YO-HO-HO! This was not a planned DIY. This is a DIY that sprung from a sassy combination of three things: need, need + total visual snobbery. I'm classy like that. I have a collection of strollers because I have a collection of small people. Let me tell you - it is far easier to dash in to a busy store with a small umbrella stroller than to carry a chubby baby on your hop, a diaper bag slung messenger style and with two free-range kitties in tow. Oooops, I mean kids. I have a complex knowledge of which situations require what kind of stroller. I also have an appreciation for aesthetic. And an accountant husband. And some itchy DIY muscles.
And that is how I ended up at the ME-SO-CLASSY DIY...
STEP1: Get a serious flat tire on your rocking Phil&Ted Vibe stroller in which new inner tubes are on order but not here yet (thanks CanadaPost strike).
STEP2: Pull your rusted three year old umbrella stroller out of the garage and pretend you don't notice when pieces of nuts and bolts fall to the ground - because I'm classy like that.
STEP3: Put your baby in the stroller and GAWK as it splits in half.
STEP4: Abruptly stop laughing when she looks up at you with a distinct WTF?
STEP5: Head to Zellers! (for the US readers it's a not-quite Target equivalent)
STEP6: Buy the cheapest umbrella stroller you can find. Cringe because it's ugly.
STEP7: Put your baby in it for a funny photo opp.
STEP8: Understand on a cellular level that this is a tacky colour-combo stroller and the neon makes you feel slightly uncomfortable.
STEP9: Enlist in your best helpers and GET TO WORK!
STEP10: Head three steep flights of stairs to the studio hauling a baby, a stroller and your new shadow on the hottest (so far) day of the year. 33˚ (92F) outside = 39˚(103F) inside. Yowzaaaa!
STEP11: Shrug + pour paint.
STEP12: Mix up the perfect grey by haphazardly squirting cheap acrylic paint into an old yogurt container and then paint the parts of the stroller that are neon green.
STEP13: Love your decision and keep painting!
STEP14: Put Poet down for a nap.
STEP15: Paint on with the tunes turned high.
STEP16: Notice Normie looks bored. Take a break to go outside and play soccer with him.
STEP 17: LOVE how the changes worked on the seat of the stroller BUT TOTALLY HATE THE LOOK OF THE NEON GREEN still left on the canopy.
STEP18: Paint the canopy trim black and in the process DRIP on the canopy. Ooooooooops!
STEP19: Have a Corona + contemplate a solution.
STEP20: Sketch out a cute polar bear in chalk.
STEP21: Paint it up! (Still using regular cheap-ass acrylic paints)
STEP22: Blow your own mind trying to figure out how to take an artsy photo of yourself with your self-decided KICK-ASS stroller.
STEP23: Take a time out.
STEP24: Get TOTALLY distracted by the cutest baby IN THE WORLD. (Seriously. Have you seen cuteness like this? I can't take. it.)
STEP25: Enlist in your small people and husband to help.
STEP26: Sneak a behind-the-scenes photo for the internet.
STEP27: Bribe the children to cooperate.
STEP28: Gloat because the stroller turned out AWESOME and Dan said it was a silly idea.
STEP29: Do a victory dance.
STEP30: Let the girls go wild.
(This one's for you, baby.)
STEP31: Laugh.
STEP32: Love these little ladies.
STEP33: Laugh more because Norman rolled in poop and Dan freaked out.
STEP34: Standby as everyone melts down and goes inside.
STEP35: Take an artsy photo of the awesome DIY and pretty baby.
STEP36: Have another Corona with lime to celebrate on the front steps.
Boo.Yah! I call this taking a regular situation and making it designerly. I also call this making my husband eat CROW because even he could not deny that the results were pretty top-notch. Somewhere underneath that stealth work of art is a regular run-of-the-mill umbrella stroller. WHICH ONLY GOES TO SHOW YOU that expensive tastes need not be expensive. And beer tastes better with lime. ;)
Estimated time for this DIY: approximately 3 hours including the trip to Zellers.
Cost: $24.99 for the stroller and a couple of bucks for the beers.
WOW-factor: it's a proud-maker
Difficulty level: 3 if you don't make an oops and just paint the trim.
Frustration level: 1
Level of ease: I'm going to call it really easy (but that could be the Coronas talking).
Results: I really love it and will stroll this bad-boy through the malls and banks and quickie-trips like an effin' PEACOCK. SHAKING. MY. TAIL. FEATHERS. I have just talked my mom in to making a seat-pad out of plush white polar fleece to help add a pretty detail and soften the seat for my sweet little Poet.
Other good names for this DIY: Pimp-my-ride. Rags-to-riches. Beers+Bears. Ghetto-to-GRAND.
Stroll back up to the top of this post to compare the before and afters...
Today: we are on vacation way out West. We drove, and drove, and drove and now the girls are getting Baba and Grandpa time... which sort of just translates to HEAVEN for them. Grandpa built them an incredible treehouse complete with a slide. It's pretty amazing and we are very, very lucky to have family like this. AND my mom traded in her Folgers-in-a-can for fresh strong coffee while we are here so that Dan and I don't have to sneak off to Starbucks and can hang in the yard admiring all the awesome. LOVE. MY. FAMILY.
GO!
