You know it's happened to you...

A stain. On an article of clothing that has barely been worn. You try and you try and you can't get the stain out. Four years ago, I would have said, "donate it or toss it". After two years of blog reading, however, I put this little tank top aside and started figuring out what I might do to salvage it.

Before:


These are two of the most obvious, but they were sort of like a splatter pattern...don't know what was splattered, though. (I know the stains didn't show well in the photo, but they are quite obvious in real life and, even worse, they are right in the center of the shirt so they are pretty obvious.)

What to do, what to do?
Embroidery over the stained area? Maybe, but I wasn't inspired to do it. Freezer paper stencil? Not sure I'm ready for that, but it got me thinking.

After:


What do you think? I love the way it turned out. A clipart of a flower silhouette and and iron-on transfer paper and I gave the shirt a new life. What do you think? I love it and, importantly, Buttercup thinks it is cool.

$2.94 - Before and After

I've been wanting some new light fixtures for our entry way/front porch for some time. Honestly, our fixtures are darned ugly. A few years ago, we found four matching fixtures to replace the existing fixtures across the front of the garage for $15/each, but we couldn't find any more at a reasonable price to take care of the porch. Unfortunately, aggressive debt repayment doesn't leave room for fixtures that will cost upwards of $60-70+ each. So, we've lived with them and they've bugged me every time I looked at them. Two years ago, I broached the subject of repainting our existing fixtures to Superman, who nixed the idea as not worth the trouble.

You know the old adage "when the cat's away, the mice will play"? I knew you did.
So, Superman is away and this mouse decided to play. I called my dad and stood on the porch with the phone at my ear while he talked me through disconnecting the fixtures (yes, they're hard-wired). Then, of course, I thought to take a picture of the "before". So, the picture is taken with the fixture laying on the bird cage table.

See? Just your standard construction-grade polished brass light fixture circa 1993. I don't like it - at all!

Oh, the mousetraps? Not for mice. No, those for Sam. They discourage him from thinking the bird cage is a boxed lunch when I set it outside for the birds to enjoy the fresh air. Don't worry...they've never caught a cat (or a mouse, for that matter), but they snap and scare him and the birds can chirp happily along.

One can of spray paint, some tense moments while I slid the glass back into the fixture, and some misplaced mounting hardware later, I have lamps that look a lot better!

The finial and the bottom of the section below the finial didn't take the paint the same way, but I'm kind of liking the burnished metal accent I ended up with there. For $2.94, I just can't complain. I think they look so much better against the rock that is lines our front porch.

What do you think? Do you like them? Hey, Superman! Are you sure that painting these babies wasn't worth it? Want to revisit that position? I'll graciously let you admit I was right and then I won't even need to say, "told you so!"