It's not bad spelling, it's a love for Gary Larson

For the last couple months, I've been on a major cleaning kick.  Each and every closet, nook, and cranny have been cleaned out, sorted into keep/sell piles, and reorganized.  During this process, several items turned up that I initially planned on discarding but instead decided to give them a new purpose.

For example, how many of these Christmas popcorn tins have you been given, devoured, and thrown away?  At least one a year since you've been alive?  Yea, pretty much.  Found this empty one in the bowels of our garage and realized with a little tweaking, it would make an ideal container for cat food.

Now, as much as I love Christmas, the current mother and baby deer chilling in the snow (ha, see what I did there) print isn't really jiving with the overall look of our kitchen so it needed to be spray painted.  First things first, the whole tin was cleaned up, dried, and the stickers on the lid were removed.  A few coats of white spray paint later and we have this.

We're not done yet faithful readers!  Using some form of wizardry (Photoshop) and his ridiculous collection of fonts, the husband whipped up two stencils for this adventure.

Kitties!

On to the stencil making!  My current method for creating stencils is using sign vinyl.  The hubs picked up a roll for his own project of dying disc golf discs (shameless promotion for MTP Designs) and I've used it for loads of other stenciling projects.

For this approach, a light box is required however you can also MacGyver something together like I did and use a desk lamp with an end table that has a glass top.  Recently, I saw another DIY version where a bare bulb is placed in a large, clear, plastic container which seemed crazy easy/cheap to throw together.

Anyways, to get started, tape the picture to the bottom of the sign vinyl to keep it held in place while it's being cut.  When everything is sitting on the light box, the picture will be clearly visible as pictured below.  Next, cut out the stencil using enough pressure to cut the vinyl  but not so much that the paper backing is cut.  It's easier than it sounds, I promise.



Once the cutting is done, remove the pieces to end up with something like below.  Now, here is my favorite reason for using this vinyl.  No stencil islands.  See how the eyes on Yigs and the facial details on Hobbes are not connected to an outside edge?  Stencil sections like this are called islands and are normally a no-no beacuse it is a pain/near impossible to transfer them onto whatever is being stencilled. 

Not so with sign vinyl.  Apply masking tape to the top of the stencil so when the backing is peeled away, the masking tap holds the islands in place for easy transferring.

Along with the kitties and Cat Fud stencil, I also added a few strips of vinyl for added detail.  It's a bit hard to see in the picture but there are two small strips at the top and a larger one at the bottom.

After the stencils have been applied, spray paint the tin again with the second color of paint. 

Next comes the moment of truth when the stencils are removed to reveal how awesome or possibly how terrible everything turned out.

Success!!

Never ending staring contest.

Here is how the cat feeding corner looked before....

And how it looks now.

Kitten added for extra authenticity.

For safety reasons, whether real or created in my crazy head, I also sprayed the tin with a few coats of clear sealant and let it sit in the sun for a couple days so everything could fully cure and air out.  Once all that nonesense was out of the way, I dumped in the cat food, threw in an old measuring cup to use as a scoop, and we were ready to get this kitten feeding party started.

And the comic that started it all.  Gary Larson, thanks for being so awesome.

No crafts but how about some kitties?

Around a month or so ago, I made a personal goal for this blog where I would post something at least once a week (preferably on Monday or Tuesday) with the intention of building up a backlog of projects so I wasn’t scrambling each week to share something.  Said backlog is still non-existent, obviously, or I’d have something to share. 

Despite my lack of a crafty adventure to share, a goal is a goal so here are some pictures of my cats plus more information about them than you probably ever wanted to know.  Kitties fix all problems, right?

First came Yigs.  Can anyone name that literary reference?  We picked her out from our local humane society.  Well, actually, my husband (boyfriend at the time) picked her out.  I mostly stood in front of the cages staring at all the cats wanting desperately to bring them all home and finally fulfill my destiny as an insane cat lady. 

If I fall asleep on the couch, this is the face I wake up to.



Here she is practicing her impression of Frankenstein's monster.  She sits with her arms straight out constantly.  When she's on the top tier of the cat tower with her arms out, I like to run by and give her high fives.

Here she is hiding during a thunderstorm.  I also wanted to show how runty she is despite being full grown. 



Barely bigger than the husband's shoe.

Then we brought Hobbes home from the Pet Overpopulation Prevention group where I actually managed to pick and choose this new furry friend.  It was a pretty easy decision once I spotted the stump tail.    


Stump tails are magical

 Luckily, the two cats acclimated to each other pretty quickly and are now best friends forever. 


Behind that look of murderous rage is pure love

The only bump in this friendship is when we found out Hobbes was a carrier of ringworm without having any actual symptoms.  Yigs was not so lucky since she started going bald on one ear and had to be given daily baths until it cleared up.

Like most pet owners, our cats have a million nicknames because half the fun of having a pet is calling it stupid shit.  I imagine it's similar to having a child.  The one nickname I will share is Hobbes's most appropriate.  Blobert.  The below pictures are why.



