Cheap (Free) and Easy DIY Ghost Garland

Happy Fall!

Why yes, it has been 8 months since I last blogged. My kid was still crawling back then. The weather was cool and wintery. The government was still operational and I hadn't yet seen Miley Cyrus' tongue staring at me all over the internet. Fun times.

Speaking of my kid, here he is all grown up...

He adores vacuuming. Like more than you could possibly understand.

So I've been on the prowl for cheap (or free, I'll definitely take free) fall/holiday decorating ideas that also don't take a whole lot of time. 

Then today my husband was entertaining Harrison with a dryer sheet and a yard stick--as one does--and I suddenly realized that used dryer sheets would make perfect little ghosts. And what's better than a ghost garland for your mantle for Halloween? Nothing, that's what.

If you're anything like me you have a little bin on your dryer to collect all of the lint and dryer sheets and other random bits so you don't have to run to the trash can every time. So I dug through ours and pulled out all of the old dryer sheets I could find. Bonus points for recycling and whatnot.

The process is really simple, but I documented it with a series of grainy iPhone photos, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. The compromise in photo quality is seriously the only way this was going to get posted. Can you say nofreetime? I mean I have a toddler, you guys.

You will need:
Dryer sheets, yard or thread, and scissors. And like 10 or 15 minutes. Shortest materials list ever.


To start, cut a piece of yarn or string for each dryer sheet 4 or 5 inches long and set aside. Pinch the dryer sheet in the middle, then cup it in your hand and mess with it until you get the look you want. Then pinch at the base of the "head" and tie a yarn piece tightly around the sheet, creating a knot.

Cut off the excess yarn and repeat with your remaining dryer sheets. Soon you'll have a plethora of ghosties!

To create the garland, measure out the length of yarn you need for your mantle/window/staircase etc, adding an inch or two to account for the amount you'll be using to tie around the ghosts. I started tying the ghosts about 8 inches in from the end and spaced the ghosts roughly 10 inches apart, just eyeballing it. To keep the free end of the string going in the right direction, put the string in front of the ghost, instead of behind, then wrap the free end around the back of the head (like a scarf) before tying it--just once--and moving on to the next ghost. It's semi-less confusing in the photos below, but overall a simple concept.

Then hang it up and voila! Halloween decoration!

There's nothing like a revelation about a dryer sheet to get you back in the game, amiright?

Jumping in the Deep End

[This post is part of the January Cure project. Read more here: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14]

Man, things are starting to get kind of intense up in here. Yesterday all I had to do was sit in a corner and do nothing for 10 minutes and these next two days have me declaring/starting a major project and framing art. Sheesh.

DAY 5: Select One Project from Your List to Complete This Month

Tuesday, February 5th

Select a good project from your list to complete this month AND take a few "before" photos.

Okay... project time. This is the scary one because projects are (usually) big and involved and a major commitment, which leaves a lot of room for dropping the ball. But the good news is for the project I'm choosing - building and installing Harrison's bookshelves - I already have all of the materials. I just have to set aside a couple of hours and build/paint them and then tack 'em up on the wall (or use screws...you know. something stable-ish).

Now when I say I'm going to build some bookshelves, I don't mean I'm going to hammer together a gigantic son-of-a-gun. They're more like book ledges. For a tot's room I feel like it's infinitely more fun to be able to see all of the books rather than wedging them in next to each other so you can only see the spines. And this way a certain someone (me?) won't get all OCD up in there and attempt to arrange the books by descending height, color, and/or alphabetically. No need to get crazy.

I'm basing my project off of (and by that I mean copying exactly) Ana White's Ten Dollar Ledges plan. It's a very popular trend at the moment, as you can see almost everywhere on Pinterest and every other blog on the great world wide web. People use these ledges to hold anything from photos, toys, weird figurines, and yes - books. I'm all about conformity.

So let's take a look at where we're starting, shall we? Behold, a large, blank wall:

The swing Harrison's way too big for (sadface), the boppy I used to use constantly but never do anymore, and a random box of stuff.

