Halloween Costumes

I genuinely LOVE Halloween.

 Every year, my husband and I dress up as something slightly ridiculous. 

Here's some photographic proof from yesteryear.

Sir Bacon & Madame Egg, Halloween 2011

Playing Cops & Robbers with our good friends Sookie & Bill (True Blood, anyone?)

Also, 4 years ago (before we got into doing costume pairings that made sense), Jesse dressed up as Harry Potter (which pretty much made my life) and I, deciding I would go against the grain and not pick a 'cute' costume, decided to be Jesse. Yep. I actually went to a Halloween party dressed in my husbands giant clothes, with a painted on goatee and my hair mashed up in a baseball cap. 

It was DISGUSTING and hilarious. 

And I did not take a single picture. :)

This year (well last month, actually), I was randomly perusing a thrift store and I saw something green and fuzzy poking out of a plastic bag. I opened it and found the most amazing thing ever.

 A little kid's Oscar the Grouch dress. 

Here's me trying it on as soon as I got home....obviously ecstatic with my $3 find!

It's WAY too small, but who really cares?

Not me. Here I am trying to cram the little trashcan-lid-hat onto my giant head.

I am DETERMINED.

But now, I have to figure out what Jesse should be. We were both thinking Big Bird. The thought of him wearing a few little yellow feathers on his head and some orange legs has me in stitches. I'm feverishly trying to find a yellow suit/sweatpants/tshirt/shorts/ANYTHING I can featherize as fast as possible. 

And a beak, of course. 

I'm also predicting that yellow spray paint will somehow be involved.

Here's some pics that have me inspired...adjusted for a 6 foot tall man, of course.

source

Source

and of course, here's the real deal....apparently he met up with da' Rogers at some point.

Way to synergize, Sesame.

Can you tell my husband is a great sport?

 Gotta love a man who's not afraid to shake his tail feathers be the Big Bird to my Oscar..

I'll keep you posted.

~ Virginia

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I Heart Naptime

~ Virginia

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How To Fix a Spray Paint Disaster

Today I'm telling the story of my first spray paint disaster.
It all started with an innocent little thrift store desk.

Although I'm pretty sure it had it out for me from the start, as there were several spiders in the drawer just waiting to trap me up in a web and drain my blood. 
That's how far it went in my head.

Luckily Jesse is always willing to de-spider things for me. And then he offered to help me drill the new holes for the handle.

After my new holes were drilled, I took the desk outside in the driveway and applied a bunch of wood filler to all of the scratches and dents. This desk was one big giant dent. 

Every white splotch on the above drawer was a dent or hole. 

That step alone took a good hour to complete.

Next, I used this gray primer (affiliate link) to prime the desk since I had decided to spray paint it black. 
I actually love the way the gray primer looks by itself. I should have waxed it and quit there. 
Seriously though, who knew gray primer turned out so pretty. It makes me want to use it on something else. It's just that perfect shade of gray-blue. 

But, of course I didn't stop there, because I was set on having a glossy black desk.
And that's when my project turned into a bit of a disaster.

I've spray painted so many things in the past couple of years and I've never had this happen before. 

I used plain old high gloss black spray paint and for some reason it looked amazing everywhere except the top of the desk. The top of the desk was super streaky.

So, I let it dry for a few hours and then took it inside and sanded down just the top of the desk.

I could have sanded it all the way down, but life is short, so I just sanded it smooth.

Then, I primed the top of the desk with brush on primer, primed it, then painted it with some flat black paint I had on hand. Then put a coat of Polycrylic on top.

It wasn't the ideal situation I had planned, as my plan was to take 10 minutes to spray paint it and be done. But, sometimes things get messed up and you just have to figure out a way around it.

I debated not sharing my spray paint disaster, but I figured that I'm not the only one who's had a streaky spray paint problem and that maybe this would help someone else figure out what to do. I've since figured out that it didn't work because I spray painted a large flat surface (the top of the desk) with a low quality black lacquer spray paint. I've since spray painted this with a high quality glossy black spray paint and it turned out perfectly.

So, I've lived and learned.

But, all is well in the end, as it still turned out pretty cool for a little thrift store desk!

That's all for today!
'Til next time!

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Organizing with DIY Chalk Labels

I came across the cutest little metal bins in the Target dollar aisle and a great idea came to mind! I should use these to organize my beauty products! 

I brought them home and decided they would be even better if I put chalkboard labels on them so that I could change the labels if I decided to change the contents!

Here's the finished product:

pretty cool, right? I can't wait to put all my stuff in them!

The best part is that you can write whatever you want on the labels....just like a normal chalkboard!

So, here's a quick tutorial on how I did this so you can do it, too!

First, use masking tape to tape off a small rectangle wherever you want your chalkboard.

Next, use chalkpaint (found at hardware stores or craft stores) and brush on. Remove the tape while the paint is still wet to make sure the paint doesn't scratch.

And that's it! You can now write stuff on your new bins!

This works great for jars, too!

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Thrift Store Desk To Vanity Makeover

Remember my $20 thrift store desk I found last week?

 I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it, until I saw this Crate & Barrel LaSalle Black Vanity Desk.

My little thrift store desk was a similar size to Mr. LaSalle, and I instantly knew what I had to do.

Check out my little guy's new look!

He's so sassy now.

 And I'm smitten. When I first spotted this desk in the thrift store, a lightbulb appeared in my brain. I knew EXACTLY what I could do with a desk this size....make a bigger, better vanity than the one I was currently using. Just to jog your memory, here's the last vanity I was using. It was cute, but ultimately just too small!

Teeny weeny vanity, I RELEASE YOU!

 Now you can see how much better my upgraded version is! I made a few changes, too. I moved the whole vanity setup to a different wall (over closer to the bathroom door, which was a bigger wall) and then I also added a few other favorite ugrades.

 I found a GIANT old wooden mirror at the thrift store and painted it Sherwin Williams Sea Salt blue (same color as bathroom). I added another one of my ribbon-trimmed drum shade lamps. Then, I also decided to bring my favorite thrift store chair makeover into the mix! It's so much comfier than my little dinky stool I was using. All combined, my 8 million thrift store creations make one AWESOME vanity/dressing table!!!

I will go into great detail about how I transformed this desk in my next post (since it was a slight-debacle-that-took-3-days-but-ended-up-perfect). So, stay tuned!

Also, stay tuned for a closet update soon!

And an update on the side room!

It's really starting to come along!

That's all for today! Thanks for stopping by to check out the new vanity!

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