Life In Color

Words From an Advanced Amateur Painter

I always think that is a funny way to say you're sort of good at something; "Advanced Amateur" But I am sort of good at something I think, painting. As in painting my house, the whole house, every wall, every piece of trim and many times. Of course I didn't do it alone, my mom has helped a lot. And she's who I got a lot of my skills and good solid advice from. So here we go:

 

1. Don't buy cheap paint. It is so not worth it ever. I love Duration Home from Sherwin Williams (a low VOC paint). I love their colors as well, but they color match wonderfully if you find a swatch at another store (I guess they have people at headquarters who figure out the formulas for competitors), or want to match something else. 

2. Don't buy cheap brushes. If you want to pick little tiny hairs off your walls that is your business, but buy a nice brush (I like Purdy, and they are made in Oregon, added bonus) and you won't have to. The bristles will stay in and you can use your brushes for years, assuming that you:

3. Wash your equipment carefully. Paint should only ever be on the very end of your brush. If it starts traveling up to wear the bristols meet the handle you're in trouble! Abort and wash your brush. Once paint gets up in there it's hard to get it out. 

4. Never paint in shoes. What? Huh? Just listen, don't do it! My mom told me this trick. Bare feet or light socks are going to let you know when you're walking around with a drip on your heel a lot quicker than a shoe. You'll feel it and you'll clean it up, with out much damage.

5. Have a wet rag handy. And why not a dry one as well. Cleaning up paint the instant it gets somewhere it's not supposed to be is the easiest way to go. 

6. Taping is optional. I am putting my fine arts degree to good use here and demonstrating that you do not need to tape off everything. I know some people might disagree, but I don't think it's always necessary (I never tape off the ceiling for example). 

7. Use a painting ladder. Not a chair, or stools, or a wobbly box.

8. Paint two coats. And prime if you need to. Don't listen to the advertising that says you don't need to paint two coats. If you really want nice coverage you're going to need two coats. And if you're going from red to white you're also going to need a primer. 

9. In between coats save your roller cover. Another trick from my mom. Don't even wash it. Just put it in a few plastic bags (old grocery bags or the like) so that it will stay nice and moist.

10. Use a plastic tray liner. Putting paint right into a metal roller tray is so lame. It is way too hard to clean. 

11. Paint doesn't fill in cracks. Also called: do the prep work. Use wood filler, use the plaster, sand it, and get it all ready to go. 

12. Take the hardware off. And the light switch covers, the heating vents and anything else. You will be able to paint much quicker. Painting itself is actually quick, the  prep work is what takes time. 

13. Buy enough paint for the whole project. Ask me which rule I did not follow on this project. UGH.

 

Any tips from you dear readers?
 

Pre Party Prep

If you can believe it this little munchkin:

 

Is going to be ONE YEAR OLD in about a week. Say what? Of course I really waited too long to get invitations out (and seeing as tomorrow is a Sunday they won't be going out for another day). But I figured it was the thing to do and it's really a little party (as little as it can be with the modern family, right?) and everyone knows about it all ready so I decided to make up invites and send them anyway. A bit of a run on sentence to say look, I finished the cards:

 

They are all different random dots on the front (thanks for the help Sarah and Erin) and printed info inside. That took a while to figure out. Printers, ugh. I also started this felt garland to decorate. I was just going to do balloons, but figured this would be much more sustainable and pretty and I'd be done every year after (every birthday for anyone after) as I can just reuse it. Now I have these left over pieces:

 

Not 100% wool, some are 40/60 others 60/40 and other in between (with the other material being polyester). I'm not sure I can put them out for birds for nest material. They seem too pretty to toss, ideas?

In other BIG NEWS I am about to write my ONE THOUSANDTH post. Oh my goodness I can hardly believe it. Well look at me blabber on, I guess I can really. When I started it seemed like just me and a handful of people were blogging (five years ago almost). And no one even knew what a blog was (that I knew anyway). I sent my website link out to my whole email address book and hit publish. I have no idea what I'll do for the big post, maybe a recap, favorites, something else? I am working on a big post that is all about Tuesday's first year. And not just how wonderful she is, but more of a general this is what we did/got/didn't to/didn't buy/made/etc. I'd love to combine everything I remember into one post, so if you have any questions let me know, it will help jump start my memory I hope. This way I will have a good reference post to point people (pregnant friends and family) to. So ask away!
 
 
 

Baby Lee Lee

One of the things I really wanted to get Tuesday for Christmas was a Waldorf style doll to play pretend with. I really love Bamboletta dolls, but since Tuesday chews and tugs on everything I knew that wouldn't be a good starter doll. I needed to find something a little simpler. I searched Etsy nightly it seemed, but everyone was done taking orders. Luckily a few weeks before Christmas I stumbled upon these cute handmade dolls on another blog. 

 

I decided to order a dark skinned Swaddle Baby since the next baby that is coming is Ceara's and I figured I could teach Tuesday to "be nice" to the baby. I named it Lee Lee and was excited, but a bit apprehensive to give it to Tuesday Christmas morning. As I suspected she first pulled on the hair and tasted the face. Then I took her hand and helped her pat the baby and hold it close. I kept saying, "ohhh baby, we love the baby, nice to the baby." I snuggled the baby next to us when we nursed. And now?

 

AWE!!!! Isn't that the cutest? As soon as I give her Lee Lee she lays her little head down next to the dolly's and cuddles it. I'm still afraid to leave Lee Lee in Tuesday's crib for fear she'll rip her hair out in the night and choke to death on it (always with the cheerful thoughts...).

 

(who me mom? I would never do that.)

But it's been fun playing with it. We pretended to feed it with a spoon the other day and she thought that was positively the funniest thing to do ever. I highly recommend this company. There are lots of choices, besides skin and hair color you can also choose to have smiley or sleepy "eyes" as well as a selections of fabrics for the "blanket" The one here is organic cotton fleece in orchid, and it is oh so soft. Here is a link to her site. I hope for many years of playing pretend, it might be one of my favorite things ever.
 
 

 

Resolutions

I'm going for resolutions that are doable. 

1. Only iron my napkins for special occasions.

2. Multitask less.

3. Love more.

And you?