Painting a Mountain!

I have had the idea to paint a mountain mural on the wall of my living room for quite some time now but never really worked up the motivation to do it until this month. My sister came home one day and told me about an August promotion Ace Hardware was doing on the paint sample pints. The sale is each one is a dollar instead of the normal five dollars up to four per person with no repeats of colors. Easy enough rules to follow and that is an incredible deal! So I got the motivational spark I needed. The mural is an eight color piece not including the background wall color so I moseyed on over to Ace and had a look at their color swatch wall. It didn't take me very long to figure out what colors I wanted so then it was more which four do I get now and which four do I come back for another day this week. I have now gone several times and have not just the colors for my mural but also colors for my front door and my hallway. Including a few extras in colors I don't already own because then I can do small projects as they pop into my head and not have to head out for paint. Plus you can't really beat that sale price even if I go nuts and buy even more it will still be cheaper than buying the original eight mural colors I needed. (This is what I tell myself every time I buy more paint this month)

 
So I had my inspiration and my color swatches. Before painting I got my tarp out and taped the door frames so it could stay white. Taping is tricky so take your time. Some tools I used were a mallet to close my paint cans between dying because it wouldn't be good if they dried out and also I like to give the cans a little shake before opening them to make sure the color is mixed up good, a light so if the sun starts to fade you still have a way to see, different size paint brushes to use on different sections varying in size and of course your paint colors!

 

Then you just go for it. I hand painted every layer two to three coats each depending on how splotchy it is/you want it to be. No right or wrong way of doing this because it is yours. I decided to draw on my wall a rough outline of where I thought each mountain should go starting at the floor and working up. Then I painted it from the top working down going from lightest color to the darkest because then if I made anything bigger than I wanted or painted out of the lines the darker color I would paint next would cover it right up.

Layer by layer I grew more and more pleased with it. I would say painting time would be about an hour for each color since they are each a few coats while drying time was varied depending on the size of that mountain range. Overall a long but fun project that I am so excited to see every time I walk into my house.

Thanks for reading! TTFN!

My first Youtube video

https://youtu.be/WWhXhUJ5wdc

I posted my first Youtube video with my little sister today! It is a submission on why we love Disney for a Thingamavlogs competition. 60 seconds or less to show why you love Disney!!

I have been wanting to post videos before I just have never made a good video that I felt comfortable posting. My sister (awkward eden) has posted a few on her channel with me in them and that is alright though it is so awkward to hear myself in a recording. Your own voice is so different than what you think. ANYWAYS! I am going to try and keep up the filming of videos and just express myself for fun!

New things are often scary.

I have had a lot of new this last month from neighborhood to job (or lack there of). There are a lot of moments to be scared by BUT there are a lot of moments to embrace. At night I run and jump on the bed when I flip the light switch off because the dark is scary. Definitely at my place now because I don't have an ounce of light and there are no streetlights to be seen from my home at all. But the up side to that is I am finally in my own space, there are no street lights bothering me with their light as well as nobody under that streetlight making noise in the middle of the night. I am scared I will not find a job and then become homeless......kinda. Though I know I have enough work experience that I will find something even if it is not my dream job. Also savings help me be picky. I realize that it is nothing to be scared of it is more an opportunity to try new things, learn a new skill and meet new people. There is no reason I will be stuck in anything I choose. That is the best thing I have learned is that everything is temporary. Fear is temporary and so is happiness. That just means I am going to try for happiness and not worry about the fear.    

Bathroom Design Progress

 The bathroom before pictures are very basic and boring. I like the tile in the shower because it is a sandy color which goes with my nautical theme. I got my hands on this beautiful shelving unit as well so that gives a little more to the space. 

 

Tarping a bathroom is horrible stuff! Wrapping the tarp around the toilet but also making sure it is against the wall on the floor and then around the shower. It is extra horrible because it is the smallest space to paint. The suffering was worth it though because the bathroom is beautiful all painted and with the accessories I purchased hung up. The blue seems to change colors depending on the lighting getting in the room but either way I love it. Though this room isn't finished yet I love how it is coming together. 