This is what I stare at from the rocking chair every night as I feed Harrison before he goes to bed, so it will be refreshing to finally see my vision for the wall come together. To the left is the door to his closet-of-doom and to the right is his lamp & crib. I can already see us throwing down some comfy pillows or poufs (DIY project, anyone??) on the floor in front of the shelves when he's older to read together.

DAY 6: Choose a Piece of Artwork & Get Going on Framing It

Wednesday, February 6th

Choose a piece of artwork to frame & get the process started for framing it (...preeeetty much like the title suggests)

I'm doing this one a little backwards. Rather than having loads of fabulous art lying around just waiting to adorn my walls, I have a bunch of random frames that need stuff in them. And seeing how I'm still a little - nope, definitely a lot - unsure of which direction I want the decor of the rest of the apartment to take, I'm once again focusing on the wee one's room. I have one 4x6 cheap IKEA frame left to use and two stocky, black 8 x 10 frames (with mats) that have been hanging out in his closet-of-doom, just waiting to be utilized.

With the 3 frames in mind, today I went "shopping" online for free art. And by free, I don't mean stolen. Have respect for the arts, people. Even the cheap stuff out there is out of my budget, so I decided to see if there were any available freebies that fit my style. I ended up discovering a whole host of good-lookin' art. Here are a few I made note of:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

The link for the 6th one unfortunately seems to be broken (I found it on Pinterest). I love that the initial art (#2) is completely customizable without the use of an editing program. On their site you simply choose the color you want for the background, pick the right letter, and type in the name and it generates the image for you. Super easy, fun, and completely F-R-E-E.

So I decided on three of these beauties, took a trip to Office Max, and $2.62 later I have some new artwork to hang. You'll have to wait to find out which ones.... :-)

Happy Halloween Harry!

Imagine with me, for a moment, that it is not November 5th. It is instead October 31st and a post about Halloween is still relevant, mmk?

I do have to post a disclaimer here that if you are not a fan of Harry Potter you might want to skip this one. Just go along your merry way and come back some other time. Though you will miss a lot of pictures of a ridiculously cute baby. Just sayin'.

So from the time Harrison was about a month old, I knew that I was going to dress him up as Harry Potter for Halloween. His hair just kept getting longer and longer and at the time it was still pretty dark. His name was Harrison, which could be shortened to Harry (though we're not exactly encouraging that nickname...a name like "Hairy Combs" probably earns you a lot of time in a locker). Also Harry Potter is kind of my jam. It was obviously meant to be.

So despite the fact that he's now pretty much blonde, I was determined to make it happen, cap'n! And make it happen I did.

How freakin cute is that. I know. I'm biased. But look how glorious those glasses are. They make me giggle every time I see them. We had a bit of a snag the first time he wore them because they wouldn't stay on and he didn't like us constantly readjusting them, but then I wrapped a pipe cleaner around the back and voila! Instant head piece and Harrison was like "okay, whatever." I'm only about 4% convinced they messed up his eyesight. So worth it.

He had a scar at one point but he kept sweating it off. Ah, well. Remember, we're pretending.

He kept trying to eat the wand and managed to get it in his mouth a couple of times, which is when I started worrying that I was going to end up poisoning my kid with 77¢ craft paint.

Speaking of the costume...It's about to get real nerdy up in here. His costume was largely a handmade effort, with a couple of cheap (or shall I say "inexpensive" to sound more distinguished?) things thrown in the mix.

