Neigh Neigh: Color for my Mantel

Yesterday was a blast spent with my Dad in Phoenix. We grabbed breakfast at Coco's, wandered antique stores, found some neat pieces, and later ate some ice cream at Mary Coyles. Looks like I'm going to have to find another way to get 80% butter-fat ice cream, since Mary Coyles is betraying us all closing its doors for good this month. After having so much fun yesterday, can you believe I didn't take a single picture? Thanks for a fun-despite-being-pictureless day, Dad!

I decided to stop at the giant Goodwill on my way home. I had never been inside this store and wanted to see if I could get lucky with a furniture score. No such luck came my way, but I did find a pretty vase for $7.99 and an awesome porcelain horse head for $14.99. Neat pieces, but I'm not about to spend such money on spray-painting victims. Then, a magical voice came over the loudspeaker and announced that it was half-price-green-sticker-day! Just for kicks and giggles, I went back to check the two things I liked...and they both had green stickers! The Spray Painting Gods smiled down upon me, and these two items were soon sitting next to me on my drive home after forking over a whole eleven dollars.

Unfortunately, it was too hot to spray them when I pulled into the garage. The spray can suggests painting in temperatures between 50 and 90 degrees, but we reached our first triple digits yesterday at 101. I didn't want to risk a bad finish, so I patiently waited until this morning to crank out the ol' trusty cans of spray paint. In addition to Rustoleum's "Lagoon" color for the vase, I used their "Eden" green for the horse head. It's the same green as my lamps in the living room, and I am tickled that everything seems to be falling together. It's unintentionally intentional.

This morning, bright and early, while Hubby slaved away shoveling gravel and cleaned the pool, I squealed with delight at watching my new horse and vase transform!

I left the vase wicker exposed and liked it. I love bringing natural elements into a room. However, after I added the yellow flowers, the wicker just didn't match. A few moments later, the additional coats on the vase were dry and the entire piece was now "Lagoon." I like it much better against the pop of yellow from the flowers.

It's fun to see so much bright color when I look at this end of the house. I really like how the homemade lamp and vase are the same color and play well together. Animal busts are so popular right now, but I just don't have a thing for rhinoceros. Horses? Now that's something I can paint and proudly display in my house!

Luckily, I'm headed to work next week. Canada, here I come! It will keep me out of stores and prevent any painting from taking place. It will be so much fun when we have an area rug, love seat, and ottoman in this corner for a reading nook. Hubby will be building a new mantel this fall when it starts to cool down. For now, the pops of color add so much to the whole house. I like it. So there.