Blame It On The Rain

Doesn't it always seem like the days you really, really want to go yard saling or paint it always rains?  Ugh, I hate that!  All week I was browsing blogs and making a list of the items I wanted to look for at this week's yard sales & flea markets.  It was over 100 degrees 3 days last week.  The weekend called for cooler temps and sun.  And then Friday they changed the forecast.  Rats.

So Saturday was a big old bust as far as yard sales.  I did make it to a couple of thrift stores, but it was pouring rain all day and my mood was as dark as the clouds in the sky.

Luckily, today I woke up to sunshine!  There was a new flea market opening today near me, but as I rolled out of bed at 7am and saw the sun, I just wanted to paint, paint, paint.  I know J appreciated that I didn't go out and drag more stuff home this week.  I thought it best that I work on some of the things I've had on my list.

First I worked on my enamel topped cart.  I first posted about this little treasure here a few weeks ago. 

This wasn't in great shape, with a chip in the enamel, rust on the trays and missing 3 out of 4 wheels...but for $2, I really couldn't complain.  I've been working on cleaning it up when I had a few minutes here and there.  I washed it down really well (cobwebs, ick!) and thanks to my new blog friend, Joselyn over at The DIY Spot, I found some Porc-a-fix at Home Depot to fix the chipped spot.  The color doesn't match perfectly, but it looks much better since I used it!   Since it was raining yesterday, I took some time to cover and tape off the top so I would be ready to paint when the weather cleared up. 

I really needed something to hold my small TV and printer in my home office (read: dining room) because my old set up was just atrocious.  Don't laugh, this is what I previously had:

Is that bad or what?  It was an old TV stand made out of particle board. If that wasn't bad enough, the printer/scanner/copier that J bought me for Christmas didn't fit on the adjustable shelf, even on the lowest setting so we had to take the shelf out and put the printer on the bottom.  (Now let me be frank here, I am not a big bender-overer and kneeling in front of this thing while I printed, copied and scanned documents for work did NOT put me in my happy place.) To make matters worse, the TV stand wasn't tall enough and we had to use the gray thing shown in the picture (I have not idea what it even is) to make the TV tall enough to see.  So, you get the picture, no part of my old set up was working for me. 

Once I cleaned the enamel topped table, repaired the chip and added a few coats of white paint to the metal part, here is my new set up:

Much better!  It's almost even with my desktop and the printer is accessible from my desk chair...yay!  We did run into a slight problem with the wheels.  I had planned to buy new casters to replace the broken wheels, but it turned out that the wheels were welded onto the base and not easily replaceable.  I had to have J saw them off and I padded the feet with some felt so as not to rip the carpet.

I'm really happy with my new set up.  I still plan to get a couple of baskets to hold my work stuff on the bottom shelf, but for now, it's fine.  I also had to crop this picture pretty close because the desks on either side of the table (work computer desk and home computer desk) are old and ugly and still on the list to be replaced.

Next I moved on to making a cloche.  I've been wanting to make one since I've seen them popping up all over the web and I finally found a decent cheese dome on my thrift store trip on Saturday.  I've had the candle stick for awhile and have been saving it for this project.  Here is before:

And here is after:

I'm so thrilled with how this turned out!  The texture of the candle stick really adds something unique to it, I think.  I did some light sanding around the edges and on the points of the texture to age it some and it turned out great.  I have no idea what I'm going to put under the dome, but I know exactly where this piece is going!  As soon as I redo the small bookcase in my upstairs hallway, this little beauty will be sitting on top of it...and I'm promising myself not to junk it up with all the paraphernalia that is currently on it!

I have a couple of more projects that are in the drying stage that I hope to share during the week, but this is it for now.  What did you do this weekend?

Please check out other crafty projects shared for Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch and take a few minutes to check out the awesome redo of a church into a house.

Always,

Kelly

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