So how do *you* spell “relief”?

Unlike most people, I find stripping wallpaper to be a form of stress relief.  I know I’m weird.  But when it’s easy, it’s really quite satisfying…

Not the ugliest wallpaper, but it's time for a change.

I put this wallpaper up myself, about ten years ago.  And now it’s falling down.  I know it was put up properly – well, aside from the falling down bit…at least the walls were prepped correctly before it went up – so I know it won’t be hard to get it off.  So, in a fit of nervous energy I started ripping off the printed top layer.

Why yes, that was fun!

This corner (plus a bit – the bathroom is too tiny to stand in and take pictures) took all of 5 minutes, including the part where I went and got a trash bag after realizing the bathroom trash can was way too tiny.

Bare walls. Much better!

And then about 15 minutes later this corner looked like this.  (Really, spray the adhesive backing with warm water, wait a minute or two, pick up a corner and it comes off in big strips.  Easy-peasy.)  There are some rough patches on the walls, and I had forgotten about those…taking off the wallpaper that was in here a decade ago was *not* such an easy task, and the walls have some battle scars.  (Believe me, it was worth removing that wallpaper.  It was beyond ugly.  Four shades of tan clouds dotted with black seagulls.  I think I took pictures, but it was actually on film (what’s that?) and I’d have to go dig them out of a box somewhere.)

I’m contemplating adding some texture to the paint to hide the imperfections.

(Oh, and Denis, if you’re reading this, I promise the bathroom will still be in working order when you get home!  You had to know if you left the country for a whole week and left me in charge of girls and dogs I’d do something crazy like this, right?)

Bubble Prints

Or, how to get paint everywhere in just a few easy steps…

Paint Pie?

We used a combination of these instructions and these.  So we put a layer of bubble solution (maybe 2-3 Tbsp?  I didn’t measure) and paint (1 Tbsp? -ish?)  in the cups.  I poked pinholes in the straws (note that this was not as effective as promised and Anna managed to suck up a bit of the paint & bubble stuff mixture at one point…non-toxic, right?)  Then the girls stirred everything up and started blowing bubbles into the tins.

For once I'm actually *letting* her blow bubbles!
A pile of purple paint-y bubbles.
A bubble print!

We got lots and lots of paint-filled bubbles.  And some really neat prints!  Because of the “sucking the paint up the straw” fiasco, I wound up doing most of the bubble blowing to avoid any other bubble drinking accidents.

Popping paint bubbles. Messy fun!
We combined some colors for extra-unique prints.
A red & orange bubble print.

When we’d had enough of having to clean out the pie tins to make more prints, the girls dug out the paint brushes and some more paper and did a bit more traditional painting.

A foundation for a house.
Anna loves colors!
Gleefully painting!

Clean fun?  Not really – the blowing paint-y bubbles bit got little (washable) paint splatters everywhere.  But good fun?  Yes.  Yes, indeed.