Using spray paint to update your light fixtures

We did (hired someone to do) a beautiful overhaul to our master bathroom earlier this year, and we've been meaning to undertake two looming projects in that room since then: scraping the icky popcorn ceiling in there and updating the light fixture above our vanity.

I'll broach the popcorn ceiling project in a future post, so today we're tackling the light fixture!

We did some searching for a large-ish light fixture in an oil-rubbed bronze (ORB) finish, and couldn't find one that we loved. So, we decided to stick with the old fixture - Bring on the ORB spray paint!

Items you need:

• Masking tape
• Fine grit (120) sand paper
• Rustoleum primer
• Rustoleum ORB (oil-rubbed bronze) spray paint
• Optional: clear spray paint

Instructions:

Step #1: Turn off the power to your fixture and remove it from your wall. 

Step #2: Remove any glass fixtures and lightbulbs, and tape off areas you don't want painted (especially the opening where the lightbulb goes)

Step #3: Use the sandpaper to lightly sand the fixture. Rough it up just enough to help the paint stick. Wipe off dust with a damp cloth. Let it dry completely.

Step #4: Go outdoors and spray a light first coat of primer to the fixture. Let dry for at least 1 hour. Spray a 2nd coat of primer, if needed (we did). Let dry completely.

Step #5: Break out the ORB spray paint :) Lightly spray a first coat of paint over the primer. Let dry for at least an hour. Lightly spray a second coat and let dry overnight. Check for any nooks and crannies that the paint may have missed!

Step #6: (optional): Spray with a clear coat of spray paint, if you'd like a protective layer of paint.

Step #7: Once the fixture is completely dry, remove the masking tape, reattach any glass covers and lightbulbs, and (ensuring the power source is still turned off) reattach the wires and rehang in your room!

Before...

...and after!!

The newly refurbished light looks so much better than the old light, don't you think??

How to paint vinyl shutters

We've been in our house for over a year now, and we've compiled a list of things that we notice need a little updating. 

Near the top of that list (for me, anyways): painting our shutters.

Our current shutters are vinyl/plastic and are in *perfect* condition...in fact, I can't tell how old they are b/c they look brand new (but I know they're not). But, the longer I looked at them, the more the color was blah to me - depending on the light, they're brownish/reddish, with a tinge of wine-purple. blah-blah.

I went on Sherwin Williams' website, for their "color visualizer". There, you can upload a picture of your house (or use their photo examples) and play around with different colors for siding, trim, and shutters... = FUN for moi! I didn't have anything too whacky in mind...just classic black shutters, so I chose their blackest black color, called "Tricorn Black": It looked like a million bucks on the Sherwin Williams website, and it really got me excited about the idea of painting our shutters.

I showed the updated online picture to the Hubs, and his reaction wasn't quite as dramatic as mine. (Can you imagine??!) He shrugged his shoulders and said something along the lines of "yeah - looks good" - little did he know that I already had one foot out the door to go buy the paint at Sherwin Williams' 40% off sale!  

At the S. W. store, I asked the (very helpful) manager what paint would work best for vinyl shutters, and did I need to use any primer? His reply: no primer is needed (unless you're going from a very light to a very dark color -  a tinted primer would be beneficial in that case), and he recommended their "SuperPaint" Exterior Acrylic Latex Paint. I chose their Satin finish...not too glossy, but not too flat. They do offer a Flat finish, but the manager said it has a slight chalk-like finish, which isn't the look we were going for.

Stuff you need:

• Exterior paint (I bought one-gallon, and have a ton leftover)
• 2" Paintbrush
• Ladder 
• Screwdriver (depending on how your shutters are attached to your house)
• Bucket of soapy water (water/dish detergent)
• Water hose

Instructions:

Step #1: Remove the shutters from your house. (We only have shutters on the first story of our house...For safety's sake, you may want to hire someone to take down shutters on 2nd story windows). I used a cordless screwdriver - the screws on our shutters were located on the very top and bottom of each shutter (2 on top, 2 on the bottom), then one more in the very middle of the shutter.

**Be sure to keep track of which shutter goes where!** 

Stick a piece of masking tape to the back of each shutter, and write down if the shutter goes on window 1, 2, or 3, etc...and on the left or right of that window. This little step will make re-hanging the shutters easy-peasy!

The house is looking a little naked...

Step #2: Clean the cobwebs and general outdoor dirt from each shutter. I used a sponge and soapy water  to clean out all the cracks and crevices. Then, rinse off with a water hose.

 Step #3: Let them dry overnight.

Step #4: Time to paint! I used my paintbrush to paint into the interior recessed "rectangles" in the shutters first, then painted the edges and flat surfaces of the shutter. Be sure to only put down a thin layer of paint, so it won't "glop up" and it will dry evenly. Once you've painted over a surface, leave it alone - if you go over it repeatedly, you run the risk of pulling up half-dried paint under your brush! When the first shutter is done, move onto your next one, and let them each dry in a covered area for a minimum of 5 hours. (I let them dry overnight, just to be sure). 

