Before and Afters and Painting In Snowy Weather

This is what a person resorts to in cold weather who is desperate to spray paint!  Yes, you have to get very creative.  It actually started snowing while I was spray painting.  Brr!  It was also windy and I was nervous as my long hair was whipping around that it was going to blow into the line of paint and I'd have an unwanted dye job, should have pulled it back first. :)  I hurried to get the painting done (before the neighbors witnessed my insanity) and lucked out that the paint didn't have any problems, my neighbors didn't ever ask me what I was doing, and my hair maintained it's natural color.  Whew!  Hurry Spring!!!

I bought this frame years ago at a thrift store for 35 cents.  When I say years, I mean like before I was married! Yes I, okay mostly my husband, packed this baby around move after move for over 15 years and I never once used it...ever.  It didn't have glass or a back and I just didn't quite know what to do with it.  I bought it with my husband, then fiance, thinking we would put pictures in it for our wedding reception.  I remember how much fun I had shopping for it with him, there are some good memories attached to it, so I never got rid of it.  This time it paid off though to pack rat, because I finally found a good use for it!

Spray Painting the frame...it's painted with black and dark brown.

I distressed it and hung it on my wall thinking that I'd hang some smaller frames in it...anyway that was the original plan. 

After I'd looked at it for several days (while waiting for a better day to spray paint the smaller frames, I'd smartened up by then), I remembered this little thrift shelf that I bought for 75 cents.  I can't find the before picture, but it was exactly like the shelf below, but smaller.  I painted it white and sanded the edges, to let some of the color of the stained wood through, clear last summer but never hung it up anywhere.

It seemed at the time like a crazy idea, but I held it up inside the frame just to see how it would look, and  I loved it.  Then came the thoughts..."do people frame shelves?"..."is this weird?"..."better Google it"..."better run it by a sister"..."do I dare blog about it?"..."shouldn't matter anyway, 'cause I like it"...and so it stayed.  Do you ever do this?

I love this little shelf because I can easily change the things that I set on it for each season.   The frame around it actually does 'frame' whatever I set there, bringing attention to it.  I've tried several things on the shelf and decided to show off my little red lantern for now (a gift from my In-laws).

After staring at the lantern for a few days trying to decide what was missing (do you see a trend forming here?), it came to me (the light bulb moment)...another way to use paint sticks from my stash...a little something to pull everything together... and it would only cost me $1!


I'll show you what I made in my next post. :)   Today's Fabulous Find...'Framing' a Shelf