Goldie Toes

Oh my goodness gracious am I excited about this project!  One because I’ve finally broken out the spray paint after a five month hiatus and because it was 100% free!  Here’s the scoop.  I’ve been going through my closet little by little, slowly beefing up my Goodwill pile.  Whilst in one of my purging sprees my eyes sank down to a pair of old white ballet flats I’ve had since college (I think I got them for $10 new).  Not in the best of shape after beating my college paths and not having touched my feet in at least a year, their future in my wardrobe was looking pretty bleak and the pile pretty welcoming.  But, before I give anything away I always travel to the crazy creative area in my mind just to make sure they can’t be refashioned or reused.  And lucky for these little gems, I had an idea.  They were going to be the perfect medium for an experiment I’ve always wanted to try but never have.  Here they are in all their worn in glory:     

And here’s the inspiration behind the madness that was about to ensue: The Cece cap toe ballet flats from J. Crew chiming in at a whopping $168!  So pretty but not in my budget, no way, no how.  (Shoes images retrieved from J. Crew.)

However, a half hour of fun craftiness and I had my own cap toes: 

Here’s how I got ‘em.  First, I scrubbed my old shoes with some bleach and dish soap to perk them up.  Can you tell the difference? I know, it’s not a slap-you-in-the-face difference but they’re a little cleaner.  The toes have endured the worst wear but that’s why this upgrade is perfect for this sad pair.

So next I snatched up a few things I had laying around:

Then I got to taping.  First I taped off the area I wanted to paint: Because these shoes had pleats in front, I made sure to press down the tape really hard to ensure that paint wouldn’t leak down the pleats and spoil my plan.

Then I taped off the front sole of the shoe:

And then I taped some scrap paper over the rest of the shoe to protect it from any stray paint:

Outside I went and a few thin coats of liquid gold I sprayed… …until I went back inside, took all of the tape off, and decided I wanted a little more gold so I repeated the whole taping process again.  :)  But, that’s obviously an optional step.

Side note:  I made sure to remove the tape when the paint was still a little wet.  Otherwise, the paint may have peeled off with the tape putting a rather large dent in the whole project.

Now for the back of the shoe.

First I taped off the sole:

Then I taped off a thin strip.  The back seam of these particular shoes was a little crooked and I didn’t want a crooked line, so I just disregarded it and made my own straight line. 

For protection of the rest of the shoe, I taped on some more scrap paper and stuck a wad in the heel of the shoe:

Out to spray, let ‘em dry, and tape off and I’ve got some new favorite shoes. 

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the durability of spray paint plus shoes, it’s actually really great.  These shoes are faux leather and just to see, I actually tried scratching some of the paint off of the front.  The only way any paint was coming off was if I scratched the pleather off the shoe.  Happy day!  :)

I’m so excited this worked because I’ve always wondered if I could ever change the color of a pair of shoes with spray paint and now I know!  Anyone else tried pairing the two with good results?  I’d be lying if I said I’ll never do it again!  Patterns, shapes, stripes…it’s all fair game now!

Happy weekend everyone!

7 Quick Takes

Happy Friday!  It’s that time again!

I’m stealing a few takes from last week since I missed out and because they’re too good not to!  Go to Jen’s digital abode for more!   

(Never seen that commercial?  See it here.)

In honor of All Saints’ Day yesterday, I give you glimpses of our girls namesakes (inspired by Claire’s Fairy Tale Friday photo ops):The name Veronica means ‘true icon’ and was given to Seraphia, who wiped the face of Jesus during His Passion.  Read more about her here and here.  For prayers to St. Veronica, go here.  (St. Veronica image from here.) 

To read more about my awesome Confirmation saint, go here.  For a novena to her, go here.  (Image of St. Cecilia from here.)

Bean Sprouts: 3 Months

Well, the twins have reached the ripe ‘ole age of three months (plus a few weeks at this point…) and things are just swell.  They’re both pros at holding their own noggins even with a little bobble here and there and they’re smiling and gibbering away at us and each other.  Cecilia has mastered laughing when tickled and rolling over from her belly to her back.  I’m not sure she knows exactly what she’s doing when she pushes her body over with her little legs though because when she ‘lands’ on her back she always looks a little dazed and confused.  :)  Seraphia on the other hand has rolled over just once and I’m pretty sure it was with the help of the couch’s incline.  However, she’s the talker and once she finds her voice, there’s no stopping her (just like Daddy).

We are continually amazed at the fact that they exist and find ourselves just staring at them sometimes, thanking God over and over for sending them our way.  It hasn’t been easy (God knows it hasn’t…whew!) but their smiles wipe away each under-eye circle (figuratively speaking) and make every diaper change a joy (also figuratively speaking).  We are so in love!

  

(Thank you Auntie Rock and Lauren for being good picture takers!)

Sister Rally

Thought I was hard at work in the nursery this week, dincha?  Nope, nada, not a smidge because my sis came to see the twins and the four of us skipped town all the way to Florida to move in with our other sis and her little family for the week.  We did what six girls do best and had lots of fun, fun, fun.

