A not so mellow yellow

Last summer when I went did a redo of the front of the house, I replaced the front door. I was then, of course stuck with the task of picking a paint color. I think I went through about ten colors. I put little swatches up and asked my friends to drive by and give their opinions. I went with a pale yellow which I decided was too light, so I went with a brighter yellow. Within a month I decided that was too right and ended up painting it a coffee with cream-ish color. So I ended up without the yellow door I wanted so badly, until now!

For the last 2 months the back door looked like this....

Yeah I know don't judge- I couldn't decide! We've had a lot of friends over during this time and always solicited their opinions, which were pretty much 50/50 overall.

 J was fond of the orange, while I was digging on the yellow. Well yesterday I decided to pull the trigger and go with the yellow. The color is Lowe's Valspar in Golden Promise.

This yellow was the second yellow I originally painted the front door but decided it was too school-bus-ish for the front of the house. But in the backyard there are lots of bright yellow accents like the umbrella..

the plant holders...

a few pots...

and even my pillows...

Yeah, yellow is my spirit color. Here is my door painting tool kit.

It's crazy bright and I'm in love. If you're in Richmond, or VA you know it's been hot as heckity outside. (Calling for 100+ temps today and through the weekend!) So you may be asking yourself, how did she paint an exterior door in these hot temps and not end up with a clumpy gross door? Well under recommendation and gift of a friend I added Floetrol to the paint. Floetrol is an additive that can be mixed to any paint that thins the paint out and therefore helps mask brush stokes.

Not pimentos, but a travel bit of Floetrol! I added about 2 tablespoons to my paint and mixed it up with my paintbrush. Having painting with this quart before, the difference was noticeable. The paint went on smooth and light, which helped limit brushstrokes in every which direction. Again, here's the final product.

Now only if I had someone to build that pergola and redo the deck for me...!

Oh, I can dream...

Backyard Spraypaint Shennagins

During my recent Garden Ridge trip, I eyed up several wire art pieces for the fence in the backyard. 

This is the current piece that hangs on the fence door. I bought it at Big Lots about two years ago. As you can see, it had lived a full sun burned life. It's rusty and even crumbly in some places. Hence the need for something new!

I popped into Five Below and in browsing came upon these two wire photo holders.

I held them up next to each other and volia- I had my newest fence decoration. And to the tune of ten buckaroos! Oh yeah, I love some Five Below! I dug through my paint collection, and decided on a bright primary yellow, since there are already yellow accents in the back yard including our giant umbrella. Using the cardboard that the medallions came in as my painting surface, I popped open the paint and started with the first coat. 

 

 After a few minutes, I quickly decided that the paint was clumping and not the best for this project. So I decided to revisit my old friend, spraypaint. The array of spraypaint colors has really exploded and there are so many cute shades! Using a sunshine yellow, I used three coats on the medallions letting each coat dry in between. Once totally dry I hung the medallions up. Here they are-

While, I was on my spraypaint kick I thought I'd jump on another mini-project. Last fall I purchased two metal vanity chairs for five bucks each. At such a low price, I could not leave these cute chairs in the store. My plan was to paint them and use them as plant stands. Although, I love a good fake gold finish I wanted to make sure they would hold up against the outdoor elements. I forgot to take a before of both chairs, so here is one before-

And after three coats of yellow spray paint, here is the second one after-

Oh, I am seriously in love with this little yellow chair/plant stand. Its so cherry and cute! And not to mention it's a unique plant stand for only five bucks!

Also, as you can see in the above picture the yard is sporting a brand new coat of mulch. I'm feeling so ahead of the curve this year, usually we put off mulching for as long as possible but it's such hard work. Our back yard is completely grass-less, with a small deck, brick patio and plants flanking along the right and left sides. While we LOVE not having to maintain grass, we do have to put in a full day of mulching and mulching preparation (removing leaves, sticks, dead plants/weeds). So I'll leave you today with some photos of the newly manicured backyard.

(lemonbalm)

(mint)

(pumpkin seedlings)

(hen and chicken)

(snap dragon)

Internet window shopping

It's a lazy Sunday and I've been perusing the internet looking at anything and everything. I came across some eye candy. Here's what I've stumbled across today...