Step #5: Paint the 2nd coat, again painting the recessed areas first, then the edges and flat surfaces. Let dry at least 5 hours.

Step #6: Hang your shutters back up and give yourself a pat on the back for your handiwork!

Next on our my list: Replace our front door with something that's a little less "Welcome to Granny's Parlor", but still lets light into our very dark front hallway. I'd love a front door with some color, so I predict I'll be using the online color visualizer again in the near future :)

Just as I was about to pour myself a glass of wine to celebrate another "to-do" ticked off our list, Mike called me outside to call attention to another set of shutters on the side of our garage. DOH!

...it's a good thing that none of our neighbors can see them! Guess I've got some more painting to do this weekend :) 

What have you painted lately?

Fondant cupcake toppers

When my husband and I were married in June 2011, we (well...*I*) waffled back and forth between a traditional wedding cake and a cupcake-wedding cake. In the end, we liked the single-serving idea and knew that we could put our "spin" on each cupcake to make them personal. Plus, they were practical - having cupcakes meant we didn't have a cake-cutting fee, we didn't need to buy/rent forks, and didn't need someone to hand out cake. We ordered both white and chocolate cupcakes from a local bakery, topped with luscious white buttercream frosting. (and our dear friend ended up giving them to us as a [very generous] wedding gift!!)

After what seemed like months of searching for topper ideas, I found a magazine picture of a small fondant coin with the letter "M" stamped into it. I tore it out of the magazine and knew immediately I wanted to re-create it for our wedding!

I have used Rycraft cookie stamps before, and saw they had a monogram cookie stamp. I bought it online with the hopes it would be *just* what I was looking for...and it was!

Here's how's I (easily!) made monogrammed "B" fondant cupcake toppers for our wedding:

Ingredients:

• Wilton pre-made White fondant
• Cookie stamp
• Rolling pin
• cornstarch
• Small circle cookie cutter
• Parchment paper
• small, new paintbrush
• Wilton white shimmer dust

Step #1: Dust your working space (countertop is just fine!) with Cornstarch. Using my rolling pin, I rolled out 1/3 of the bag of pre-made fondant, to approx. 1/4" thick.It helps to knead the fondant to soften it a little before rolling it out.

Step #2: I took the cookie stamp, and with medium pressure, stamped a "B" (my future married-last name) in the fondant. 

Step #3: Then, I used a smallish circle cookie cutter (the middle one of that set) to cut a circle around the letter. Use a thin spatula to move circle to a piece of parchment paper to begin drying.

Step #4: Before the circles are dry, use a small, new paintbrush to dust them with a small amount of shimmer dust. No water is necessary - just dust the dry shimmer dust directly on the fondant. I used the white shimmer, and it gave the monogram toppers a very elegant sheen.

Step #5: Let the fondant harden. I made around 150 of them, so put them in several parchment paper-lined cardboard shirt boxes and stacked them in my dining room for several days.

The day of the wedding, my bridesmaids and I pushed them into the wedding cupcakes as beautiful toppers!! I received SO many compliments on how beautiful they were...they were the perfect decoration to add that little something special! (and no one could believe they were homemade) :)

I made a small 6" cake for the top of the cupcake tower, so we'd have a cake to cut for us...Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting...YUM!! 

And, in the South, a Groom's cake is a fun wedding tradition - sometimes you'll see it at the rehearsal dinner, and sometimes at the actual wedding. My hubby is a golfer, so in keeping with the cupcake theme, I ordered some additional cupcakes, covered in hunter-green sugar, and topped them with homemade white chocolate golf balls, and personalized golf tees that I ordered online. The golf balls and tees were added the morning of the Wedding.

Notes:
* Photos courtesy of Nicole Faby Photography
** I made our fondant circles about 2 weeks before the wedding.
*** I would recommend that your guests remove the fondant before digging into the cupcake...it doesn't have any flavor, and since the fondant will have hardened, they'd be difficult to bite into!
**** Don't put them on the cupcakes any sooner than the day of your event. Any earlier and the grease from the buttercream frosting would break down the fondant - you'd be left with a gummy fondant mess!

These cupcake toppers could be equally as beautiful at a bridal shower, baby shower, 

or a birthday, anniversary, or engagement party.

Rycraft makes cookie stamps for ALL occasions, so the options are endless!

Homemade Peanut Butter

Part science project, part kitchen yumminess...

Homemade peanut butter!! (minus all those partially hydrogenated oils)

What you need:

1. peanuts, cashews, almonds...choose your favorite nut :)
2. A food processor

That's it!!

Step #1: Grab a couple handfuls of your favorite kind of peanuts (or cashews, or almonds), and throw into a food processor. I used Trader Joe's reduced salt, roasted peanuts.

Step #2: In the food processor, blend, blend, blend...keeping blending. The peanuts will go from a solid peanut, to chopped peanuts, to gritty peanuts...and not too much later, they will turn into a creamy peanut butter. Don't add anything else...just peanuts!! (scrape the sides of the bowl as you go, if needed) I read somewhere that as the peanuts are ground up, it releases the natural nut-oil, so you don't have to add any other oils or butter.

