Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! We’re celebrating with Burger, Clara, each other, and a photography crew in our house for the third week running. There’s a twist today: we’re all trying not to be sick. Poor Clara was ill on Saturday into Sunday, and now it looks like John and I might have picked up the bug too. Still, the show must go on. The good news is that all of our secret projects are finished—we just need to film the last few pieces by Friday and then we’re done. We’re also supposed to shoot some cover shots tomorrow (eep), but we’ll save that stress for later. From our slightly green household to yours, Happy Valentine’s Day! Now let’s horse around a little.
I’ve realized that my self-imposed “Dude, Get On That Already” challenge could just as easily be called “So I’ve Been Hoarding Little Animal Friends and Now I Get to Spray Paint Them.” Exhibit A and Exhibit B come to mind. To be fair, I’ve also been hoarding other things like coat hooks and old light fixtures, so I don’t have an entire room of ceramic animals—yet. But I did buy these little horse-head bookends for $2.50 each about a year ago during a thrift-store whirlwind in Delaware. They then sat in our playroom for twelve months. Poor guys.
From the start I had a plan for these orange-and-black sponge-painted horse heads. First, I gave them several thin, even coats of primer—those slippery ceramic surfaces take primer best before any color goes on.
Here they are, all primed up in a steely gray.
With spring in the air, a cheerful yellow spray paint felt like the perfect choice.
I applied about five very thin coats—more like a mist than full-on layers. Hold the can roughly 12 inches away and keep your arm moving to avoid drips. After a few days of curing in the carport, I brought them inside and put them to work.
Yeehaw.
Who’s ready for warm weather, cherry blossoms, and birds singing? This girl right here (yellow-spray-painted thumbs and all).
So that’s the tale of two $2.50 thrift-store bookends that collected dust in the playroom for a year. One more task crossed off the list and one less thing in that room. Hurrah! At this pace the room might be ready for a full makeover in a few years—kidding. I genuinely love setting small, manageable goals and tackling one thing each week. It feels doable and not overwhelming, yet it builds into four or five little accomplishments each month alongside bigger projects we’re juggling (like the book and the kitchen). Sometimes those tiny projects are the ones that make me beam the most. Strange, but true—it really is the little things.
What have you been working on lately? Any fellow “Dude, Get On That Already” challengers who’ve checked off small cleaning, organizing, or painting tasks? Anyone else trying not to lose their lunch on Valentine’s Day? Tell me about it.