what normal people probably don't do at 1am

Ummm - I'm possibly a little crazy. You know how I decided to go with satin nickel in the bathroom remodel? Well one day I did a make-over of our totally ghetto plastic flush handle using Rustoleum's satin nickel spray paint. I love the ORB, so nickel will be awesome too, right? Wrong. Looked like sparkly grey plastic. Fortunately Lowe's is awesome and refunded me for the spray paint since I hated it!

Fast forward to this last week when I was dawdling at Hobby Lobby getting Krylon looking glass spray paint for future ideas of making my own mercury glass...and I spotted Krylon satin nickel spray paint! Rationalized purchasing as had cash from Lowe's refund to use. Is much better! And as I was in the bathroom one night painting the doors, I got this crazy idea....about these ugly hinges:

How ugly are these hinges?! Well this is just one of the four hinges but let me assure you he had three identical brothers in ugliness. V. old and rusty and somewhat paint-y from past paint jobs. This is the door to the HVAC unit, and the door to the bathroom is the same. But don't really have time/money right now to replace all the doors+hinges....sooo...This is when there may have been some muttering to self of protestations of craziness...I could not resist attempting to spray paint the hinges!! That would be why there's kind of a trash bag above that one above. Am also too lazy to take hinges off door first. In my defense, was worried about stripping old screws in process. Here's better photo of my trash-bag contortions:

Was somewhat skeptical of plan but was really not liking ugly old hinges. They used to look inconspicuous there in the corner, but now with all our bathroom updates, these were really sticking out in manner of sore thumbs! And I spray painted the brass door handle as well while I was at it. Could not believe how well it all turned out. I just touched up the white paint right around where any spray paint leaked, and ta-da:

Probably won't fool anyone into thinking are new hinges, but soo much improved!! Ahh. Did the other door too but no photos (looks exactly same). Here's a close-up for your inspection:

Yay. Little detail, but so. much. better. Ah the joys of living in old house full of character.

Safety Hat Disclaimer: I made sure to turn off the HVAC system first and leave it off the next day, lest any spray paint fumes get anywhere near our gas heating flame. Although when I spray painted the other hinges to the door of the bathroom, had zero spray paint leakage into the hallway. But still - better safe!


Next updates will be the big vintage suitcase project reveal (yay! was going to do tonight but got distracted painting trim in laundry room. So.) and also another project that David and I agree turned out awesome - won't tell you what it is yet, but this product can sell for $200-$500 but I made one for $41. Yes am rather proud of self. Oh! And also the lovely kitchen floor refinishings! Stay tuned. And tell me what you like to (or would like to) spray paint that I should do next! *_*

having space for roots

Soo, we have obtained and successfully framed and hung our first painted (watercolour I think?) piece of art. So exciting! Remember back in October when we visited Taylor and obtained the impish impala antlers? We had a v. happy trip, complete with a happy windy campsite in the middle of the woods with friends, which when we woke up in the morning turned out to be next to a modest but lovely lake. And we bought the painting from Beth Eisinger, our awesome Taylor-grad-turned-artist (well her degree is in art, so is it turned or became?). She is on left here, two of my favorite people!

Then since October we debated perfect place to hang and how to frame. :-? Untilll I painted the bathroom for the 3rd or 4th time - was worth it, is perfect colour - and realized that Beth's watercolour would coordinate perfectly! 

We had a wedding picture framed at a frame shop, and do like the result (in our library), but it was kind of expensive for our grad student budget, so this time I struck off for Michael's to see what I could find. I talked to the framer (framer? framist?) of the framing department, and had a great customer service experience where he actually seemed a professional and v. adept at framing. When this happens in a reasonably-priced store in America (which is rarely), I always feel like I accidentally landed in another country where they actually pay customer service people well enough to make a career out of being good at it. So I happily had it framed by the Michael's framing department, and is perfect result. Husband and self immediately hung it up on bathroom wall (this is best photo so far capturing actual colour of blue/grey walls):

We love Beth's imagery of having roots in different locations, as we do - sending roots in each place and growing into different trees. She has captured the healthily-vibrant-yet-chaotic feel of peaceful growing, I think:

It's hung on the wall you first see walking into the bathroom - I can't show too much without revealing another travel-related decoration project in the bathroom that I've also finished! Here's the piece along with our bathroom window complete with its 'window film' covering. Which we love in a completely different way - is v. functional, we now have optimal sunlight in bathroom, along with spa-like privacy! 

And the little bud vases that I picked up recently have been v. fun, to pop in whatever flowers are blooming in our yard, or anything we walk by as we wander around our little downtown area. This branch is from of our elephant bush from the porch - he broke off but then started to bud out new leaves and grow his own roots, so am attempting to encourage that trend. Of roots.

my mason jar light

Am v. much enjoying lazy weekend in Missouri visiting our old friends Sarah and John Fellows! And get to have the bonus of feeling vaguely productive, as finished a number of house projects before leaving, including refinishing our kitchen floor which is happily drying while we are away. Plan to catch up on some bloggery meanwhilst regarding said projects.

