Ok, but first coffee.

When I was in New York City last week, my daughter was dying to find the Brandy Melville store.  All week long she asked.  PLEASE?? CAN WE GO TO SOHO TODAY??  I had no idea what all the hype was, but by our last afternoon, we found ourselves with some free time, so off to Soho we went.  And that, dear reader is where I found my personal mantra t-shirt.  I will be wearing this well, and often.  Be prepared.

Are there holes in that t-shirt, Kim?  Why yes, friend.  There are.  I paid for a torn t-shirt.  Which I'm certain has my big sister and my mom rolling their eyes.  I just COULDN'T leave it sitting there in Brandy Melville.

Trip. Made.

And so!  After coffee yesterday, I went to work on one of our exterior projects.  We are adding shutters to the front of the house, so I needed to paint!  I will save my complaints about how much my right arm hurts today and move on to the good stuff.

I love to make wood door signs.  But a carpenter, I am not.  Nor is the Mister.  So we needed to find a way to buy some wood shutters and that's when Mr. Mister got online and started surfing (he's good at that, you know).  He found a company called Architectural Depot.  This place sells shutters of all sizes and styles. And what he found was a less expensive alternative to wood.  They are composite shutters.  They have poured a composite material into a wood mold, so the look is a thick grainy wood texture.  All you have to do is paint them.  Or buy them already painted, whatever!

Well we bought the board and batten style.  They needed to be pretty tall, so this was a perfect solution for us.  And yesterday the Mister set up my horses and I got to work on the first coat of paint.

How do your arms hurt so much, Kim?  You ONLY PAINTED TWO SHUTTERS.  Well!  Let me tell YOU!  Those fake grooves are DEEP, people!  And it was hard work!  So I took 4 ibuprofen and called it done.

But the Mister doesn't like to leave projects half done, so when he saw that I was giving up early, he set out to work.  Work!  Who! Knew!  HE CAN PAINT!  Amazing.

see that hard work?  i love it.  and it's saving my arm.

the whole shabang.  looks like real wood to me!

a close up.  real-like! no?

And I leave you with a teaser.  It's the family room off the kitchen!  It's mustard yellow!  And it's turning Sherwin-Williams Seal Salt soon!  Very soon.

And for the record, don't think for a minute that this fireplace is staying the same.  The tile there on the face is the same tile on the kitchen floor.  And you know how much I love that tile.  So think bigger, dear reader.  Think travertine.  Think stacked stone.  Imagine the possibilities.