a really good day

Here's some quick and easy projects I did today.

First of all, this is an old bookcase that used to be at my mom's house. When she moved to an apartment, I asked for it, because I always thought it was really neat...just the curvy lines of it, plus the fact that I knew it came from my grandparents' house. Before our basement makeover, it housed Kaitlyn's books. But with her beautiful new room and chic black furniture, she wanted no parts of the chipped red paint detracting from the glam of it all. However, she did have a number of books that now needed a home, so she asked if I could paint it black to go with the other furniture. I've been wanting to for a while, but just haven't gotten around to digging around in the shed to find the power sander. And let me say, it needed a power sander. May I also say, I think the power sander is one of my new best friends. :)

So...here's some before, during and after shots:

BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:
Isn't she a beaut?

The next one only took me about 2 minutes. I used a jar I had saved from a jar candle that had burned up. (Well, it hadn't totally burned all the wax, but a quick fix for that is sticking the jar in the freezer for a while. The wax hardens and pops right out. Since the neck of this jar was narrower than the remaining wax I did have to break it into pieces, but then I just emptied the chunks into the trash. I suppose if I was really thrifty I'd save the wax and remake new candles...but I'm just not that good.) I dumped a little candy corn in the bottom of the jar, placed a clear votive holder with an orange, "pumpkin spice" votive in the center and filled in around it with some more candy. Tied an orange ribbon around the top and...voile! A cute new fall decoration!
Between enjoying my accomplishments, smelling the roast in the oven, and anticipating the Phillies winning game one of the World Series tonight....it's a really good day!!!