  

I am definitely loving this stained glass ship I hung in the window. 

Kitchen and desk area progress

These are some before photos of my kitchen and dining area I am turning into a desk area. It is a very open floor plan which I like a lot. I also has the most windows along the wall so prime sunlight.

         

 First thing I did was went to Home Depot and bought my colors, an edger, extra roller add ons, two sets that included big and small rollers/paint brush/paint can opener/paint tin, blue tape and tarps. Painting is not cheap by any means but the upside is I now own rollers and things so I do not need to purchase more. Putting down a tarp is no joking matter. It took quite some time to tap it down and cover all of the important surfaces.

The kitchen painting then began and just looked so wonderful the more white walls were covered in Laser Lemon. Since it is a textured wall we did two coats of paint everywhere then I took a fine tip paint brush and filled in any spots a roller or big brush couldn't get. A fine tip brush is also good for around light sockets since when they are taped you sometimes get a bit of the wall in the tape line.

While the kitchen walls were drying we moved on to the desk areas walls. With the help of these two we got the walls done fairly quickly. TIP: Always ask your friends for help. We ended up having to do three coats of paint on this area not just because of the textured wall but because the color didn't even out until the third coat. Especially along the edge against the ceiling you could see a huge color difference. But with help and more paint we evened the color.

 So here are the after look of the colors during a nice sunny time of day. I put up shelves to display the many trinkets I own. Every time I walk into my house and see the colors shining brightly a smile lights up on my face. I feel so happy cooking in my cute nerdy kitchen and working at my very me desk. (Pardon the messes in some of the pictures these spaces are still works in progress.) 

 

 

When I choose my colors and decorate the spaces the only person I am thinking about is me. I am the one who is going to live here every day. I did asked some of my family and friends about the colors I was thinking when in swatch form I got responses like the colors are "too bright" or "not really a kitchen color". I didn't let it alter my vision. Though hearing other peoples opinions was quite helpful because I looked at the colors others offered in suggestions and knew that those were not me and didn't go with my vision for the spaces. Now that the spaces are coming together and paint is fully up everyone seems to love the colors as much as I do.

Tomorrowland

I saw Tomorrowland last night which is when I really should have wrote this but I was not near my computer.

What did it make you think? Did you get the message?

I was having a discussion with my friend about the ending because he thought it was vague and what I took from it was that everyone is just waiting around for scientists to figure out our worlds problems while we all don't do anything out of our way to help contribute. As long as it doesn't take time or cost money than people are on board. We expect the smart scientists to solve our problems but get mad that isn't happening quickly enough. That's like tomorrowland where they only took the scientists/inventors back with them to better their society originally. Now at the end the new robot children are set out to find "dreamers". The people who will not give up on their passion or continue to better the environment even if goes unnoticed. A ballerina, a lady planting trees in urban areas, a man protecting wild animals from hunters, a teacher, etc. these people may not be scientists but they are the hard workers who have unmeasurable will and persistence which is needed in stopping the end of the world through positive change on earth.

In real life how many people do you know that preach and preach about a cause or a way of life and then do not actively participate in it? I know so many people who speak about helping the less fortunate through charities or giving gifts at Christmas but have never thought to stop and buy a meal for the homeless person on the street on a regular day. I have been preached at about recycling and how I must do it but that same person goes through five plastic water bottles on a daily basis when a reusable travel mug would be much better for the environment. People who get mad at the government or at scientists because they are not doing enough to find a way to save the plant from this or that but offer no solutions themselves. I understand as humans we are judgmental and selfishly stuck in our own lives but in order to help you must try.

That is what I got from the movie. I am not saying it is a perfect movie or that I even got the message right but I believe in humans power to change.

Update on new place.

I have a lot of things in the rooms I think they would probably go but nowhere near done or organized to my final liking. Haven't painted yet. Gotta wait on that because it's expense and I bought a bed and couch first. The floor plan of each of my rooms turns out to be completely different now that I have the couch in the room or the dresser in the room. It is turning into something new that I am falling for. No use getting hung up on ideas that don't work. 

The plan and process is still underway.