What I'm making

I found this large candlestick thingy on the curb last week.  A neighbor had a pile of random items out with a FREE sign, and this looked interesting, like it had  some potential.

 I did not like the paint job, it was a weird mix of antique gold and a  strange  silvery bluish color.
I added a flat wooden piece to the top so that it could hold a large candle, and then I painted the whole thing in a  faux iron look.

This was a 2 step process. First I painted the whole thing in flat black spray paint.
Then I gave it a light misting of dark bronze metallic spray paint. The  mist technique is spraying very lightly, from   far away, and just a quick few passes. You don't want  full coverage, you want the base color to show through.

This detail shows the textured, wrought iron  effect you can get with a light mist of bronze metallic over a dark matte base.

What I am nomming

Recent favorites snack foods

Wild California twice baked Fruit n' Nut crisps. These are so crunchy that it's easy to eat the whole bag in a sitting. They are also   great with a soft cheese.

Kettle Chips New York Cheddar flavor.
 My all time favorite potato chip was the  Cheddar Beer flavor from Kettle Chips, but it was a limited edition flavor. This New York Cheddar is the closest to it, although it is still missing that subtle malty sweetness of the beer. The large bags of this are hard to find in grocery stores, I  mostly see the small bags at deli counters and stuff, so I just ordered 6 bags from Amazon.  That sounds like a lot but damn they are so good it might not be enough.

Haagen-Dazs Bourbon Pecan Praline Ice Cream
You can really taste the bourbon in this. So good. It's limited edition so as usual when I find something I love,  they stop making it and  I can never get it again. WHYYYYYY?

 


Jules Destrooper Almond Thins -  Super thin and crispy, these cookies are the perfect partner to ice cream.

TCHO Organic Milk Chocolate, Toffee + Sea Salt - This  is a local brand,  made in Berkeley. They have a lot of interesting flavors. Most of their flavors are dark chocolate, this is one of the few that are milk chocolate.

What I'm making- furniture.

 Last week on garbage pick up day, I found this little   wrought iron table on the curb. It was dirty and rusty and the glass top was missing. It had probably been used outdoors, so   the rain had caused some damage.
But I liked the shape and thought it could be a good project.

I used a wire brush to clean off the rust and  sanded the rusty spots to get them as smooth as possible, but they  didn't get perfectly  smooth.
Then I  primed the whole piece with a white stain blocking primer spray paint. Then I went to go get some  spray paint for the finish coat. I had planned to maybe do an off white paint with clear acrylic top. I went  first to TAP Plastics to look at their remnant pieces of acrylic. I found a piece big enough  but it was a smoked glass color. So that changed my whole  plan for the paint color- now I was looking for a  paint that would go well with the smoked acrylic. OI  hoped to find something in a dark pewter metallic- darker than silver, but still cool toned. I did not find anything like that at Orchard Supply Hardware,  but they did have a cool  hammered look spray paint in dark bronze.  I figured the hammered look would help camouflage the uneven texture from the rusty spots.
 Here is the finished table, I really like how the dark bronze goes with the smoke color top. You can click the photo to zoom in.