Lamp update

You may or may not remember the lamp bases I purchased last August from Hobby Lobby for $1 each, but I finally finished updating the smaller one. It basically went from this:



To this:





Sprayed it with a flat black and went to town with Rub 'n Buff in Antique Gold. I used my fingers to apply and a paper towel to manipulate it a bit. Being the "perfectionist" I am, I did mess up in a few places but if you work with it a bit you learn how to correct some of your mistakes and forgive it a bit. Seriously, you don't need hardly any at all (especially if you use your fingers) to get the look you're trying to achieve. I am digging this stuff. Now I just need to put it aside or I might get happy with it on other items around the house. Haha.

I need to look around for a better shade but the one that I have on it now will work. At least it's a shade and boy, what a difference some paint and antiquing can do to make something work for your own decor and preferences. It's sitting where it was intended, in my bedroom now and with the gold curtains and black and goldish bed covering, it works.


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It's a Sonny-versary

It was a year ago today I brought my Sonny home from the PetsMart cat adoption area. While there was a regular adoption fair going on (they do that every weekend), Sonny had been in one of their permanent kennels.

I almost brought home a younger female cat (she was a year and a half old) named Natasha. She was a smokey grey with the most beautiful eyes and as loving as Sonny. One problem, they hadn't mentioned if she was good with other cats and dogs. I tracked her on their website for several months and she hadn't been adopted for at least four months. I almost went back to get her and in that thought process I was thinking, screw it, she can learn to like other cats and dogs but I never did it. Sonny, however, he had his fact chart of being okay around dogs and when I held him, I knew he was the boy for me.

He's hefty but not nearly as large as Montgomery (my previous boy) was and it made me laugh when a couple of people mentioned how large Sonny is. I said to them, if you had seen my previous cat, you'd know this cat is small in comparison.

Anyhow, he's been with me for a year and I couldn't be happier. He's about 5 years old now but still acts like a kitten at times. Overall though, he's a gem of a cat and I thank the previous owners for whatever reason they had for giving him up.

Here he is last night:





So Happy Sonny-versary to Sunshine who became my Sonny.

Clean Walls!

It's pretty amazing how much better (I think) my walls look now that they are clean:





It took me five days at about five hours each to do the living room, kitchen, bath and hallway. It may have not been a new coat of paint but spring cleaning sure makes a difference in how you see your home!

About the only advantage to living in an apartment this size, you can actually clean walls. I would never do this in a house unless it was about the same size...

BTW, the two rust/copperish pillows on my futon are actually placemats that I purchased on sale from King Soopers - one of our Colorado flavors of Kroger...yeah, diggin' the idea you can shop your grocery for decor! I still need to sew the ends up but I already had fiber fill and some quilt batting. You can put quilt batting inside and put the fiber fill inbetween to eliminate lumps you can get from fiber fill fluffs.

Dang, looks like I'm moving...

...I wish. But no, prep for more spring cleaning:


(I caught Sonny mid yawn there in the bottom pic)



I'm wiping down all the walls in here. Thus far I have completed the kitchen (to include the ceiling), the entry, the hallway and the bathroom (also the ceiling in there).

It's cheaper than new paint. It's taking me forever to do because of my wrist, arm and shoulder but the places I have done it has been completely worth it.

I will have to wait till the cold weather is completely gone for the bedroom because of the double layers of curtains tacked up, which is fine. The front bedroom just isn't going to be done, that would be way too much to pull out the stuff in there since it's basically a storage room instead of a living space.

I've done this in two other apartments I lived in because the size is just right. Never to any house or place that had more than one level though.

Long Post, update

Just a few updates:

Old microwave, circa 1987 (that still works BTW):



New to me microwave, circa 2005 courtesy of my parents who decided to never use a microwave again because they deplete the nutrients in food:



If you notice, there are new additions to my sink's backsplash. You may (or may not) recall my post about injecting some blue. I wanted to go the route of talavera tiles because I really like the hand-crafted look of them. Well, that wasn't happening any time soon.

I had an item to return to Ross stores and while cruising through the dishware I saw those and remembering that I wanted the blue and while they aren't talavera tiles, it was just what the budget ordered...I got three for 1¢ less than the return so it was a wash. Major bonus is the three cost about $1 more than one talavera tile!

I hung them using this tutorial. Seriously, the plate hangers I have do not work on square plates. I've tried it on other square plates and they don't work. They've stayed on the wall and no mysterious crashing sounds have happened in the middle of the night, so right on. To help them to stay straight, I used vinyl bumper tabs (from the mirror section at Home Depot) which also helps them hang more level to the wall.

Also, I finally painted the trivets I have hanging above them to black (not in that pic though). Much better.

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Long story short, my parents (my dad and step-mom) have put their house on the market. It has some of the family heirloom antiques from both my mom (she died when I was 15) and my dad...well, they are having us "kids" take the things that are ours so I have the last piece of the family treasures I inherited (I think), which is a little chest of drawers in my bedroom.

Before (little wicker drawers from Hobby Lobby, 1996):



After:



I think that actually goes with the large secretary my brother has though. The finish doesn't have as many red tones as the other heirloom furniture. Plus the hardware on it doesn't match. I must talk to my bro about that so the pieces stay together.

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Simple paint update. We finally got some warmer days with little wind (not like today though) where I could spray paint. I got seriously paint happy and not all things I painted are photographed...they went from whatever to black so not too exciting. Buuuut, here's a dopey update to my monitor stand.

Before:



After:



I have since attached black fabric (leftover from my pelmet box/valance/cornice in the kitchen) to hide cords dangling from the monitor and speakers. Wish I could paint the speakers but that's just not a job I wish to tackle.

Last but not least, a new tissue box cover for my bath:







I had replaced the shower curtain in my bath a while back. It's lighter so it opens up the bath a tiny bit more. I really hate tissue boxes as I demonstrated back in Oct and based on this one in my living room, made one for the bath.

Hobby Lobby had their unfinished wood on sale so yay. I am not completely sold on the medallions yet though I do like the placement of the two on the top because it covers up the box underneath even more. Kroger recently changed the boxes so the opening at the top is smaller showing the box...which defeats the purpose of a tissue box cover.

Anyhow, I have them on there with standard white glue in case I get to hating the medallions, I can take them off, sand and repaint.

So that's my long update on a few things.

Hope everyone is enjoying early springtime. Not so much here today. Cloudy, drizzle, fog and only 42°.