Today’s post is going to seem totally out of context for January. I started this small makeover last summer and I never shared it with you guys because quite honestly, I just wasn’t all that happy with the results back then.
But let’s start at the beginning.
I purchased one of these hand shaped signs quite a few years ago online.
I’m willing to bet that many of you have seen one of these yourself. I think they might have been offered by Decor Steals at one time, and I also see them now and again at local boutiques. They were a mass produced, reproduction sort of a thing. One of those things that look really cool in photos, but under closer inspection they look a bit fake-y.
Anyway, I attached mine to the photo cottage and it looked pretty good there … at first.
However, the problem with buying something like this online is that pictures can be deceiving. This looks like something that can be used outside, right? And it looks like it’s paint on metal.
Well, that was not the case. It is metal, but the design is printed on paper that was glued to the metal. The photo above was taken in 2017 and the hand was starting to look a bit shabby then, despite my spraying it with a clear sealer every spring.
Flash forward to spring 2020, and the hand now looked like this …
Yep, not good at all.
So I decided it was more than time for a refresh.
I took it down, sanded all of the paper off and gave it a paint job using Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.
Then I decided to decorate one side with some transfers, and the other with a stencil to see which I liked best. I started with the stencil …
Nope, don’t like that look at all.
So I tried some transfers on the other side …
Nope. That look isn’t really working for me either.
So recently I took it down again and started over. I sanded off the transfer, and decided to go back to black. So I painted it again, this time with Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.
Then I searched through all of my stencils (and I do have quite a few) and I simply couldn’t find anything that I thought would be perfect for the hand. So I went online and looked around to see what I could purchase. I ended up ordering the Fresh Honey stencil from Wallcutz that I shared a couple of weeks ago on the small chair.
It was a perfect fit for the hand. Well, at least the way I placed it.
I placed the bottom portion of wording vertically, and the rest of it fit perfectly on the palm of the hand.
I’ll admit, I still don’t love this as much as the original look. But I do like it much more than the first two refurbishments I tried.
I took the photo above the Sunday before Christmas and as you can see we had no snow.
According to MPR, we have around a 70% chance of having a white Christmas each year in the Twin Cities. I really thought we were going to be in that other 30% this year, but at the last minute (December 23) we got around 5″ of snow during the Holiday Lights Howler (LOL, they just love coming up with clever names for storms, don’t they?) so we had a white Christmas after all.
I have to admit I have mixed feelings about the snow. I do think it’s really beautiful, and I love nothing more than cozying up on the sofa with a warm blanket while watching it fall. A layer of white snow on the ground also really brightens up the dark nights, especially if there is a clear sky and a full moon. I also like how much more quiet my neighborhood gets when there is a little snow on the ground, I don’t know if that’s because the snow dampens sound or if people just don’t go out in it, or maybe it’s a little bit of both.
However, spending most of November and December without snow sure made me realize how much easier it was to get around without it. I could still get to things I had stored in the photo cottage without having to drag out my boots.
So how about you? Are you a fan of snow, or do you consider it a four letter word?