A Pop of Color....

It is hard to scroll through the Home Décor section on Pinterest without seeing lots of pins of painted front doors.  I didn't realize my front door was boring until recently.  Here is proof, my before picture:

Driving around my neighborhood I saw lots of painted front doors. Most were actually red or a dark wine color.  I wanted the color to pop.  At first my thought was a navy blue, but I decided on a dark aqua color.

I have no patience so I immediately headed to Lowe's for paint and supplies.   I opted for exterior paint since it would be exposed to some wind, rain, and snow.  Well of course they only had the gallon size left in exterior paint.  Due to my non-existent patience, I bought a gallon.  I convinced myself I would use it on another project.   Aqua exterior paint....ok, sure I would.

But there was one problem.  This was 2 days before Thanksgiving and I live in Minneapolis.  My front door was frozen, there was no way I was going to be able to paint it.  Paint buying fail.

So it sat and sat in my closet until it finally warmed up....5 months later.

During my 5 month waiting period, I stumbled upon this little gem.

You can find these twine covered letters on Etsy for $25-$40, but it looked easy enough to recreate.   I found the paper mache letter, twine, and the ribbon at Jo-Ann Fabrics and the flower accents at Michaels.

This one was actually pretty time consuming to do!  I realized that having a last name that started with and S was not very advantageous as I tried to maneuver the curves.  Here are my tips if you try this one:

• Be prepared for twine lint.  I have a dark brown couch and had little fuzzies everywhere.
• I started with the flat part of the end of the S.  I covered that in little pieces across the top since I knew I would be covering the rest as I started the main part of the letter.
• I used Tacky Glue to hold the twine in place at the start.
• The corners/curves can be tricky and I had to double up in some sections to keep the twine straight once I got out of the curves.

After I was all done I thought to myself people are crazy to sell these for only $25!  I felt like it took forever to wrap that sucker.   For the decorations I used a hot glue gun to adhere them to the twine.  I also put little dabs on the back of the letter at the beginning and end of the twine to reinforce the hold. 

Here is a close up of the finished project.  I used a wreath holder which I had handy since Christmas was over and I was putting the decorations away.

Fast forward 5 months.

Basically the first nice day, I whipped open that gallon of paint and went at it!   I decided to use a foam paint brush so that there wouldn't be any streaks or brush strokes.   It took about 4 coats to get the color just right.   Here is the finished paint job:

After 5 months of waiting, I had the door fully complete. It turned out better than I expected and gives the front of the house a pop of color without being obnoxious.

 And ...I have an almost full gallon of paint.  Oops.

I Love the Smell of Coffee...

I should probably admit that I am addicted to Pinterest.  I could do spend hours just searching over everything and anything.

I had this coffee and candle vase pinned for months.  After looking at it over and over, I suddenly knew I needed to try and replicate it.  

My inspiration:

First off, I needed to find a glass vase/container.  I knew I didn't want one with a lid, that looked too messy.  I wanted it this to sit on a coffee table (no pun intended) and didn't want to be chasing beans all over the house.  I found mine at Jo-Ann Fabrics back in the floral section.  They actually have lots of different sizes and shapes.   In fact, I even got the candle there. I chose a birthday cake vanilla scented one.

And the most important part...the coffee.  The smell of coffee brewing and even coffee beans themselves have to be one of my top 5 scents.  To me there is something peaceful and soothing about the smell of coffee.  To really get the strong coffee smell, I headed over to Caribou Coffee to get their dark roast beans.  Yes, it was a lot more expensive to buy three bags of coffee from a coffee house but it was well worth it.

Here is my finished project.

Sorry for the bad lighting, but you get the idea.   I love it.  It is in the living room near the front door to our house and you get a whiff of coffee when you walk in the door.  Every time I vacuum I give the beans a swirl to bring out the scent even more.  I do have to admit that I haven't lit the candle yet. It is just to cute to disturb.

First Post...

I had never thought about starting a Blog before, but I have had a few people love my DIY adventures (yes, some are really adventures) that I thought I would share my trials, tribulations and SUCCESSES!

I won't promise to have the best grammar or the best photos, but I will try to limit my swearing to when absolutely necessary.

Oh, and don't worry it won't be all DIY projects, I will also share some of my loves for food and fashion.  There will be some posts on the Pug in my life too; he really should have his own blog.  The titles of the posts would be something like:

• The time I broke into my neighbor's house and ran out with a homemade tortilla
• I love to use the bathroom in front of school buses full of kids
• The time I almost killed myself in the Kmart parking lot
• The time I ate not one, but two cupcake wrappers at the park
• The time I ate a whole banana bread
• I love standing around in parks searching for things, but it may look like I am stalking kids

....I really could go on and on about him.   But look at that face!!!