Trash to Treasure - chalkboard frame formerly known as Jesus

So the other day, I was at a garage sale and found this cool picture of Ashton Kutcher....

Oh calm down.

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that God has a great sense of humor or he wouldn't have given me powers of sarcasm. Either that or I'm going to hell.

So anyway, I really liked the frame Jesus/Ashton was in, but he's not a big seller. My original plan was to toss the picture but Gene about had a fit. Said it was tantamount to burning a flag.

*scratches head*

I decided that Jesus/Ashton still had to go, but being the recycler I am, I decided instead he'd still be there looking over everyone ... like usual (except Charlie Sheen. I'm pretty sure Charlie is going to hell).... instead of tossing the pic, I'd secretly turn him into a chalkboard.

Easy peasy.


(forgive me father for I have sinned....)

First I had to remove the weird brackets on the back to get the pic out. It was printed on a super heavy duty cardboard material that I thought would hold up well to paint.

Look how purdy it frames the junk in my living room and the island that needs cleaned off!

My original intent was to paint the frame, but I really liked the color that it already was. If I were going to paint it, I would probably be my go-to turquoise blue color in which I probably should just buy a case of spray paint.

I bought a quart of chalkboard paint at the wallsmart. $9.97!! Crazy. Imagine how annoyed I was when I found out you can add some sanded grout to latex paint and it will do the exact same thing. That must be what I found in the bottom of the paint in a huge lump.

You must use a nappy brush to paint your surface. I think that I would have been just as fine with a pad brush instead.


Wait for it to dry, pop the pic back in and voila!

See how simple that was?

And Jesus/Ashton didn't have to go to the evil landfill. He also watches you from his secret cloaking device.

Always judging you.
Keeping you in line.

win win!


Frame: $1.00
Paint: $10.00 (can use on a multitude of projects, so I will call this $1.00)
chalk: .97 (I had some I'd kept for probably 5 years. Finally tossed it about a month ago. sigh.

Grand total: around $3.00
Skill level? A blind monkey could do this.... so I only had a moderate level of difficulty!

Share your trash to treasure links!

Good night Missouri

My favorite part of the day.
Shortly after the sun falls behind the horizon.
The sky fades from orange to blue to indigo.
People jetting off to places unknown.
Beautiful orange trails following them.
Evidence not only of where they've been,
but where they're going.
Yet, it's still a mystery.

Why can't skies be like this all the time?

Devon's senior photos!

If you'd like to see some more beautiful senior photos of Devon, you can check them out on my business blog. Sheesh I'm almost posting over there more lately. lol

I have a secret

I've been a faithful reader of postsecret for around 5-6 years now. I've seen every single postcard from the beginning. It's my Sunday ritual, instead of going to church, I go to the House 'o Postsecret.

Can I hear an amen?

So when I scrolled down through the schedule to see if Frank might be coming to Missouri, and actually saw the world "Maryville" I was ecstatic.

I showed up early to pick up my tickets - which were free (you can't beat free!) and planned on talking Gene into going with me. Once in a while he'd read the secrets with me, but he does not worship at the altar of secrets like myself.

About a week ago, I showed up early and sat in the parking lot. I had no idea how busy it might be, and I didn't want to be early - but I didn't want to lose my seat either (it was general admission). I waited about 20 minutes, then finally went in to wait.

Slowly more and more people filtered in, then there was a line, then 2 lines - big ones.

Yep, it was official...
I was the oldest person there.

Well, unless you count the professor, or student adviser or whatever she was.

Frank appeared with little fanfare, but to a auditorium full of adoring fans. He just talked. Shared some more post secrets, some stories and a secret of his own. Frank cares deeply about reducing suicide rates and has raised a lot of money for the Hopeline which has saved countless lives.

At the end, 2 lines formed of people coming to share their secrets. It was emotional hearing people pour out their hearts - I admit that maybe I shed a few tears.

One person sharing touched me very deeply and I will never forget him. He approached the mic in a plaid shirt, and a fedora that he pulled down nearly over his face. You could hear how scared that he was, but he was doing it.

I hope that he see this. If you are his friend, could you send him a message for me? I looked for him afterwards but couldn't find him.

Dear 22 year old:
I want you to know that even though you are terrified, you are so brave. You've already accomplished more in your short years, than I could ever muster the bravery to do myself at 42 years old. I'll live vicariously through you... or maybe you'll inspire me. Maybe we'll meet by accident on campus some day.

Best of luck to you always,
Lana

Andy..... Opie.... Dinnertime!! It's apple pie time.

I kind of have this obsession with small town America. I'm searching desperately for the perfect small rural town. You know, it has a little grocery store, but you can still get fancy cheeses. It has more businesses "up town" than "down town". The algebra teacher has 7 students in her advanced class and most people sleep not only with their door unlocked, but probably standing wide open too.

It also needs to be warm there in the winter.

So that rules out the perfect town (otherwise).
Nebraska City, Nebraska.

I love this place. It feels like 1967 - only without racial unrest. I totally expect Andy and Opie to come around the corner any moment and Aunt Bea following them with a fresh baked cherry pie.

It's also home to Arbor Day Farms so that means the scenery is pretty nice. But what's more important is the wine. Yeah... like.. booze. They make the best Apple wine on the planet and so we decided we'd make the trek there over the weekend to get a couple bottles -which kind of turned into a case of wine.

I feel like such a lush.

My favorite part of Neb City is main street. It's very long - about 6 -7 blocks long and hardly any empty storefronts. Not just chiropractors and insurance salesmen either (apologies to those ppl). It has lots of cute shops like gift shops and antique stores, but it doesn't FEEL like they are catering to tourists.

I think they have caught on, to the feel that they are putting out there as these murals have appeared on the ends of some of their buildings. Old looking advertisements painted right onto the brick.

Arbor Day farms is on the edge of town, and so beautiful.

It doesn't, however, look like the above photo right now. heh. I kind of doctored the fall leaves in because I missed most of it last year.

We hurried to the lodge because the serve really great food there and we wanted to make lunch. However, we didn't plan ahead very well, and had to go 45 miles in the WRONG DIRECTION. There's no place to cross the Missouri river between St. Joseph, Mo, and Omaha.

Really.

That's like a 3 hour drive between those two locations as the crow flies. It took a 1.5 hour trip, and turned it into a 3.25 hour trip.

We still went!
(we really like wine)

I had the bison burger and Gene had the Reuben sandwich. Both were excellent, and I don't even really like reubens!

We hung out, antique shopped, bought a case of wine - which was half filled with their new apple pie wine. (Think flavorful apples with a cinnamon kicker.. mmm... warm).

See you soon Nebraska City. As soon as you figure out that -20 deg in January issue, I'm in.