"A house is made of bricks and stone...

...but a home is made from love alone."

This phrase was on my mind today as I looked around my home at my many home accessories.  I often wonder if the little trinkets and gifts that I have collected along the way are the very things that make my house a home, or if it is o.k. to trash them now and then and start over. 

Each year, we have Pizza and Pajamas at Christmas.

If these are the memories my children have, the "love" that makes our home, then can I unload some of my accessories such as this:

See the spiral candle holder in the background.  Am I wrong in thinking that it was on an episode of Friends about 10 (15, 20) years ago? And I HAD to have one, so I stalked Pottery Barn until I found one on sale.  I am so sick of that thing.  Can I get rid of it?  Or is it going to be something that my grand kids think is really cool one day.  That Gramma's house has the hippest old stuff.  My grandparents really do have the coolest stuff.

This reflective owl has greeted us as we arrived at the Poling Ranch for as long as I can remember.  The home behind it, where my mom grew up, has since burned, but the owl has held his own.  It would not be the same without the owl.

Here's the difference:  I purchased a massed-produced item that you can now find at any Target or discount store.  My grandparents bought unique items at craft shows or from crafty friends, or they made things themselves. 

So I'm thinking that I really am a part of the "throw away generation."  But I can't help it.  The spiral, the horrible-mass-produced-so-over-it-candle-holder-that-you-can't-light-the-candles-without-ruining-the-wall spiral,  has put me into its last trance.  Free to a loving home (or I'll bring it to the family reunion Crap Swap.)

White after Labor Day

We need to have a little chat about the color white.

Check out this photo of my cute little guy:

 

 

*Most likely, it is not Jan 1, 2007.  

I had issues with my old camera and after setting the date 

about 7,000 times, only to have it reset each time I turned it off, 

I gave up on the process and it became 

New Year's Day every day for several years. 

However, let's assume that this photo was, in fact, taken sometime between Labor Day and Easter, just for argument's sake.  In the background of the photo, my house is CLEARLY wearing white (plastic rain gutters.)  Being the fashionista that I am (on a budget, who shops at Target) I could not allow this travesty to go on.  My house was embarrassing itself in front of others.  The other houses in the neighborhood were beginning to point and laugh.  

So I took a little trip to Sherwin Williams to explain my hot mess to the experts.  The solution:

 *Thanks to a new camera, it is no longer 01/01/2007

This little can right here, Bonding Primer.  You paint it on your white plastic rain gutters, it dries very quickly, then you paint over it with your house paint.  

This is the final product ONE YEAR later:

Isn't she pretty with her new uniform accessories?  No embarrassing peeling, bubbling, or white after Labor Day.
Unfortunately, she is showing her age in the back.  I captured this photo of the junk in her trunk:

Bless her. 

All of us thirty somethings can relate to this simple fact:

Sometimes paint is not enough. 

Black is Beautiful!

This blog was supposed to be about painting, and I actually do paint when I'm not baking a Yoshi cake and rescreening my porch.  Today's painting tip involves My Boyz:  Black Spray Paint and High Heat Black Spray Paint.*

Lowe's Home Improvement, circa 2000.  

*Must be 18 years or older to purchase. 

The last three houses we have purchased have had shiny metal on the fireplace.  I am not a fan of shiny metal, unless I am wearing it.  I am about to show you why.  You might want to put on your sunglasses now.  You have been forewarned.

Look at it glaring at me in these photos from our San Antonio home:

 

Ouch!  Completely ruined my photos!!!  

And it's winking here at our Big Spring Home, where apparently the builders could not afford the COMPLETE brass look, so they went with the racing stripe effect:

 Even my dog looks confused.  

I don't know why anyone would purchase that, Rex.  I just do not know.

Using my High Heat Boy, which is made for painting your charcoal grill (like, really?  people do that?)  I have remedied my problem.  This is the redone Big Spring fireplace:

Amazing results from an aerosol can!

I think I was feeling the San Antonio Cultura when I went with this look:

Oh, Molly, no.  But at least the brass is gone.  

This is the second brick fireplace that I have painted.  On the first (before my digital camera existed) it was so bad that we overheard our realtor tell potential buyers, "They have kept the house in great shape, but they painted the fireplace burnt orange."  

I have also used the Boyz to update light fixtures,  this used to be brass:

It's still kind of ugly, and it took me forever.

In closing, sometimes resisting the Boyz proves itself difficult, what with their tempting ways from the back corner of the garage.  Case in point:  my daughter is outgrowing her bike.  My son needs a bike.   The Boyz want to convert Carly's pink and purple bike with heart treads on the tires into a very masculine, testosterone-charged SuperMarioBros/Yoshi bike for my son.  All I need is a seat cover (pretty sure paint won't stick to the vinyl seat cover without leaving some black sediment on the hind of rider) and some sweet decal stickers.

Who's with me on this one?  

Anyone?  Anyone?