Shut the Front Door!

It's been over 6 weeks since my last post.  Daang.  Sorry for the random break from blogging.  The past month and a half has been a slew of heartbreak, mother nature showing her fury, and a much needed vacation. 

So my apologies for being MIA!  Let's get back into it.

The front porch needed a lot of help.  Although, we haven't completely finished it, I think we've come a LONG way.  Starting with the light fixure next to the front door.  It was lacking that modern look we were going for.  So instead of forking over the $80 to replace it with the one we liked at Home Depot, we decided to try some of our famous spray paint.

We used masking tape to cover the glass on the lights.  After covering the glass, we used a carton cutter to cut off the excess around the edges.  Time consuming = yes, but a must-do.

Drum roll please...

It's definitely a vast improvement over what it looked like!
Now the reason for the name of this post. 

Our front door was a sun faded maroon.  And as you can see, I took the 'before' picture after I had already started.  Oops, my mistake.  You might as well get used to those.  ;P

Below  is a picture of the house before we purchased it.  For those of you that follow this little blog, I spoke about us painting the exterior a couple of months ago.  It's mostly done, but there is  still some trimwork to do which is why I haven't posted the 'after' pics yet.  So, here is the not so appealing picture before we moved in,  trimmed the bushes and painted the front door.  You wouldn't know that though, since you can't even see the door past that monster bush.  Owell.

The steps and front porch weren't painted, they weren't much of anything 'cept a hot mess. 

So for the porch, we painted it a dark grey with white trim for the steps. 

As for the door, I heart* a red door on a yellow house, so we went with a barnyard red from Sherwin Williams.  I couldn't be happier! 

 I feel like I bunched a lot into one little post. I hope it wasn't too confusing! 
Welcome back, loves!

I'll leave you with a picture of the hubs and me in San Francisco while we were on vaca last week.  :)

Traveling Treasures Mason Jars

If you're like us and you not only love to travel, but you love to pick up nick-nacks from your destinations, then you probably have a few pieces scattered around your house.  We always get an ornament for our Christmas tree, but we also pick up random things that catch our eye while on vacation.

In an effort to organize and use some Mason Jars that I just bought a case of, I made these "Traveling Treasures Mason Jars".  I think I've seen something similar to this in an old Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

You can find Mason Jars at any craft store.  I bought a case of 12, surprisingly, at Big Lots for under 8 bucks. 

What I needed:  My traveling treasures, Krylon Fusion paint in Satin White and a mason jar.  Start by removing the caps.

 The Krylon spray paint is awesome.  You don't have to prep, sand or prime prior to using.  I did a second coat after the first dried.

Then I got all our goodies from our trip to Jamaica, where Matt proposed, together. 

You can laugh at the Bob Marley rolling paper - of course we had to buy that! Our bellhop even tried to sell us some illegal substances and I'm not just talking marijuana.  Most people believe that Mary-Jane is legal in Jamaica, but in fact it is NOT. And you can get arrested there just like you'd get arrested here. Except its far more scary.

We also have a Jamaican $50 bill and some change.   It's probably about $1.65 in US money 'cause, ya know, we roll in the Jamaican dough.  You'll also find our plane tickets and the flag from Ricks cafe, one of the top 10 bars in the world. The locals cliff dive right there at the bar, right next to the sign warning you to jump at your own risk and "spinal injury may occur". Yeah... that's happening.

 I also did one from our trip to Hawaii.  I have more to do, but this was a good start.

I'm offically in love with mason jars.  They have so many different uses and are so inexpensive.  I hope I don't turn into the weird "mason jar lady" with random jars scattered through the house and even making it outside.  Pray for me.

PS if you say "Beer Can" with an English accent, it sounds like "Bacon" in Jamaiican.  Random and awesome.