Burning a hole in the ozone 1 spray paint can at a time...

Ok, here i am skiddin' in on 2 wheels... i promised i'd show you some on my spray paint goodness and... it's the 11th hour so here i am.

1st, junk waiting for paint!

2 little gold frames, now pink shabby chic goodness ready to go in the perfect little girls room!

(now in the the shop: chinamommy )

 set of 2 vintage shelves with perfectly aged mirrors!!

was ugly gold plastic (to the right of the pose doll in picture #1), now lovely lavender.

(soon to be in the shop)

Mmmmm, lovely brass chandelier from the late 80's, early 90's....

 now, ivory! 

 waiting for crystals and the hook up in my soon-to-be fancy laundry room!

In the shop NOW, teal wall shelf

no before picture, but it was gold...and it WAS ugly!!

again with the gold....

now with the orange and soon to be in the shop!

so, there ya go... a little of my sprayin' goodness!  we've had sunshine and low breezes here in MI, perfect spray painting weather!!

Michigan Fall, i love you!

ok, you know how i HATE the winter and that i am bitter because i didn't move to maui after college, but instead returned to the frozen tundra of michigan.  now that it is october, i've added the electric blanket, dug out my flannels and started planning for my hibernation, but what the what?!?! it has been GORGEOUS here in michigan, do you think she's trying to win me over?  for the past week and 1/2, it's been mid to upper 70's and full on hawaii sunshine!

michigan

(dear power lines, thank you for adding beauty to my shot)

 hawaii...see, hardly any difference AT ALL!

i have been enjoying it while i can

 ok, so i ran out of pink spray paint...see the red? guess what?! i can't find this spray paint anywhere and i'm thinking it is no longer available...

and by "enjoying" i mean burning a hole in the ozone with my spray paint!  come on back tomorrow and see what's going on with chinamommy!!

and don't forget the deadline for the hat drive is coming soon- october 31st!! 

see all information in the tab above or just donate a buck and check it off your list of things to do (donate button top, left-easy peasy paypal!)

Candy Colored Front Porch Remodel!

last summer the Mister tore the railing off of our front porch.  one of the best things we've ever done to this house!!  since the railing is off we've used the front porch more than we ever have.  honestly, before the railing came down i don't know if we'd ever sat out there; the railing hit me right in the eyes so it was a lovely view...  we got crazy lucky this summer with some adirondack chairs so it was time to pretty up the porch!!  Here's what we started with: 2 white chairs and 1 red chair (and 1 red table, that may STILL be in the box waiting for a super handy man...).

me being me, i couldn't leave these chairs alone....

 oh yeah, and a ugly dark brown bench that i power washed to some shabby ugliness...

 i grabbed my tools of choice

and got this: 1 gorgeous turquoise, 1 original red color and...

 my gosh, who called in hunter orange? 

and ummm.... this was suppose to be lime, not day-glo yellowy/green

(notice i was smart enough to NOT finish this!!)

so now i have turquoise (which i LOVE), red, (which i like but yet something isn't right), orange (which i hate) and a yellowy green neon bench (which i also HATE!).  i don't want to tell the mister (i tend to paint and regret and re-paint and agonize and...). i just wasn't happy with my pallet, not 1 bit, it was better than nothing, but who wants "better than nothin'"?  the last 2 months every time i drive in our driveway i cringe, it's just NOT RIGHT!! so.... today i am on pinterest doing some "research" (you girls on there know what i mean. researching DIY's that i pin but am so busy pinning i never have time to do).  so anyway, i see this 

source

and the angels sang and the light from heaven shone down on my spray paint obsession collection!!

i ran outside, grabbed the safety cone orange chair and the red one.  red, i loved you but you just don't go with my vision...goodbye!  don't worry turquoise, you and i are in a truly committed relationship.

★was orange★

★was red★

★was just plain old GROSS★

(i know the green kinda looks the same, but trust me, it is less yellow than it was...it's gonna work!)

by george, i think i've GOT IT!!  i'm off to get 1 more can of pink (mister, i promise...just 1 more can is all it's going to take....) and then... i need to get the porch back together before everyone gets home so they can both do their eye roll!  i also repainted our front doors and will do a big reveal of the whole thing. ( i need to get my trim around the door painted and then it will be READY!!!)  and just so ya know...i only painted the doors once!  got that baby right the very 1st time.  please tell me i'm not alone!!! i am someone that just can't get it together until i've done it wrong... story of my life!

paint horror stories? do tell!

Got a dumpster? I'd like to dive in it....

You know that funky smell at Goodwill and Salvation Army? 

Kind of a musty, old shoe smell... Well, that's the way I smell right now! 

