Lemonade Crossing

So the boys' joint railroad party is sneaking up on me at a frightening pace. Slowly but surely I am getting decorations planned and ready to go for when the day arrives, but so far I still feel like I have miles to go. Which, unfortunately, isn't just a feeling... I seriously have miles to go.

So... I have a lot of pallet wood lying around and figured that I could use some of it in the decorations since it is, you know, free and all. And, since we plan on having lemonade, a lemonade sign was in order!

SO Lemonade Crossing it is!

Pallet wood painted yellow...

Lettering, all free handed since just about nothing about this party is stenciled or proper. For this party, being vintage railroad themed, I see beauty in the imperfections. The pennant banner with flags cut by hand, fraying and unmeasured, the twine, the railroad lantern with dents and scratches.... I want it to be old fashioned little boy. Barefoot, smudge of dirt on the cheek, hair unkempt... You get what I mean? I don't want "just so," I want "just right." For us, this is just right.

And then, beat up, stained, and sanded...

I love it. It looks as if it has been sitting in a shed for years collecting dust fending off little critters. This will be mounted on some sort of stand (still figuring that out) and put on the drink table. I have two large glass drink dispensers that we will be using along with a large metal drink tub. I'm thinking maybe old glass bottle cokes in the drink tub.... We will see!

One month from yesterday until the party and lots more to do! Wish me luck!

Add Stripper To My Resume...

Paint Stripper, that is.

I have had the stuff to tackle stripping the paint off of my transom for months now, but the warning label on the can seriously kind of freaked me out.

Fatal, Blindness, Skin Irritant, Eye Irritant, Chemical Resistant Gloves, Chemical Resistant Scraper....

There is a whole can full of warnings that made me somewhat intimidated... Especially since it comes in a can like spray paint and I had no clue what to expect as far as how the flow would be as it came out. Mist? Stream? Full on monsoon????

Needless to say, I was worried for nothing. It was super easy and somewhat made me feel like a daredevil. What can I say? I am a risk taker by nature. However, I did don the chemical resistant gloves. This risk taker isn't losing fingers over paint stripper.

So... Where were we?

Oh yes, the transom is sprayed. The flow was somewhat comparable to that of silly string, for those who may not have found their inner daredevil just yet, and easy to get onto the exact area you are pointing it at. A few minutes of bubbling...

And you are ready to scrape! I used a heavy duty, plastic scraper made especially for paint stripping. Or the big PS as I will now refer to it. You know, because I am a cool paint stripping daredevil now.

Once the scraping is done, it will be messy. Lots of bits of old paint and goo. Super yummy looking stuff. The can suggests a cloth or steel wool to clean off the goopy junk, I used a cloth to get the mess off and then after it dried (and the risk of losing a body part due to chemical exposure subsided somewhat), I used soapy water and a Brillo pad to clean it.

(Notice that there is still paint on my transom, the can recommends spraying and scraping repeatedly as needed for stubborn finishes. Since I am distressing this piece after it receives it's color, I didn't want to go to the bare wood)

It is hard to tell from this picture (especially since it was taken with my phone), but she is clean (as clean as I want her) and ready for some color! I am thinking turquoise-ish, distressed, with a dark walnut stain to top her off.

THEN.... Perhaps some lettering across the glass. I haven't quite figured out exactly WHAT lettering, but we will see!