we painted our piano!

The mister got this piano from a local church while we were still dating.

It was pretty ratty so we decided to paint it... green.

now it's much more fun to play!

will I ever...

finish this project??

maybe if I get focused this weekend I will finish it and maybe even work on the quilt I started before Christmas!  You know you wanna see the before and after of this island.

DIY chalkboard labels

So the local craft store was having a glass sale and I got these glass canisters for a steal of a deal!!

but something was missing.

they seemed so naked.

I happened to have a sheet of labels sitting around waiting to be used so I decided to put them to good use.

lightly spray the labels with chalkboard paint.  let dry.  repeat.  repeat.  repeat.

yes.  it took 4 coats.

chalkboard painted labels.

they were a little large for my canisters so I cut them into squares.

super cool, inexpensive project (especially if you already have chalkboard paint)

oscar loves drawers

not drawers like undies, sicko.

drawers that clothes go in.

"your chest of drawers is a little outdated, mom.  maybe we should refinish it or paint it or something."

I know, Oscar.  I know.

DIY gold striped platter

I am really in love with stripes right now... and I thought it would be really super cool to have a pink and gold striped platter.  So I made a big and a little.  Here's the DIY.

you can buy clear glass plates and platters pretty cheap and you can do a lot of cool projects with them

(um, hello?  Christmas presents!)

Tape off the platter with painters tape to make stripes.  You could do a gingham pattern, too... or even Chevron if you're feeling fancy!

spray it.  (notice I paint on the underside so I can still put food on the platter :)

wait for the paint to dry and peel tape.

Spray with contrasting color.

cool!!  Don't look too closely.  The lines aren't perfect, but I'm keeping it so it doesn't matter so much :)

DIY painted curtains

I saw a scarf several months ago that someone had painted a quote on and it gave me the idea to paint song lyrics onto curtains.  So I did it...

paints I had on hand and the cheapest curtains I could find.

I think it looks pretty cool, but I think I should have stuck with one color.  I'm not committed to hanging them yet.  But I loved the idea and it was fun to do.

Just in case you're curious...

We chose "So in Love" by Cole Porter

If you haven't seen De-Lovely, it will make you fall in love with that song.

DIY tiered monogram plate

I made this for a dear friend of mine...

first, I spray painted the inside of a dessert glass.

then, I printed out a monogram and taped it face down on the top of a glass plate.

then I just painted over the monogram... this works great if you aren't great at freestylin'

next, I spray painted a contrasting color on the bottom of the dessert glass and plate.

here they are after they dried.

final step to glue the dessert glass to the plate.  I like it upside down so that it has a broader base.

voila!  under $15!!!

before & after: the relationship lamp

My husband and I have been working to de-junkify our house since we first got married.  The initial merge was pretty overwhelming and stressful since we both are sentimental beings who have trouble throwing things away.  So far, we've been successful.

Since we first put our bedroom together, I've kept his lamp by my bedside and he has nothing.  He hates this.  So I was glad to find that we had not gotten rid of our relationship lamp.  This lamp was an old lamp that he had when we first started dating and we decided to paint it all different colors after about a year of dating.  We started calling it the relationship lamp because we had a big talk about our relationship and love when we painted it.

We should call it the clown lamp... what were we thinking?!

ah.  much better.  I feel like such an adult now.  And mister gets his old lamp back.

decoupage bird art.

I have been recently inspired to redecorate my apartment, but budget decorating takes time and a lot of creativity... so with a little bit of inspiration from the Color me Katie blog, some Pier One catalogs that keep getting mailed to my apartment, some black paint, and one large canvas I made this...

and a little more up close and personal...

painted plates.

I must admit that I got this idea from the Big-Ass Book of Crafts, which if you haven't taken a look at this book you really really must. It's packed with some fantastic ideas.

So I decided to try my hand at painting some plates (with the help of some printed images to guide me). Here's how I did it...

I purchased some clear plates, printed some silhouettes that I found on Google image search (I know, really original, Al), I taped the images face down on the top of the plate, then flipped it over and painted on top of the image. Then, I spray painted the plate on top of the image I just painted. Flip over, and voila! A pretty cool plate.

birds.

beatles.

paint by numbers.

last week I went to a paint-by-numbers party. I hadn't painted by numbers in years... since I was a kid. However, I never remember them being as intricate as the one I was given. I didn't finish it at the party, but I was determined to complete my numbered masterpiece.

grrrr, baby.

my crafty weekend...

so it wasn't this past weekend but it still happened fairly recently...

I went to visit my niece for her 5th birthday and we spent quite a crafty day together.
first, we bought some beads and made bracelets...

which arm is the 30 year old and which is the 5 year old?
almost hard to tell except for the 30 year old has big mama veins in her hands :(

Then, we decided to buy some t-shirts and paint them for fun... it was very important to have pink, purple, and something sparkly on the shirts. So we went with sparkly paints.

kat hard at work.



our finished products.

More blogs to come... I PROMISE!!