Tag: painting

Paint It, Find It, Fix It

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Frugal LifeLeave a comment

Remember when I painted the back of my bookshelves to match the curtains? Well, every time I looked at it, it didn’t look gold it looked like a sad beige, which will never be in my home.

It was just so one dimensional and sad looking. I mixed up some paint. It’s the yellow that I had with brown that I also had.

After I finished this paint job it was still looking too one dimensional. I decided to try wiping stain over it but apparently I had used all of my stain. I found some burnt umber acrylic paint and added water to it to thin it out quite a bit. I just used a sponge brush to wipe it on and then immediately wipe it off. I wanted to give it a “it was used in a cigar smoking room” effect.

This is exactly what I envisioned.

Now it makes me happy when I see it.

I have been missing a 4×4 piece of wood on the corner of the front flower bed for a while. I don’t know what happened to it. Donny might have taken it to use for something but I really don’t know. I have to drive by this empty lot on the corner of the street that leads to the entrance of our neighborhood and the loop every day. I saw a piece of a 4×4 just laying near the curb. One evening when Donny was driving I told him to pull over so I could grab it. He didn’t know what I was talking about so he had to do a u-turn. He pulled into the middle turning lane and I jumped out. He was yelling “hurry hurry a car is coming”. I had on flip flops and was doing my best not to get run over.

It’s a pretty busy intersection but I got it safely.

It fits and it didn’t cost a thing.

Our saucer swing broke. The middle circle came out so it was just the outer fabric circle left. We couldn’t use it because you would just fall through if you tried. I didn’t want to buy a whole new swing this late in the summer so I decided to redneck fix it. I bought 4 rolls of Duck brand tape and got to work.

Does it look exceptionally appealing? No it does not. Did it actually work? 100% it did. It cost less than $12, much much cheaper than a new swing. I’m most likely going to change out the swing next year anyway so this was a quick inexpensive fix. Don’t sleep on the powers of Duck tape.

I have been looking for a table for Hannah’s room to go where the 6ft tall teddy bear resides. I hit up 2 estate sales because on the website both looked like they had something that might work. They didn’t but I did find some candles and a goofy frog for cheap.

When I get some free time I’m going to repaint him. He’s a bit faded.

Last, but not least, it rained on Saturday and a little tiny bit on Sunday.

The temperature dropped when the storm blew in. It rained for several hours and thank goodness the neighbors know I’m a little strange because I danced in that rain. Our grass is getting brown and we needed this so badly. I do love summer so much, but when it nears the end of August I’m ready for some respite from the heat and am looking forward to Autumn.

A Wild Hair

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Outside StuffLeave a comment

Donny and I have been busting our butts in the garden and just outside in general. He went back to work today. Turns out the twang in my ankle didn’t miraculously heal overnight so my day started like this.

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There was one project that I had on my list that I really wanted to get done today. I had already painted one tire and planted my cucumber shoots in it, but since I seemed to have WAY over planted seeds and have about 21 tomato plants I needed another container to grow them in. That meant I needed to paint the other tire. Thankfully Donny had brought it into the front yard and had washed it down so it was ready to go with minimal walking for me.

I thought I wanted to paint it red, but once I had finished painting it I didn’t like it. It was just TOO red. I had a thought and mixed some of yellow and red together. I liked the outcome.

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It was a kind of flamingo orange and was much better than the red.

Ever since I painted our shutters I have not liked the color. Our door is a dark turquoise/teal color and the shutters were a baby/light blue. Every time we went into Home Depot I would gravitate toward the paint samples and bring home the ones I thought would work. Several years of doing this and I still couldn’t decided. After I saw the tire I knew the color I wanted. Not the flamingo pink because it was too “Miami vice” for me, but I had some of the brown exterior paint that I thought would darken the salmon color up to where I wanted it. I dumped the rest of the tire paint into an old coffee can, added yellow, red and a couple of dollops of brown.

I did not plan to paint my shutters, but once I mixed the paint I couldn’t wait to get started and get rid of that horrid blue.

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It is exactly what I had in my mind.

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Can we just take a moment to realize that the blue was in fact awful.

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The blue color clashed horribly with the front door. Now the colors work so well together.

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It was worth every painful step up and down the ladder. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. I also didn’t have to buy any more paint because I just used what we had and was lucky that it was all exterior paint. And yes, I have no patience so when I have a project in mind I need to get it done then and there.

