The Girl with the Flying Stripeze

Welcome to my new blog, which focuses on, among other things, taking something your mother would have probably thrown out on the curb and giving it a new purpose in life. I have certainly made my share of lamps out of wine bottles (not really, that was so 1960) but I have made them out of cowboy boots, bird cages, statuettes and barb wire (yes, really). Being very right-brained, I can happily visualize using forks and spoons as kitchen cabinet handles and Caribbean colanders as wall art. I also love to strip off old paint or stain and get out my electric sander to uncover the hidden beauty of an old breakfront or chair.  A room that needs a little facelift, or better yet, an entire house, is my idea of heaven.

When thinking about what to call my blog I decided against anything with the term "DIY" in it, even though that would come up on lots of Google searches. I did, however, think maybe using some type of technical term in the main title would show my dedication to professionalism, integrity and saving the planet. Naturally, this lead to using the word "strip" as part of the title since of course, anyone who re-purposes or re-finishes furniture knows all about paint stripper. I have to say at this point, however, that when I ran the new title past one of my siblings, her response was "Well, one plus is that it will probably attract a lot of traffic from people Googling 'stripper' and some of those people may also be into home improvement." Truer words were never spoken. Next, I came up with several "test" titles for my blog, including "The Near-Sighted Stripper" (potential danger here as being un-PC to anyone with vision issues), or "The Strypeze Artist" but fearing trade mark infringement issues could take me down before I even got started this went into the bin, too. Eventually, I came up with "The Girl With the Flying Stripeze" not because I have a secret desire to join the circus (clowns are my worst nightmare) but as an ode to those of us who love to create, fix, build, strip (old paint or stain, that is), wallpaper or otherwise make something look better, newer, prettier or more functional without spending a load of cash. 

So, while waiting to see how many pervy home improvement followers my blog title will attract, I will close by inviting all of you to stay tuned for my next post, which will highlight my newly-decorated / slightly re-modeled kitchen project. Thanks for reading and please come back in a couple of days.

Chairs,

Gigi