This is REALLY all you need!

The finished project...

It was really good! Very creamy...
Note: It's not as sweet as most of the peanut butter you buy in a typical grocery store, but I really liked it - and I love that it's a natural option for my PB&J sandwiches.

Step #3: Be sure to keep it refrigerated in a closed container.

Let me know what you think! What else do you make from scratch??

Easy art - made of greeting cards!

I don't know about you, but I have a really hard time finding art that I love.

I needed a little something for the space above my sewing table - the walls are a bright blue, so it's been difficult to find art that doesn't dull down the blue. So...the wheels in my head started turning: A couple of years ago, my Mom gave me a set of adorable owl notecards: 

The colors are bright and cheery, and there's a small amount of clear glitter/glimmer on each card...just enough to catch your attention! I've always thought they'd make cute art, if grouped together...and I just happened to have an empty 8.5x11" white frame laying around from my last trip to IKEA. So, "project mini-art" began...

I kept the rectangular white paper that came in the frame - then lined up the cards to fit all 4 of them in the rectangle. (The top and bottom cards are overlapping a bit, and I had to trim the bottom of the 2 lower cards to make them fit).

Then, I used double-sided table to affix them to the paper. 

Finally, I put the paper/arranged cards into the frame and reattached the frame backing. I used 3M picture hanging strips to hang it on the wall, so no holes in the wall to fix down the road. Gotta love that!

Voila - really cute, colorful art! hoot hoot!

While I'm loving the bright colors this brings to the room, I can totally envision it in a baby's room or playroom in the future. Maybe even baby shower gifts for my owl-loving friends :)

Please excuse the mess...

What homemade art have you made? Or, where do you buy your art?

A cute "thank you" for Recruit-MINT!

As I have mentioned before, I'm a proud Sorority Alumna - I am a Chi Omega! I'm actively involved in the National organization and was recently asked to help recruit local Alumnae volunteers for our NCSU ChiO Chapter's Recruitment (formerly known as "RUSH").

I wanted to say "thank you" to the women who are volunteering many hours of their weekend (this weekend) for Chi Omega, so I set my creative mind to work...I ran across some peppermint patties while shopping yesterday, and thought "how cute would it be to thank the Alumnae for helping with Recruit-MINT"!?

I bought 3 bags of the chocolate-covered goodies, took them home, (ate a few!) and put 3 peppermint patties, each, in little clear baggies. (I had some small ziploc-like bags left over from our wedding).

 

Then, I counted out the number of volunteers for each "shift", and put those baggies in a larger, clear cellophane bag (which I also had on-hand) - then, hand-wrote a little "thank you!" I tied everything up with Cardinal & Straw (red & yellow) ribbon, curled it with a pair of scissors...and voila! Here's the end product:

I'm so thankful to have wonderful Chi Omega Sisters to help NCSU with their Recruit-MINT!

Best wishes to the Alpha Kappa Chapter of ChiO this weekend and a warm welcome to all the new "baby hooties" next week!!

Turning a ceiling medallion into a wreath

 

While sifting through a thrift store near Southern Pines (about 1 hour south of Raleigh, NC), I ran across a small white ceiling medallion. A few months ago, I probably would have walked right by it, but after infusing Pinterest into my crafty brain, I knew it had potential! It was hanging on the wall, like a wreath, and I knew it had to be mine. For $2, it went home with me, where it promptly got a coat of Annie Sloan chalk paint in "French Linen". Thankfully my Sister-in-Law, Jacque (of thediyvillage.com) was in town and had a sample pot of chalk paint for me to try!

Small, white ceiling medallion - from Lowes.com

I laid some newspaper out on the table, and used a small paintbrush to cover the medallion with the paint. I just did one coat of paint, and it left a vintage feel to the "wreath". While I love how it turned out, if I were to do it again, I'd just spray paint it...there were lots of nooks and crannies, so it felt like it took FOREVER to cover with the small paintbrush.

Once it was dry, I tried hanging it on our front door...but it was way too small (this medallion is only about 12" in diameter), so it looked a little goofy. I tried hanging it from the mirror in our front hall, but given that the hubs and I are both tall, the wreath fell *right* over the reflection of our faces - kinda defeats the purpose of a mirror by the front door, don't you think? Then, it hit me...I had the perfect space!! A small wreath holder that's been hanging out in our downstairs bathroom since...(I'm ashamed to admit it)...we moved into this house over a year ago.

Ta da - It's the perfect size for that space!
*If you wanted to use this on your front door, or elsewhere outside, you'd need to spray it with some sort of polyurethane that's water-resistant/waterproof. Even then, I wouldn't recommend hanging it where it could get wet (where there isn't a roof or overhang of some kind...to protect it)

Can't you just see it with a thick red ribbon tied around it for the Holidays?!

Have you made a wreath with unconventional items? Tell me about it!!