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What a week! I swear this summer is flying by so fast – I am sending out my resume like crazy and hope something will turn up soon. So while I wait, let’s dedicate a little time to the random…
1. I bought this little kitchen cart on Tuesday. I bought some Sun Yellow High Gloss Rust-o-leum spray paint on Wednesday. They shall meet this weekend in what I hope will be an epic revamp. Fingers crossed.
2. Polly Pocket is scheduled to attend doggy daycare at A Dog’s Fun Playce for a few days next week. While Polly is pretty good with other dogs, she can be a bit picky about her playmates. I am anxious to see how she will do. I am hoping it goes really well because this goofball could use some doggy playtime stat.
3. Speaking of Polly, she proved to be a fantastic TV-watching buddy when I was home sick yesterday. She became enamored with the drama on Dawson’s Creek (season 2, ya’ll) and, like me, is Team Pacey all the way.
4. I realize that I am posting quite a few iPhone photos lately. I promise I will get back to regular camera pictures soon…like as soon as I can find my camera. But I will say this, the iPhone comes in handy when you need to capture a milestone moment before it passes you by… like when Turk allowed Rufus to sit on his bed for the first time!
We have a busy weekend planned – more packing, DIY’ing, and a KC Pittie Pack walk at the Nelson-Atkins Sculpture Park! What are you up to this weekend?
PS – Have you voted in the Bloggers Make Good contest yet? I am competing to win a $1,000.00 grant for Unleashed Pet Rescue and a $500 prize to continue my own pit bull advocacy efforts.
PPS – Polly Pocket is still available for adoption – check out her profile on Petfinder!
I bought a large frame last fall for $1.00 at a garage sale. I had this idea in mind to put a bunch of photo frames within the larger frame to bring some art into our bedroom (which was majorly lacking in art). I spray painted the frame a high-gloss white and, after it dried, hung it on the wall with place markers for the size of frames I was looking for.
I bought all of my frames from the Target REstyle collection (my fave!) and filled them with art, fun postcards we’ve collected, and a wedding photo. Here is the finished product:
Pretty cool, huh? Let’s take a closer look!
This is a cool postcard I found at Powell’s during our trip to Portland, Oregon. It reminds us of all the yummy food trucks we visited. It also reminds us that we need to get back there…soon…and possibly permanently!
I got this little promotional art piece from an art show for Marc Shank. It feels all industrial and nature-y at the same time!
Clockwise from the top: a photo from our wedding, a Hammerpress gift tag, an IKEA art card, and another card we found in Portland at the Saturday Market.
Another card I found at some cute store, although I can’t remember which one…and finally, “Man’s (Original) Best Friend.”
I also whipped up another cute little frame for above my nightstand with a Hammerpress card and some more IKEA art cards…
Maybe when our bedroom is actually clean for more than 5 minutes I will get a wider photo of the room that incorporates the new frames. Maybe.
Total cost for this project
Garage Sale frame – $1.00
Rustoleum High Gloss White spray paint – $3.77
Target REstyle frames (assorted sizes) – $23.31
Craft wrapping paper – $1.87
Assorted art, photos and cards – $0 (had them around the house)
TOTAL: $29.95
Not too bad considering we FINALLY have some art in our bedroom! This week we’re taking a little break from all things dog and will be focusing on more DIY stuff since Daniel finally finished re-tiling the bathroom (and it looks GOOD!) and he is working on installing a new mantle over the fireplace. I also finished a couple mini DIY projects that I can’t wait to share.
* And for a little tidbit of information on Daniel & I – today is the 6 year anniversary of our first date. After years of being “just friends” in college, Daniel finally asked me out for our first date on October 25, 2005. We saw a free preview of “Walk the Line” and never looked back. He’s been my boo ever since. Happy Anniversary, dearest! Love you so! *
Recently we had to take Emily’s car in for a recall notice. The recall ended up not affecting her car, but “shockingly” they found several other things that they wanted to take care of for us.
One item on their was buffing out her “foggy” headlights. While it’s true that one look at the lights could convince anyone that they weren’t in good shape, I was pretty sure I could do better than the $50 they wanted to charge.
Headlight as it was.
At Target we saw one of the “as seen on TV” products: Fast Brite – Auto Headlight Restorer Kit. I figured for $9.99 it was worth a shot.
It’s a simple 3-step process, but I learned right away that there should be a 4th – clean the headlights before you start! I didn’t on the first headlight and my sponge was immediately filled with gunk.
Headlight after basic cleaning.
The next step was to put some of the polishing liquid on the sponge and rub in tiny circles. Here’s where I think it’s really up to you how good the final product looks – if you continue to add more liquid and buff in tiny circles until your arm feels like it might fall off, then I think you will get a very nice end result. Because I like my arms to remain attached to my body, I buffed each headlight for only 3 minutes and it still came out pretty well.
Headlight after polish was applied.
The next step is to apply the protecting liquid generously. This cleaned up some of the polishing paste and gave the lenses a clean, almost wet look.
Headlight with protecting liquid - still wet.
While that’s a really good looking lens, as the protecting liquid dries, it becomes a bit dull. The directions said to buff it with a clean cloth. That helped a little but still not quite as good as it looked while it was still wet.
Headlight - Final product.
Pros – Definite improvement in the fogginess of the lenses. Cheap.
Cons – Though the box says “No Buffing or Sanding” step number 2 (part 3) says “buff with a clean dry cloth.” Also, the end result depends on how long you can make your arm move in “tiny circles.”
Actual Before & After
I’m sure I could work on it some more and get it looking even better, but for about 10 minutes and 10 bucks, I’m pretty happy with the product.
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!
We had a whirlwind weekend in Lincoln working on another bedroom at my parent’s house for when these cuties stay the night.
I painted away while Daniel replaced door knobs, removed closet doors, fixed a messed up bathroom vent – he was pretty much was the all-around handy man. We’ll have more about that project once the new bed comes in and we have some good “after” pictures.
This post is not about that though – this post is about my love for crates.
I found this bad boy at a garage sale for $2.00 …
I don’t even mind that it has paint splotches … I think it adds to the allure. It currently is home to my many, many copies of Better Homes & Gardens, House Beautiful, and West Elm catalogs.
I’ve also been lusting after these crates from Pottery Barn …
But at $24 a pop – there was no way I was going to buy them … lucky for me, I found a pile of REAL soda crates at the Waldo Antique Mall & Flea Market! At $10 per crate, I snatched one up and promptly placed it on top of our fridge:
So far it only holds a bottle of Pellegrino and some grenadine. I need to find some cool vintage bottles to put into it.
What do you think of my vintage (cheap) crates? I’m in loooove!
Our Waldo Bungie 