Happy Feet: Spray Paint Your Life

I swear the wind watches and waits until I have the spray can in my hand before it starts up. No matter, I still paint with abandon. And splattered cement in a pool area is very artsy.

I got a wild hair one day and decided I had to get myself out of my funk I'd been in for months. I had stumbled across these shoes, and thought to myself, "Hey, I have a whole can of purple spray paint!"

(image source)

Purple is not usually a color I use, but it had been for one of the boys' Halloween costumes and I'd only used a tiny bit.

I rummaged around in my closet and found some shoes that I hadn't worn in a while:

Personally, I like these guys, but people told me I looked like I was about to go rock climbing and my husband thinks they're hideous.

So I used the remainder of a roll of painting tape and some napkins, and started priming.


These soaked up a lot of primer and paint, and took quite a few applications. Still, I was happy with the result.

(There's a spot by my right big toe with primer peeking through. Meh.)

I'm not sure why I insisted on contorting myself into odd positions instead of just taking the darn things off.





I'm sure the hubs still thinks they're hideous, but he's been sweet enough to stay quiet about it.


Another project I thought turned out well was painting some bowls from the Dollar Tree and a jewelry holder. I got the holder as a gift and loved the concept, but not the pink.

I was painting the shoes at the same time, mostly because I was too impatient to just sit around watching paint dry.


I glued a candlestick onto one of the bowls,

got jiggy with the spray paint and then set them up like so:

Sorry I didn't get a closeup of the individual pieces, but trust me, they really do look nice. (You can click the pics to enlarge them a bit.)




The cloth on the jewelry-holder dress absorbed a lot of paint, and there's still a bit of pink showing through, but it just makes it look a little more antique, I think.


I say, spray paint whatever you like: cloth, leather, one of the kids. What have you got to lose?

For more awesome spray paint projects, go over to Thrifty Decor Chick's Spray Paint Party!

Faking a Winter Wonderland

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful warm.

Down here in Southern California we don't have snow outside our windows to remind us that it's winter. (Don't get too jealous; we'd love to see something other than palm trees and cactus.)

Since hell doesn't seem to be freezing over anytime soon (the only way we'd get frost), I have to fake it. Luckily, the fake stuff is almost as cheap as the real thing. Everything I either found at the Dollar Tree or I already had on hand.

I started off with a ragamuffin garland with some fabric scraps I'd had lying around. (I did see some silky cloth napkins at the Dollar Tree you could use for one of these.)

BTW, yes these are cubicle walls. I like to have something to look at and enjoy during my daily drudgery. I'm crazy like that.

I love the shimmery material and the satiny silver. Perfect wintery colors.



I purchased the snowflakes and put them around the garland as well. They are Styrofoam and really durable, unlike the paper ones.

Next up, Epsom salts! I've had a lot of fun with these this year. There are tutorials all over the blog world about how to roll candles in Epson salts to make them all shimmery. I did it with jars I had on hand (don't look at the top of that jar that I forgot to Mod Podge).






The salts seem to turn a bit chalky over time, but they still look nice. (I wonder if Kosher salt would work better?) I bought some of those flickering LED tea lights to put inside, and they really do look like the real thing!




I also used the salts with Mod Podge on some of the branches left over from our Christmas tree to make it look like they had snow on them.








The angel I purchased at the Dollar Tree last year, and was the perfect white to add to the wintery wonderland. The tulle I had lying around, but I think you can find some at the DT in the bridal section. I also used a scrap of snowflake fabric just to add a bit more "coolness" to the scene.





At home, I put the rest of the salts in a vase I had, and stuck some branches inside. I had some leftover icicles (also from DT) that I put on the branches.

Notice the DT sundae glass and plate I used to make a cake stand.

I love the way the icicles sparkle in the sunlight.



So there you have it; my "fake" SoCal winter, all for just a few bucks. For other creative ideas, tips, and tricks, head over to We Are THAT Family and check out her Works For Me Wednesday posts.

Easy Peasy Fabric Pumpkins

My favorite season of the year is Autumn. I love a bit of chill in the air, the leaves changing their glorious colors, the apple cider and pumpkin pie. My only problem? Southern California doesn’t have seasons. Well, not the kind that the rest of the country has. I live in the desert, and this past week it has still been over 100° each day. The only leaves changing are the ones that are turning brown from lack of rain. So what’s a girl to do?

Fake it.

One project I’ve recently discovered is how to make fabric pumpkins. Hope Studios has an awesome tutorial, and I fashioned mine the same way she did. This is similar to the paper bag pumpkins we’ve all made, but much less messy and quite frankly, a whole lot cuter.

The only materials you need are
the following:

• toilet paper or paper towel rolls
• plastic bags
• sticks
• fabric
(I have raffia shown because I was thinking of using it for a bow but ended up not using it.)



For a full-sized roll (for smaller pumpkins, I used half a toilet-paper roll), I cut a square of fabric roughly 12 inches on each side. You could actually use less than this.