The components:
1. Under clothes
2. Hogwarts robes
3. Gryffindor scarf
4. Gryffindor tie
5. Glasses
6. Wand

Under his "robes" he wore black pants (Walmart, like $4) and a collared white onesie (already on hand), to which I safety pinned the tie. I made the tie and scarf out of super cheap inexpensive broadcloth (as in $3.48 total) that I got at Hobby Lobby in red and yellow (1/2 yard of each). I got really lazy and instead of sewing everything together, I hot glued it instead. We keep it classy up in here. I used this tutorial for the scarf (except for, you know, the sewing part) and just eyeballed the tie. For his robes I snagged a shirt?thing? from Goodwill for a couple of bucks that was the perfect height. It was kind of a slinky material and felt robe-esque. I just cut the arms to length, cut it up the middle in the back (which conveniently had a little velco enclosure at the top, so it became the front), and taped a Hogwarts "patch" I printed off on the left chest area. Like I said: classy :D

As for the wand - it's paper. And hot glue. And paint. Yup. I came upon this tutorial and thought it was brilliant - and pretty much free, which I'm always a fan of. I ended up making three wands, one for each of us.
 

 Because we're all nerds :)

How was your Halloween?

The Long Awaited Dresser Post - Part 2

(Click here to read part 1)

So where were we? Oh yes, I believe we left off somewhere around here:

A hunk of burning dresser love

The dresser had been sanded and stained, leaving us with a gorgeous grain (seriously, look at it) and thismuch closer to a finished product.

The next step was to put on the top coat - the one part of the process that I was actually able to do myself. Cue the giddyness.Who has two thumbs and gets excited about applying sealer? This girl. The product I used is called Safecoat Acrylacq and it looks a little something like this:

At nearly $30 including shipping, it's not exactly a bargain but it had my vote for a couple of reasons. The first is that it's non toxic, low odor and low voc, which meant that I could apply it without worrying that my unborn child would sprout a last minute third arm (mission accomplished!). Secondly, it seals in any offgassing that might arise from the wood and stain, which makes me feel okay about putting it in the nursery. And thirdly, it comes highly recommended from Young House Love, my oft-referred to DIY blog resource. Also note my stylish respirator mask, left over from painting the nursery, which, combined with applying it in a well ventilated area, further protected my little man from any unwanted extra limbs. Yeah you're welcome, Harrison.

I ended up putting on three coats of the sealer, sanding lightly with fine steel wool in between each coat. The steel wool was able to sand down the tiny rough spots that popped up without taking off the sealer (it just dulled it down a bit), so it worked perfectly. After rubbing the surfaces quickly with the wool, I ran a damp cloth over everything to get rid of the dust and then applied my next coat of acrylacq, letting it cure overnight. Rinse and repeat.

Oooo shiny

Once the final coat cured, my step-dad loaded the bad boy up in his truck, hauled it up to our second floor apartment and now it sits all pretty-like in the nursery!

I have plans for the wall behind the dresser, hence the "in progress" label. While the dresser itself is finished the nursery isn't quite there yet. Here's the previous list I posted:

• Set up the crib (my wonderful mother and step-dad got it for us and it should be in this week!)
• Fix up the dresser (I finally found one...more on that soon!)
• Finish the mobile
• Possibly find a twin bed for guests/those late night visits to the nursery - however this might be a "Phase 2" project
• Make/buy curtains

For now we're shelving the bed idea, but I also need to add:

• Build book shelves (my next big project)
• Hang up wall art

And now for more photos of the dresser, including a proper before and after:

It's hard to get across the exact coloration of the dresser, but the photo on the left below the "before" picture is probably the most accurate. It's a nice rich golden color and I love it.

Total cost breakdown:

Dresser: $43.30
Stain: Free (on hand)
Steel Wool: Free (on hand)
Paintbrush: Free (on hand)
Mask: Free (on hand)
Safecoat Acrylacq: $29.48

Total: $72.78

The Long Awaited Dresser Post - Part 1

I'm a big fat liar... I believe it was in my March 6th post when I said that I'd be back later in the week with a dresser update. Admittedly things have been a little crazy, what with delivering a baby and what not. But let's put all of that behind us...and onto the dresser update reveal!

Well...not quite the reveal. That will be in Part 2. Liar again, I know. I'm workin' on it. In the meantime I'll be over here hanging with Jim Carrey.

