Recycled Front Door Letter!

This spring I finally got plants to put in my planters on my front porch. Problem is, my dollar store wreath that I made last year when I did my $8.00 front porch makeover doesn't match. I looked around for a wreath idea, but I just wasn't feeling it. As I was rooting around in my craft stash, I found the back to an old poster frame and a light bulb went on.. I've seen tons of twine wrapped letters people put on their front doors, so why can't I cut one out and paint it to match my plants?

I am a genius.

Maybe.

After all, all I gotta do is draw out a letter "A", cut it out, paint it, seal it and hang it up, right? 

Too easy. I'll have this done by lunch!

Or not.

Luckily, our last name starts with an A. If it started with a G or an B, I might not have finished this. If my last name started with a T, I or L, I might've finished this *&$! thing a lot sooner. I took a yardstick and started drawing my A. It took a couple tries and researching some fonts, but I finally did it. Then I used tape to mark off my best A, since there were so many lines from previous tries. 

Now to cut this bad boy out. I used a Dremel tool first to score my lines, thinking I could then use a cutting wheel to cut it out. The scoring worked fine, the cutting wheel not so much. Even though it's a fairly thin piece of wood, it's still too much for the cutting wheel. I decided to try the jigsaw next, even though I was worried it would chew up the edges. I did a practice cut and decided I could sand the edges.

It cut through everything, but some lines are not smooth and straight and I messed up in a few spots, but I got it cut out and it still looks like an A and I still have all my fingers. Quite proud of myself.

I sanded the edges as smooth as I could, but some lines were still wobbly, especially where I had to cut inside the A. And there was a big chunk along the top right side that I couldn't get with out the jigsaw tearing the letter. So I sucked that up and decided to figure out a way to camouflage it later. 

Before I could paint it, I needed to fix the spots where I went a little too far with the jigsaw. I filled the cut marks and chunks with wood filler, let it dry and sanded it.

Finally, onto painting. I planted coleus (coleuses?) in my planters, so I pulled the colors out of that. I used a bright, citron green for the letter and used burgundy and magenta for the designs. Not only does that match my coleus, but I also have bright green and burgundy shrubs. That was a happy accident. Sometimes it just all comes together...

I painted the whole A with the green...

Then I stenciled stripes in the burgundy and magenta...

Then I sealed it with 3 coats (front and back) of clearcoat, glued on a ribbon and hung that bad boy up!

You can see the big chunk in the upper right hand corner of the A, but you can't see it from the street, so I'm just gonna suck it up and live with it. 

I do like my A. It's different from all the countless wreaths everywhere and it's colorful. I like colorful! Maybe it wasn't quite as easy as I first envisioned, but I am happy. Plus you can't see the problem areas from the street. 

Until the next project, 

Chris :)

DIY Weed Killer That Really Works!

This summer has been hell on my garden and yard. Between lots of rain and hot sunny days, weeds are springing up everywhere! Big, angry weeds that are overtaking everything, like a power-mad dictator. And lots of weeds mean lots of bugs. I am not overly fond of bugs, especially Japanese beetles and the biting, stinging things that live in all my weeds. So the weeds gotta go, pronto!

Now, I am not the Food Babe, hell bent on removing all chemicals from our lives (you gotta check out SciBabe's takedown of the Food Babe here, she is awesome!), nor do I have anything against Monsanto, the makers of RoundUp (apparently, they're the most hated company in America and we all need to stick it to them). For the most part, I like chemicals. What I am, is cheap. Plus, I have a dog who does not have the sense to stay away from weeds that have been sprayed. So I looked for an alternative that was both cheap and relatively dog-friendly. 

I did a lot of searching and decided to try the vinegar-salt-blue Dawn combo. I must say, it worked great! All you need is one gallon of white vinegar, 1 cup of salt, a tablespoon of blue Dawn dish detergent (just plain blue Dawn, not the stuff with all the extras in it), and a spray bottle. You can heat the vinegar so the salt dissolves quicker, but I just mixed the salt and vinegar and let it sit overnight, shaking occasionally. I added the Dawn the next morning, poured it in the sprayer and went to town. 

These are my before pics:

Pretty scary, huh? This is our firepit/picnic area. You couldn't pay me to sit and eat here. This is my weapon of choice:

Just thoroughly douse those bad boys with this stuff. You may feel like you're in a pickle barrel once you get a whiff of all that vinegar. 

Here's the results just 3 hours later!

 

What a difference! If the weeds aren't dead, they are dying! Some of the bigger ones and the really thick ones needed an extra dousing. But I am so pleased with the results! And the fact that it's way cheaper than RoundUp. And Tazer can sniff and wallow through the weeds to his furry little heart's content. Which isn't too much, actually. He's not thrilled with the vinegar smell. 

Just to recap, here's before:

And here's the after:

Great stuff, right? If you're cheap like me, you gotta try this! And if you're looking for "chemical free" living, you gotta try this! Although, for all the posts touting this as a chemical free alternative to harsh chemical herbicides, salt is a chemical compound, so I guess it's not chemical free! 

Until the next project, 

Chris :)