chalk paint and summer storms

This blog has been quiet of late, due partially to a (very) little bit of writing (hurray!) and idea-hatching and a vow to spend a little more time relaxing and being social.  Also, I've had two four-day weekends in a row, both of which I spent mostly away from the computer.  

I've lost track of most of what I was going to write about here, although one notable standout was almost getting hit by lightning last weekend.  We were out on our back porch, moving a painting project out of the way of a sudden impending downpour, and lightning struck the transformer on the closest pole to our apartment...less than 10 meters away.  It was like a bomb going off: a huge flash, sparks, smoke, and it felt like everything was shaking.  My husband's ears were still ringing hours later.  (He was closer.)  We lost power, but we went to a movie, and by the time we came back, it had been restored.  It was also a real neighbourhood occurance, as everyone milled around once the rain let up a bit and the scariest part of the storm had passed, to say, "Did you see that??"  

The painting project in question has also taken up a fair bit of time.  Here is a "Before" picture:

 A photo of our bargain hutch from the Kijiji listing ($80!)

A few weekends ago, we went on a quest to Pointe Claire to buy this special chalk paint that doesn't require any stripping or sanding before application.  (Just a coat of wax afterwards.)  I'm really happy with how it worked out...I only wish I had bought more paint because there are so many things I'd like to update!

We started with something small...a random wooden star decoration that I've had forever:

 The paint and the star.

(Also, if you look in the top right of the photo, you can see the

 I Heart Cheese graffiti tagger has struck in our alleyway. I much 

prefer "I Heart Cheese" to fellow tagger "Cobra Cock".)

Random blue star ready to be deployed.

Then on to something bigger...We started the hutch last weekend and finished it up last night.  The weather (perpetual intermittent rain) has made things difficult!  My husband did more of the painting, but we both did the waxing and the buffing.

D.fixing the cabinet door closing mechanism.

Finding enough room to paint on the deck was a bit of a jigsaw among the few remaining bins and boxes of smoky things we're still hoping to clean.

 I probably wasted too much of the purple accent paint inside the drawers. 

It turned out not to suit the spot we'd planned to put it, but we found an even better spot on the other side of the room.

Finished hutch!  I'm really happy with how it turned out.
(Though it needs to be levelled off to compensate for 
our sloping floor, and we still need to replace a pane 
of glass. I'd like to change the lower knobs eventually, too.)

We have a few more budget pieces we're hoping to paint, if the weather and our patience cooperates.  It's almost unbelievable that it's already July and it feels like the summer has barely started. 

On a non-chalk-paint front, some nice things have been happening with the book lately, too, but I think that will be a separate post...