Day #39 – What a Difference

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

I slept 9 hours!!!! I took Nyquil at 9:40 and by 10 I was OUT. I don’t even remember Donny coming in and turning on the TV. I woke up feeling like a different woman. No headache and I felt so much better. I swear when I don’t get enough sleep it wrecks my entire body.

I also managed to get everything on my list checked off. My left speaker on my 1970’s stereo was not working properly. It would cut out and have static randomly. I popped off the front and just wiggled the wires and it worked. I have no idea why, but I’ll take it.

So so so so happy that I can listen to my albums clearly now.

My bathroom cabinets were next. Every thing was just all hully gully and I just could take it anymore.

We apparently were just throwing stuff in with no rhyme or reason.

Still crowded but it is easier to find what we are looking for.

This top one is so hard to reach so I just keep extra mats and our toilet paper up there. Plus the medicine box.

Things would always fall out on my head when I was trying to get something out.

The top of the fridge is just used for storage.

Our bathroom has no window, but it does have an exhaust fan. When we take steamy showers we will start getting mildew. I do treat it with mold spray but I’m always having to repaint. Today I spray painted it with Kilz. It worked great, but my house smelled like a nail salon. If you’ve ever painted with Kilz you know how bad it smells.

SO gross!!!!! I was going to just let the Kilz dry and paint over it with out wall paint, but it actually turned out to be the same color. I’m going to see how well it holds up and go from there.

I think next time I’ll buy the brush on Kilz because I had to wipe down the whole bathroom afterwards. We already had the spray so I wanted to use what we had. Now to get it off of me.

Blue Dog x2

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Longview, txLeave a comment

If you ever come over to our home you’ll probably notice that I have a thing for Blue Dog. If you aren’t familiar with Blue Dog, it’s George Rodrigue’s most famous subject. I first saw a Blue Dog painting while I was in New Orleans having dinner. There was a huge painting hanging in the restaurant. I had never seen or heard of this artist before, but it was love at first site.

When we first heard that the exhibit was coming to Longview we were so excited and last week we finally got to go. Hannah was busy so Jackson and I decided that we would go check it out and it did not disappoint.

I mean, c’mon, I got a smile out of him. He rarely smiles in pictures.

We now have two fine arts museums. This is the newest and it used to be a bank.

We took a picture at the selfie stop.

Hannah was disappointed that she wasn’t able to go so yesterday she and I visited.

Both Hannah and Jackson picked this picture as their favorite.

The saddest picture was the one that George never finished. He died of cancer and this was left on his easel. You can see the sketch lines.

After we finished touring this museum we decided to head a street over to see this exhibit at the main art museum. It’s called six degrees of separation because each vignette is connected somehow. We found several pieces that we really liked.

This was my favorite.

This was Hannah’s.

We both liked this one. The background are Splenda wrappers.

It was such fun days taking each of the kiddos separately to hear their take on all of the art.

I also couldn’t leave without buying a poster and a decal.

Jackson and I ran by the thrift store on the way home to see if I could find a small frame for the decal. I found the almost perfect one. I just had to paint the back of it to compliment Jackson’s Picasso rendition.

Sand, Paint, Done

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Frugal LifeLeave a comment

It has been so rainy here lately. I have been waiting for a sunny, not too humid, day it seems like forever. I checked the weather channel last night and it seemed like today would be the day. I could finally finish the last two chairs. I saved the two most rusty pitiful ones for last. Luckily, since I was painting the bases, all I had to do was sand of the rust and chipped chrome.

It was a messy job, but it came off pretty quickly.

The bases only take one coat with a little touching up where I missed any place. They dried quickly.

The chairs take 2 full coats. They have to dry completely and then they get flipped over for two more coats on the back and underneath.

While I was waiting for them to dry I decided to go ahead and paint our plant stand. I got it at an estate sale 6 years ago. It started out cream, then I painted it vintage teal. Today it became warm caramel.

I got all of the chairs put back together and I think they look really good. Would I rather have not had to sand and paint them? Yes. Would I have wanted to spend about $100 per chair. No way. They were made in 2000 so I think they are holding up really well. Plus they are super comfortable. I purchased them for $2.50 a piece and I figured I used 1/2 a can each of the spray paint. So for a total cost of $9.50 I think I got a heck of a deal with a little bit of elbow grease.

A smaller table would probably fit better, but I absolutely love this drop leaf antique one. I was cleaning out a rental house and the previous renters had just left it. I told the owner how much I liked it and she said, just take it. Free is good and I just love the design of it. So, $38 for a dining set is a pretty good deal, even if we don’t actually have a true dining room. Just make the best of what you have. Always works for me.