Doodle Bug: Outdoor

Friday, September 21, 2012

An Afternoon with My Mailbox

What can you do in an afternoon?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Pin a few hundred pictures on Pinterest.
2. Buy a Puppy.
3. Bake a pie.
4. Reupholster an Upholstered Chair Fit for a Princess.
5. Make a Crafty Fall "Candle".
6. Turn your plain-jane kitchen window into a Window Garden.
7. Make some Ball Jar Soap Dispensers to give away as gifts...or just to keep :)
8. Stare out the window at the incredible Airstream Trailer sitting in your neighbor's driveway and wish you had the guts to go ask for a tour.
9. Make a Belt Floor Mat.
10. Visit an apple orchard, then go home and make applesauce!

Well, though I have done those things before...and may currently be involved in #8...I have one MORE afternoon project to tease your brain with.

Last Saturday, I spent some quality time with my mailbox, and Voila!

See how much we can accomplish in a day if we really want to? Pretty incredible.
And perhaps slightly depressing, because most of my days do not involve a dramatic "Before" and "After" opportunity.

Example:
"Hey look honey! Your sock drawer is full now!"
Yeah, nice try.

BUT every once in awhile we get the opportunity to do a quick little project that makes us smile.
This was one of those for me.

This is our little mailbox before. Nothing cringe-worthy...with the exception of maybe the bird poop and the flowers on the right that I fried.
It was just "tired" looking and since the rest of our

SUMMER OF DESTRUCTION

(See our Weed-Pulling Party and Garage Shelving posts to catch up)

has just been about taking ridiculous things and making them look normal again, I was craving something pretty. And the mailbox was an easy target.

I'll be honest with you, I was a little petrified to try this.

Why?

Because I've never seen anyone do this before. And that generally terrifies me.

I could just hear the neighbors' taunting:

"Oh my gosh, Sallie, did you see that wacko girl out there sitting on a five gallon bucket painting dots on her mailbox? Oh, and Helen says she has a blog, which she said is some kind of developmental disorder."

But despite my terror of neighborhood scrutiny, I am happy with the results of my insanity.

Though Sally & Helen may still think I'm a loon.

Sorry, ladies.

If you're curious and might want to join my new club of mailbox painters, here's how it all went down:

1. I removed the house numbers, bracket, mail flag and side-mounted plastic newspaper box.

2. I painted the wood with Dutch Boy exterior white latex paint.

3. Then, I found a graphic online to use as a stencil:

Graphic via Art Fire

This graphic is actually a vinyl decal that you can order through the link above. Pretty cool!

4. I imported the image into GIMP, a freeware version similar to PhotoShop, and resized/edited/stretched the image to make it fit the space I wanted. Then I printed it on normal paper.

5. I transferred the image onto the mailbox using fabric transfer paper. This is a thin paper with a chalky substance on one side that acts like carbon paper. It's easier to find than carbon paper, though, and also comes in white, in case you need to transfer onto a dark surface.

-I taped on my paper with the graphic, placing it where I wanted the graphic to be.

-Then slid the transfer paper underneath, chalk side down.

-Then outlined the graphic with a pen, to push the chalk from the transfer paper

onto the mailbox. Perfect!

6. I filled in the outlined graphic with a grey/green paint, using a basic artists brush

7. Joe gave the mail flag a shot of bright red spray paint. This actually helped immensely.

8. Then we put all the house numbers and such back on.

ALL DONE!

I'm kinda loving it. Is it weird to be having a little love obsession with your mailbox?

It's okay, I'm also having a love obsession with this handsome hunk.

I think that makes up for it, right?

Okay, I mostly just wanted to show off that picture :)

What a good Saturday afternoon project. I'm not sure this Saturday will be so fun, but at least I'll get to go to the Farmer's Market in the morning! I'm hoping to pick up some ingredients for the Minestrone Soup recipe from Centsational Girl. Yesssss. I tried her Potato & Corn Chowder recipe a few weeks ago, and it was delicious. So I'm hoping this one does not disappoint!

Oh, and good news in the yard! Remember this?

It's GONE!!

Look at that flat-ish front yard. Phew! Nice work, Joe!

Well, I think I'll go back to looking at the Airstream trailer across the street.

And maybe my mailbox :)

Have a great weekend everyone--and good luck on your afternoon projects!

~The Doodle Bug

I'm usually partyin' at these hangouts:

Friday Feature @ Redoux

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed

Show & Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Simply Creations Link Party @ Simple Home. Life

It's a Hodgepodge Friday @ It's a Hodgepodge Life

Spotlight Saturday @ Classy Clutter

Trash 2 Treasure Tuesday @ Kammy's Korner

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm

Tuesday's Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Be Inspired @ Elizabeth & Co.

Wow Us Wednesdays@Savvy Southern Style

Make It Pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House

Friday, September 14, 2012

(Un)Landscaping a Monster

Happy Fall, everyone!
You may be like me, stubborn and refusing to believe that summer is coming to a close.

But yesterday I did smell some cinnamon-scented pine cones in the store and it brought a little leap of joy to my heart.

Could just be that I've been craving chili for months, though.

Either way, Fall is here whether I want it or not. And Joe and I are trying to race the clock and get all our yard work done before winter.

Here is the latest news on our proclaimed

SUMMER OF DESTRUCTION

This is the post you've all been waiting for.

When we moved in, our yard was...indescribable.

We told our friends to just look for the "house with all the weeds."

One friend could find our house on Google Maps just by looking for the jungle on our street.

How Embarrassing.

Here she is, in all her terrible glory:

Sorry about the weirdness, this is actually three pictures patched together into one.

 But it does have some eeriness fitting for the sight, right?

This picture somehow makes it look about 10 times better than it actually did.

Partially because it was taken about a month before we actually took possession of the house, so the weeds hadn't totally gone out of control yet.

Imagine, though, a huge patch of three-foot thistles on the right side of the picture, next to the road.

Jealous?

But a few weeks after we moved in, one of our other friends came to the rescue.

Remember "L" from An Upholstered Chair Fit for a Princess ?

Well in case you had forgotten, she's awesome. And she contacted a bunch of our friends from our church small group for a WEED-PULLING PARTY!!! We were so. excited.

Here are some up-close and personal pictures of the disaster that we proudly own(ed).

I know what you're thinking. "Wow, I wish someone had gone insane and planted an entire nursery of plants in our yard, then left them to grow untended for five years!"

Yes, that is in fact what we thought, too. Which is the main reason we bought the property.
Obviously.

But our wonderful friends came to the rescue and came with tow strap, truck, crow bars, reciprocating saw, muscles and smiles. They were absolutely awesome.

The weed-pulling party mostly morphed into a "Men pulling bushes out with the truck" party. And they even took out a bad little maple tree in the backyard.
Yeah, they blew our minds.

Here are the results of that one night of mayhem:

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??? In case you didn't realize, this area looked like this before:

There are trees in there! With trunks! Who knew??

This was the home of some low-spreading creepy crawly evergreens which took over this entire area. Oh, and the log? It was in there all along, we just didn't know it. Hey log :)

Wow. We were amazed. And so grateful for all the help. It would have taken the two of us a heck of a lot longer to get that all done ourselves.

Here is the pile of bush bones, not including the tree from the back or the thistles that had already been pulled

And now a few weeks, five truckloads of junk to the city compost pile, some sweat and a lot of work, we find ourselves living in a house that no longer looks like a jungle. Thank goodness. I snapped this picture today.