West Elm-

• these super cute owl desert plates and even this coffee mug! I need all of these, stat!!#!@!
• super mod dish towel
• modern stripey hand towels with a super graphic monogram
• neato plant stand/trellis 
• AMAZING shelving, (with a major pricetag)

Urban Outfitters-

• I seriously need this guy hanging in my house, and he's on sale!
• a bright yellow wire book shelf
• super rustic terrarium
• card catalog-ish shelf
• chevron's outs! time for herringbone!
• more YELLOW please 

Happy lazy Sunday!

Yellow is my spirit color!

Happy Monday y'all! I hope you had a fabulous weekend! This past Saturday Jason and I went out on the hunt and I ended up with a lot of new yellow things! Our first stop of the day was the Showplace for the Antiques Extravaganza of North Carolina.

I saw the sign for the show driving home so I figured, why not check it out. My biggest fear was that it would be nothing but what I call "old lady antiques," aka Victorian, dark wood, carved, and seriously overpriced junk. However, upon immediate entry for $6 I found that this was not the case. There were of course plenty of "old lady antiques" but there was a lot of other pretty cool things to catch you eye. After turning the first row, we ran smack into this:

At first site I had an immediate freak out! I couldn't believe that this amazing fireplace that I'd oogled on the internet was here in the flesh. So I started snapping photos like crazy, of course! I figured the price was outrageous, so I did not even bother asking, but the dealer was quite nice. In retrospect, I suppose I should have just asked although I'm not sure where it could find a home in the house (we already have 4 non functional fireplaces!). Next up, there was a book dealer set up that had tons and tons of interesting, quirky, and local books. There was even a huge section on collecting, everything from condom wrappers (yes, I saw it for real) to bottles. I picked up two books on retro/vintage kitchens. The first is called "Atomic Kitchens" which is full of vintage ads for kitchen appliances/gadgets and colorful pictures. The second is "Kitschy Kitchen Field Guide," which lists kitchen gadgets from tupperware, salt and pepper shakers, cooky presses, etc. and their average prices. It's pocket sized, perfect for the purse, and filled with super neato kitchen goods.

It even has the Mirro Cooky press that my grandma and I brought back to life for a test spin two weekends ago. According to the book, it is valued at approximately $25 while the online auctions I found list it about $45. Either way, the Mirro cooky press made for an fun and yummy afternoon. At some points, it was definitely a learning experience trying to get the dough just right but in the end the cookies were delicious and bite sized. Okay, back on topic here!! We rambled on through the show, until our next stop with a gentleman that was selling cases and cases of Cracker Jack toys, pins, and other tiny sized memorabilia. This was by far the coolest set of items we had seen all day. I'd say we spent about 45 minutes at least, looking through this guy's stuff. Each case was just a bit smaller than a sheet of paper and chocked full of goodies. It was so hard to choose! I ended up with these five items:

On the far left is a World War II "sweetheart" pin with the name Mary. He has several of these, including one that, of course, said Mom! These were given by soldiers to their sweethearts. I picked this one to gift to my super hip friend Mary. Next up, the yellow gun and on the far right the yellow bull head. Both of these items I figured would make unique necklaces, especially since they both already have hooks. The middle two owls, I couldn't walk away from! I'm not sure what I'll do with them quite yet, but I may try to make the larger one into a brooch.

The last few finds of the day came from the Mechanicsville Habitat for Humanity ReStore. This store has been a real friend to me! It was here that I found my midcentury complete bedroom set for a mega steal of $300 bucks last summer. So I try my best to hit up whenever possible. I scored this dijon mustard colored ottoman:

That's right, for a whopping $3.50! What a steal! Also there I scored a cute (and yellow!) pot. It was pretty pricey compared to the ottoman above, at $2.00.

The last find for the day was a literal truck load of Flor carpet tiles that were nestled in the back corner of the ReStore. Talk about a score!!!!! I drool over the Flor catalog each month, and have a lime green rug in my dining room constructed from Flor tiles. I couldn't decide which ones to buy so I ended up only taking home two beautiful yellow tiles for $4.00. However, today after work I stopped back by and picked up an entire box of yellow and lime green tiles for $67 bucks! For the leap year, the ReStore was giving 29% off boxed up carpet tiles. I'm already planning ways to used the tiles- office, living room, dining room! Will post about them as I use them! Here's a close up of a yellow tile to give you a sense of the color, yellow of course..

I only wished that there were stair tread carpet tiles at the ReStore as I started another larger project this weekend too...more soon on that!

Have a wonderful week!