Make Colorful Hands-on Bookends, step by step

Glad Valentine’s Day everyone! We are celebrating with Burger, Clara, each other, and a photography crew in our house for the third straight week. But there is a twist today: we are trying not to vomit! Poor Clara got sick the whole evening on Saturday and into the morning on Sunday and now it appears that John and I have the bug… but the show must go on! The good news is that we wrapped up all of our secret projects so we simply have to get the last 20 in the can by Friday and we are done-zo. Oh yeah and we are supposed to shoot some cover shots tomorrow (ahhhhhhhhhhhh) but we will not think about that right now. So Glad V-day from our slightly green household to yours! Now let us horse around a little…

I have began to realize that my little self-imposed “Dude, Get On That Already” challenge should likely simply be called “So I have Been Hoarding Little Animal Friends And Now I Get To Spray Paint Them.” Here is Exhibit A and Exhibit B. Although, in my defense I have apparently been hoarding other things like coat hooks and old light fixtures too, so it is not like I have a spare room full of ceramic animals. Yet. But I did have these folks that we picked up for $2.50 each nearly exactly a year ago in Delaware in a whirlwind thrift-store-palooza. And then they sat in our playroom for 12 months. Poor folks.

But I had big plans for these little orange and black sponge painted horse heads from the start. First I gave them a few thin and even coats of primer (slippery ceramic things like this typically do best with some spray primer before any spray paint).

 

Here they are all primed up and steely gray:

 

But spring is in the air! So some glad yellow spray paint was simply what the doctor ordered.

 

It took about five thin thin thin coats (more of a mist than a real coat of paint). You truly want to simply hold the can about 12″ away and keep your arm moving the whole time (there are more spray painting pointers for ya right here). After a few days of letting them cure outside in the carport I brought those babies in and put them to work:

 

Yeehaw.

Who is ready for warm weather and cherry blossoms and birds singing? This girl (points to self with yellow spray painted thumbs).

So that is the story of two $2.50 thrift store book ends that sat in the playroom for a year collecting dust. One more thing off the ol’ list and out of that room. Hurrah! At this rate the room will be empty and ready for a big makeover in about three years. Haha. Kidding. But I still have a ways to go, which is why I enjoy forcing myself to tackle one small thing we week. It is do-able and not too overwhelming, but it certainly adds up to 4-5 little accomplishments each month along with some other big projects that we are juggling (like zee book and zee kitchen). Did I simply get French for a second? Anyway, the weirdest thing is that sometimes these little projects make me beam the most. How strange is that? It is the little things.

What have you folks been up to? Are there any other Dude Get On That Already challengers who have tackled things that need to be cleaned/organized/painted/etc? Anyone else trying not to lose their lunch on V-day? Do tell.