I have seen online posts/blog of people painting their knife block, I've thought of doing mine often. But like many projects, I've forgotten all about it.
Until I saw this one on Pinterest.
Isn't it beautiful!?
I decided not to wait any longer and just GO DO IT!

SO, I grabbed my block and took it to the garage.
First I sanded it just a bit with my electric sander.

Then I needed to decide on colors. At first I thought I was going to do the opposite of hers...I was going to do green and then blue on top. But while there is some blue and green in my kitchen, the counter has a lot of red. I decided to change it to red and blue.
I thought I was going to use my many little cans of sample paint BUT then I saw my supply of spray paint.
I decided to use the red spray paint and do that first.

After that I decided I may as well try some of the blue spray paint I had on hand too.

Turns out, I LOVE those colors together! I am so happy I used not only what I had on hand but what was the easiest too because this project was SUPER QUICK and EASY!

After all of the paint dried I grabbed some steel wool. (I hold my steel wool with a paper towel on top of it because I have gotten "steel wool splinters" before and it's not fun). I rubbed and rubbed until it showed as much of the red as I wanted.

I wiped it down with just a dry towel.
Then I decided to put some finishing on it so I grabbed my Wipe On Poly and a clean rag. I put a pretty good coat of that on (a lot more of the blue paint came off and sort of thinned out with this step...but it made me love it even more!).


I let all of that dry over night and then I used my Silhouette this morning to cut out the "B". I simply put it on (although it's not super easy with all of those scrolling lines) and was finished!


I love it!
(now I just need some more knives to fill it up again!)


:0)
thanks for stopping by and looking!

linking to: Not Just a HouseWife "Show Me What Ya'Got" party...

I have despised my brass/gold door knobs for as long as we have been in this house. They came with the house though and they were added to our ever growing list of home improvements. Does that list EVER end? :0)

One glorious day I stumbled upon THIS blog though and saw her gorgeous door knobs. I KNEW I had to take her advice and do the same with mine. I didn't hesitate! Seriously, I think I went out the next day and bought the spray paint, came home and started taking knobs off all over my house.

I followed her great suggestion of using toilet paper rolls and holders as well!

It was FABULOUS!

In approximately 3 hours of work (24 hours of waiting), I transformed all of the doors in my house for $23 (and I still have a bit of paint left over!).
BEFORE
AFTER!

BEFORE

AFTER!

here's what you do:
1~go to HD or Lowe's and get yourself some Rustoleum Universal Paint and Primer in One Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint. It has a great trigger on the top and it's black (but not a flat black). I had over 30 knobs in my house and of course just as many latches. It took me 3 cans.

2~start taking down all of your knobs and latches/plates. ****Do all regular interior knobs first. Bedrooms, bathrooms, closets....***** Keep the doors that have locks together with their counterpart (front and back knob). ALL KNOBS DO NOT MATCH UP WITH EACH OTHER and when I was trying to put all of mine back on it became a horrendous puzzle to figure out! *** Definitely keep all exterior knobs with their counterpart!
You don't need to label them or anything, just keep them side by side when you paint them. :0)

3~line them all up on newspaper wherever you want (my garage floor is a painted mess anyway so I did mine in there). Put down toilet paper rolls, however many you have.

4~spray a coat on all of the knobs you have down. I did 2 coats on mine, the second coat I held the toilet paper roll in my hand and lifted it up so I could better spray the underside of the knob/orb. You may want to wear gloves for this part (I never bother with gloves but not sure when the paint will come off of my fingernails!)
(I found various ways to "stack" them so they could dry and I could still use the toilet paper rolls for more knobs!) This wall piece that I don't currently have hanging up worked great on top of an open box!

5~ wait a while (for my first batch I waited 24 hours but the second batch didn't get as long. That batch had some exterior knobs which I couldn't leave off over night). Then put them all back up!

