Friday Night Photos

Yay for Friday! It's been a heck of a week. My emotions have been all over the place, so I never know how I'm going to be feeling that day. Today has been a great day (so far)! When I painted our shutters a couple of days ago, I only had enough spray paint for the shutters in the front of the house. Jerry stopped and got some more on his way home from work today, so I got to work on the back of the house this morning.

The more time I spend out there, though, the more I see that needs to be done--staining the stoops and the back deck, new exterior doors, planting stuff to keep our new mulch from looking so bare, . It's overwhelming! But it will be kind of fun to get one project done at a time this summer and see how it looks come fall. The key is just staying on top of it ;)

As far as Friday Night Photos, I'll start out with a comparison of the shutters. They were a deep red color (at one point) but once I pulled them down, I realized just how much brighter they were than I thought. I remember painting them one time, but the color was very similar to the original.

See how GROSS? There were a lot of hives and spider egg sacks. I obviously cleaned off the house as well as the shutters.

I set up a little system in the yard: First, I washed the shutters and the house. Then I put a large piece of brown paper on the ground with a couple of bricks on it. There, I would lay the shutter across the bricks (to hold it off the ground) and I spray painted with black. I didn't paint the backsides, since they wouldn't be seen.

The dark burgundy color is from the backside of the shutters--I think that's the color the front was when we moved in. The bright color is from the front before painting. And then obviously, the black is the paint I'm using.

This is my "uniform"--I have a few pairs of clothes that are covered with paint, wood glue, and even blood, haha. I've cut myself while working in the garage more times than I can count.

I had no idea it would take so much spray paint! (And I hadn't even started the back of the house yet.)

The paint dried super quickly (within a couple of minutes) so it moved along really fast. As each shutter was done, I set it in the sun to dry. Then, I started hanging them back up. And I can't believe what a difference it made! Here is a comparison:

I absolutely love how they turned out. My next project (and this will be a fast/easy one) is to make an address plaque. I blurred out my address on the house, but it's to the right of the door and it's just black numbers--not at all nice looking! I was looking through some pictures yesterday to get an idea of what I want, and here are some that I like. Any preferences? I hadn't thought about doing it vertically, but I kind of like that idea.

The numbers that I have look very similar to the font of the ones in the top right of the photo, except they are black. I was trying to decide if I want to do a black plaque and spray paint the numbers white, or if I want to do a lighter-colored plaque with black numbers. Considering the house is brownish-tan, I feel like I should do the black background.

Anyway, enough of the house stuff! Here are some other random pictures from this week...

This morning was my FINAL final weigh in for the six-month DietBet. I can't even express how glad I am that it's over! Jerry and I both reached our goal weights (10% over a six-month period) and we'll find out in a couple of days how much money we won. Definitely not enough to make it worth the stress of the weigh-ins, though! ;)

If you are my age then you know that the best movies came out around the year 2000. Final Destination (and the sequels) remain favorites of mine. But this post explained my thoughts exactly! If you've seen that scene, then you totally understand.

I needed to make a pillowcase the other day and where there is string, there is Duck. He was driving me CRAZY. Each time I had to snip a piece of thread, I'd have to go throw it in the garbage so he wouldn't get ahold of it. It was killing him not to play with the thread, though. I didn't even get to finish my project; I might have to take this stuff out to the garage to work on things I want to sew.

This contraption is our new blender! Remember how I almost sliced my face off Final Destination-style  with the bullet blender? I researched blenders (by that I mean I read a billion reviews) and finally decided on this Ninja Foodi Power Blender System (Amazon affiliate link). 

It wasn't cheap (I paid $199, but it's $239 right now) but I wasn't ready to splurge for a Vitamix or Blendtec. HOWEVER, this is the coolest thing in my kitchen right now! It works as a food processor, a bullet blender, and even mixes bread and cookie dough. I was able to get rid of my food processor and our other two blenders (the bullet-style one and the regular one).

We've used it so far for slicing, shredding, protein shakes, cashew cream, and a couple of other things. It looks overwhelming, but there is a book that tells you exactly what pieces to use for whatever it is you're making. I never thought I'd be excited by a blender, but this one is awesome!

I found this little lady making a spot to lay eggs in my front yard. She was not happy with me for moving her. The eggs would definitely not be safe here, so I moved her across the street (which is clearly where she came from, considering the green stuff on her back). 

Yesterday, Eli asked if he could cook some ground turkey for taco meat, and I told him he could use my apron to keep grease off of his clothes. He looks good in the kitchen, doesn't he? ;)

And speaking of Eli, I was going through clothes yesterday to donate the ones that no longer fit. Since my kids do a half-ass job of that, I was asking him about things I wasn't sure of. This shirt was a size small, which I knew was going to be way too small for Eli--I told him to put it on and flex. Haha!

Another find while going through closets. I haven't worn this Camelback at least since marathon training! I felt through the pockets and found a few things--two packets of Gu, a tiny little jar of Aquaphor (for chafing), chapstick, and a tiny little number tag. I was confused about the tag, but I bet that it's for my bike lock! I'm terrible at remembering combinations and I haven't been able to use my bike lock in ages because I don't know the combination. Well, I'm guessing this is it!

And that's all I've got for this week! I spent the week working on projects that I've already posted pictures for: Noah's bedroom reveal and the landscaping prep. Hopefully by next week, I'll have an address plaque to hang on the house.

Have a great weekend! xo