Here's the scenario: yesterday, I was dying to tackle a handful of quick, fun painting jobs for a series of projects I've been working on.
However, in order to get to the right place to do those tasks, I needed to wade out into the overstuffed, scary place that has been my garage lately. Between me and my work area stood:
bags of clothes and housewares to be donated,
books to be sorted,
shoes to be reshelved,
cartons of college stuff to be repacked,
fifteen or twenty half-used cans of paint to be sorted out,
an avalanche of cardboard boxes to be recycled,
overflow boxes of Christmas goodies that needed to find space on the appropriate shelf,
a tower of board games to be more effectively stored,
and all my supplies for art classes who are spending the summer at home with me.
I'll admit it. I was frightened of that overwhelming heap of rubble and I didn't want to deal with it.
So I negotiated myself into a corner and came up with a very sneaky plan.
I would allow myself to sidestep the mess and start my day with some of the fun projects, and I was also permitted to experiment with some abstracted shots of the work in progress. But in between the coats of fresh paint and photo ops, I would be required to toil away on the mountain of mess.
Boom. I had made myself an offer that I couldn't refuse. So I shook hands with myself to seal the deal and got down to business. Here are a few of my shots from the day:
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| This is the bottom half of a little pink side table from Target; I'm hacking it with an orange paint job, and still pondering my options for the top. |
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| My big red balls need some TLC. Here they are in their shabby 'before' shot, chipped and worn and ready for a scrub-down. |
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| More Target hacks. These two cute turquoise stools - one for me and one for my second-born - are getting wooden tops, shown here before they are stained. |
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| A set of four IKEA stools that have been loved hard for the past ten years. They are all sanded down and ready for a fresh coat of stain. |
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| Water drops on a freshly scrubbed storage container. This is a sight that makes me very happy as it represents not only a clean container but also an empty one! Yay for getting rid of stuff. |
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| Stained version of the table top for the turquiose bases. This color is Red Oak, and it's spunky. |
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| Fresh stain drying on the old IKEA stools. I have big plans for these fellows. |
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| Ah, the 'after' shot of my big red balls. They kind of remind me of old rustic terracotta water jugs and I love them. |
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| The afternoon sun created magical shadows, and my old paint-covered drop cloth looks like a work of art. |
All in all, my strategy paid off. I thoroughly enjoyed all my interesting projects and I made a pretty good dent in the garage chaos. My fourth-born was a party to this madness and rewarded my hard labor with a lovely mid-afternoon snack.
And that is the story of how I tricked myself into cleaning the garage.
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Some other stories about my big red balls:
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