Paint can be a friend and an enemy

So I have been trying to figure out what to do with the walls in our spare bedroom. It is driving me crazy that I can't paint them. All of the walls in the house are white as rice and so plain. You can only hang up so many pictures. We are renting a house at the moment so I have to accept the no painting rule. So my creative mind has been running wild with options. I was in Bed Bath and Beyond the other day and found these white flowers that you can hang all over the walls. You can put them in whatever shape you wish and wherever you wish. The only thing is they are WHITE. I have truly come to hate this color. It doesn't speak to you and it is just boring when it does. But my mind was at ease when I decided I can paint them!

So off to Hobby Lobby I go. I find the exact color I want: paprika. It's a reddish orange and it will go perfect with the motif in the bedroom. I love having an art project and seeing the outcome is the only thing I can think about. So I get home and start my magic.

I get three really big cardboard boxes and lay them all flat outside. I take one flower and spray paint it to see what it will look like. Nothing gets me more excited than when a piece of art looks exactly as I pictured it my mind. It was perfect! So I start spraying all 25 flowers. All different sizes and shapes and they are looking SO good. I get so wrapped up in this stuff, I don't realize my surroundings. After I have sprayed all of the flowers and paint about 40 coats onto the cardboard, I realize in horror that this whole time I have been spraying something else as well: our fake grass.

Yes, FAKE grass. Here in El Paso, having a green grass lawn is about as hopeful as the FSU baseball team winning the World Series. So our landlord bought fake grass for the back yard. It looks really nice and feels like the real deal. But you see, it cost him a fortune. And he is a very meticulous and very gay landlord that expects everything to be where he wants it and how he wants it. And I have apparently just sprayed a HUGE strip of ORANGE paint down the side of his very green, very expensive fake grass.

I go through three stages: First denial. What is that? Who did that? Then panic: I am such an IDIOT! My husband is going to KILL ME! And lastly, acceptance: I am going to have to pay to have this stupid golf course redone! I don't have any money! My husband is going to KILL ME!

So I quickly hit up Google as to what to do with unwanted spray paint. I find that most people suggest this stuff called Goof Off. I personally would have named it something else but I am sure the stores would not have found it appropriate for their shelves. So I speed to Home Depot and find this stuff. I grab it and head home.

I am standing over this horrendous orange spot and staring at this can of supposedly miracle spray. I am looking at it and having a full on conversation with it. "Listen, if you don't work like you promise you do, then I am going to be homeless and you are going directly to the dumpster. That is MY promise!" So I send up a little prayer and start spraying. I have a rag and I just start scrubbing. At first I start to panic. It's not working!! It's still orange! But then I notice the rag. It is also orange. This has to mean some of it is coming up. So I keep scrubbing. And little by little, the orange grass starts turning green. Pretty soon the spot is completely gone. I can't believe it! It worked! My husband is NOT going to kill me and I just saved myself a trip to the dumpster.

So my flowers are all painted orange and thanks to Goof Off, they are the only thing painted orange. I still haven't hung them up because of course they did not come with nails, so I have to go get some. As soon as the room is done, I will post pictures of the finished project. I think when it is all done, it will look really good. Let's just hope I won't have to use Goof Off anymore. I do owe a lot to that little can but really, the name is still stupid.