Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Painting up a pretty summer

5.28.2013

It is here!!!  The unofficial start to summer!  If you live in North "by God" Carolina then the true feeling of summer will be here in a matter of hours.  If you do not live here and you are going -what?- it is the impending heat of ninety degrees and lots of sunshine.  At least that is what is predicted by the glorified man of weather.

I am not going to lie...I am ready for it baby.  I love hot, sticky, summers.  I cannot really tell you why it is I enjoy humid, hot, balmy, sunny days but maybe it is the fact that in my mind summer signals freedom and happiness and fun memories.  Heat ain't nothing if (you don't have respiratory or heart disease I guess) you can shed your clothes down to a pair of shorts and a tank top or just take it all off and jump in some form of water (though I do prefer a bathing suit).

Needless to say, Memorial Day is one of my favorite lazy days just because it pops the cork in the champagne known as summer.  (Mmm, champagne, that sounds yummy!)

In previous years I spent my Memorial Day by the pool.  I am very lucky in that my mother has a pool at her house.  This year had to be the "different" year with her pool still being in shambles from the winter.  Friday me and the diva went over to clean up the pool furniture.  Unfortunately, the pool isn't in shape yet.  Yes, friends this Memorial Day weekend  I had to make due with an $8 Dollar General plastic pool, yard chair and a Bud Light (ewww worst beer ever now that I have taste buds something I clearly lacked from 18-28).  Making due is making due and it worked for all intents and purposes but I will be happy to move towards the real deal later.

Oh well....summer is "here" let's paint the town.


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My husband's vacation ended today as he returned to work this morning.  I will not miss him during the day.  Ok that's a lie.  I will miss him because it was nice having another adult here during the day.  While he was off work my schedule totally was blown out of the water.  I guess I figured that since he was on a one week vacay from work I was too.  I was lax on chores and regularly scheduled weekly must do's.  This week will be a challenge huh?



While he was off from his regular work he decided to do some "home" work around this place.  Since the remodel is (hopefully) a few weeks away he didn't touch the inside of the house. 

Heres' the deal:  my husband hates paint.  Paint is his nemesis.  The idea of picking up a roller or a brush and doing something with it as it was intended to be used is like pouring soured milk in his cereal.  He runs from it, gags, vomits, he probably goes into anaphylactic shock when around it for more than thirty seconds. 

So why is it that on his vacation from regular work he buys a few gallons of PAINT and heads UP TO THE ROOF of the garage to well.....paint?  Then he decides to move towards the play area and paint the roof, floor, and picnic table of it? As if that wasn't enough, Mr. I-Hate-Paint wanted to stain the play area yesterday as well. 

In total the man spent probably eight hours painting.

The world ending?  Hope not.

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I don't care for painting in the house.  I have painted many rooms in my life (and by many I mean like four or five --- that's a whole hand almost people, do not judge!) and I have found it to be quite grueling.  There's no creativity in painting a wall....it is just roll, roll, roll, then stroke, stroke, stroke.  The people who enjoy it must really get a buzz off those fumes.

I have always enjoyed painting for fun.  Painting is always relaxing to me though my stuff generally favors the decor of a kindergarten classroom more than an adults home.  OK ok a two year old preschool class room.

My little masterpiece lol
A couple Sundays back I was invited to a painting and drinking session.  Now that is how I roll.  A local place called Merlot & Van Gogh in Winston-Salem was the setting.  Bring your wine and your snack and for $30 you paint something that resembles more of a good college try at painting than the stick figures you sketched for your five year old.

I had a blast.  Then something opened up in my little heart of hearts - I really really enjoyed painting.

Maybe it was the wine that triggered the response.  That was my first wine in three months as I had switched to super light beer to curb my calories.  It doesn't matter what it was....it was fun and I thought - I can do this.  Boy did I do it and my spouse was surprised.  Needless to say, I'm booking a Merlot & Van Gogh Session this summer, so if you want to come let me know!

Anyhoo back to how this pertains to this blog post....I am a tightwad.  Remember, I introduced myself as Queen of them?  Ok now that that is in check let me let you know what is going through my brain on a random Saturday:

1.  We're going to remodel our home this summer.
2.  We won't get new furniture until the baby is older.
3.  I wish we could get new furniture but the baby is a major block on that.
4.  I have three samples from Sherwin Williams that I like but we won't be using.
5.  I have two tables I could totally play with with paint.
6.  Where is my wine.

Here's what I did this weekend:


Well....first it was a 1990's end table - light oak finish, scratched all up, yeah you get it.  I had some paint and decided to go for it.  I didn't take into account the wood table is oil based stain....my paint was (get this) samples from Sherwin Williams that we wouldn't be using!  Normally, this wouldn't work but for some insane reason it did.  I didn't sand it down, I didn't do any of that hard sweaty work, I just painted and painted and painted.  It worked.



Next up, put some design on this bad boy.  I taped out my design and rolled on (yet another sample can from Sherwin Williams) butternut colored paint.  I just eye balled my tape, I decided not to get too A type....plus the wine helped me out with not caring too much!

 
 


I did it!  I was so excited when I pulled the tape off.  My husband even complimented my work.  So I went ahead and did the other one and now I'm going to do our t.v. table.

 


My "new" table in it's home.

 

 
 
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Be good to yourself!
 
 
 
Brownie
 
 
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