Crafty Me

This is a picture I found on ebay, but it looks sort of like a shelf I am about to discuss. I can't remember when I first got that shelf and I don't even remember the original color, but I have a shelf kinda like that. Mine is wicker and has some sort of open weave ribbon as the linings around the edges. I may have posted before about how many times I have moved (A LOT). I would paint that thing to match wherever I was and I always used it in a bathroom. My first specific memory of it is when I rescued it again.

When I left my first husband I didn't take much: just my Granny's bedroom furniture, a chair, and some special Christmas ornaments. A year or two later after his current wife moved in, I pulled up to the house to pick up my daughter and there was a giant pile of "junk" sitting out front for the garbage men. Right on top was that old shelf, so I snatched it up and stowed it in my car before I even knocked on the door. I think it was white then, but I'm not sure.

I believe I painted it a light shade of brown and just set it on the toilet tank in my second husband's house. I had one of those telephone booth bathrooms at the time: tiny shower, toilet and sink coming out of the wall, with no vanity. That was probably in the very early '90's. When My Sweetie, my daughter and I moved in together in January '96, we all had our own bathrooms. Mine was all black tile with pearl-like "marbling" through it. That's when I painted the shelf black.

We moved into an apartment in the early summer of '98, and because the apartment had no color scheme, I did not re-paint that shelf. I don't even remember where it was in that apartment, but then again, I only lived there for about 4 months before my Dad died, and although I've mentioned that my Dad died at his retirement party, I still haven't posted about it, so I don't have a link, but suffice it to say, I wasn't quite myself for a long time.

I didn't realize this story was going to have such a long shelf-life (ouch, ouch! worst pun ever!!) Okay so we moved here and if you have followed any of my stories about the HORRID PURPLE WALLPAPER FROM HELL, then you will understand why I didn't repaint the shelf, because WHY ON EARTH WOULD I TRY TO MATCH CRAP? So getting to today: I was thinking, "Okay, if I want to put this shelf back up, I will need to paint it brown or something." Because my new bathroom is all about Muir woods and the forest, the black shelf, it does not match. Well what happened was, I pulled out my crafty paints and found one called "metallic solid bronze." I "dry brushed" that bronze paint over that black wicker and it came out looking really cool. It won't be in the "after" pictures though, because they were already taken. Oh and I will have those tomorrow! Yay.