I've been hanging out at those places this week; me and the rest of the hoarders in town!  Now that I've been watching the show "Hoarders" on A&E, I look at everyone in those stores differently, you know, watching for the person with their cart full of butter tubs!  I will say that the one frustrating part of thrifting is not being able to walk in and find 25 things I'm looking for!  IF I find a couple, then it's a good trip!  It's not that instant gratification I happen to like...but then again, don't we all?

I just keep telling myself the hunt is part of the fun, but with gas going on $946,582 per gallon...it could put a damper on my daily hunting!! 

Here's a little sneak peak ...

from this:

(yep, that's grout in the tile!! Yeah for the Mister!)

To this:

The start of something really cute...

I should have taken a before....but here is a little turquoise eye candy

a couple ugly ducklings ready to be transformed

and

a couple new colors...

Do you like Satin or Gloss better? I'm kinda loving GLOSS right now...

Time to go get my kiddo off the bus... This day flew by and even though I started this post at 9:30 am.... it's now after 3:30! Gotta love the camera battery dying mid photo shoot!

Happy Hump Day!

Random Friday...

1. This is my backyard this morning

the picture is pretty bad, it's on super-duper zoom, but those are 5 deer in my backyard!  Yesterday 6 doe's ran down our drive! Theodore wanted to go show them who was boss..

2. It's 32 here, it's like a March heat-wave here in Michigan.  Did I mention it's raining also... and that my running partner just called and asked if it was ok if we skipped today.  BEST running partner EVER!


3. Cadbury eggs... love 'em or hate 'em?  

I happen to be in the 1st group... LOVE THEM (but only 1 at a time, they are sweet overload!!!)!  And at this fabulous website called "Instructables" they have a recipe to make your OWN! SHUT UP!  She even says it's easy!!

Homemade-Cadbury-Creme-Eggs

Check out this site to learn how to make EVERYTHING!

4. Are these the UGLIEST boots ever?  

No, they are not mine, nor will I be seen with the owner while he's wearing them.

Of course he wears them while ice fishing and you all know, chinamommy doesn't do sitting out in the cold on ice!


5. I am VERY confused by the show "My Life as Liz", is it a real show or is it a show that is pretending to be a reality show?  I know, if I have to ask I'm too old to be watching it and I am!  Plus it's on Mtv and didn't Mtv use to have music video's on it and do they even make "video's" anymore?  I have it on this channel because the local news girls are on and they make me want to put my head in an oven...


6. I'm going to let you in on the beginning of my slow decent into spray paint collecting

Don't worry, you won't catch me writing "chinamommy" on the side of trains, but you may see some repurposed items soon!

7. I found a couple of vintage children's books at the Salvation Army yesterday.

they are full of really cute illustrations!!

8. I spent yesterday at:

Hobby Lobby

Salvation Army

and

Goodwill, can you say GREAT day?!

Craft supplies at goodwill....for .99!

and if you could see the shelves of stamps that I already own, you would probably slap me on the back of the head.  OR, if you're also an artsy fartsy, you'd try to high-5 me, but remember, I just SHAKE!

9. Is this the life or WHAT?

10.  Speaking of "the life": Cashmere undies on etsy!

 get them here: sartoria

Have a great weekend! We're headed to a fish fry tonight with friends, which was insure an evening of IBS...

Saturday the Mister will put on those horrid white boots and I'm headed to a scrapbooking store with friends to spend the day working on the 9.2 billion photos of Darling I have!

Hope you have something fun planned!!

DIY Ugly Mirror Make-Over

I found this ugly mirror at Goodwill for $4.99. I thought with a little spray paint it would make a good orange accent piece for our bedroom.

 I put a magazine in the middle and then taped all around it to keep the paint off the mirror.

 Make sure you cover every bit of the mirror

 I primed the gold with white, thought that might be a good idea, so orange didn't look all GLITZY!  

 Yep, I spray painted on a snow bank, the Mister isn't so fond of spray paint on the paved driveway :)

 Ta-daaaaa!

  It needs to be hung straight but it's still a little tacky (since I'm always last-minute Lucy).  I wanted to get a picture of it on the wall but didn't want orange on my blue...

 Creepy baby likes it!!

I've seen a lot of people using spray paint to re-make all kinds of {UGLY} things.  I wish I could find the blog I read the other day where she spray painted bird figurines {the kind my Gram use to collect} robin egg blue.  She took something {really} tacky and turned them kitchy cool!

Have you caught the spray paint bug? Won't you join me in destroying the ozone layer?

Shhhh, don't tell my pal Cheeky Green!

Come on back tomorrow to see what's new in my shop:

www.etsy.com/shop/chinamommy