Take a toilet paper roll and wrap about 3-4 plastic bags around it. (For smaller pumpkins, you only need one or two.)


The other tutorial shows the bags just poofed up around the roll; I actually think that might be better as their pumpkins look more plump.

Now take the corners of the fabric and tuck them inside the top of the toilet paper roll.


Once all the corners are tucked in, fold in any fabric edges that may still be sticking out.


Place a stick inside the roll to make a stem (and to keep the fabric in place). If you want it to be more secure, you can glue the fabric inside the roll.


I also added a piece of a plant to make it look like it was from a vine, but you can also use leaves or anything else to dress it up.



On this pumpkin, I used rolled-up paper to make a stem.


You’ll notice I also didn’t stick to a typical pumpkin color. I like to mix it up! (Plus, I didn't have any orange until a coworker of mine saw my non-pumpkin-colored pumpkins in my cubicle and offered her supply.)




These are a fun, colorful, thrifty way to add a bit of fall decor, as well as using recycled materials in a non-traditional way. That works for me!

For other cool ideas, check out We Are THAT Family for this week's WFMW carnival.

I Have So Much To Learn

So I made the mistake of telling my pre-/teen stepsons that they could pick the paint color for their bedroom. Yeah, ha ha. Stop laughing.

First, they wanted red, green, blue, and purple, one color on each wall.



Umm... how 'bout no, Scott. (Guess that movie!)

Then they pleaded for just green and purple. (Florescent lime green and bright purple, mind you. Apparently, they're skater colors.)

I called Ralph on the phone and he thankfully nixed that right away. (He also reminded me that he wouldn't have consulted them on the colors, but rather just gone and done it. Now he tells me.)

I tried to steer them towards an acceptable blue or something like that. Instead, they decided on this:

It's called North Sea, but it looks like dark asphalt to me. I got a quart of it and took it home and painted some on the wall. It looks just as hideous as you might imagine, although all the other (male) members of the family thought it looked fine.

I tried to compromise. Could we do Raiders' colors? Black on the bottom half of the room, gray on the top? Kind of like the colors of their site background behind the logo?


"No, 'cause you'd want to use a light gray."

Well, yeah....

"We would do it if we could have the black on the bottom and the gray we picked on top."

Black and dark, institutional, soul-sucking gray. Sounds lovely.

Ralph sensed that I wasn't exactly in love with the color. (Huh, wonder how, since it's not like I complained the entire time I was painting the sample or anything.) He finally convinced the boys to go with Dodger Blue.



Ralph's even going to stencil the LA on the wall for them in white.

While it's still not the color I personally would pick, I can live with it. And I know the boys will like it, which is what's important.

Next time, though, I'm just going to buy the paint myself and not consult anybody. Especially thirteen year old skate rats.

Wreath-tastic

I've been nesting lately. I don't know if it's because it's spring or if we've done a lot around the house lately because of Ralph's party, but I've been in the mood to feather my nest. Among other things, I've been making more ragamuffin creations. The latest was actually a birthday present for an eight-year-old girl, hence all the pink:


(The houndstooth was a scarf I had on my lap to keep everything together while I was in the car. I have a 120-mile commute and I might as well do something while I'm in the passenger seat!)

I cut different pieces of cloth into strips about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide. I've found that the closer you stick to one color, the better it looks. That way you can have different patterns on the cloth and it doesn't look too jarring.

After cutting the strips, I just started tying them on a wire clothes hanger that I stretched into a circular shape.



Usually all the knots line up together, which you can leave if you want a more uniform look.




I tend to like a more fluffy, randomized look, which is how the wreath looks on the right side. On the left side, I still hadn't fluffed them up. You can't tell too much difference; it's really just personal choice.





I then took a wooden S I bought and Mod-Podged purple scrapbooking paper on it (her second favorite color, natch.)

I attached the S with purple ribbon that I also hot glued on the rest of the exposed hanger. I also cut the ends of the fabric at a bias so it looks a little more finished.

On my Easter wreath, I didn't cut the fabric in a bias cut, mainly because I was lazy.



I found a purple egg ornament at the 99¢ Store and hung it in the middle of the wreath. It actually kind of matches the purple walls of my cubicle.


I used a smaller wire hanger for this wreath; it's the kind that has the cardboard on the bottom so I had to take that out and clamp the wire parts together. I think I like the bigger hangers better for wreaths.


On the wreath I put on my door, I used a pre-made wreath from Joanne's and just tied fabric on to the branches. I also hot glued some moss and eggs I had left over as well as a bit of ivy to add to the springy look.


I violated my rule of keeping the colors similar in shade, but again, I was lazy and just using what I had lying around. I used some ribbon I had left over to tie it to the door.






I had originally bought this Welcome sign at the Dollar Tree for the front door, but it didn't go with the colors on my wreath.




Instead, I spray painted it black and put my favorite cooking quote on it. We just replaced our appliances with black/stainless steel, so this matches perfectly.


I think Ralph thinks it's a little girly, and since he does most of the cooking, I may have to change it. Maybe if I just change the font...