DIY Cement Garden “Hands”

At first, I was a scared little girl when it came to working with cement. It seemed so permanent and could be a colossal waste of time if I screwed it up. Which I do often. Then, I had an epiphany. Cement is no different than cookie dough-other than the whole edibility issue.

So, I opened up the creative floodgates and made a cement hand (or two). This little hand will be perfect holding birdseed, or just adding a little pinache to my flower beds. And it cost almost nothing to make.

Here’s all that you’ll need to make your very own cement hand:
Bucket and access to water
Rubber gloves
Sand/Topping mix
Hand shovel or garden trowel
Cooking oil and paintbrush

Pour a cup or two of the Sand/Topping Mix into a bucket. Add a little water and begin to mix-just like cookie dough!

The cement needs to be the consistency of thick dough. Do a test by pushing a little to the side of the bucket-if it stays in place pretty well, it’s thick enough. If it slumps right back down, you’ll need to add a little more of the Sand/Topping Mix.

Turn a rubber glove inside out and pour a tablespoon into it. Clamp the end of the glove and give it a good shake, until the whole glove is coated inside with oil.

Fill the inside out rubber glove with cement, squeezing it to the tips of each finger.

Prop up the fingers into the desired shape and let dry overnight.

Once the cement hand is completely dry, remove the rubber glove carefully by cutting and removing sections a little at a time.

That’s it-you’re done! Easy as making cookies, wasn’t it?

 

You now have a one of a kind art piece with which to decorate your garden, your fireplace mantle or even use it to hold your business cards at work.

Take that, normalcy!

The Master Bathroom Remodel-Part Deux

You’ll want to check out the Master Bathroom-Part Uno before jumping into this. You need to be prepared. And if you really want to be prepared, check out what I did with the adjoining Master Bedroom.
So, go-I’ll wait for you. But please, do come back.

Yeah! You’re back-I am assuming you have done what you were told and aren’t being naughty at this point. However, if you are being naughty, I know the feeling…
This is what I started with-a green room with absolutely no appeal, nothing, nada. Boring.

And this is where I left you in the Master Bathroom-Part Uno. Biceps was on tour without me (very sad) and I was being sneaky and remodeling the bathroom. I changed the wall color from green to a deep gray. The concrete floor and both vanities had been stripped of their old concrete stain. I painted the countertops canary yellow using garage floor paint. All the difficult steps are finished-now, it’s time to decorate!

I found Harold (the horse) at an antique store in Jenks, Ok for $10. This was Harold’s first car ride. As you can see, Harold was very happy to come home with me.

Using Harold as inspiration, I began to amass several large and small frames-all of which I spray painted a high gloss white. I hung the empty glossy white frames on the gray bathroom walls, making them pop.

I found a chandelier at an antique shop for $15. For safety’s sake, I rewired it first. Armed with a can of gold spray paint, I repainted it and then antiqued it. I then watered down some leftover high-gloss black paint, and used a rag to rub the watered down black over the gold to antique it.
Next, I found a brother-in-law that came free with my marriage to my husband. He aided me in the electrical portion of my bathroom remodel. After determining the spot we wanted to hang the chandelier from, he went to work-cutting, wiring, and hanging.

I got to do the fun stuff associated with chandeliers-hanging sparkly crystals in the appropriate areas. I scavenged discarded chandeliers from other projects to come up with what you see here. Before hanging them, I first cleaned them with vinegar and water to really make them sparkle.

Since I was on my own when it came time to hang the frames, I needed a ladder, some dexterity and a lot of good balancing. And 911 ready on speed dial.

Harold witnessed me almost fall (more than once), but he just sat there and whinnied…jerk.

The three dimensional bird and branch motif that are hanging above the mirror, I snagged at our local flea market for a couple of bucks and spray painted them also high gloss white.

We’ll probably lay tile on the concrete floor at some point in the future, but for now, just the stain being gone is wonderful. If you hadn’t read in my earlier post, the “stain” decided not to stain the concrete and kept coming off in chunks and sticking to our little footsies.

Hope you enjoyed my new changes around my old house.
Harold (the horse) seems to be loving his new home, and so am I. I can hardly wait for Biceps to see it.

The Master Bathroom Remodel-Part Uno

While Bicep’s was away on tour, I got a wild hair to remodel our Master Bedroom and Bathroom. We’ve never lived in one of our houses long enough to want to “remodel our remodel”. After only 3 years of living in our “Current Remodel“, it seemed a little ridiculous to remodel, but the green we chose for both the Master Bed and the Master Bath had to go.

In the beginning, we loved the green. Then I began to loathe it.

Nothing matched it. Nothing. Notice how bare this room is of any accessories? This is after 3 years of living in this house. No rugs, no paintings on the wall, no warmth.

(Sorry for the quality of the photo-this picture was taken with my phone and I forget to up the anty and pull out the fancy camera).
I taped off all the areas I knew I would slop paint on, vacuumed all cobwebs, rolled up my shirt sleeves and got to work. I chose a deep gray paint that would compliment the purple I had just painted in the adjoining Master Bedroom.

We had spent an arm and a leg “staining” our concrete. The staining process didn’t work and we aren’t sure why. The stain did take in another bathroom in our house. Just not this one. And the “stain” would stick to our feet, our shoes and our kitty cat paws anytime we would walk through the bathroom.
The stain was a pain.
It, much like the green paint color, needed to go.

Using a wall scraper, elbow grease and a few choice words, the concrete “stain” was removed.

The stain on the sink vanity and my makeup area was removed with a very technical procedure of placing packing tape on the surface of the vanity and removing the tape-along with most of the stain. I had to scrape the stubborn areas with the wall scraper, too.

Next came El Diablo-Muriatic Acid-to clean the newly scraped concrete. Diluting the acid with water, I scrubbed the floor armed with chemical safe rubber gloves and eye protection. I don’t mess about. I taped off and saran wrapped anything the acid might touch-including, don’t laugh, my shoes. Probably overkill, but again…I don’t mess about.

With the concrete clean and dry, the next phase of the remodel was to paint the vanities. And it was about to get kuh-razy.

I chose a canary yellow concrete paint-made for garage floors, porches and patios-to brighten the lives of my two vanities.

I used a foamy brush and applied four coats of the concrete paint, allowing it to dry according to what the can told me to do.

I was a little shocked at first with how bright the yellow was. However, I had a plan. I will be adding accessories to compliment the gray and yellow motif going on here. It’s all part of my master plan. I will soon post Master Bathroom Remodel-Part Deux-don’t you worry.

Purty Concrete Leave

On a recent trip to the north, I was able to see what my fabulously crafty in-law’s were up to.
The evidence of their creativity had taken over their entire basement floor.

My creative in-laws scour the countryside, looking for just the right leaves for their projects.
(My coffee mug was included to show the size and also for sips in between shots.)

Using real leaves, they mold the concrete mixture around the leaf and let it dry. This is one before it’s painted.

My mother-in-law has the patience to painstakingly hand paint each one. She has a gift for patience that I am striving towards.

The colors she chooses are stunning…

…eye-catching…

…and gorgeous. I am so impressed with what these two lovely people can create. I would argue that their best creation, however, was Biceps…but then again, I am a little biased.