House Numbers

On Tuesday, I shared a little preview of a DIY project I was working on. Well, here it is... painted house numbers!

I got the idea from Pinterest. I was planning on doing this in the spring, but when I heard we were having a 60 degree day in January, I quickly jumped on the opportunity. Here's how I did it:

On regular paper, I drew an outline of my letters and numbers and carefully cut them out with scissors. I didn't want to just start painting without any pattern, because if I made a mistake it would be a little difficult to fix. Once I had everything cut out, I arranged them where I wanted and taped them on the door.

I roughly traced everything with a pencil. Once that was done, it was time to paint! This took a very steady hand, which I totally didn't have. That extra cup of coffee I drank that morning really wasn't doing me any favors.

The paint I used is Olde Century acrylic paint in Manor House White. It's indoor/outdoor paint and a small bottle like this was only about 5 bucks. The brush I used was just a small arts and crafts paint brush.

This is what it looked like after one coat of paint. It needed one more, so I let it dry for about an hour before giving it another coat.

It was super easy, very inexpensive, and I love the results! It gives our otherwise plain-jane house a little personality. Now maybe I should start thinking about giving those stairs some fresh paint too...

I'm DIY-ing... wait, that doesn't sound right...

Here is a little preview of a small DIY project I'm doing today. Can you guess what it is? Here's a couple hints:

#1: Today's temperature is expected to hit 60 degrees.

#2: That is a little bottle of exterior paint.

Come back on Thursday (assuming it works as I'm hoping) to see the results!

Weekend Snapshots

Snuggling up on the couches for movie night with Jesse (we watched Moneyball - great movie!),

a crazy white-out blizzard that came out of nowhere,

bright coral fingers and toes, which sometimes look pink and sometimes just plain orange (Orange You Cute? by Sally Hansen),

and the cutest little visitor you've ever seen. :)

A little drop of heaven

Why on earth has it taken me so long to discover how delicious Ferrero Rocher chocolates are? They taste exactly like Nutella, people!! I love Nutella and will eat just about anything if there's Nutella on it. So when I took a bite of one of these babies, I was hooked. Jesse and I received a couple packages of them for Christmas and it's a little embarrassing how quickly we ate them all.

If you've never tried one, do yourself a favor and eat one. You can thank me later.

Why it pays to keep your floors clean

Someday, you will find yourself staring (and drooling) over a bowl of made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookie dough. You will try to control yourself, but to no avail. You just won't be able to resist that delicious combination of butter, flour, sugar, eggs, and chocolate. You dive right in and get yourself a nice, big spoonful.

YUM. But because holding a camera in one hand and a spoon in the other is apparently way beyond your physical abilities, you will accidentally drop that beautiful blob of dough on the floor.

A horrific scene.

Lucky for you, those floors of yours have just been cleaned. So you can take your spoon, scoop it right back up, and shove it in your mouth. Right where it belongs.

This, my friends, is why it's important to keep your floors clean. You never know what you might want to eat off of them.

(Here's the recipe I use, if you're curious!)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Crisco butter flavored shortening

1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375º. Combine shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.