86'n It

(Although, on second thought, the heat gun might be really good white noise. Hmmm...)

When we painted the fireplace originally, we just painted the whole thing and the look has been bugging me lately. It is just so flat and I figured out why. The actual fire place needs to be dark, duh!

Now, let me state a disclaimer here: I am normally not a fan of painting brick fireplaces, but we painted ours because the old owner had painted the red brick, you got it: brick red (yeah - because THAT makes sense.) Anyway, I need to add to this disclaimer that I also normally do not advocate painting the inside of your fireplace IF you burn your wood directly inside of it. We can't burn wood directly inside the fireplace (it is too shallow and the flue isn't made for it), so it is ok for us to paint the inside.

Looks much better right? This fall when we get our awesome fireplace insert, this will all be irrelevant, but you know how I like instant satisfaction and short term fixes. :)

And because I know you want it, some Franca:

Isn't she getting big?? And here she is taking control of dad's hands. (When she gets really worked up, we use a finger to soothe her.) And yes, I am obsessed with PJs with animal feet!