Back in February, I solicited advice from you all about what to do with a recent thrift store find. Remember these?
Well, I took the advice of the majority of you and painted them black and then never got around to showing you the results. Here they are hanging above the fireplace with a couple inexpensive white taper candles from Michael’s:
Much better! I also mentioned in that old post that we wanted to paint our faux brick. At the time I thought that meant a slate-like color, but then I found a genius blog post about how to paint over already painted brick to make it look like real brick. Did you follow all that?
Here’s what we were starting with:
I mean really… can you get any more faux looking than that? When we first moved in, even the logs in the fireplace were faux logs. I think one of the very first things I did in the house was to remove the awful faux log pile.
This project was pretty easy (and cheap!), especially considering the fantastic results. Most of the necessary materials I already had on hand:
- newspaper (and/or dropcloth)
- painter’s tape
- standard paintbrush
- paint tray
- large sponge
- paper plates
- latex paints
- acrylic paints
Now, I cut out some steps and supplies from the tutorial I linked to above, but then I wasn’t painting over already painted brick and I was doing a much smaller area.
Since the mortar color was normal, I opted to skip the first step of painting the mortar and moved straight to applying my base paint to the bricks themselves. I used leftover tan wall paint (Behr’s Gobi Desert) applied with a paintbrush. The plan was to roller all the bricks, but my leftover paint was a little dried out and gloopy so the roller just wasn’t cutting it.
Next, I laid out six paper plates for my brick colors and poured out a half-dollar size amount, one color per plate. I used a $3 sample size of Behr’s Thick Chocolate as my base tint and Americana acrylic paints (found in the craft paint aisle at Michael’s) in Terra Cotta, Burnt Siena, Antique Gold, Milk Chocolate, and Burnt Umber.
To paint the individual bricks, each time I started with my base of thick chocolate and added one or two other color tints to my sponge. I tried to do 2-3 bricks at a time, randomly spaced, with that unique color combination before reloading the sponge with more paint and different tints.
I tried to get a good variety of dark brown, red, and light brown/gold tints spaced around the fireplace to help it look more authentic.
We had a few people from church over a couple days after I finished and they were surprised to learn it was painted. It was the first time any of them had been to our house so they hadn’t seen the previous incarnation. Success!
Here’s a couple side-by-side before and afters (including the wall sconces), just for fun:
We’ve been staying busy over here in our neck of the woods, but you wouldn’t know it from the blog. I’ve been a lazy writer these last several weeks and am ready to jump back on the bandwagon.
We got a new washer and dryer (thank you, tax return!) about a month ago and I’m in love with doing laundry. I can wash our sleeping bags at home! I don’t have to feel guilty about ignoring the washing instructions for our comforter! All our bath towels fit in a single load! However, I think our new machines might be smarter than me. I’ve been doing laundry for a lot of years now, but I had to read the manuals thoroughly before starting the first load. Now we’re all ready for baby clothes and cloth diapers. Bring it, baby!
Out with the old...
...in with the new
Our Memorial Day looked a bit different this year. For the past 5 years we’ve spent this long weekend up at Marmon Valley Farm camping with friends so it felt a bit odd to be home this year. On Saturday we hung out with a lot of those same friends we’d normally be camping with, plus a few more. We enjoyed the great hospitality of our friends Peter and Kim for their 6th annual Spring Fling. (Yes, usually it’s a bit earlier in the season.) Monday consisted of sleeping in, eating waffles, yard work before the heat got too unbearable, and working on projects for the nursery. We had plans to fire up the grill, but Jeff was too pooped from all his hard manual labor so we relaxed with a simple dinner and a movie instead.
This past weekend we jumped at the chance to watch some herding dogs in action. We stopped in at a training clinic and watched several dogs learning how to herd sheep. It was fun to see a group of border collies (our dogs’ predominant breed) and Australian shepherds all in one place. If we had the extra cash laying around, it would be fun to put our dogs through the instinct testing. We think they both show strong herding signs, but neither have been in a field with sheep before.
