The Most Excellent Painting Tool

Freshly painted, with assistance from my kitchen drawer.

by Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

I just finished repainting our shoe shelf with a fresh coat of clean paint. Now it's ready for storing shoes at the RV. Welcome to our shoe-free zone. Come on in, but plant the shoes right here!

We've used the shoe rack for years and it's been very handy to keep most of the shoes off the ground. But it was ugly. Add paint.

The problem was the paint. Color (secluded garden) was lovely, but as it hadn't been used in years since the Blue Door Table was painted, the ingredients had separated.

So there I stood, mixing with one of those silly wooden sticks they give you at the hardware store. I think it would have taken hours. It would've been faster to drive to Lowe's and ask them to remix it for me - at least a 45 minute round trip.

Hmmm, how could I assist and speed-up this remixing process?

Aha! I needed to sacrifice a kitchen whisk. That should work.

Oh boy! Work it did! I LOVE my new discovery of the most excellent painting tool. I whisked that paint right back into shape. Perfect!

My new favorite painting tool - a whisk!

Maybe you've already had this idea, but for me, it was original. Guess I should check out the rest of the kitchen section before I take on any more painting projects.

What's your favorite painting tool?

Testing Pinterest

Maybe I should have been a scientist.

I do love to experiment and see if things really work, or see how they work.

Take Pinterest. So many wonderful, fabulous, awesome ideas. But I've learned that not all of them work and some need a bit of tweaking.

Tweaking is my middle name. Angie Tweaking Quantrell.

Last Saturday, I tested Churro Cheesecake Bars. This recipe worked just fine, though I decreased the sugar by half. As I am on a diet, I couldn't eat any other than a sliver to test flavor. The rest were inhaled by kids at church and all adults that happened to walk by. This is a keeper recipe if you love cinnamon and cream cheese.

Yesterday Big D and I tested the salt dough recipe. We tested ONE of the recipes. There are hundreds. The one we found worked fine, but did not make very many handprints.

Today we tested ice cube painting. While simple in concept, I had to make quite a few tweaks. Last night I filled the ice cube tray with water and added food coloring to make colored blocks. I placed clothespins upside down in some to test how that worked.

Results:

~ A few of the clothespins fell over and froze at an angle. That was not big deal. Donavyn loved this activity.

~ Directions suggested painting on paper. This did not work other than smearing a tiny bit of color on it. Failed.

~ On the shiny metal 'big chair' tray, the ice painting worked fabulous! It melted fast and swirled all around. This was a big hit with our 2 year-old artist.

~ We also tried foil, since that is shiny. Nope. Definitely not. Fail.

~ Tried a cookie sheet. Yes. Not quite as good as the high chair tray, but close. Plus the edges kept melted water from rolling off.

~ Benefits included no concern for Mr. D who constantly sampled the different colors and total amusement for a good chunk of time. Rainbow fingers and tongue let mommy know what he was up to at Nana's.

Inspiration from Pinterest? Fantastic. Reliability? Not always there. One needs to be ready to tweak.

Better to view Pinterest pins as an experiment and an adventure.

 

$1 Store Rollers

What to do when it's hot outside?

Buy $1 store rollers. (50 cents each, folks.)
Fill plastic containers with water.
Give each kid a container and roller.

Roll away!

The grands had a great time painting the cement barrier in our yard. The rollers make excellent roads for cars and designs on driveways and sidewalks.

Only downside? For toy car roads...they dry very fast.

Upside? The children are busy, have fun, get wet, cool off, and don't ruin anything. Even replacing the rollers is pretty cheap.

Paint, babies, paint.

Painting

(This photo does not show how mint lime green the wall is.)

I did say I wanted to paint more this year...

So far, believe it or not, I've painted numerous color swatches throughout the house. Not quite attractive, but I do know what I DON'T want.

And I've painted the background wall of one set of open shelves in the kitchen. When we moved in, about 2 years ago, these walls were covered with the same ugly counter top laminate stuff as the counters. We peeked beneath, and it was painted an ugly, lime (I mean lime), 70-80's shade of lime mint. After Kevin peeled off the laminate, it was ugly lime mint with huge chunks missing due to swirls of laminate glue. Nice. Much nicer after spackle made its appearance.

Et, voila! The shelf background is now a lovely shade of blue. If you like blue, it is lovely. Much better than before. I've had a similar blue in a former house, which I loved. This is a tad bit brighter, but I really like it.

I've decided that now I need to paint the background wall in a set of glass front cupboards the same blue. Hadn't noticed that that wall was also the lovely mint lime. Maybe because our glassware is hiding it somewhat.

And then one wall facing into the kitchen needs to be the same blue...Over the fridge, inside a cupboard, is a wild magenta background wall?! Hmmm. Makes one wonder. It's hiding. But all the other cupboards? Mint lime green. What have I started?



What I meant was, when I said I wanted to paint more in 2012, was water color painting, on a board, with some fun artwork. I didn't really mean all the walls and hiding spots in the house.

We'll see.