Agnes' theme song..

So today was the day that Agnes got her color. Finally. I have been around and around with various color palettes. Want her to be different, not the typical retro look, but still classic. She is after all, a classy girl, strong but subtle. Has her own style and doesn't give in to tradition or trends. I love color and there are so many options. But in the end I decided to keep her fairly simple with a few fun details (to be added later).

Because there are tons of variations on what the color white actually is, I decided to keep her just basic. As much as I wanted her to have "Polar Bear" white, I did not want her to be in any way cream. I think the actual white is "ultra base white", but I've decided to call it "marshmallow cream". For her color, I wanted a vintage-y look without being retro. I want richness without being dull. Extremely challenging to try to select in the store as really looks completely different on. And so different in sun or clouds or shade. Her color changes from a kind of apricot to a dusty rose. I had originally wanted to add black accents, but seems too harsh. I think brown suits Agnes and me much better. She is warmer that way.

Teaching my brother-in-law how to use my Dremel cutting wheel

Design ideas..even cottage white is far too yellow.

Nature helps out as a backdrop

Mom helping dry so we can make most use of paint in sprayer

So we masked her off. It would have been really nice to follow one of the ribs all the way around, but of course she is different on every side. And even following the imaginary line left us about 3 inches off when we got back to where we started. We decided to lower the front side to match the front. Really have to accept improvisations when working with old crooked girl. It's ok. I actually kind of like a little quirkiness. I'll just pretend it was intentional..

We intended the front part to be lower, yeah...

Protecting my girl

My uncle left this tool. Worked much better than I expected.

I think Agnes is blushing

Damn, that Frog tape works a hell of a lot better than blue painter's tape. So impressed.

Her color changes in the light. All I can think of is calamine lotion from when I was little.

It took us a bit to mask off the areas, but the actual painting took about 10 minutes for each coat. I used frog tape and was anxious to see what happened when we removed. I have painted a lot and always used blue painter's tape with disappointing results. I couldn't believe how perfect the line was! I think maybe 2 spots that bled through. I'm sold.

Met a most awesome couple on the side of the road. They've been traveling the US for 25 years. Immaculate bus.