How To Paint A Chandelier

That chandelier doesn’t look like anything special, does it? Feelings about that are likely to be higher once you see all the dust and gunk caked on that bad boy. Oooh. Gross. Toss it and buy a new one, right?

Nope.

Nothing a can of spray paint and a handy little gal can’t handle.

Step one, take the light down, place on a sheet or tarp. Make sure painting is done outside due to fumes. I read other peoples’ tips to cover the light sockets with tap or something. Getting paint down in that space could prevent the light from working.

Make sure you clean off all that dust and dirt. I used a wet papertowel. No need to use chemicals if you don’t need to {my theory anyway}.

I purchased Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch (2x cover) Black Flat spray paint. I should have primed it but I forgot to get it at the store and honestly didn’t feel like going back. A chandelier doesn’t get touched a lot so I figured I was safe to perhaps put some extra coats on and call it a day.

What do you think?

What do you think?

Trying to keep things out of the landfill has been fun today! You too can do this. Just takes a can of spray paint and a few hours.

 

A Pinterest Birthday Party

So this year I was really inspired on Pinterest to try some new DIY birthday decorations and foodie additions to one of my children’s birthday parties. It was much cheaper than other methods, looked cooler, and I think made him feel really special.

Want to see exactly where my inspiration came from? Okay! Check out my Pinterest Board where you will find all the people who helped make the party come alive.

The Cake:

The cake was completely stolen borrowed from various Pinterest images/blogs. It’s really amazing what others do. It’s truly a blessing. It’s that sense that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel AT ALL. Some other person WAY more talented and brilliant than myself came up with some ideas (probably stolen borrowed from some other fabulous crafter before them) and I get to sit back and benefit from it. It’s truly amazing when you think about it. Other than the time and energy to get the supplies and put it together, it’s rather inexpensive. Everything except for the mast and sails was edible. As in, you could eat it.

What do you think?

I will tell you how I started. Used a regular Duncan Hines Lemon cake mix. Baked it in a 9×11 Pyrex glass pan. Used a second box and baked it on a few small containers I had lying around to make some of the higher layers. I ended up cutting the pieces to fit it together and just made something work. We used photos of pirate ships to figure out how much and how high to make the various levels. I cut the front of the boat into an arrow shape. Then I started icing. You can buy icing in the store (Wilton sells a big tub of it at Michael’s for $16.99) or you can make it from scratch. I chose the Wilton’s Buttercream Icing recipe on most of their cake pans and doubled it. I used their gel icing coloring – Brown, Sky Blue, and a mixture of Skin Tone, Copper and Brown to make the sandy beach color. The sides of the boat were a darker brown than the top. And then I just started adding M&Ms, Graham Crackers, Hershey’s bars, and those little silver balls are these little candy pieces I had. Wished they were gold but I was committed to using what I had. I did find some ice cream sprinkle topping in the pantry so I added that to the beach to make it look like sand. The fire on the beach was made with miniature Hershey and crunch bars left over from Valentine’s day (shhh) and the fire was made from a Swedish Fish, of all things. My husband graciously agreed to make the mast and sails. He went online and found the image and printed it out. Used a wooden skewer to poke it through and then had the sugar cone resting on a piece of chocolate somehow. The board it’s sitting on is one of those cardboard cake boards you buy in the store and I just wrapped it in foil.

Next on the list (below) is the Watermelon Shark. I had every intention of doing this, but in the end, yep, you guessed it…My wonderful husband got out the knife and went to work. In all fairness here, his brain is better at this kind of thing. The most difficult thing was scooping out the watermelon without mauling the entire rest of it. You can’t see the sign, but the Pinterest person wrote the sign next to it as “Shark Bites”. I thought that was so clever I stole borrowed it too.

The beverages were the easiest, by far. The bottles I found at IKEA by accident. Wasn’t sure if i would add sand to them or what. And pretty much everything got an extra dose of twine or rope to make it seem more rough and pirate-y.

My favorite part was probably the “loot” we offered the kids when they left. Recently we were hiking with the kids so we decided to start picking up sticks for the  swords as we walked. It wasn’t that much more work and just required some forethought. The two pieces were held together with… yep…twine. The material was one of my favorite things. IKEA! Who knew IKEA had red and white striped fabric as well as black and white polka dots. At less than $8/yd and only needing 2 yds of each, this was excellent. I turned them into bandanas (I used pinking shears and cut triangles); girls got polka dots, boys got stripes. Score! Next for the eye patches. Black felt and elastic. Super easy. These were part of their favor but they got to wear them around the party so that was cool too.

My hope is that my little post will help you plan your next party. As they say, sharing is caring. Enjoy!

How To Paint A Door

 

Thanks to the internet (and quite frankly Pinterest for helping me find things on the internet) I am happy to say that “Project: Paint The Bathroom Door” was a huge success. It was difficult to allow the 5 year old to help but since she was so eager, I thought I should let her so she can learn early how do be a DIY‘er herself. Is it really ever too early for this?

I have The Pretty Handy Girl’s blog/website to thank, specifically her post titled “How To Paint A Door (The Professional Way) that allowed us to get one small project completed on the bathroom renovation. I feel as though I can hardly call it a renovation since it’s been months since we did anything on this. But, since it’s still ongoing, we press on. Can you believe we have used a curtain (yes a REAL CURTAIN) as our door since last summer? Our only bathroom. Yes, a curtain.

