New Paint Beginnings for the Mailbox

Well...maybe not new beginnings, but a fresh new coat on the mailbox is a new beginning for our curb appeal!  The Spring Link Party we've been crashing got me inspired to fix our mailbox that looked like it was rotting away to a sad death.  Since Spring is about new beginnings, I couldn't have our mailbox giving up on its life.  That would be no way to start this new season.

Since the last installment of the link party is spring paint projects, I'm linking up to Sarah's blog to join in on the fun. Kim is also linking up her fabulous David Bromstad art she debuted here since it is all sorts of fun Spring colors so check that as well in case you missed it.  Remember the awesomeness she created on canvas....

I also had promised an update when I shared the plants I had chosen to go around the mailbox earlier so here you go....

I would say this is a hot mess of mailbox plants.  You can tell that the warm weather we experienced during our winter just helped all of our plants explode!  And peeking out of the back is that rosemary plant I told you the plant guy promised me would survive the winter and the summer - well he was correct.  I went to work on this area and cleaned it all up so that we can get our spring plants put in the ground soon.  That will be another post - this one is all about the slender mailbox beauty that needs a makeover - STAT.

Here is the mailbox post that hasn't been touched since we moved in:

I tackled the post by first removing the numbers and then scrubbing and cleaning the entire thing.  I scraped off the wood where it was coming off and stripped it so that I could apply a clean coat over it all.  I also used a liquid deglosser for this process.  The numbers on the mailbox were also removed so that they could get a fresh coat of paint and so that I could paint the post behind the numbers.  See how the black paint has bled onto the white?  And see how the rosemary is dominating the numbers - yeah, they got a fresh chop!

I bought a small amount of white outdoor paint from Home Depot and used a 10% off coupon so it was only $7.

While I waited for the paint to dry I painted the numbers ORB so that they would stand out more and not look so ragged.  I also took the numbers off of the house and painted them ORB to match and plus I HATE brass.  I'm sorry - not my cup of tea.

I decided that I wanted to add a little pizazz to my mailbox post - you know a fresh beginning.  I also wanted the mailman to have something that was aesthetically nice to look at.  Since we have homeowners codes in the neighborhood I knew I had to keep the post white and couldn't do anything drastic.  So I decided to do a subtle pattern on the bottom.  It wouldn't be too noticeable but people out walking their dogs could see and admire it and it wasn't screaming HOA penalties.  I used one of Marta Stewart's stencils from Home Depot for the task and just taped up the stencil and painted over the white.  I actually had Ben do this part because he loves stencils.  He just sprayed a metallic silver spray paint over the stencil in light layers.

I love how the stencil sort of looks like ivy or plants going up the mailbox.  And it is subtle enough since it is at the bottom but adds a little eye candy for walkers! I think it is just the right touch!

And now the mailbox has a Spring paint makeover.  Don't you love the subtle pattern?  I think the mailman will be pleased that the mailbox went from this...

to this.....

to this....!

Thanks for letting us participate in all of the link parties.  We certainly enjoyed it and I hope you had fun popping in.  Happy Spring!  And if you missed the three earlier Spring Link parties we joined in on, see our Spring mantle here, our Spring craft project here, and our Spring door decor here!

We're also linked to:

Dollar Tree Spring Door Decor

It is now our official third link party post as mentioned here.  I showed you my Spring inspired mantle first up in this post and Kim showed you her awesome "Springy" bookcase makeover for this link party post. 

So today I'm delving into 'Spring Door Decor' for Rhoda's Spring Fling Party.  I actually made this wreath last year and hung it inside but I felt that it needed to be displayed outside for the world my neighbors to see.  I've even made different variations of this for friends and family as it is such a (ahem, cheap) and special gift.  It is great because pretty much everything is from the Dollar Store or you can probably find it around your house.

I bought one of those wooden wreaths that you can get at the Dollar Store.  It looks like this:

To jazz it up I took some light tan yarn and a hot glue gun and went to town while I watched TV.  I put a small dab of glue on the back of the wreath and started the yarn there.  I simply just wrapped the yarn over and over and over again all throughout the wreath.  I would put a dab of glue every now and then to make sure that the yarn was secure and that it would stay.  This did take a long time to do but it really wasn't bad to do while catching up on the DVR.

I used fake flowers from the Dollar Tree as well as different buttons that I had on hand that were bright spring colors.  I put hot glue on the center of one of the flowers and wound twine in a spiral to give the center of my "flower" some texture.  I glued a button in the middle of the orange Dollar Tree flower for some spunk.

I had seen on various blogs that people had wrapped twigs in yarn and I thought that was a spectacular idea.  So I just grabbed some twigs from the yard and used the same technique as above but with green yarn. 

Finally, I glued everything to the wreath and got out some fun, spring-looking ribbon to tie it to the door knocker.  I love how fresh and youthful the wreath looks.  And I love how it cost me around $3 (thank you Dollar Tree!).  Thanks for stopping by if you're joining from the party.  And if not, don't forget to head over to Rhoda's for more door decor fun.  Happy Spring!!

We're also linked to:

Bookshelf Makeover!

So for the link party today, we are doing "Spring Crafts"! Not only did I craft for my project but I also did a spring clean! My really terrible looking bookshelf in my room has really needed a sprucing up but I just haven't had the time/have been uber lazy so I finally got around to working on it.

