Spring Decor

Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all those who celebrated holidays this weekend. I hope you had a wonderful time with your loved ones. The Easter bunny came to our house and left behind some treats. He brought those Cadbury caramel eggs just for me.

Okay, we couldn't find the Easter basket but this one works, right?

So I decided not long ago that our house was in need of a little spring decor and I was in a painting kind of mood. So I headed to Michaels since I'd gotten a 20% off your entire purchase coupon. I picked up this little bird house for a couple bucks:

I painted it with two layers of basic $.70 white paint. I did this because I had some special Martha Stewart paints I'd purchased that I wanted to use and I didn't want to waste them doing a whole bunch of coats.

I ended up being really disappointed with the Martha Stewart paints. Part of it was my fault (I thought I'd bought the super shiny paint which I later realized was the pearl kind not the shine) but I'd say it was mostly 'hers'. The glitter paint is NOT glitter paint. It's pretty much water with glitter in it instead of paint with glitter in it. There's no way you'd be able to paint something the color the bottle on its own and have it be a sparkly blue. It's just clear. I had to do a base color paint and then put glitter over it. Very disappointed with that, especially since they're about $3 a bottle. I will NOT be repeating this purchase.

Overall, it's still nice and springy. The colors for the birdhouse were brighter than I was expecting. I think they look different than what the bottle portrays.

And a birdhouse isn't complete without a little birdy. I found this baby in the clearance section for $2.99. I didn't like the color so I brought it home for a paint job. Here's my 'oh no I forgot to take a before picture!' picture.

 

I coated the bird in pink and used Martha shine pink paint on the wings and tail. Here you can see the subtle difference between the two.

Then I added white paint along the raised part. I kind of wish I'd just left it the way it was. It looked better in my mind.

I then added a little glitter and covered the whole bird in mod-podge. I have the glossy kind so the bird lost the distinction in its wing which I had really liked. Oh well. It needed it! Otherwise the paint would have come off easily.

Another view of our springy entrance.

Spring is certainly in full spring here (hopefully it will stay that way and not plummet to 30 degrees again). I spent the weekend doing yard work and putting a fence up around the garden. Hopefully it will keep those pesky groundhogs out otherwise we give up!