 

We set the cousins loose on each other and let the bonding begin:The day before we left, Claire (blondie in case you’re unsure who’s who) finally almost got down “baba” for “babies” rather than the “dada” she had been using to refer and repeatedly wave at them.  They bared their toothless grins at her even so.  :)

We paid a visit to Farrah’s fave thrift store where we each came out with some great seconds.  I scored this huge round mirror for 8 bucks:Once I get my DIY tentacles on it, it’s former self will be long gone but that’s a ‘reflection’ for another day.

We also put the childrens through an hour long hunt through the treasured clearance racks at Target where I walked out with not one, but two more pairs of colored jeans (dark green and mint, in case you’re wondering)…I think I’m addicted.  Anybody else like their lower extremities screaming bright, bold colors?  Anybody else just plain addicted to Target?

We also engaged in an extremely hilarious, pee-your-pants-laughing episode reading Raquel’s diaries out loud.  In a nutshell, she hated my guts as a child, only kind-of hated Farrah’s, was in love with a few lucky boys (referring to herself a few times as Mrs. ‘insert-crush’s-last-name’), wrote to dear diary like dear diary was an actual person, and wore a couple of my rings to school one day back in ‘93 and left them there, very unbeknownst to mwah.  However, she did ask dear diary “What should I do?”  It’s unknown if a response was ever given.  (Sorry Rock.  Am I sharing too much?  I just can’t help myself!)

Then of course we dove into a few projects like making a custom dress form for Farrah out of duck tape.  She’s sure to give you the scoop but here’s a glimpse: (Face mask worn to guard a sensitive nose from the not so sensitive smell of Dollar Store duck tape.)

And then there’s the time when we concocted a face mask goo along with teeth whitening solution (equal parts baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and water apparently) and added to the two the strict placement of some cucumber slices, and thennnn broke out the camera to get this: We’re crazy and we know it.  :)

Well, the week flew by and before we knew it we were saying our goodbye’s and hitting the road home when we spotted a helicopter on the highway.  Look:

 

And that’s that.  But, me being me, you’re not getting away without some home-related eye candy I spied.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my sister is one of the most creative people I know and her home is full of the stuff.  Her and Patrick’s little abode is so bright and cheery that I couldn’t resist snapping a couple pictures of it. 

One of the coolest areas of their house is their stairwell, where they smartly put up these shelves, one side resting on a bracket and the other on the slant of the wall.  So pretty, right?

And then there’s the perfect for fall bunting Farrah made with some burlap and twine and hung over a large mirror in their living room.  Love it and just might have to copy it.    

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For me it’s back to the grinding stone, where there’s a big nursery project waiting to be completed!  I hope everyone had as great of a week as I did and an even better weekend!  I’ve got some three months pictures of the tots to share this week and hopefully some quick takes to squeeze in on Friday so keep in touch!

Adios!

Photo Collage Bomb

I’m currently in the demanding throws of a big, much-more-tedious-than-I-thought-it-would-be project so we’re going back a few months to a project I did that didn’t turn out quite as I wanted it to.  You see, we’ve had this big, blank wall in our dining area that has just been screaming for some something to break it up: 

Fortunately, the diy hoarder inside me has a stock pile of random frames waiting to be spainted (spray painted, yes I made it up) and found a wall home.  Here are the chosen ones for this particular endeavor:After much scheming, I decided to copy the incredible John and Sherry over at Young House Love, and put up a collage very similar to the one in their first home’s living room.  I even stole their magazine monogram idea, except I made mine in Photoshop.

The first step was to spaint the mats in each frame white so that they’d all match.  For a couple of the thrifted frames, this involved removing their paper backing to get inside: 

 Side note:  Since the glass and mat were held in with nails, it wasn’t necessary to replace the backing…since they hang with their backs towards the wall, no one is any wiser.

The next step was getting all of the frames the same color.  Aqua, white, oil-rubbed bronze, silver…I went back and forth, back and forth until I finally just called it and settled on silver.  I wanted a semi-shiny, brushed on silver though so instead of going with my norm, spray paint, I headed on over to Michael’s (with a coupon of course) where I picked up some Liquid Leaf and hand painted those babies with it…aaaand hated it.  (You quick ones might’ve noticed the fast one I was trying to pull…I switched out two of the above frames I thought I was going to use for two more thrifted frames shown in the pic above.  I just couldn’t bring myself to paint the pretty white ones another color.)

It was much to matte and darker than I had in mind.  Boo.  Lucky for me, I had a can of silver spaint in my stash so they each got a quick coat.  A few hours of drying time and some photos later and up they went:

Final verdict?

I hated it. I don’t like the silver…it looks cheap and doesn’t give the punch of flavor that wall needed.  I’m still on the fence about the layout…I might add some more frames or just change it altogether.  “Stay tuned” would be the only thing left to say about it at this point.

However, it is worth mentioning what did work during this whole semi-failed process.  To figure out the exact placing of each frame, I traced each one onto a piece of newspaper, cut the template out, and taped it up on the wall until I was satisfied.  (Sorry, can’t find the picture of said process.)  Then, to hang them in the exact spots I took a note from The Scrap Shoppe blog and made my own hanging tool out of some scrap wood which worked incredibly well and will now be used every time I decide to puncture a wall with any sort of nailed-in decor.

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Like I said above, stay tuned for this wall will change as soon as I make up my mind on the direction I want to go.  As for the present, I’d better get back to the surprise nursery project that’s testing my patience.  Details to come on that soon! 

Have a fantastic weekend!