6~***this wasn't in the post I originally saw*** I didn't like that the screws were silver yet I didn't want to spray them ahead of time and have it come off when I screwed them back in. SO... after all of them were up I grabbed a little plastic container out of my recycling bucket. I sprayed some paint in it and grabbed some Q-tips. I went to each knob and dabbed some paint on the exposed screws! It worked perfectly!
(do this on BOTH the latches and the screws at the knobs...it was just harder to hold the camera at the same time as holding one by the knobs..)
7~ Sit back and enjoy the inexpensive and super easy transformation! Then tell others you know so they can do it too!

:0)
~robin

Ok, each year I see these and each year I say I'm going to make them.
This year I FINALLY did.
And you know what?
They really were super simple
and super adorable!

I had been saving some jars (a couple of baby food jars, jalapeno jars, jelly jars, etc.) and finally decided just to DO IT! I already had paint and black vinyl so I knew I didn't need to run to the store (or come up with any other excuses). :0)

I made sure the jars were completely free of any labels or "gunk". I know there are a lot of ways to do that. I've used Goo Gone, etc. BUT the easiest (and best) way for me is simple: scalding HOT water with dish soap in it. Get the water seriously hot, squirt soap in while it is filling your sink, then put the jars in. Let em' soak for a good while...20 minutes or so...and then use your hands to rub em' clean. :0)

First I did plain orange, straight from the bottle of paint. I used regular craft/acrylic paint in the little bottles. I poured some into the chosen jars. I then held the jar over a little bowl (LITTLE bowl...like one you would use for a side of salsa...) and slowly tilted the jar down while turning it. Do that until it coats the INSIDE of the jar completely. Then give it a good shake to get remaining paint out. I did that a lot, and hard, and there was still paint in it. But that's ok, it will dry.

Next I grabbed that little bowl and added some more orange paint and a little white paint, until it was a nice light orange. Then I repeated the same fill/tilt/turn/pour to coat a couple more jars. After that I used the paint left in the bowl and added more orange and some red. It made a darker color. I repeated the same steps with a couple more jars. :0)
Then I did that with plain white paint too.

VOILA!

I let the jars sit OPEN while I took the lids out to the garage.
I spray painted the lids black.

Then I sat down at my Silhouette and picked out some jack-o-lantern faces and designed what I liked, as many as I needed. I used some black vinyl and let my Silhouette work it's magic.

I simply peeled and stuck the faces on the jars!
I let the jars sit open for at least 2 more days to let them dry completely.

On Halloween I put little battery-operated tea lights in each jar and used them in the center of one of our tables.
ADORABLE!
(this photo only shows 5 of the finished one, there were 7 in all...the other two were on a different table)
And for me...FREE!
I already had ALL of the supplies on hand!
(sorry I didn't take more photos of the process...)

I don't know why I waited so long to do them, they were easy and cute!
:0)
~robin

I LOVE decorating for the seasons and each year I am intrigued by what new additions I can make. I have a plate rack/display in a little nook of my living room and I really like to change out the plates for each season.
I didn't have any that really worked for fall SO I knew I needed to figure something out.

This is what I came up with and I LOVE them!

First I got plain white plates at the Dollar Store. 3 plates = $3.
Nice.

Then I picked up some big artificial leaves at Michael's...$1.50 for a pack of 5

I grabbed my Rubbermaid container of brown glaze (glaze paint mixed with some brown paint...the same mixture I use for the furniture I redo). I used a papertowel and simply rubbed some glaze on the plates. I didn't use much and I rubbed in a circular motion, rubbing until I liked how much/how little was on the plate.

Then I simply hot glued the leaves in place.

That's it!
I was going to go over it all with a clear coat, mod podge...or something but I think it would have taken the glaze off. SO I left them as they were.
They are simple yet they look perfect!

Three plates for less than $4.50
:0)

Hi! There may be ONE of you "out there" reading this and that's ok....heck, there may not be anyone out there reading this!
But that's my fault.
I disappeared
AGAIN

BUT I'm back
AGAIN

I've been doing lots of projects around my house so I want to get those posted
and maybe catch you up on me and my kiddos
but mainly, the projects.

see you soon!
~robin