Artsy-Fartsy

I've had such a fun week. My days have been filled with artsy-fartsy stuff.  Painting, spinning, knitting, weaving, baking and pasta making.  Hey!  I think I can turn that into a poem..

I'm living, breathing artsy fartsy
I'm following my heart, see?

from furniture, knitting and baking

to painting, spinning and pasta making

Bread that's awful, noodles to eat

A sweater to wear and a table to keep.

I don't think I will get rich with my poetry. . . or bread baking.  It is not going well at all.  I might even call it an epic fail.  After unsuccessfully making bread by hand, I retrieved my beloved bread maker from storage.  As it turns out, this is not my beloved bread maker after all, but an awful imitation.  I have made several wonderful loaves of  cement.  I'm not a quitter and I'll keep trying as long as Peter is willing to be my taste tester.  He's starting to look askance and a little bit worried when I bring him a hunk of bread and say "taste this" so I might have to resolve myself to purchasing bread from the grocery store.

The good news is that the pasta making is progressing quite well.  I purchased a pasta machine and have made some quite delightful linguini and really had fun doing it.  I think ravioli is next on my list. 

I made yarn.  Red, white and multi-colored blue.  This yarn was spun over the past few months but I didn't have a way to wind it up.  Yesterday I got a Niddy-Noddy - the perfect tool for making these fine yarn hanks.  Now I must find a suitable project for them or figure out a way to sell them.  

The sweater I'm knitting is coming along nicely.  I have the front and back done and I'm now working on the first sleeve.  I'm eager to get it done but I have so many other things to keep myself busy with.   At least it's something to do when I finally do sit down. Heaven forbid my hands aren't busy!

I have this old table.  It's been around my house from my earliest memories.  It had a horrible orange finish and a really bad repair job as well as some permanent marker marks on the top (courtesy of my children).  It stands on three legs and wobbles precariously if you set a glass of water on it.   I have been hesitant to refinish it, just in case the table turned out to be one of those rare antique heirlooms that are worth a small fortune.  I finally decided that the mass production stamp on the bottom proved that it wasn't and even if it was, the damage it has endured over the years has successfully erased any value it might have had.  Refinishing it would be just fine. 

My intent was to paint it with two colors, then use steel wool on it to reveal the under color.  You know, make an old table that already looks old, look old in a different way than it looked old before.  After careful consideration and a consult with the freighbor I decided to use a chalk paint - the end-all in this kind of furniture refinishing.  The paint was $28.00 a quart (and I needed two colors - which means two quarts) plus some specialty tools that drove the price up to about $80.00.  That means that when all was said and done my junky little table would be worth about $83.50.  I couldn't do it.  I ended up picking up a quart of mis-mixed greenish, brownish, beigeish colored paint at the hardware store for $2.50 and using some white paint I already had.  Now that's a price I can live with! 

After I put the first color on it.  I trotted out to the garage to get the white paint.  When I got into the house I discovered I grabbed the wrong paint can.  It was the textured ceiling paint we used in the bachelor pad.  What was a girl to do?  Yes - I stopped working on the table and went in and painted the bathroom ceiling.  Sometimes I think I have ADD.  I eventually found the right paint for the table and finished it up.



Of course once the bathroom's harvest gold ceiling was gone the harvest gold walls seemed to be especially uh.. harvest gold.  That paint had to go as well!  While I was at the hardware store picking out wall paint I got distracted by flooring (again.. the ADD thing?)  The harvest gold cracked and worn vinyl that's in that bathroom really is an eyesore and will only seem worse once the walls look good.  I chose really cheap white vinyl floor squares,  a temporary but adequate fix until we have time to do it properly.  And since I have to remove the toilet to put down the new floor and paint properly behind it, I might as well replace the ugly harvest gold one (with the matching harvest gold toilet seat) with a standard white one.  The sink and shower would still be harvest gold.  That could be a problem.  At least the countertop isn't gold, it's avocado geen imitation marble laminate.

When Jillian was here we worked on my studio chandelier..  The picture doesn't do it justice but what do you think?