So the dresser that we ended up buying was one that I had seen early on but at $60 was a little more than I was willing to pay at the time. Then after spending two weekends striking out at garage sales and Goodwills (not to mention the previous months of combing CraigsList all stalker-like), I decided to revisit the resale shop. It was closed. Sonofagun. Well not closed per se. The owner of that space was relocating to another part of the property and was supposed to be open again by the next weekend. He wasn't. But in a stroke of luck, another man on the property let us into the space because we were looking for a particular piece and were ready to buy. The best part was that I offered $40 and he agreed (this, friends, is what we refer to as a "steal"). So $43.30 later (yay tax), we had a dresser! Holy bananas I thought we'd never get there.

May I present to you: the before shot, even though we had already begun the sanding process.

The dresser was pretty scratched up, especially around the edges, and the finish on it was really dull, but I was drawn to the shape of it (I continually drool over the legs) and you can't beat that storage - currently every single drawer is full. It's a mid-century piece and I wish I knew its history, but we couldn't find a manufacturer/brand label, just this on the back:

Owosso is apparently a town in Michigan, but other than that I've got nothin'.

Luckily they stamped the word "dresser" on there, you know, in case we forget.

I was really excited about refinishing this dresser because I had never made over a piece of furniture before. One hiccup: I was pregnant. And even though I was ready to jump in (with protective face mask in hand), my parentals voiced their concerns, particularly with the sanding process. In the end we struck a compromise: I wouldn't take part in the sanding or staining, but I would get to finish things up by applying the top coat (which was non toxic & low VOC, but more on that later).

So in one afternoon my stepdad knocked out the sanding step and we were left with this bad boy (minus the feet, which he tackled later):

Poor thing is naked and here I am parading him on the internet. Tsk tsk.

I then had to decide on a stain. My original plan upon getting a dresser was going to be painting it stark white to go with the crib and the deep blue walls. However, because of the quality of this piece (dovetail joints!) and the detailed grain that was exposed after we sanded it down, I reversed my plan and decided to keep it au naturel.

I was initially drawn to the dark walnut (I'm not a fan of the blond stains or anything too light), but I was worried that it would be too dark. In the end I went with Early American, which ended up looking far and away better on the dresser than it did in the brochure. My stepdad had buckets of the stuff on hand, which was another bonus, so on went the Early American. Side note: who names these things?

We did one coat to start, which I thought would be too light, but ended up being perfect. Once the stain was on it was really easy to see just how beautiful the grain of the wood was. I'll save most of that for the next post, but here's a sneak peek...

Ooo la  la!

Let There Be Paint

We finally finished painting in the nursery. Can I hear a hallelujah?!

A special thanks to my lovely husband who primed the two blue walls and to my (also lovely) friend Heather who came over on her day off and helped me slap on the paint and stay motivated to finish. I love the way it turned out and was excited to discover that using a dark color didn't suddenly make the room look like the Batcave; in a way it actually makes it look a little brighter, go figure. I am glad that we chose to pair it with a light gray...I'm really liking how the two play off of each other.

Of course like any decent project, this one didn't go down without its hiccups, despite our best intentions. There was a little of this:

I won't name names, but this was caused by a certain male in the house.

And a little lot of that:

It turns out that, even when using frog tape, it's important to take the time and crease the seal with your nail or another firm object so that the paint doesn't bleed through. Duh. Once I discovered my oversight (which of course happened to the [dark] blue walls first), I made sure to take the extra time when taping for the gray walls, which paid off - I had no bleed through on those baseboards. So...user error, big time. And note to self: test things with the lighter paint next time!

Due to the fact that 1. I forgot to ask Charles to tape the ceiling on the two gray walls and 2. Heather and I were both far shorter than we needed to be to do the job ourselves, the gray walls looked like this for about a week:

...until I was able to borrow a step ladder from my parents and finish 'er up.

