How I spent my weekend

What did you do over the weekend?

I painted. And painted. And painted some more.

I took most of these pictures in my basement workroom.

Believe me, there's nothing fancy about these photos.

And staging? In my basement workroom?

Uh, no.

But you can see what I worked on. And where I work.

No white glove test please, I'm telling you now, I'd fail miserably.

Everything I painted was of the trash to treasure variety.

These are barrel staves, from a wood barrel that fell apart.......

The next 2 photos are of plates I rescued from Goodwill. It was a set of 8 plain red and white plates, obviously not new, some are quite scratched up. They had them for a few weeks, and everytime I stopped in, I'd think about getting them. But, I had no idea what I'd do with them.

Finally, one day I decided to just go ahead and get them. As I stood in line with them, a couple different people mentioned how pretty they were, and how much they liked them. Funny, they didn't seem to notice them when they sat on the shelf for sale day after day after day!

They have been floating around my house for a few months, so I decided to lay them on my work table and let inspiration strike. And strike it did. I painted them with sheep, and apples, and roosters, and gingerbread, with berry borders on all of them. These are for decorative use only, unless you like the taste of paint and varnish.

Insert funny story here - one of my customers bought a crock I had painted gingerbread on. She had it in her kitchen, for DECORATIVE USE ONLY. Her husband decided to surprise her one evening, and do dishes while she was away. She got a surprise all right, he put the gingerbread crock in the dishwasher. The crock washed up very nicely - not a speck of paint or varnish left! Just a nice white crock! Oh well, he tried!

Speaking of gingerbread, I found this trio at Goodwill too.



A bit outdated, don't ya think?

I painted the top black, then crackled some dark paint over that, added a few details, and voila!

I did make a mistake with them though. When I ran my finger over the blue hearts you see in the first photo, I couldn't feel them at all, so I didn't take the time to sand them. Oops, should've taken the time. Now, if you hold them right in the light, you can see the heart outline. These guys are full of love, in a subliminal sort of way.

This old gas can was for sale in it's natural state, but didn't sell. I took it home, painted it light green, (thinking spring!) and spattered it with other colors.

George walked in as I was trying to decide what to do with it from there. He took one look at it, grinned, and said, "Paint GASOLINE 25 cents on it. So I did.

With our local gas averaging around $3.55, he found the thought of 25 cent gas extremely amusing.

I also got some more barnwood signs painted. These are shorter than usual, but I have a pile of longer ones lying in wait at home.

And, I drilled holes in another pile of rusty hearts and stars cut from old roofing (no pic, sorry!). I decided to put some of them on lightly painted barn wood. I like how these came out. Very primitive.

I brought all this with me today, and I'm in the process of getting them all out on the floor.

What did you do this weekend?