On the BRIGHT side!

Yesterday was the perfect day weather-wise.  It was bright and sunny; warm but not hot with a very gentle light breeze.  I had a doctor's appointment after work and couldn't wait to get home so I could be outside working in the yard.

When I got home, I did an abrupt change in plans.  Instead of yard clean-up, I decided to work on my suitcase. 

I covered my small patio table with a tarp, hauled the case, paint, and brushes outside, opened the case so I could work on the top and bottom at the same time, cracked open the new can of dark blue Tremclad paint, and I got to work painting the metal bands that go around the suitcase.

It turns out the dark blue paint I bought is actually quite BRIGHT dark blue - much brighter than the color already there, but I still think it will look just fine.

It took awhile to get all the metal pieces painted, but I wasn't in a rush, I was loving being outside in the beautiful spring afternoon.  I was on the last band and had to move over to the other side of the table to reach the last little bit of metal that needed to be painted.  As usual my sweet assistant (Molly) lay flat out on her side in the sun, at my feet - after all where Dale is - Molly is..... always.

I knew she was there - why wouldn't she be?  So instead of stepping over her, I decided to set the can on the table first so I wouldn't spill paint on her or anything else for that matter.  The plastic tarp sort of stuck out from the table a bit, and so I confidently placed the open paint can down - only there was no table beneath the area I chose.   Funny thing is I realized the table was missing right at the moment I would have actually let go of the can - but not before I spilled most of the contents of the can, on myself (feet, hands and clothes) and the patio.  Somehow I missed the dog entirely (thankfully).

What a mess... BRIGHT dark blue, not- able- to- wash- with- soap- and- water kind of paint everywhere!

It wasn't my best moment, and very quickly I discovered I was nowhere near adequately prepared to be using this paint as I had nothing around to actually clean this sort of paint from my skin.  I walked around the patio like a surgeon about to glove up for surgery, the gentle light breeze quickly drying the BRIGHT dark blue non- washing- with- soap- and- water paint firmly on to my skin.

What could I do?  I got Gary to let me in the door and went to the kitchen sink where I instructed the poor distressed man to drown my hands with dish soap... smear smear... did I say smear?  After I had smeared the blue mess into every pore in my hands and halfway up my arm, I realised I had made yet another error in judgement.

The distressed man suggested nail polish remover - I had about 3 drops left in the bottle (I've been meaning to pick up more) so I nixed that option and decided that magic eraser might work.  Erase, erase.... nothing! Seriously - it's the first thing I have found that Magic Eraser did not Magically erase!

So it was back to dish soap - please note: dish soap + Tremclad paint = a very sticky paste of whatever colour you are using. Not much colour was coming off so I gave up and reached for the paper towels which immediately adhered to my hands.

I'm here to tell you that we women should never let our polish remover get too low - especially if, like me you are not adequately prepared to paint metal.  Those few drops of polish remover removed 80% of the blue from my hands - the further 20%  was kept as a reminder of my own stupidity!

So now that I know how dumb I really can be without trying - I am quite ready to start using fabric to cover my case.  This should be a whole lot cleaner - I hope!