Also, a word about paint quantity. I undershot a bit lot on how much paint we would need. A full gallon of each color would have been great to have (remember, I only bought 2 quarts of each...), though it would have made things a little less interesting as there would have been a lot less nail biting and silent rants in my head. In the end, two quarts was just enough to do one coat plus touch-ups. Not exactly ideal. It actually worked out better for the blue walls (even though they were solid walls not broken up by doors or windows) because the primer didn't allow the walls to soak up as much paint, so we had more to play with. The gray walls, despite having one window and two large doors, used far more paint for the first coat and I was scraping the barrel to finish painting the "bald" spots. They're not perfect, but I got most of the obvious ones (and ignored some in the corner behind the door). My normally perfectionistic self is actually okay with it. Bring on parenthood! Ha.

One last tip that ended up being a quick and easy way to bring some freshness to the the room - the outlet plates. I took most of them off (except for the ones for the phone jack and cable) before we painted the walls and noticed how gross they were. Observe:

My camera does not adequately capture their grossness

They had paint caked on around the edges, who knows how many years of grime and were just overall lackluster. And against my crisp blue and gray walls, I wanted them to pop! So I washed them. It's amazing how easy paint comes off of plastic, especially with some soap, hot water and a rough sponge. And afterwards they were looking much better:

To the left: Grody McGroderson; To the right: Mr. Clean!

A quick and super easy fix...though be sure to let them dry completely before putting them back on so there's no accidental shock action.

So now that the painting is done we have to:

• Set up the crib (my wonderful mother and step-dad got it for us and it should be in this week!)
• Fix up the dresser (I finally found one...more on that soon!)
• Finish the mobile
• Possibly find a twin bed for guests/those late night visits to the nursery - however this might be a "Phase 2" project
• Make/buy curtains

And a bunch of other little things that are escaping me. And we only have 5 1/2 weeks to go! Assuming the little guy doesn't decide to come early, which I'm starting to think he might just to throw a wrench into things :)

Painting Day!

Today is the day we try not to get paint on the carpet get to paint the nursery! We're primed and taped and ready to roll. Here's a peek into what the room looks like currently:

The primer turned out to be pretty dark, which is good for us since we're painting the walls a fairly dark color. This will help with better coverage and will hopefully (fingers crossed) allow us to cover both walls with only half a gallon of paint. Since the other two walls are being painted a light grey, we opted not to prime them.

A few things I learned while taping the room:

• Run a dust rag quickly over the base boards, window sills and anything else you're taping onto. This helps the tape stick better and won't create any gaps that might allow paint to come through.
• It's easiest to work with smaller strips rather than keeping it on the roll. I tore off sections between 12 and 18 inches long and found it easier to keep a consistent straight line.
• Tape over the outlets when you remove the plates...I'm guessing trying to clean paint out of those tiny holes isn't a party.
• Don't bother trying to remove the plates from a phone jack outlet - the wires are connected to the plate (duh) and therefore it cannot be removed. I opted to OCD tape around the outlet cover, but you could probably free hand it pretty easily.
• If you're 5'8" standing on a chair that's only 18" off the ground, you won't be able to tape the ceiling line of a room with 9' ceilings. Your husband will have to do this for you.

Charles only has one tip for priming/painting:

• Regardless of your best intentions, you will inevitably come away covered in paint. So wear old clothes. Especially socks. And then take a shower :)

I'll hopefully be sharing finished pictures the next time I post! Then there are only about eight thousand other small projects to finish before the baby gets here. Happy Friday!

DIY Wedding Invitations

I hope your Valentine's Day was wonderful! Charles got up at some horridly early hour when it was still dark and ran and bought me four bouquets of assorted flowers that I was blessed to wake up to and then we exchanged cards over bowls of cereal :)


In honor of the holiday yesterday, I thought I'd share the invitations that I DIY'd in 2010 for our wedding! My inspiration came from a really old invitation catalog that my mom had; I unfortunately don't know where it went off to. I do remember that the original invitations were the same shape, had a black outer covering and were French themed.

Charles and I met in Italy on a study abroad trip while we were both attending A&M, so it holds a pretty special place in both of our hearts. When we started planning the wedding I knew that I wanted to incorporate little bits of Italy into the decor and the invitations were one of the ways that I took advantage of the theme.