I also called this look The Dead Bug Feet



Blobbing it up Blobert style.

A dryer that's running is also a favorite spot for some blobbing about.  Cat version of a heated massage chair?

Finally, I leave you with a picture that sums my two favorite fuzz balls perfectly.



Yigs creepily staring from her perch while Hobbes blobs it up.

Those are the kitties.  Hobbes has already made several appearances throughout this blog but I don't think Yigs is in any pictures.  She's usually perched behind me somewhere staring with those giant unblinking eyes whereas Hobbes is always up into everything.

Come back next week for something crafty related or more pictures of my cats depending on how busy I am this weekend. 



With nasty, big, pointy teeth...

Shortly after moving into our new home, the husband and I quickly accepted that we were the weirdos of our suburban, model home filled neighborhood.  A self-appointed title we hold with pride.  We were obviously the youngest couple, the only house without at least two kids running around (FYI: we're currently at two cats and very happy), and oh yea, we have undead gnomes wandering through our backyard.

They're protecting our tiny maple tree

The little guy on the right was a housewarming present from friends whereas the taller gentleman started off as a regular stone gnome that my friend Amanda then transformed into this ridiculously amazing zombie with an affinity for eyeballs.  Given the style of our yard so far, when my mother-in-law dropped off a stone bun bun decoration (yep, bunnies = bun bun), I knew he’d require a personal spin before he could start pal’ in around with the undead.

My original plan was to paint this rabbit to look like Bunnicula whose books I loved reading as a kid.  However, the husband said that not everyone would, “Get it” since, in truth, it would really just be a black and white bunny with red eyes and suggested we go with some a little more recognizable.  After this conversation, I realized I was at the age where the generation below me probably doesn’t even know who Bunnicula is which made me sad and feel old and I may have taken my sorrow out on some zucchini bread which I convinced myself was perfectly healthy because the vegetable cancels out any sugar or other terrible things in it.  Did I mention it has walnuts?  That makes it crazy healthy.  True story.        

Anyways, after my stomach stopped hurting which probably had nothing to do with the large amounts of consumed zuchinni bread, I went to work on transforming this little guy into something a little more our style.

 

Look at his face, he can sense the changes coming

Take one regular stone bunny decoration and spray paint him white.  If done on a ridiculously bright 100+ degree day, avoid looking directly at the white bunny while he's sitting in the sun.  Getting snowblindness during the summer is disconcerting.

Add a little life to his eyes by adding some black acrylic paint. 

Next step is to cute him up a bit with some pink paint added to the ears and nose.

Finally, smear/dab various shades of blood red paint to his face so that all the knights who try to pillage my yard will have his great big, pointy teeth (not pictured) to contend with.  Also, to make sure the blood of his fallen enemies stays fresh looking, I finished the killer bun bun's make-over by spraying him with a few layers of clear sealant. 

Here he is hanging out with our growing zombie hoard.

Isn't he the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on?  This won't be his permanent spot in our backyard as we still have a ton of work to do back there obviously so he'll leap about a bit.  Eventually, I might rustle up some kind of cave for him to lurk in where he can pounce on unsuspecting victims.  Afterall, he’s just a harmless little bunny. If you don't understand where the origins of this killer bun bun stem from, then I'm not sure we can be friends.  Or you could do yourself a favor and watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail and then maybe we'll have a chance.    

I don't know if our neighborhood has one of those fancy "Best Yard Ever" awards but, if so, I think we're a shoe-in.    

Towel Bars Beware II: Towel Barred Harder

Wow....that title sounds unfortunate.

So when we last left off, this shelf had been built but not hung in its rightful place.  Unfortunately, since I built this shelf from scratch, it didn’t come with any hanger thingys already attached.  Weird, I know.

After a quick bit of research, the hanging hardware of choice that ended up on the back of this baby was keyhole hangers.  According to the couple of DIY pages the internet shared, these would be strong enough to hold everything up, lay relatively flat against the wall, and be easy to install.  So easy to install that I offer you four steps to attaching your very own keyholes hangers to a shelf or other apparatus that is in need of hanging.    

Once all four extremely crucial steps have taken place, TA-DA, a shelf can be hung.

Man, taking a picture of a bathroom that has no windows with a camera without a wide angle lens is tough.  But, I did the best I could.  To make up for the quality, I've included a cat butt in the below picture.  You're welcome.  This is what our bathroom wall looked like prior to the detowel barring. 



Blurry cat butts make everything better

 Now, truth be told, I've never removed a towel bar from anything before but luckily, it ended up being crazy easy.  The one tricky part was actually removing the screws that hold the bar to its wall hanger.  The only screwdriver on hand that was small enough came from a glasses repair kit but I couldn't get a grip on it enough to turn the screw hence the appearance of the needle nose pliers in Step 1.    

Once the wall was all spackled and sanded, it was time for paint.  This was the point where I realized that we have a lot of blue walls in our house therefore creating an excess of half full paint containers that are also blue.  Thankfully though, my husband was smart enough to label the paint cans appropriately.  Yep, prepare for bathroom adventure time. 