At long last, we are having our kitchen completely remodeled! The kitchen has by far been the weak point in our house and we’re stoked to be starting this project in just a few weeks. Our contractor friend who fixed our dining room ceiling will be doing the work, and we’ve been busy looking at cabinets, countertops, flooring, appliances, etc. No more drawers grinding or falling off their sliders, no more piecemeal cabinets and mismatched countertops. We’re saying yes to a dishwasher (other than me!) and garbage disposal, yes to a microwave with timed cooking, yes to a logical workflow and more countertop and cabinet space! We’re both excited to have saved up enough to get this done before the baby comes. It will be marvelous!
Speaking of our dining room ceiling, I did something dumb and we got more water in the ceiling again. No gaping holes this time, but one piece of drywall is bulging and will need fixing. We had the plumber out yesterday to fix our dripping tub faucet, which I may or may not have tried to sort of “fix” on my own… thus causing more damage. Live and learn, I guess.
And now, some baby/pregnancy updates…
Friends tell me I look noticeably bigger every week, and sometimes I feel like I’m growing by the hour. I’m really starting to feel cramped for space and there’s no pretending I don’t waddle now. I keep anticipating all the uncomfortable squished-ness people have told me to expect in the last month. Just a couple more weeks and I’ll be there!
My internal heater kicked in the same time as the mercury began to rise. I’m not one for heat anyway so I’m especially thankful for working air conditioning in the house and the car. 90+ degrees, go away, come again some other… no, just go away and stay away, okay? Really it hasn’t been too bad, but gardening, walking the dogs, or any outside activity just doesn’t sound appealing in this heat.
Call it nesting if you will, but I’ve been really focused on preparing the nursery. We finally got everything moved out, the dresser moved in, and the crib assembled. I’ve ordered fabric for the windows, closet, and crib skirt. Jeff started stripping the rocking chair and I started prepping the side table for painting. We’ve checked some other things off the list, but still have lots left on the list. My deadline is looming up quickly!
Jeff sweetly got me a chain so I can still wear my wedding rings even with swollen fingers. While my rings still fit, they are tight on some of these hot, humid days and I’ve started wearing them around my neck as a precaution. My good friend Kyna had to get her custom-made-by-her-sister wedding rings cut off by the fire department during her first pregnancy and I’m not about to risk that situation!
I’m officially signed up to be part of the MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) group at our church for next year. I went to one of the monthly meetings this spring just to check things out and it seems like a pretty cool program. I’m continually thankful for the support infrastructure I have around me during this big life transition.
We haven’t taken this week’s belly picture yet, but here’s last week at 33 weeks:
I’m sure my pregnant brain is forgetting something, but I think that covers most of what’s gone unsaid and undocumented in the last few weeks. I do have a fun house project to share with you all soon though. Just as soon as I get those after pictures taken…
Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the U.S. of A., and as such I thought I’d post a selection of quotes that reflect more than just cookouts, swimming, and the unofficial beginning of summer.
Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books. — Walt Whitman
The story of America’s quest for freedom is inscribed on her history in the blood of her patriots. — Randy Vader
Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt. — Bergen Evans
Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o’er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Dream of battled fields no more.
Days of danger, nights of waking.
— Sir Walter ScottDeath leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. — From a headstone in Ireland
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. — Joseph Campbell
Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
— Henry Wadsworth LongfellowAlthough no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored. — Daniel Webster
My mom, from whom I inherited my love of books and reading, has a wonderful little volume entitled A Book Addict’s Treasury by Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy. Occasionally she sends out particularly good snippets from its pages. Today’s quote is one such lovely snippet.
“I believe it then to be quite simply true that books have their own very personal feeling about their place on the shelves. They like to be close to suitable companions, and I remember once on coming into my library that I was persistently disturbed by my ‘Jane Eyre‘. Going up to it, wondering what was the matter with it, restless because of it, I only after a morning’s uneasiness discovered that it had been placed next to my Jane Austens, and anyone who remembers how Charlotte criticized Jane will understand why this will never do.”
— Hugh Walpole, These Diversions: Reading (1926)
