{latitude&longitude}

it's been months since my last post, i was a tad burned out for a bit, BUT it's SPRING! i am mega motivated, so i think you can look forward to a whole series of great outdoor projects in the near future. this is a really simple one i've been thinking about for awhile, and it's finally here.




i picked up this great old window, but really didn't have a plan for it. i knew i wanted it on the porch, and that i wanted it to have a unique finish. i've seen pillows, etc. with latitude and longitude printed on them, and i LOVE the idea of identifying your little teeny tiny piece of the world where you live and where your life happens, and displaying it. 


here are the steps:


1} i googled the latitude and longitude of our house
2} measure the window space where your numbers will go
3} divide that measurement by how many numbers you have to fit in it (you could do far less numbers than i did, even no decimal points, i liked the idea of being very specific)
4} copy/paste the latitude and longitude you're using into microsoft word, choose your font, and modify the text size until it's the size you need for the window.
5} print out the numbers, and trace each number onto the back of the page it's printed on with a thin sharpie
6} tape numbers in order to front of window, letting the tracing show through (this is so you can paint on the back of the window, protecting it more from the weather and giving it a more finished look)

numbers taped to the front of the window with traced side showing through

 7} trace numbers onto back of window using a sharpie

top row is traced, bottom is not yet. please excuse my husband and dog :)

i laid it down to trace the bottom row so i would have a steadier hand and not have to lay on the floor to reach it

sorry, not a phenomenal picture but you can see the outlines of all my numbers are done

i thought for a minute i might just leave it at an outline, but only for a minute.

8} use painter tape to protect your wood from the paint. be careful though, depending on the paint you use, you may have some acrylics trying to stick to your tape and go with it when you peel it off later, like i did.

i chose some cheap paint i found at michael's, patio paint because it's supposed to be weather-resistant, andi mixed it about 1:1 with the multi-purpose sealer (per the instructions) to have it seal more as well. hopefully it will hold up!

9} paint inside your numbers on the back of the window. i did 3 coats (letting them dry between, this paint dried pretty quickly), but depending on the level of 'rustic' or 'weathered' you are going for, you may end up doing only 2 or even 1. up to you! 

10} be careful removing your tape! start slowly by pulling the tape corner by the paint in the opposite direction and trying to cut the connection to the paint early so the paint doesn't want to stretch or drag as you pull.

TA-DA! unfortunately it's too heavy to hang without putting holes in the siding, which i want to avoid, but it looks great where it is! anyway it's a great start to the big plans i have for the porch and front of the house this summer.

  

i'm hoping it will be a nice conversation piece and i love that i can display my affection for my favorite place in the world!

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold, and she's buying the stairway to heaven.

at this moment, i'm on top o' the world. i've finally finished the stairway project, got half of a big customer's project done today, and my fantastic husband made tacos for dinner. alrighty, stairway!! you saw in the last post that we had nothin' there and it was totally blank. i've been scouring thrift and antique stores, ebay, etsy, wherever i could find an interesting piece to add to the collection.

my idea was to use lots of different mirrors, frames, and sconces in a collection, and paint them all one color, to unify them as a single decor element. i chose yellow because the design was so risky (since it's not just me living here, and it's really super hard interesting trying to balance a decor that works for both sexes), and i thought most other colors would be too harsh and overwhelming, and white wouldn't be bold enough for the design. plus they only make so many colors of spray paint!

i did something a little different with the frames too, there are photos in a couple of them, but since we don't have kids and we don't have a lot of great display-worthy b&w photos of friends and fam, i used art, fabric, books, text, and even a map! i think (hope) it makes for a super interesting display that makes you wanna walk up the stairs to see what else is up there. anyway, here it is.

i'd never used an attachment like this for spray painting before but i'm tellin ya, if you are painting a lot, this little baby is necessary. right next to the spray paint @ walmart

i like krylon or rustoleum. this stuff wasn't fantastic on every piece i had for this project, but it mostly did the job.

i am fortunate to have access to a sweet spray painting booth, and my dad installed this turntable and he's got these little triangle guys that hold your stuff up off the surface, which is great because after spraying everything, i basically had a pool of sticky paint on the table

i arranged each item on the floor and printed a picture of it, and me and hubs set off for about 2 hours hanging everything. we didn't even fight about it, which is miraculous. i tend to get frustrated pretty quick when we're hanging things together, one of my many faults! i repaired the old frames that didn't have backing and what not, this is the 'before' filling them all in.

AFTER! tah-dah!

dictionary page from a set of dictionaries i have from 1948. variations of the word 'love'

photo of our view from the bed and breakfast room on the wine trip we took for our 1 year anniversary. goooooooood memories

awesome intaglio print done by an old classmate of mine from college. i L-O-V-E her prints, she is on the path to being a printer as we speak.

sweet candle holders and sconces! so fancy.

i especially love this. i got this meal sack from my grandpa, and it was real dirty, so i washed it, but then most of the color came out, so i was sad. BUT i think it works in this collection, it's not too bold to distract from the whole, but still interesting.

cute little mirror i found on etsy. it was white when i got it

i got an old mother goose book, i mean OLD. it's got a few offensive poems in it at this point lol.

found these gems on ebay. super cute

another article out of a 1936 Household Magazine. i'd like to eventually find a historically significant newspaper headline to use in this frame, it's square and a headline would look great in it.

wedding invitation looks great in a yellow frame!

love this fabric. it was a clearanced tablecloth at target!

one of my prints, it looks great in this bubble-glass frame

a map of our area. this one is so tiny but i think when you're looking at a large area on a map inside the small frame, it's a good visual contrast

screen prints of mine, big one is on fabric, little one is paper. the big one will probably be temporary until i find something more worthy of a big frame right at eye level.

view from the living room, this was a great way to keep track of the angle we were hanging everything at.

side note, i mentioned earlier that this was an awkward area, but now i think it's ok because there's so much other stuff to look at. i might put a little rug there sometime, mark the area visually as a place to put shoes by the door or something.