After the agonizing wait of allowing the paint to dry (no picutres of this because seriously, you want to see a picture of drying paint?), it was time for the hanging.  Now, I was home alone during this step so I couldn't get the fella to snap a picture so I tried to recreate it on the floor.  Just imagine the below picture happening 4 1/2 feet up.

"What's up with the ruler?", you may be asking.  "Pinterest" would be my reply.  Little life hack I came across after being on Pinterest for a gabillion hours.  Take a ruler, nail a small nail through it about an inch from the bottom, and you have created the most handy tool ever for hanging things.  In this case, place the nail inside the keyhole hanger (where the screw will be going), place shelf on wall, once proper placement is found, gently press the shelf against the wall which in turn will press the nail in the ruler against the wall.  The nail will make a small mark showing exactly where the anchor and screw need to go.  I've used this ruler/nail tool a dozen times to hang pictures up in our house and it's awesome.  No more guessing or measuring needed to hang pictures up in the correct spot the first time.

My process for this portion of the project was to use the ruler hanger to mark where the left anchor and screw would go.  Once those were installed in the wall, I hung the shelf on it and using a level and my ruler tool, was able to easily mark where the anchor and screw for the right side should go.

I also added some felt cirlces to the bottom two corners of the shelf to help stop any bumping around plans this sucka may have had. 

Once everthing was said and done, our bathroom looked a little something like this.  Or exactly like this.  It is a picture afterall. 



No more linen origami.  No more straightening out haphazard towels.  NO MORE TOWEL BAR. 

Here's a nice Before/After shot of the bathroom. 

To be fair, the cat butt does add a little something extra to the Before picture

I love it.  The shelf offers space to display some cool knick-knacks which currently consist of a ceramic octopus I bought BJ for Christmas last year, a glass bottle filled with agates and sea glass, as well as another bottle filled with beach sand. My family used to go to Newport beach every summer when we were all little so I wanted to take a bit of the beach with me on our final trip.  The octopus prints are also hung a bit higher than previously which I think adds some nice scale to the walls/ceiling.

And, the most crucial point of this entire endeavor, no more towel bar......or is there....BUH BUH BUUUUUUDUUUUUHHHHHHH. 

A Somewhat Oldie but a Goodie: And the Owl Goes

People must do a ton of searches for snow owls because this post from my short lived first blog has garnered the most views.  Decided to bring him on over to the new one slightly edited.  Eventually, I'll delete my old blog, but for now I'm going to bring over two or three of my favorites in order to fill up some space since the husband and I are going to be way busy over the next month putting in our backyard so I'll be posting even less than I already do.  IF that's even possible. 

And the Owl Goes.....

Another painting project?  Yes, and it's awesome so deal with it.  While perusing the aisle at Hobby Lobby during one of their big clearance sales I came across this fat little gentlemen.

 

With only one and a half eyes, how could I resist?  This is one of the most odd planters I have come across.  His body had a porcelain like finish with that flowery curly cue pattern but his eyes and feet looked like someone had smeared brown and green paint on them.  It is pretty ridiculous to look at in real life.  But the shape of him had so much potential I had to snag him.   

First I made him a lovely little cardboard perch and then went to work with some spray paint.  Next, after many, many, many thin coats of white spray paint I was finally able to cover up that extremely persistent and therefore annoying blue flower pattern which resulted in a nice clean white owl planter.
 

I was half tempted to stop at this point and leave it white but I figured if I didn't like it with the colors I had planned on adding I could always just spray paint it white again.  That's why spray paint is so awesome.  The plan was to color his eyes, beak and feet with black paint and use blue to fill in the space around his eyes.  Why those colors you ask?  Mostly because I thought it would look nice and was partially inspired by this actual owl.



Not sure what he's looking at but I'm pretty sure he wants to eat its face.


Also, I already had blue spray paint and a tube of black acrylic.  Yep, decorating inspiration can come from many places including feelings of laziness and not wanting to spend money.  In order to add the blue spray paint, I had to section off the eye area so as to not ruin the rest of the now perfectly white body.  To achieve this I had to concoct a tape and Sunday comics mask.    



He could totally be a crime fighter




Featured in the background:  Our lovely, soon to be gone, dirt yard.



 

A few more thin coats of spray paint and the careful removal of the tape we have blue eyed perfection.


Is it weird that his eyes now match our great room?

The next step was to add some black paint to the eyes, beak, and feet so that he no longer had that creepy dead blue eyed stare.  Using a small paint brush and a mostly steady hand, I added black acrylic paint to the eyes, beak, and feet to add some more definition and a bit of personality.   

I think this planter turned out pretty adorable.  Now I just need to figure out what kind of plant needs to call him home.


**Update**

So, instead of getting a plant for my owl planter I decided to use him for something a bit more practical.  Turns out he was the perfect size to house all of my contact paper, cellophane wrapping, sign vinyl, and other vaious tube shaped items.  Much better than my previous storage solution for all this stuff which was leaning everything precariously in a corner of the closet.