(My) Reasons/Excuses for All Those Unfinished Projects

How many times have you felt that you have so much stuff to do that you can't get anything done? I find myself starting a project and, sometimes before I have even gotten to the middle of of it, find myself in the throes of yet another task. What's really bad is, it's not even my fault. (Listen for the large booms of thunder) Okay, so it's mostly my fault. But things do happen. You know, the phone rings or someone is at the door or the dryer buzzer goes off or the shopaholic down the street is having a yard sale. A number of similar emergencies will get me sidetracked. Then something else happens - as I start to return to my project, I see yet other things that need my attention. C'mon, fess up. How many of you can relate? (Whoa, look at all those hands! It looks like a cornfield out there.)

Last night I was looking at all my projects-in-waiting (pregnant projects, if you will), projects in process and projects on hold (I addressed projects on hold in my last blog entry) and thought I would share more of those pics with you.

I'll start with one of my most recent. The more I looked at this bench, the more that blank canvas of a back stared at me. So I decided that it wasn't done, after all and painted some flowering vines in colors that match the broken plate pieces in the middle of the mosaic. In typical "me" fashion I am now looking at the picture wondering if I should continue those vines to crawl across the support at the bottom. Hmm.

I also showed you the little carousel horse that needed a lot of work. (What I didn't tell you was how long ago I bought it with intentions of fixing it up right away) The wood base was dryer than a desert mirage. I reinforced the base, treated it with some linseed oil and then decided to cover it with brown paper and give it a leather faux finish. Here's a picture of the base as it looks right now. I'm not finished with the faux finish. Once it's complete and dried I'll add protective felt to the bottom.

The horse body itself has some major problems, two of them being huge holes in the saddle area and the belly where the carousel pole is supposed to neatly impail it. I've applied a plaster bandage (of sorts) to its belly and it is now on its back, legs reaching upward, on the bed in our spare bedroom. I do have to admit it's a rather comical sight to see a horse in such a position (any position, probably) on a bed. Anyway, once it's completely dried I'll sand it and do similar work on its other saddle sores before sanding it, giving it a new paint job and ramming it back onto the pole once again.

So, what do I do as I'm waiting for it to dry? Go on to another project, naturally...

...Which brings us back to that old chair my DH picked up during one of his curbside shopping expeditions.

Remember that I decided to separate the back from the seat? Well, after looking at it for awhile (yet another reason for delaying or not finishing a project - the thing sometimes must be carefully watched for awhile before deciding what to do with it), I decided it would make a cute curio shelf. Same thing with all those cast off drawers that we had (the ones we picked up because of the hardware on them). I mean, hey, the fronts of them made such a cute flower pot bench that surely they would also make great shelves.

I cleaned the dirt and cobwebs off and proceeded to attach them together. That's when the charge faded on my cordless drill AND my DH came home from work, tired and needing a sympathetic ear. It's downstairs in my shop as I click away on the keyboard.

But wait! I actually had an easy project, a total no-brainer! And it's finished! Check this out - a wall mantle I got at a sale! The wood was totally dried out. Other than dirt dusty spider sacs, nothing else was wrong with it.

A good cleaning and a heavy coating of water sealer with natural oils and VOILA!

The inside frame on both sides is a little rough where someone must have tried to make it fit over or behind something - probably a fireplace. I decided to leave that roughness alone and put it in one of our shops. Whoever buys it may want to give it even more of a trim. If not, well if not, that person can give it a light sanding and they have a beautiful show piece. Here's the "before" of yet another pregnant project. Others include an 1800's fainting couch, a wicker rocker and lots of table spindles. They'll all be fun with absolutely no frustrations. (Uh-huh, right!)

There are a few dozen more but if I show them to you, you'll see what an absolute mess our shops and property are right now. I'm not ready for that embarrassment yet.

Besides, it's dry outside (a real change from all the recent storms we've had) and still cool enough to do some gardening...