Mom Time on a Dime

For some reason, I really liked him blue... (and yes, it's a "he"... not sure why...) so when I thought of painting him, I know I wanted to keep him a deep dark blue... probably a navy

Surprise, surprise! It's not a furniture post!

Chris looks WAY too comfortable with a chain saw... Anywho, back when we first moved in, one of our first projects was to redo the front yard... Here is the "before" when we first moved in...and the after... Nothing too crazy... but we lined it with red brick hedging, added some cute little flowers, and got all patriotic with our American flag (duh)...

Again, this was back in June (during what must have been the HOTTEST day of the year... not the recommended time to do yardwork and NOT collaspe of heat stroke) and our yard really took to the new plants... maybe a little too well... .... ... seriously, it was like Jumanji took over our front yard... I could walk down the front walk with my hands to my side and could touch the top of the flowers... (negative blogging point for not having a picture of that... instead, here is an actual picture of Jumanji)...


(yea, our yard looked a lot like this... minus the floating Robin Williams head, raging Rhinos, board game and rolling dice... but other than that, the EXACT same...)

But luckily for us, my parents came in town this past weekend which has slowly turned into "Yay it's parents weekend!" to "Yay my parents are here, let's get sh*t done around the house!"... And since Fall is upon us, we decided to tackle the front yard...
But before my mom and I left for the nursery to pick out some new jazz for the walkway, Chris went ahead and pulled up all our old flowers...
And by flowers I mean "what used to be flowers turned raging flowered bushes"... its was there time to go...

So my mom and I head to the plant nursery where I was already stunned to see flocked Christmas trees (IT'S NOT EVEN THANKSGIVING!!! THIS IS WRONG!)

But NEXT to the way-too-soon trees was this lovely array...
Kale...

Yep! Kale/Cabbage plants... How freakin FUNKIE are those?!

Here is a close up of the pink... The purple...
and the white....
Yea, those are super pretty... and so different!! I MUST HAVE THEM... but at $9 a pop and a two-sided 25ft walkway... they were a bit too pricey... luckily my madre came to the rescue and said she would split it with me... ... i love my mom.

(Random cut in for a side story... I ran into this guy while at the nursery)....
(I may or may not have chased him throughout the entire nursery yelling out "Butterfly!" like a 3 year old and trying to take a picture with my iphone)(So pretty... I named him Barnaby... Barnaby the Butterfly)


ANYWAY, back to my Kale... we ended up buying 18... (only 12 pictured here)... and a flat of pansy for below our front window...Seriously? They are stupid pretty...


We also made an impromptu stop at Home Depot (aka. my favorite place on Earth)... and spotted this sucker on clearance... Hooray for finally replacing our old-icky-spider/bug infested-old one!! (minus another blogging point for not having a picture of its prior ickiness)

So we get home and are back to this...
After we bag up and toss all the old flowers, we get to planting... Hooray for mother/daughter time!!!
Live action shot... I told Chris not to take a picture of my face since I was in my glasses and not wearing any make up... i love that he actually listens to me ...
Getting closer!! Wait for it... BAM...
Kale in someones front yard? I know, its weird and I love it... on the plus side, we will always have kale if we want to make a salad! (that turned out to be false).


The guy at the nursery said they would get about 15in tall and 15-18" wide, so it will really fill out once we give it the chance... I'll keep you updated.


Here's everyone all pretty and planted...

Heres a picture of our pretty pansies (Theta represent!) that are below our front window...
don't worry... they'll grow
And our new light?? Compliments of handy-man Chris... whooo.....ahhhh.... I particularly like that it doesnt have a bottom, so we wont have to worry about creepy dead things dying in there and me having to ask Chris to clean it out... oh, the little things...
So there you have it! What do you think?!

I know our USA flag isnt up, but since our old one ripped (got stuck on the side gutter) we ordered a new one by paying $15 to send a care package to a US troop (which also comes with a free flag for us!)... I highly recommend everyone forgo their weekly manicure or chinese takeout and instead use that money to brighten up a soldier's day... you can buy the $15 care package HERE

Let me know what you all think about the front yard! Has anyone ever planted kale before? Or had their hopes crushed by their husbands when they got all excited about "free salads"?
I would love to hear from you!!!

This... is my new baby...

I know I say that about all my pieces, but really, it was so easy and I had so much fun doing it, that I really really really love it.

You may remember this little guy I picked up at an estate sale for $25...
Taylor Made, sturdy, but boring...

First step, sanding it down enough to give the paint a surface to hold on to...
Next came the painting... I'm thinking of submitting the picture as a future modeling shot... boys, try to contain yourselves.


I chose a greyish tanish color to keep it neutral since I knew I wanted to do something fun and exciting on top... I just wanted to make sure it wouldnt clash...ummm, greasy hair? check... glasses? check... wearing a scrunchi? I will deny it til the day that I die...

Yes, I know, Im using the world's smallest paint brush, but I love it and it helps get all the little detailed parts... especially on the legs of the desk... Ta-da!... Greyish Tanish... (still boring)... but better.

Maybe the best part of this entire make over, was finding the paint.

I had planned on doing different color stripes on the top of the desk, but knowing me and how I would have spent 5 hours at the Home Depot paint counter going over every single kind of paint and WAY over thinking it, I made a deal with myself to ONLY buy "oops" paint. You know, "oops paint", the paint that they have on the side of the counter that was either mixed wrong or someone discarded.

These are what I found:Random, but not unuseable... AND They were in the little mini tester sizes too which made it even better.

But the best thing about "oops" paint... the price...
I dont know if you can read over that scribble, but they were only $0.50 a pop... awesome.

I actually went back the next day and picked up 3 more since I figured $0.50 paint will always be good for other projects... hooray for being cheap! (in a totally cool way)

After I gave my desk a day to dry, I was totally pysched to start the striping process... Only huccup? Dallas's 85% humidity...
None of the tape was sticking which is KINDA crucial if you are trying to make crisp lines...

After getting frusterated, and knowing Chris wouldn't be home in a while... I did a major "wifey-no-no" and brought it in our humidless, AC house...

And started a RANDOM pattern of striping...Sorry for the fuzzy picture...

I used a mix between inch think blue painter tape, 2" frogger tape, and 3" frogger tape... I would definitely recommend the green frogger tape for anyone trying to do lines or get a crisp edge... it definitely worked the best.

I started with tape on the top left and just mixed it up as I went along knowing that everything tape covered would stay grey.

After everything was securely in place, I began to paint... there was no rhyme or reason to the placement of the colors I used, but just went for it...

After about an hour... this is what it looked like drying...
And then pulled it off to reveal this...
Oh mommy like...

I let it dry and went back to do two smaller stripes on the big white one, just to give it some depth... and the added one more white stripe near the green one in the middle...

End result??? Drum roll please?!?!!! Yea... freakishly obsessed...
View from the top.... I mean really, could it be any more random/awesome?...

I also replaced the old wood knobs to these $2 beauties from Home Depot...

I think I should just get a side job at Home Depot since I'm there 4x a week anyway...

And just so you dont have to scroll up to the top, here is the Before/After pic...
Here is a quick breakdown for ya of everything I used:
- estate sale desk - $25
- Sandpaper - already owned
- pint of Behr Granite Boulder - $7.99
- 7 random "oops" paints - $3.50
- new drawer pulls - $4.00 for both
- time: about a day and a half

Total: $40.50 (not too bad)

So what do you think? Do you like the stripes? Would you have done a different pattern? Are you now a believer in "oops" paint?

I would love to hear from you!


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