We're over at Kate's blog so make sure you check us out over there and all of the other Spring Crafts there are to show.  We're also linked to thecsiproject.com so check us out over there:

I went and bought these two fine bookshelves from Target which cost around $30 total.  While at Target, I also bought these grey storage/filing containers (4 for $16), the fabric cubby squares (2pk = $12.49) and my gorgeous glass globe lamp ($52.98).  I also went to AC Moore that night and bought 4 12"x12" canvases ($4.49 each) along with 2 tubes of gold paint ($1.99 each).  It was late once I got home but I wanted to start on this entire project pronto which meant, I needed to construct and I needed to paint...I don't think my downstairs neighbor was too happy about
since I was shuffling around upstairs and hammering until the wee hours (was having one of those can't-go-to-sleep-because-I-need-to-craft-

until-done-with-my-whole-house type of nights).  The gold paint took several coats for it to be a solid color with no white peeking through...Once the paint was dry, I went to putting all the little screws into the canvas and the bookshelf so that I could have them hanging to disguise any messes!  It's a really fun way to dress up your book shelf without any permanent changes; I

could even paint the canvases a different color depending on any future color schemes!  Now that all the nitty gritty is done, it's time to stylize!  I was able to hide ugly textbooks behind the gold canvases, choose some good looking books for display, hide messy and loose papers in the gray storage, showoff my friends in fancy frames, bring in a little bit of green and add some of my travel flare with books and pottery from Peru.  In about 2 days I have a fabulous storage piece that I was able to create and put together on my own...I like it!  Now I just have to decide if I like the bookshelves pushed together or apart.  Do you notice my lovely artwork above?!   You can find that here.

Inspiration

Source: ikeahackers.net via Kim on Pinterest

LumberJack & Jill are getting hitched!

Look at the happy couple!  This is Todd & Angie...they are two of the best friends that Ben & I could have.  Ben is going to be a groomsman and I will be a bridesmaid in their upcoming wedding this May!

We threw a LumberJack & Jill couples shower with our friends Heather and Rob for this adorable couple this past weekend and I believe it was a success!

We decided we wanted a laid back shower for these two where we could play lots of yard games.  We chose Ben's parents house as the location since it can accommodate a lot of people and it is situated on a pond which makes a beautiful outdoors backdrop.  They also have horseshoe pits and plenty of lawn for all of our games so it was a perfect place.  And with March Madness going on and us being from NC....it was nice to have a TV and fireplace outside to catch the basketball games during the shower.

Everyone dressed the part of a lumberjack/jill and it was fun since we were in casual clothes to play our games...

Our main drink station was fresh squeezed drinks (fresh squeezed oranges & vodka) and then tea for those not drinking.  We put them in the dispensers and added fresh cut oranges and lemons to classy them up (since it is a wedding shower).  We placed the orange squeezer on the table for when the drinks ran out so that people could make their own.  Angie & Todd were first introduced to these drinks with Ben & I at the beach and he bought her a squeezer for her birthday right after that.  So I thought it was fitting to include these drinks for them.

I used mason jars that had the chalkboard labels on them and they were such a hit.  I set them up with the same quote that Kim had I used at our hoedown party.  Everyone looked so rugged drinking out of mason jars all night.

Heather & Rob purchased a keg since we were having a large crowd.  This was easier than us buying individual beers as it was cheaper and our crowd knows how to drink.  I made a sign out of scrapbook letters saying "Pints 'N Loggers" for our drink stations.  Pun intended.  Cheesy, I know.  It's a shower for gosh sakes.

We had everyone put their presents in this cute little wagon that Kim has had in her house.  I stole a couple things from her that were too darn cute and fit our theme.  I placed these next to their chairs and put a sign so everyone knew where to put their gifts.

The chalkboard signs were also reused from our hoedown party and helped everyone know where everything was located.  We tried to use logger terms like "outhouse" and "grub" and "lumberjack games." 

The food table was so appetizing and I love how we set up the display. We put burlap down as the tablecloth and laid down a moss sheet that I purchased at Joann's.  I made the silverware pockets out of Behr paint strips that were tied together with twine.  Heather made the chalkboard menu as well as the yummy baked beans, mac 'n cheese, and fruit salad. It was delicious!

The food was absolutely delicious and we did this in honor of the groom-to-be.  He loves his smoked barbeque so Ben smoked a couple of boston butts and cooked some barbeque chicken on the pig cooker.  I mean, we are from North Carolina!!  This really is an affordable meal for a lot of people as it can feed a ton.

I believe the highlight of the night was the photobooth.  I put up a quilt my great grandmother made and used my Macbook as the picture taker.  I just went into photobooth and people could use this to take pictures in groups. 

We put a sheet out for people to write their emails down if they had their picture taken.  We are going to set up a photo account online and are going to email everyone the password so that they can access all the photos that were taken.

Everyone had tons of fun here and the props were the best.  I grabbed all sorts of lumberjack items like axes, pitchforks, John Deer hats, aprons, and furry hats for everyone to play with.  Notice the stumps that Kim made?  Yep, I stole those too.  This was about lumberjacks after all!  I love looking at all the pictures afterwards!

Heather also orchestrated a really cute version of the "Newlywed Game" for the couple to play.  They couldn't see each other's answers and wrote on chalkboard frames I made (of course!).  It was really a lot of fun and I'm not really ever one for cheesy shower games.  This one was hilarious.  Especially when they had different answers for "What Todd thought Angie's most annoying habit was" and "What they were most excited about the wedding" -

I believe that Todd was doing a great job at sucking up during this game...

Heather made the favors and they were S'MORES favors to go along with our theme and our dessert (oh yeah we had a S'MORES bar!).  We just wrapped the bags in twine and added cute tags that we printed out that read "Have S'MORE treats as sweet as Todd & Angie's LOVE"  Awwwww....

I must say it was so much fun to do this and Heather and I are pretty excited how it turned out.  What a perfect way to celebrate the love of such good friends.  We're lucky to have them in our lives!

Oh, and muchos gracias to Ben's parents for letting us crash their abode!  We couldn't have done it without their place!