The perfect day off

After the move I decided to be good to myself and give myself a day off over the bank holiday weekend. Days off are a rarity for me. If I decided to take a day for myself while living in the city I would still end up working as I could never relax knowing there was work to be done but the change in environment has helped me chill out and prioritise things. I love what I do but balance between work and play is vital. I realise that more so now after spending St Patricks day pottering around the house and getting to know my new neighbours.

After breakfast I decided to tackle the outside bench. This bench was screaming HELP! from the moment I saw it and it stayed with me, so I knew this was going to be one of my first projects. Now some of you would argue that this is work since I paint furniture for a living but it is very different when you are doing it for yourself or find the time to do it for yourself even. Plus I love painting so I was happy out :)

This was it before. I have actually cleaned it a bit in this image, it had moss growing all over it and bird poo! :( It was pretty far gone and the wood was damp and raw so I didnt even bother sanding it I just cleaned it up with a scrapper. I had a look at my arsenal of paints and found 2 oil based colours, pink & turquoise. I decided turquoise to prevent George(my house mate) getting a heart attack! :) I only use water based paint when upcycling furniture but out doors it needs to be oil based. The paint I used was satinwood with a built in undercoat. The timber was so raw an undercoat wouldn't have needed to be used anyway, once the paint went on it soaked it right up.

                   TAH-DAH! Doesn't that make some difference and only took an hour start to finish.
I had a few curious neighbours pop by to see what I was up to, one of our resident peacocks and a flock of guinea foul :)

Its just amazing to have this on my doorstep :)

Once the bench was finished I decided to make some brownies. I love baking but it has gone on the back burner since I opened the shop so today I treated myself.

We still don't have phone reception, tv or broadband so I lit the fire, put on a record and settled down with a book in my paint covered tracksuit pants. Not having any contact with the outside world is kind of refreshing, it definitely gets you up off your arse and doing things you would usually put to the side. 

 All in all a pretty perfect day!

Here's to many more.

Dee x