Laboring on Labor Day...

Well, I am happy to say that I am celebrating Labor Day weekend in a way worthy of its name: by laboring! I told y'all about the new project I had planned for the G-Man's room a while back. Saturday I finally got it started.

We began with some 1x4s that we cut down to about 46 inches long.

Then I attached them to the wall with Liquid Nails (I used a 16" long piece to space them out evenly around the room).

As you can see, I've left off the top piece.  We decided that since we're going to repaint the top of the wall too, we'd paint first, then put the top piece of wood up. 

Today it was time to prime...I got some help with that job from my little guy!

Did I mention that I'm also painting all the woodwork in the room white? I don't think I told Hubby that part of my plan. That may land me in the doghouse, since Hubby really likes stained woodwork!

That's about as far as I've gotten for now. Hubby is on his way home with the paint, so as soon as the primer is dry, I'll be getting my paint rollers out!

Stay tuned!

Plate It Up...

This week I've been trying to finish up some projects before I have to go back to work on Friday (what kind of sadistic school district plans the first day of inservice on the last Friday of summer vacation?). We're going to work on that mystery project in the kitchen tonight, so while Hubby is at work this morning, I tried something new.

While the Megster was cleaning out her closet last night (hard to believe, I know!), she found a platter (don't ask-who knows why there was a platter in a 10-year-old's closet). Now this wasn't sporting the prettiest of patterns, in fact, it was downright ugly. I would show you how ugly, but as usual, I was too intent on starting my project that I forgot to take the "before" picture. You'll just have to take my word for it. I wasted no time in spray painting it "sand" (Do It Best brand), which is a creamy off-white.

Then, I tried a new trick I learned last night. I was trying to figure out how I was going to transfer an "S" to my plate, and not 10 minutes later, I find this gal's blog, in which she explains exactly how to transfer patterns without carbon paper. So I tried it, and it worked perfectly. Thanks Lindsay!

I didn't have any black craft paint, so I had to use spray paint that I sprayed out in a little puddle on a foam tray. I'm not the steadiest painter in the world, and I just noticed a rough place I need to fix (I think I can fix it with a Sharpie), but I think its not too bad. I have no idea yet where I'm going to put it, but I'll think of something!

Just a Little Bit of Fancy...

So I painted up my thrift store tray the other day, but it was missing something. I tried scrapbook paper in the bottom, but I didn't have anything that really worked. So last night I got inspired by something I saw online: harlequin diamonds. I set out to learn how to measure and mark off the lines and found this great site with a calculator that tells you how far to space your lines. However, when I got up this morning and started, I decided that my mind was way too fuzzy for all the math, so I just eyeballed it, all the while hearing the Nester's voice in the back of my mind reminding me that "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!"
However, just as I was about to paint, I looked at my tray and realized that I didn't have a harlequin diamond pattern, I had a lattice pattern. After staring at it for a while, I decided that I kinda liked the lattice pattern, (not to mention that there was no way I was tearing off all that tape and starting over!), so I went ahead and put the paint on. I wanted a slightly aged look, so I left the paint a little streaky.
It may not be what I set out for, and the paint lines certainly aren't perfect, but I really like how it turned out.