Saturday, January 3, 2015

Unfinishedlandia

Most days, I sit and drool over the amazing blogs of the super keen, innovative women of this world thinking how I would love to have such a following and feeling utterly inadequate  The problem with this plan is, you have to actually finish your fabulous project in order to have others fawn over them.  Sure I have the vision but I am a big fat F on the execution.

STILL looks like this.

Oh sure, I can paint, saw and prime with the best of them. I started this blog in the faint hope that I could inspire others.  I knew I had that vision to make regular things cool.   Heck I could  make a knock your socks off wine bottle warmer out of a pant leg, or saw a hole in my roof and make a PET bottle skylight.  I even have a fantasy of building my own windmill tree some day.

The reality of completion always smacks me up side the head.  I am a one woman show and my husband would rather watch TV than build a house.  He works hard and is happy with the way things in our house are.  I should be more like him but I can't be.  The paint dings and wear of everyday life makes me crave change. Putting my feet up and ignoring it is not something I can do.  The bloggers of the ineterweb tease and show me that it is possible to achiever amazingly beautiful things with nothing more than some time, a tooth brush and a Popsicle stick with a wad of gum thrown in for good measure and colour inspiration.  And, shame on me, its all achievable while your kid sleeps.

My oldest son screamed for nine months straight and there was no doing anything while he slept because he didn't sleep.  EVER.  You see, my downfall is that I am real.  I am not a super hero of the internet.  I have a job and three kids and my time is spread thin. I love dreaming up projects but I don't love necessarily love finishing them.  I get bored easily and will jump ship or change my mind about where I want to go with a project when its almost done.  I guess you could say I have commitment issues.

I started making beautiful patterned mittens for my daughter three years ago.  I have one mitt.  I have the beginnings of a second mitt which is not particularly useful unless your in a one armed snowball fight or need to stab someone in the eye.  The mittens are just one of the many, not quite finished projects lying in wait in Unfinishedlandia.

Some day, I will get around to finishing all those little details. The island will have baseboard applied.  The crown molding will be properly caulked.  The walls will all be painted in the perfect hue.  The things on the shelves will be just so, perfectly visually pleasing.  It will be a sad day because it will be the day our house is no longer our home.  It won't be perfect until the day we sell it.

In the mean time, I have all those years to figure out what colour grout I really want in the kitchen.

Happy 2015.  May all your projects get finished this year!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

how to get rid of bright paint colors

Have you ever painted a room, only to have the last color show through because your cutting in wasn't PERFECT.  The walls look great but you see little peeks of the last color in spots that drive you nuts?  

Let me share a little secret.  PRIMER.  Yup primer. It is so easy, I didn't figure this little trick out for YEARS.  I love this blue. 

Shhh little secret here.  I LOVE this blue.  LOVE it.  I'm going to paint our bedroom this color and just want to get it out of the family room.  It is from 12 years ago when Martha Stewart was with Sherwin Williams.  Its Blue Ticking.  

If you cut around the edges of your last color with some white primer, your last color will be GONE when you cut your new color in.    EASY.  Well its easy when you have normal 8 or 9 foot ceilings.