I liked the size/shape of the invites because they were unique to other wedding invitations I had seen and could fit into a standard size (4.125"x9.25") #10 envelope, which means there was more customization flexibility.

I went with a deep red for the envelopes, which I found online at Action Envelope. I picked the square flap in garnet and instead of paying to have the return address printed, I just set up a template in Word and did it on my home printer. That step alone saved me about $60 and it was super easy.

The invitation is a 9"x8" base that folds over into a 9"x4" card. Inside is the actual invitation part, attached to the lower half, and two postcards held by a red ribbon on the upper half.

I got all of these printed on 8.5"x11" card stock at Office Max and they did a fantastic job. The guy I worked with was very knowledgeable and a huge help. I chose off-white card stock for the outer bit, which remained plain on the inside and had a printed vintage map of Italy on the exterior that I bought off of iStock photo. The invitation part (8"x3") I created in Photoshop to look older, so I had those printed - 3 to a sheet - on regular white card stock. In a stroke of luck, the same company I bought the envelopes from also sold plain 80 lb card stock in coordinating colors, and - at 8.5"x11" - was the exact right width to give me a border around the invitation. All I had to do was cut it into 3.5" sections and I had an instant mat!

The postcards (5.75"x3.75") I also created in Photoshop out of two photos that I took during our semester in Italy. I manipulated them to resemble vintage Italian post cards and on the back they held more information for the wedding, including the RSVP that was pre-stamped and easy to drop in the mail.

For the exterior stamps, I used the King and Queen of Hearts set from the post office that I thought were adorable, went well enough with my vintage-y theme, and didn't scream wedding!

Things that were invaluable during this process:

• Making Memories Paper Trimmer
• Martha Stewart bone folder (this will save your thumbnail from so much pain!)
• Glue tape

The fonts that I used for the project were: Aquiline (for the return address, postcard details, and our names on the invite), DaunPenh (for the all-caps text on the invite & postcards), and Nasty (for the postcard headers).

I don't have a complete cost breakdown but I believe the overall cost was roughly $500, which brings it to about $5 per invitation, and that includes postage. So while it's certainly not the cheapest option out there, it was definitely less expensive than buying a completely customized invite from someone else, and I was able to include all of the information that I thought was important. No regrets!


In nursery news, my darling husband primed the two walls that we're painting the Plumage color on his day off on Monday, and we should have the rest of the room painted by the weekend...update to follow!

When DIY Plans Go Awry

This past week I had a short and purely hypothetical relationship with a dresser. I saw it for $25 on Craigslist and at first glance it wasn't anything to write home about, but it looked to be solid wood and in good condition. And after having stalked Craigslist for the past few months looking for something suitable to fix up for the nursery and not coming up with much, I sent off an email. This was around 10:00 at night, so I figured I wouldn't hear back until the next morning.

I was a little worried about the height of the dresser (31") but figured I'd make it work for $25. Then as the night went on, as I went to bed, as I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep, I started making big plans for this dresser. In fact we became great friends.

I already knew I'd paint it white, and then to save even more money I had the thought that instead of buying new pulls - like I always figured I would when I got around to this particular project - I'd spray paint the original ones black. Ooo. I liked that. Black classic pulls on a crisp white dresser.

And then I made my way back to the height issue. And the fact that I wasn't a total fan of the bit of scroll ornamentation at the bottom of the dresser. So at 3:30 in the morning I had a stroke of complete brilliance (because what thought at 3:30 in the morning isn't brilliant?). I could solve both problems at once with one simple solution: new legs. I realized that recently I had been drawn to pieces sporting tapered wooden legs/feet.

So in the middle of the night I sat in front of my computer, squinting (I had forgotten my glasses in the bedroom) and researched where I could buy individual feet for my new, beautiful, white-with-fresh-black-pulls dresser. And I found these beauties:

They came in a variety of different heights and I thought the six inch feet would work quite nicely - or, if needed, the eight inch feet. At around $7 per leg, they were affordable and deliciously modern.

