A very easy DIY

Earlier this week, my fireplace REALLY started to annoy me. It's so dated! And so brassy! And so brick! Ugh. Must be fixed ASAP! And quickly and cheaply. (Did you know new fireplace doors cost, like, $300!?!?! And, that's on the low end. Yikes!) I needed something cheaper than that. (Sorry for the bad pics...camera phone.)

So, I did a bit of googling & found Centsational Girl's blog where she talks about an easy way to fix the brass issue. It seemed easy enough! The next day I bought a can of Rustoleum's Ultra High Heat black spray paint & painted the doors. I chose to do spray paint rather than painting with a brush because of the air vents (or whatever they are) above just above and below the doors. The hardest part was covering up the brick so it didn't get painted glossy black as well.

I'm very happy with the result and think it definitely helps bring the fireplace into more modern times!

Time investment? Maybe 45 mins plus drying time
Money investment? $7.50 for the paint (& I have gobs leftover)
Satisfaction? High

Now I just have to decide what to do with the brick... Any suggestions? (I'm thinking about this or this.)

I'm ready for fall

I'm ready for jeans.

I'm ready for boots.

I'm ready for long sleeves.

I'm ready for sweatshirts.

I'm ready for socks.

I'm ready to see people wearing scarves (I don't wear scarves because I play with them too much. i.e. I twirl them around like I'm a hooker waiting for a john, & that's just not a good look for a middle-aged professional.)

I'm ready for Dog Breath to light a fire in the fireplace.

I'm ready for it to start getting dark a little earlier (not at 5:00, though...that's too early for it to be dark).

I'm ready to put out the fall decorations (fortunately my dead petunias on the front porch will fit right in!)

C'mon Fall!

I don't watch the news

For one thing, it's too depressing. For another thing, I have so many questions and the journalists don't answer them.

For example, there's a story right now about some politician who went skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee a year ago while on some sort of political trip. OK. So, if this happened a year ago, why are we just now hearing about it? And, if it happened a whole year ago, why are we hearing about it? It was a year ago! Let it go! And, did everyone in the group take off their clothes & jump in or was it just him? And, if it was just him...why on earth would you do such a thing?!?!? And, since it happened so long ago, why didn't anyone say anything about it before now? You know that there HAVE to be pictures when someone is skinny dipping there! Was it a dare? What was he thinking? Did anyone else jump in with him? Did they point & laugh? Was it cold?

See, these are all questions that the newscasters don't answer. I could probably research it & find out, but I find that I just don't care enough.

Then, there's this other political story about Romney asking Akin to drop out of his race for whatever he's running for. OK, so Akin put his foot in his mouth (big-time). [But, he's apologized for it & asked forgiveness. In my experience, that's pretty humbling & I've only had to do it one-on-one, not to a whole nation. I've also said things that came out the wrong way, so I think they should give the guy a break & stop villifying him.] So, here are my questions: Has Romney never said anything he didn't mean? Has Romney never mis-spoke? Why is Romney getting involved? It's not going to matter much to him if this guy wins or not. And, if Akin & Romney both wins, it seems to me like there would be some bad blood between the two of them....not how I would want to start my term as president.

My first post

Yippee!