Time off, Projects, Paint etc

*** this post is from  6 weeks ago.... turns out I never published it. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I forgot about, maybe never really finished it, not really too sure. Either way here it is, 6 weeks late I guess. Or did I publish it and now I just duplicated a post? Who cares, I'm really pregnant and anything goes and everyone understands...at least those who have been in my shoes does.***

At  33 weeks pregnant, it gets difficult doing many things. Things such as walking at a normal pace, breathing, or not peeing while doing the previous two to the best of my ability. But I am still able to craft and work on some DIY projects. And now that I'm on Mat leave, I have a little bit more time also. 

Our house number and mailbox were placed most inconveniently on our house. When there is mail in our mailbox, the lid of the mailbox hides our house number, but it's nearly impossible to get the mail out of the mailbox because of the light hanging in the way above the mailbox.  I want to change the whole front side of our house but for a start, I changed the house number display.

First I cut some planks and nailed them together for a base, which I stained using homemade wood stain

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side recipe:
home made wood stain:

place metals of your choice into vinegar. different metals create different colours. Coppers create a bluish green stain while iron creates a redish-brownish colour. I used iron shavings from my dad's workshop, and added old coffee grounds to darken it a bit. Let this mixture sit for about a week. You might want to seal this stain once it has been applied to avoid residue from rubbing off onto clothing.

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Next I found n image of a key silhouette, printed it out, taped it onto the wood, and then traced it with a pen to create an imprint of it onto the planks. I then traced in filled in the imprinted image with my wood burning tool. 

I removed the numbers from the house so that I can reuse them and nailed them onto the board.

 My only mistake in this project, is that I should have bought a new "7", since mine looks too much like my "1"

I also decided that the orange doors in my kitchen, though a bold statement, never really satisfied my style. so I changed the colour to a minty blue-green. Opinions?

this was the colour before.

the new colour.