By this point, since I was on a roll, I started brainstorming about that top drawer (it looks like 3 drawers, but it's really just one). I liked the little curve at the top in the middle and thought - what if I took that drawer out completely, installed a flat piece of wood on the bottom and instead used it as a shelf/cubby to hold a few shallow baskets or easy-to-reach diaper changing necessities? Brilliant! My vision was complete:

I went back to bed, finally able to shut up my brain, and woke up to this email:

"Thank you Jessica for your message, dresser sold yesterday"

Of course.

So now I'm back to stalking Craigslist.

I'm a Fan

So I have a confession to make. I'm not entirely sure that I'm allowed to paint in my apartment. Did that stop me from buying $70 worth of paint this weekend? Nope.

I say not entirely sure because I've never actually even asked, just on the off chance that the answer is no. I figure I'm in a better situation if complications arise and I can say "Oh really? I had no idea..." quite truthfully.

The way I justify it is this: I'm going to paint it back. And because I'm a perfectionist, it will probably look better than it did before. Just sayin'. I did ask if the apartment provides touch up paint, and they do, which means all I'll have to do is bring it to the store, color match it, and buy a couple of gallons. But that could be years down the road, so onward!

Garage sale-ing with my mom this weekend didn't reward us with a dresser (though there is a candidate at a resale shop in town, so stay tuned), but I did walk away with this:

We hit up four garage sales in the area and then on our way back home caught sight of a church having one as well, so we made a quick stop. It was easy to see once we got inside that they didn't have the type of furniture we were looking for, but we walked around for a minute anyway and I happened to pick up the fan deck. Lo and behold, it was for Mythic paint - the exact paint brand that we're using for the nursery. Why yes, I think I'll take you home with me.

According to the tag on the back, it was originally $26.00 (and the ones on the website now are $30.00) so I feel pretty good about picking this one up for 2 buckeroos. Even though I already had our color picked out for the nursery (Plumage, by Martha Stewart), I figured it was good to have because 1. In case they had trouble color matching in the store (they didn't), I would be able to find the closest match via swatches, 2. I could pick out a complementary gray in Mythic's own colors and not have to color match, and 3. For future painting endeavors, I'd have it on hand.

The next day Charles and I set out to get the rest of the supplies to start the nursery painting process. First off was the primer:

Low odor & Zero VOC

We went with the Olympic primer that Young House Love used when they painted their guest room the same dark blue color. The nice thing about tinted primer is that you don't need as many final coats of the actual paint. And since this stuff is only $16 a gallon (vs $44 for the paint), I'm happy to add it to the materials list.

Next up was the actual paint:

Like I said in the last post, we went with Mythic paint because it's non-toxic and zero VOC - even when they add in the color. So while it's about twice as expensive as regular paint, I'm happy with the choice since it's going in the nursery. Also, don't you just love their retro-esque branding?

We ended up getting two quarts of the Plumage accent color and two quarts of the gray - each one will be on two of the four walls in the room. We're leaving the ceiling alone, even though it's the same beige/off-white color the rest of the walls currently are. I don't think I have the stamina or the arm strength to mess with it...we just won't look up :)

We also picked up a few other supplies:

I was initially just going to ask around my various family members to borrow rollers, brushes and the like, but I figured if I'm going to be a real DIY-er, I need my own equipment. And at $9.97 for the ("$25 Value!") set, it wasn't exactly breaking the bank. Also added to the ranks: frog tape (so much better than blue painter's tape) and a "valved respirator" mask. Even though the paint is zero VOC and we'll be keeping the windows open for ventilation, I'll still feel better about wearing one of these bad boys.

The plan for this week is to clear out the remainder of the room, tape and prime and then early next week we'll tackle the painting.

Current cost breakdown:

• Primer: $18
• Painter set, frog tape & mask: $26
• 4 Quarts of Mythic paint: $70

TOTAL: $114

So I'll be sure to post updates on our first major painting adventure...Any painting tips you'd like to share? :)