So one v. smallest but satisfying project I completed in between coats on the kitchen floor was to refresh this strange light that has been hanging in the laundry room since we moved in, for $2.50! Here's the old light:

Apparently running the electrical line down the wall was easier than installing a light in the ceiling. It's hard to see, but the base is old cracked porcelain, and the globe doesn't even fit - it kind of stays on because the lightbulb bulges out to keep it on. Haha.

I've been wanting to DIY an 'industrial' light in our house, but hadn't been able to go in that direction in our bathroom as David pointed out (with good reason) that they aren't v. flattering lights usually. In the laundry room it doesn't matter, so it seemed a perfect place to try it out.

I don't have any in progress photos because it was so easy - I took the old light fixture from the bathroom, spraypainted it good old oil-rubbed bronze, and added an awesome $2.50 mason jar globe from Lowes that I've been drooling over for awhile (along with a new high-efficiency lightbulb, since it needed the update anyhow):

Ta-da! Quite fun result, especially for just $2.50! I should have waited to take photos in the morning (these after photos are sub-optimal as it was pitch dark outside) but was busy finishing the floor so. One more:

There it is. One thing I love about light fixtures is how removable they are, so if you live in an apartment, you could still totally play with the lighting and return it to the original before leaving (admittedly without the spraypaint!) I've enjoyed doing a bigger lighting project for our library, which I shall be posting soon!

Seuss and Coffee Table Elephants

Last week was one of the hardest weeks I've had in grad school (since first semester, at least). Three exams from one Friday to the next, combined with four homework assignments to go with my 3+1 extra classes. (And TAing and tutoring.)

These seem like frivolous problems, to be thankful for their brevity, compared to the sad news Thursday of the death of old friend Jeremiah. I was not even close friends with him - but he was part of Our Group, and I feel like - he's the first of our set to go. I grieve with our community of friends and family. And I am painfully reminded of the fragility of life. And am made intensely aware that I have many close friends scattered across the globe in potentially dangerous places, serving and loving and relationshipping.

And so I have found some distraction from exams and brevity of life in...the occasional house project. You guessed it, right? I have a lot to share!

For tonight - I created my first topiary! And I love my little Dr Suess tree. Sooo - we wanted to have plants in kitchen, but anything we put in there dies because there is no natural light (and we have the occasional foster kitty who thinks eating plants is a good idea). So we've been habitually talking of getting some fake plants. I finally bought one at Michael's with a coupon:

This one is a cute little faker. Most of them I don't like. Then I heard about how some companies preserve real boxwoods and sell them as maintenance-free indoor plants. What!! Who knew? But the price tag - ouch:

These are from Restoration Hardware

Yipes. Not happening on this grad student's budget.

But then my little faker got me thinking...perhaps I could make my own topiary? I looked up some good tutorials, like this one by InMyOwnStyle:

Hmm. Yes. So off to the fabric store I wandered. Something about Michael's feels v. homey to me. Is v. dangerous place, as whole hours can timelessly vanish inside store walls. My primary excuse for this trip was to build an elephant habitat (more on that later) - I browsed the fake greeneries aisles, but when I paused per habit to enjoy eye candy of moss it hit me - perhaps could make a tree of moss.....? Perhaps unusual (have not googled it too hard), but love the idea that the moss is real, preserved. And after all, moss could grow on a ball...in Seattle... ;)

Being too cheap to buy a florist's foam ball (can only use one coupon per trip after all!), decided to try making a ball on stick out of packing tape and stick that had at home. V. scientific (not):

Then spraypainted plastic ball with black spray paint so that shiny clear tape would not show underneath. Forgot to take picture, because at this point was feeling rather skeptical of self.

Proceeded to take my packet of sheet moss and start glue-gunning bits around the ball. I wanted it to look kind of patchy, as though the moss had grown on whatever spots happened to be wet at different times. Was careful to cover him all v. well, so that no plastic showed through. And by the end...I just like him. Couldn't even wait for daylight to take After photos! V. organic and natural-looking:

I put him here next to my sink, in a pot that used to house a plant that died (ha). I put some rocks that we had in the pot to help hold his stick up. And lookie, next to him is one of the three little bud vases I bought on sale last week - my first bud vases and I looove them! I don't usually make/spend money on bouquets, but it's so fun to pluck a bit of whatever's blooming and brighten up inside for so little effort!

Here's another of Seuss keeping his daffodil lady company:

Yum. Total cost: $3.19 (1 package sheet moss with coupon.) It would be a little more if you use a florist ball or if you had to buy rocks/ hot glue.

Oh yes, and the original reason I was buying moss!! Remember how I was going to build a terrarium? It has taken me awhile because I had to think of what animal/life-like things I wanted to put in one. Finally when sitting in class one day, I realized - our tiny carved elephants might be perfect! So I built this, in an apothecary jar (also from Michael's with half off coupon) - with same moss from Seuss project. And rocks and dirt from yard:

Is v. hard to photograph due to glare, and because the elephants are dark coloured. But they seem to be enjoying their new world:

See how they have a little bonsai tree! I will probably reinvent the terrarium into something else after awhile (I already want to do a cactus with sand...) but for now it is fun to have our elephants on the coffee table!

Soo does my Dr Seuss tree seem strange, or has anyone heard of this before? Have some major bathroom updates and funny kitty video to share...will keep you posted! (Get it? Is that a blog joke?)