It's Finished!

Remember the pile of sticks... the ones he-man spent five hours cutting?


They have been snipped, sanded, primed, painted, primped and glued. 

I laid 140 pointed sticks on a canvas in my backyard in 103 degree temperatures and applied 7 coats of spray paint.... yes, I said 7 coats!  First I sprayed them metallic silver and did not like how the wood absorbed the paint.  So I sanded the sticks, applied another coat of silver and still the results were disappointing.  At that point, I changed colors altogether and raided my paint closet where I found 3 cans of white spray paint.  However that was not hardly enough to cover the shinny silver.  I guess there was an aditive in the metalic paint that the white paint did not take kindly to.  I had to go buy 6 more cans of white paint and I used every last drop trying to cover 140 little pointed sticks in 103 degree heat.  Or did I already mention the heat?!!!

The painting that I thought would take a few hours took the entire day. I had to listen to that constant visiting voice,  "what do you do when you don't get what you want?" and persuade myself to say thank you that the sticks were painted as I cleaned up my mess while the sun was going down in the West.

The next day he-man and I got busy in his garage assembling the painted sticks. 

I even got to use the brad gun that my dad had given he-man years before.  It is the handiest tool... light enough for me to hold and with the flip of a trigger a small nail hits its target in no time flat.  Oh my, I am thinking of COUNTLESS ways I can put this baby to good use.

After conquering the power nailer, he-man showed off my skills by modeling the circle of 140 pointed sticks.

I dug in he-man's can of washers and found these lovely rusted ones.  He said that he had been toting those around for years.  Thought he got them from my great Uncle Andy.  White pointed sticks, old rusty washers... just the kind of things I like to combine in design.

Wa-Lah!  There she is.... a sunburst mirror, 51 inches high.  Just the right size to fill the big wall in the space where our dining table used to be.

The space after painting the yellow walls tan and before adding the sunburst mirror.

The space after the sunburst mirror.



I love it when he-man and I work together.  After 38 years we are learning how to communicate better.  And it seems to be working.




I hope that you have good fortune with whatever you might try to accomplish this day... and if you don't, I hope you can find a reason to be grateful.  I hope you are able to communicate well with someone dear.  I hope the atmosphere where ever you are is lit up by at least 140 bursts of radiance.