaments and childhood ornaments. I mean we're talking a Popsicle sled I made in first grade! The stocking are the ones my Mom sewed for us all and yes, that's my rocking horse and sled I grew up with.

 

Christmas Entry

In the last post, you saw the NOrth side of our entry so here is what I have hanging on the South wall!
That sign is a little something I whipped up while I was waiting on J to put a second coat of paint on the cabinets.  I simply nailed three pieces of pallet wood together and sanded it lightly on one side for a smooth paintable surface.  Nothing crazy because I hate sanding.
Then I took a regular old paint brush and white acrylic paint and slapped just enough paint on the wood that I didn't have enough to take it to the ends so it looked distressed.

The lettering was relatively easy to do.  In college, I learned this trick where you rub your pencil on the backside of whatever you want to trace.  Then you place the paper, right side up, on the board and trace over the image in pen and it will transfer the pencil onto the white paint.  I free handed "merry"  and the holly but cheated with some simple font off microsoft word.  I painted the letters on with black acrylic paint but you could use a sharpie I'm sure.  I used gray paint for the shadowing then mixed glue and glitter together and went over the paint after it dried because I believe glitter makes everything better!!!!

Here is a close up of my finished project that cost me $0 and looks stunning!  I received several compliments on this at the party I had over the weekend.