Green, Green Every Where! Pt. 1

I have painted the majority of my life, on canvas, paper, etc. This in no way prepared me for my adventures in interior house painting. After 3 months of labourious decisions and 3000 paint samples, I decided to paint Jasper's room green. What I wanted was a bright, light green. This color existed in my head at least.

Lesson 1: Always get a sample first.

300 green paint sample. That is what I stared at for a few months. Green is a big commitment. Go too dark and you'll expect fat Brando to jump out at you like a jaguar in the rain forest. Go too bright and it's neon city. In my mind I knew exactly what I wanted. After a lot of comparing, holding up to the wall and lamenting I hit upon Behr's Honeydew color.

This is what it looked like in the catalog.

I thought it was the perfect mix of bright yet light, perfect for a 2 year old boy's room.

Above is a honeydew melon. I was expecting to get the color of the inner part of the fruit.

Instead this is what I got:

What the...

Maybe I was blinded by the 300 greens I'd stared at. I looked back at the paint color of the wall in the color sample and at the gallon of paint I currently possessed and what I had was indeed NOT a honeydew melon but, in my opinion:

In all fairness bananas do start out green but I in no way want the life cycle of a banana on my walls.

I'd prefer #1 or #2 actually...

So as the epic home depot freak out commenced, there was literally nothing I could do. There is no way I can put this color on his walls. Thankfully the play room needs to be painted as well. I guess my hand has been forced into a chiquita themed room.

Lesson 2: Test test test but put a drop cloth down first.

Jasper was in major "I'm 2 and I do what I want!" mode so I had to wait until he was in bed to run out and pick up paint samples. I want/need to get this project done soon so time wasted on crying over banana colored rooms is not an option.

This time I went into it thinking GREEN! Trees, shamrocks, H & R Blocks logo, etc. I think I came up with a few good contenders.

The numbers correspond to the order on the wall.

They are still wet so I will take more photos in the morning and update accordingly. Oh, what's that 4th color you ask? Why it's bananadew!

What's your favorite out of this bunch?

To be continued!!!

The Rocky of Lamps

I have added a new contender in battle lighting.

I love going to thrift stores, tag and estate sales, etc. You just never know what you will find. This lamp was an estate sale find and quite a heavy one at that. When I tried to pull it off of the shelf I thought it was either stuck or plugged in! Therefore not only will it aid in the never ending lighting saga but it could also be an excellent self defense weapon. Yay for home security!

I really liked the scroll work on this lamp. It's a nice mix of art nouveau and industrial. For a lamp, that's quite creative!

It will need a few repairs, a globe and I'm trying to figure out what goes in that hole.... Honestly I cant even make a joke because I'm baffled as to what would go there.

What is This??

Early, early this morning I made a discovery.

You see, I had a terrible nights rest. I kept hearing banging from somewhere in the house. It started around 3 am. Each time it happened I would get up to investigate but every time I opened the bedroom door, the noise seemed to stop. One by one I went to various rooms searching for the noise each time it happened. This went on until 4:30 am (and now I see why having a larger home is not always a great idea.) Finally, around 4:45 am I discovered the cause!! My 16 lb kitten was trapped in a cabinet in the bathroom and the banging was her hitting the door, trying to escape (and quickly giving up because, hey, she's 16 freaking pounds.) After freeing the semi-lazy beast I finally settled back into bed around 5 am only to be serenaded by the loudest, most off key bird in existence. It had decided that the tree right beside my window was the perfect place for an early morning love song. Some where around 5:30 I dozed off to be awoken, for good, by my alarm at 7 AM. As I'm laying in bed wondering if there is a way to trap the bird and send it far away (or feed it to the already plump cat) I looked at the head of the bed and saw this.

What I discovered is...I'm horribly unobservant.

 I've never seen this before. I've never seen one period so I have no idea what it is but I doubt it installed itself over night so I'm pretty sure I just assumed it was a telephone jack and didn't pay it much mind. Of course at 7 am, I'd rather look at this thing then get out of bed so here it is! Finally getting the attention it so craves.

7 AM photo quality

So I don't know, maybe my house is playing some kind of Morse code game with me. It's probably saying something like "get a head board!" or "clean the floors darn it!"

Really, who knows.

The House that Keeps on Giving

Recently it became very clear that I needed a metal detector. I was walking around outside on a nice sunlight day when I kept seeing gilts of something on the ground. After leaning down and poking around I came to one conclusion.

Mother of God I need a metal detector STAT!

Please ignore the leaves and sad, neglected picnic table. So far we have!

Above is what I have pulled out of the ground by hand, sans about 20 rusty nails and a heap of broken glass.

I have no idea what this is but it's about 11 inches long and white in some places.

I'm not sure what it was but I shall name it tetanus!

This...long metal stabby thing...is around 2 feet long and angled on one side.

Here it is again, intimidating the other yard relics.

Above is a sampling of the other items I've found. Random tiles, nails and socket type thing?

So yes, a metal detector is in order, if for no other reason than I really don't want one of the kids to accidentally fall on a nail or other random shape, pointy thing. I honestly don't know why no one else that ever live here never noticed giant metal objects poking out the ground, but hey, maybe I just look down a lot.

Summer relic hunting, here I come!

Lighting War: The First Battle Won!

Let's see if you can figure out what is wrong in these pictures...

If you said "Hey, those ceilings need to be painted!" then yes, you would technically be correct BUT if you said "Hmmm looks like you've got a lighting issue on your hands" then you would win a prize! (ok not really)

None of the bedroom/halls/other random rooms, etc have over head lighting. Some of the ceiling are rather low as well so I'm not sure how the original owners worked out the whole "candles + low ceilings= FIRE!!!" equation.

We've decided that busting into walls and running wires would not only be time consuming and wasteful but also an exercise in insanity. We have enough of that on our hands already so easy route it is!

Originally when I picked out this light fixture it was more for the "awww pretty!" aspect and not because I thought it was actually functional.

This was also an exercise in reading comprehension. As we were preparing to hang it, none of us realized it lacked one crucial item...

Ahhh yes! A cord kit! Now that would be helpful! So two trips to home depot later (apparently I had no idea what a cord kit really was) we had the correct supplies! Well ok not really. What's the best way hang a wire on horse hair plaster walls that love to crumble?

OMG COMMAND STRIPS! YOU THINK OF EVERYTHING!!! So yes, a trip to walmart later and we were finally (really) ready to go!

Here is a picture that shows the light with the wire. Not the prettiest thing but the light is hooked up to the light switch. (yes all of these lightless rooms have light switches, I see the irony here)

Close up of the light unlit. Yes, it looks nothing like it does on the box.

Woohoo instagram!

Here is the light lit up.

 I love the reflection on the ceiling. Over all it was worth it and my daughter loves it which is all that counts.

House Artifact #6 Steampunk Goggles

Let me just say, if there is one thing I love, it's steampunk artifacts. For those of you not familiar with the term, steampunk is pseudo-Victorian mechanical madness. Make sense? Didn't think so but that's ok, google is your friend!

So again I was digging around in the basement and from behind a board I found these.

Behold the power of instagram!!

These goggles are amazing. 

Shall we now consult Mr. Google as to what a pair of steampunk goggles look like?

By George! With just a few minor modifications, I too can own a pair of genuine pseudo-Victorian ingenuity!  

Do you know what makes this even more interesting?

Not instagram, just having fun with filters....

These glasses are Harley-Davidson! Not sure of the age, I'll have to look into it more but you just never know what you'll find in this house.