A project.
August 13th, 2003
I found out today that Mum is coming tomorrow instead of Friday, so I have taken today to do some cleaning and finish off a few projects.
I have created a new side-table out of an old chest I had lying around in the basement. It was a bright blue, and it had an RCAF address stencilled on the side. I was going to keep it intact, but the box has been in various damp, dirty and oily places and smelled strongly of mold, so I really needed to seal it. When I was taking the fittings off in order to paint, I see the box was originally white anyhow, so I don't feel so badly that I am destroying it with my artistic vision. I guess it is the archaeologist in me. I am more prone to try and conserve instead of restore, but in this case it passed my mental limits of salvageableness.
I mixed dark green and black melamine paints together to get a darker greeny black colour. I chose this colour because my coffee table is an old steamer trunk that is a mottled mix of cobalt blue with greeny black overpainting from some point in the 1940s. I wanted this new chest to blend in. The steamer trunk fit my conserve confidence levels so it's a bit of a mishmash but I love it anyway.
The fittings on this new chest used to be brass plated but they had gone all rusty so I just scrubbed them down with Maas and then oiled them. I kind of like the look where they get all oxidised and chunky looking.
I think it turned out really well. Right now, I am using some pierced metal tealight holders as legs, but I will probably put 6" wooden legs or castors onto it as soon as I have time. The heat register is right under it, so it needs to be off the floor. It is the perfect height for a cat to lie on and peer out through the window, so it's been getting a lot of use.
I am kind of sad my camera is so old and won't take good pictures any more because the chest looks really good.
Now I keep wanting to find more projects to tackle. It's a sickness.
Books I have Read Lately:
- The Scions of Shannara by Terry Brooks. This one is technically a re-read, but I can't really remember much of it at all as I read it, so I guess it almost counts as reading it fresh. The Ohmsford family is at the center of the story, the same as Brooks's earlier books like The Wishsong of Shannara. This time, the brothers Par and Coll, as well as their Rover cousin Wren and relative Walker Boh, are each given different quests by the shade Allanon, who has been dead for 300 years. The Shadowen have appeared and threaten to destroy the Four Lands unless they can be stopped. Par is to find the legendary Sword of Shannara, Walker is to find the Black Elfstone which will restore the Druids, and Wren is to discover the missing Elves. There was lots of action and interesting characters to keep the story moving, sometimes almost too quickly. Brooks jumps between the three main quests and sometimes a quest can be ignored for a significant portion of the book, so it can be a little disjointed.
- Death Masks by Jim Butcher. This is the 5th installment in the Harry Dresden Files and they just keep getting better. This time, the Shroud of Turin has been stolen, and Harry must get it back, along with the help of three knights, Karrin, and Susan, his half-vampire ex girlfriend. A vampire named Ortega is also hunting Harry, intending to challenge him to a duel that, Ortega claims, will end the war between the vampires and the wizards. The Shroud seems to be in Chicago, and Harry finds out that a group of terrifying demons wants the shroud, and its leader is interested in Harry's soul, too. This book has the same banter, Harry is as cute as ever, and the story just zips along. More! More!
(All links go through Amazon.ca because of the affiliate program with The Usual Suspects. I spend so much time on there, that this is the least I can do.)
