Ever have those moments where you just go huh? Really?
It happened to me this weekend. I was standing in line at my favorite home decor store behind a woman who was heavily negotiating down prices that she was purchasing. It seemed like she was really on a tight budget, asking if she could put half of the stuff on layaway. Not that I am against asking for a better price, or putting things on layaway, but this process was taking forever! I was having to wait, and wait and wait in line to pay while she negotiated her purchases. During this long wait of mine, I had to listen to the woman talk about how beautiful her house was and how her house should be in Romantic Home Magazine blah, blah blah. “Come on ALREADY” I was saying in my mind, I just want to pay for my stuff and go! So when I finally get out to the parking lot after I made my purchase, I see her loading her car, and she is driving this new tricked out Range Rover. Seriously? If you have to put stuff on layaway paying a month at a time, then you shouldn’t be driving a Range Rover right? Makes no sense. What is the point of driving an expensive car if you really can’t afford it. I just don’t get that. Or it could of been a borrowed car. But if you are going to borrow a Range Rover, you have to buy like you own that Range Rover. Or here is a novel idea, buy what you REALLY can afford. Ok, that was my gripe for this weekend, I just had to get it off my chest!
I did do a couple of little projects this weekend besides griping. On Saturday, I made a sign for my friends salon I am helping with the design and she is on a tight budget {and no, she doesn’t drive a Range Rover lol}. I did it on a whim, pretty much an excuse to use my silhouette machine. I used this piece of artwork I had forever that I had been wanting to make into a subway sign. {I snapped all the pictures with my iPhone, because I was too lazy to go get my camera}
I first sanded off the paper image because I knew there was porous surface underneath that I could paint. I painted the front using the blue she has on her walls at the salon and a darker grey around the outside edges. I cut out two of an enlarged damask image from my machine using white contact paper. After laying out the stencil and inserting the small pieces to fill in the design, I painted a lighter blue on the stencil.
I love that you can import any font into the silhouette software. Once I found the font that she is using for her salon, I imported it and enlarged the letters to fit on the sign. I used my roll of white contact paper to cut out the letters, that $5 roll is lasting forever!. Once I had it all done, I noticed there were staples showing all around the edges of the board, so I used crystal trim to cover them up.
I know this is a poor picture, but in person it looks really cute. I will take a better picture when she hangs it in her salon.
Another project I tried, was stenciling on curtains. Everyone is doing that lately, so I wanted to try it. I bought a trellis stencil last year and have never used it. The problem with it is that the pattern is reversed. Meaning, if you want the skinny lines to be white, you have to start with a white background. I was using an Ikea grey curtain with white acrylic paint with a little textile medium
See what I mean? The curtain was becoming mainly white rather than a white outline with a grey background. Not to mention it was sucking up so much paint, I seriously thought it was going to take a gallon of paint for two panels. Getting a smooth solid white look wasn’t easy either, and evidently the stencil didn’t adhere very well in spots so it bled outside the stencil
So this was a totally fail. These Ikea curtains come really long, so I am hoping that I can cut off the stencil part I did and still salvage the curtain. I ordered the correct stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils, hopefully when I get the new stencil I will be more successful.
I also came across these two very funny blogs this weekend. I love a good sense of humor, and these two ladies have it down pat.
http://mylifeandkids.com/2011/12/my-10-favorite-posts-from-2011-and-yours/
Check out her Vlogs at the bottom of the page, I loved the Woot one.
http://www.mamakatslosinit.com/mama-kat/
Overall it was a nice relaxing weekend with a few fun projects done. What did you do this weekend?