We figured since we are hosting a birthday party we needed to probably get a door on that bathroom. I mean, I suppose people wouldn’t mind pulling a curtain across as “privacy” but I was pretty sure I’d be mocked forever and ever and Ben scarred for life as people refused to let their children be friends with him. Nothing like hosting a party to get some fire under our rears to get cracking on the projects.

Two of the most helpful tips from her website were to give me some kind of order for painting the doors. I always feel overwhelmed about where to start and where to stop and which way to paint – with or against the grain. The second thing it helped me with was telling me to use a roller first and then smooth it out with a brush. Genius! And let me say it worked marvelously.

So, below we have our lovely door hinges. Can you tell which side I spent countless hours scrubbing and which side was the “oh snap, we need to get that paint off and get the door backup STAT!”? But, alas, it’s a hinge. I will go for the shabby-chic look I think – or at least that’s what I will tell myself to make it okay. Who looks at hinges anyway? [Okay, I do, but whatever...]. If you want to know how to get paint off metal hinges, it’s no walk in the park. We used the toxic paint stripping stuff (yes, not green at all) and then proceeded to let it soak for hours and then used wire brushes and flat edged tools like chisels and screwdrivers to chip all remaining amounts of paint. Wear a mask and make SURE you get the special kind of gloves that resist chemicals. Don’t want that stuff eating away your flesh or anything.

 

And Voila, we now have a door on our bathroom. Isn’t she beautiful?

 

How To Become A Green Clean Machine

About a week ago I was at our local library and stumbled across this book while I was looking for a decent sewing book. And over the years as I have learned more about natural cleaning products I’ve always thought how easy it seemed. Now I know it’s easy as I have dabbled lightly in it. And then I just decided to read more about the chemicals and what VOCs are and such. And I think I’ve decided to be done with things like Bleach and 409. I can’t believe I am saying this out loud (well, technically I’m typing it but you know what I mean!) as my mom is a professional house cleaner. She will have opinions and words to share about my desire to relinquish cleaning products that are staples in her line of work. But the more I read the more I am convinced of a different, better, healthier way.

There are probably a lot of good books out there and I have perused several. I like the layout of this one a lot. She also gives a list of websites and companies in the back where you can buy products. For me, buying something like Castile Soap is so strange that I need all the help I can get with regard to where to obtain some of this. The “crux” of the ingredients required seem basic enough. Things like Vinegar, Lemons, Baking Soda, Hot/Warm Water, Borax. And if you’re like me and you have a membership to a place like Costco – cha-ching – you can get some of those in bulk and be on your merry way to easy-peasy cleaning products.

Here are a few of the ones I am getting ready to try for the first time. I’ll be sure to report back on how it all goes!

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you must, must, must do research. Don’t just jump on the bandwagon of the first thing that comes through town promising that it will solve all your problems. Do your research. There are plenty of website out there now to help you through this process. You also need to be careful about reading both sides of the story. Don’t just read information from people who sell the products or have some vest interest in your purchase. The author of this book went to great lengths to put together valid resources for her readers. One such resource is the information about the National Toxicology Program (http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov) who happens to be “a federal program whose mission is to evaluate agents of public health concern by developing and applying tools of modern toxicology and molecular biology. The NTP is attempting to identify what the effects of the more than 80,000 chemicals registered for use in the United States are and at what levels of exposure they may become hazardous to humans.” Pretty cool stuff, right? Okay, maybe cool isn’t the right word, but certainly good to have resources like them around!

I will let you know how it goes and Happy Cleaning!!

Hiking Practice

So our family is planning a trip out west this summer. So to prepare our 4 and almost-6-year-old for their hiking adventures we have been looking for opportunities to get their feet wet, so to speak. Since we live very close to Valley Forge National Park we decided to take them for a hike up Mt. Misery (not a real mountain by my husband’s standards just so you know!) and had ourselves a great time. The weather was mild – low 40′s (which is good for February) and the fog lifted soon after we started our trek.

Great family Saturday getting some much-needed exercise!

 

Worshipful Wedding

Our family just went to a wedding in Pittsburgh this past weekend. It was the epitome of intentional. Not only was the church beautiful (you know how much I love the “old”) but the decorations were perfect. Simple yet extravagant. Most of all it moved me to a place of worship so quickly. I marveled watching everything unfold. I knew the bride and groom spent a lot of time (which is strange since they had a very short engagement) thinking about how they wanted everything to work. The music. The songs they chose. The words shared. The communion we shared. It was all so special. It was clear that they made every detail come alive and wanted people who attended to know how much they loved each other, but mostly how much they loved the Lord. I saw that so clearly this weekend.

My favorite songs we sang were “10,000 Reasons” and “Jesus Paid It All”. YouTube these. You will not be sorry you did.

And while the photos of the actual wedding were good enough, the weekend was sweetened by wonderful fellowship with friends we haven’t seen in years. Even our children benefited from this precious time spent getting to know each other.

Enjoy some lovely photos…

 

Sew Happy

I’ve decided to take up the daunting skill of sewing. My first project is a “botanical tiara” for my 5-yr-olds upcoming princess ball. Found a book with some simple gift ideas to sew and one is this really elegant floral tiara. The instructions called for ultra suede (fabric store didn’t have it and could not help me figure out an alternative). I decided on felt.

I am happy to report success for the first 3 flowers. Lily certainly seems pleased. I can’t wait to see how she looks in her fairy garden princess gown in a week.

I also hope she treasures this gift of love.

Here’s to the start of a cool hobby!