it's the rainy season. must do projects.

It's been raining here for roughly 539 days. Instead of my slippers I just get out of bed and put on my rain boots. When it rains, my children cry all day and I do projects. It's how we pass the time.

Remember when I was organizing paperwork? And I mentioned that I wanted to paint my china cabinet?





Just to recap, we bought it from a guy on Craig's List a few years ago, intending to paint it. I'm a huge fan of pretty wood and would never paint something unless it was ugly. This was ugly. There were parts that had been stripped and then, presumably when the owner realized what a tedious job it would be and changed his mind mid-project, painted over with a not-quite-matching shade of brownish paint. Classy.

So about a month or so ago I got the gumption to tackle it. I got a buttload of sandpaper and went to work on a Wednesday night. I made it through The Middle, Better With You and Modern Family when I accidentally knocked over that huge roll of paper to the right. It may not look like it but it weighs about a million pounds. It teetered around for a while and I did this awkward little avoidance maneuver where I jumped back-no-sideways-wait-it's-going-to-fall-on-my-big-tooooooooooooooooooe. And much cussing, and later bruising, ensued. The mission was aborted and I avoided eye contact with the china cabinet for about a week after that.

It took me a couple of weeks and several glasses of wine to sand, prime and paint this bad boy. Last week I finally finished up, switched out the knobs and filled it back up with my precious things.





Much better and worth the effort, I think. I probably wouldn't do it again, though. My toe is still recovering and it was a super tedious task.

With that project done I've been looking for the next thing to do. Phil and I were driving through a random neighborhood the other day and found this black faux leather ottoman just sitting on the curb. The only thing wrong with it, other than the fact that it was black faux leather, was a wonky button. We stopped and I threw it in the car, figuring I could slipcover it pretty easily.





I got some awesome brown and white zebra upholstery fabric on sale and used this tutorial to make my slipcover. It was a two-evening project but I'm pleased with how it turned out.





For my next project I'm going to figure out how to use my camera. White Balance is my nemesis.

What about you? Got any good projects going on?