Project update

Never again will I take on three projects at the same time.

Never again will I take on any 'project' when I already have my hands full.

Back last winter..autumn? I've no idea, but way back then I had the genius idea of taking on three personal projects as well as everything else I had on at the time. I wanted to revamp some basic pine bedside cabinets we had knocking about, revamp an old dining table and make myself a coat for winter as I can never find one on the high street I like. Here's how I did.

Winter Coat

Yeah, this didn't get done. I got as far as ordering the brown tweed fabric and loved it for a few days. Then I draped it over the dress form and something in my brain went "no". And that was that. I fell out of love with it and instantly lost any motivation to make it. So it just sat there and sat there until eventually sometime in January I realised the project was well and dead and gave up.No winter coat for me.
I now need a spring coat, but this I'll be buggered if I'm going to make one. This one the high street can provide!

Bedside Cabinets

Eventually, they got done. The plan initially was to stain them, but as I started I realised that it looked awful. At some point we had spilt something on them which was invisible when left as untreated wood, but once the wood stain was on, repelled the stain and made the finish look bloody awful. And yes, that was after cleaning and lightly sanding the sodding things. Back to the drawing board.
I wanted to give up on these too at this point so I just went for a plain white, nothing fancy. It did the trick. Once some new drawer pulls were added I have to admit they do look much better.

Living Room Table

And last, but not least, the living room table. I had a grand plan for this one, but just couldn't find a way to get what I had in my head in to a workable (and cheap) reality. So as my motivation was greatly waining (it was a running theme) I took the left over paint used on the cabinets and slapped it on. A bit of varnish on the top to prevent staining and it was done. I'm not over the moon with the look to be honest. It's too much white. And I had to take the tiny metal feet off the bottom as they were ripping up the carpet so it looks a bit weird in my opinion.
But I reasoned that I could add colour with table cloths and that's what I'm currently doing. I bought a cheap wipe clean one from eBay and although the look is a little more 'shabby chic' that I'd like, I've got to admit it's better than it was.

So there you go, two out of three. I'll take that as a win.

I'm not giving up on my projects altogether though. I just need to be stricter with myself and make sure I only do one at a time and really think about whether or not it will be a labour of love or just a labour. With that in mind I've decided that my next project will be a dress for myself.

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you'll know that Dan's company work do is coming up so I've decided to make myself a dress for that. I've bought a pattern. It's simple, I absolutely love it and I now have some fabric to make it with. No fancy patterns or tricky to handle materials. Just a nice, simple, blue dress. I'm hoping this project will go better.

I'm actually posting regular progress updates of the dress on my Facebook page if you'd like to see more. The idea was to keep me working on it even if the motivation started to wane. Thankfully though this hasn't been a problem yet.

Touch wood!