Project “Add Some Color”

You might remember that a few months ago we gussied up our kitchen with white paint, new countertops, a new sink and faucet, a newly installed microwave, and a subway tile backsplash. 

It looks mighty fine and we love how bright it is now, but it’s lacking some serious color infusion.  Well, I started that infusion with a few tweaks involving spray paint.  For example, see the dark brown spoon holder to the right of the stove in the photo above?  No?  It’s there.  It’s just melded into the color of the cook top, no individuality whatsoever. 

Well that spoon holder’s singing a new song these days to the tune of “Lemon Grass” by Rustoleum:

If I’ve written it one time I’ve written it a thousand buuut, all I did was spray each of my items to be colored with a thin coat of primer, let that dry, and then sprayed them again with a few thin and even coats of color, making sure to spray at every side and angle of each item to get full coverage. You might’ve noticed my multi-tasking as I primed up Mama Mary at the same time.

So there we have it, a leedle bit more color in our stark white kitchen.

The best part about this whole paint party is that it only cost me $4 for the spray paint.  I already had some spray primer on hand and the napkin, spoon, and paper towel holders were wedding gifts from Target five years ago.

Still on my back burner are a hand-painted/stenciled runner, some colorful cookbooks, random decor here and there, and maybe a spray-painted coffee maker?  Not sure about that last one but I’m not going to lie and tell you I positively won’t do it…

Happy weekend!

Jingle All The Way

Well our internet is back up and jogging Praise the Lord.  It was agonizingly painful to not be able to facebook creep, blog hop, and pinteretize whilst feeding the sprouts.  Sad maybe, but true.  

But, let's put all that behind us and get into the holiday spirit with a little video of our five month old prodigy.  A real singing sensation she is and it'll only get better as we go I'm sure of it.  Cecilia LOVES to "sing" along with me and our recent collaboration was "Jingle Bells", in english and gibberish.  I apologize for the awful camera handling.  I can't hold the camera up in her face because she all of a sudden becomes super interested in only it and any performance I might want just doesn't happen.  So, I hid it/tricked her by holding it to the side, thinking that I had her entire face in the picture but a corner is all you'll get...and sideways too.  Oh well, once the music hits your ears, you won't care.  So, without further ado:

The very appropriately named (St. Cecilia = patron saint of music), Cecilia:  

Boo Hiss

Boo for zero internet at our casa which obvi means you're all stuck without a Saturday read (which I know many of you have shed a tear or zero over) and I'm stuck writing up this little explanation for where I was not in a two minute sit inside Anthony's office at work.  Comstupidcast is supposed to be out Tuesday so we'll just see if they can fix our net and my attitude over the whole ordeal...

Mama Got A Makeover

Not this mama, this Mama: Years of looking on, occupying everything from bookcases to dressers, had yellowed the whites in her eyes and everywhere else.  (In case your suspicions are peaking, I’m fully aware “she” is a statue.  Fact number 488 – Catholics don’t worship statues.)

So, I put my pointer finger to work with a little primer and the usual “few thin coats” of happiness in a spray can and gave Mama a new do:And she got her groove back.

The end…or is it?

A Flawless Mirror Revamp

*Before I start on my DIY rant and rave, I want to take a few typed words to announce to the www that it’s our fifth wedding anniversary!  Holla!  Neither of us can believe that it’s been five years!  We’ve been verbally noting our happenings at ‘this moment five years ago’ for the past couple of days and it’s been so wonderful to relive those precious moments.  This year is even more special as we have two beautiful little human beings that are the tangible blessings of our love and we are so thankful to God for them, for us, and for all the years ahead!  Happy Anniversary Sweets!*

*Pst…You can get in on a smidge of our sappy love fest with this video!  Otherwise, it’s back to normal programming!*

.           .           .

A couple of years ago, a friend gave us a really cool, antique mirror that’s been floating around different closets in our house, perpetually waiting to be the star of a DIY project.  I had always envisioned replacing the old artwork framed at the top with a family picture or some custom art.  Well, the twins came along and their nursery with them and it gave me the perfect spot and the motivation I needed to give my idea life.  Before I had even started working on the mirror, I had Anthony hang it one day during a minute of his rare free time right next to the girls’ closet: 

During the weeks of stripe painting it came down and I finally took a few extra moments this week to create a somewhat new mirror mirror on the wall.

I went back and forth between wanting to paint it and wanting to leave it gold.  Once the stripes were finished, I thought it’d help my decision to bring it back into the room and when I did, I loved the contrast of the gold with the stripes and the pinks and peaches in the room and also liked the idea of less work so gold it stayed.

Next up was the artwork.  The original artwork was held in place with some very stiff, very old cardboard and a few rusty nails.  I simply removed the nails and pulled everything out.

Here’s a better glimpse of the old artwork that was inside this thing.  It’s actually pretty cool and ‘vintage-y’ so I’m going to keep it for some rainy day project.

So, the artwork.  I loved the whole feel of the mirror being not just any old mirror, but one with a picture frame atop it and so I wanted the frame to hold something that would be a reminder to our girls of just how special and beautiful they are while they’re looking into the mirror.  With that, I whipped up this with pixlr.com:  

After I had finished the design, I had it printed on matte 8 x 10 photo paper.

I wanted a matte over the new artwork, but being an odd size and not wanting to get a custom matte made, I took matters into my own hands and made one myself.  It didn’t come out the greatest (which might have a lot to do with the fact that I quickly did it last night around 11), but here’s how I made it anyway.  The process worked, just not the creator.  :)

First, I took the old cardboard that had been in the frame and measured out a rectangle a little smaller than my artwork.

Then I grabbed a razor blade and a cutting board and cut along the ruler to get this:

I cut too quickly however and my top and bottom edges turned out a little less than straight which means that one of these days I’m going to have to make another matte but until then, the perfectionist in me is letting this one slide.  A few coats of some white, flat spray paint, a quick reinsertion, and back in with a few rusty nails and here we are:

 

I still have the editable Pixlr file, so if anyone is interested in printing it out for your very own, just email me (because I’m not tech savvy enough to include a download) at beaninlove@gmail.com and I’ll send it right over (for free of course).  You can mess with the colors, the background, the font, the size, whatever you like.  Then, just get it printed, frame it, and zootolo, some words to live by.  :)

Have a great weekend you flawless folks!