What I did (and what I'm still doing) over the summer

This summer I had on my list two major projects:

tile front porch and

create a kitchen cart out of a bunch of junk.

I ended up being (basically) a single mom this summer, so progress on both projects was slow.  Since the porch was a bigger project and one that had been waiting the longest, I started with it.

The learning curve was pretty steep--suffice to say that the neighbors are probably tired of seeing boxes of tile and tools and misc. junk in my front yard.  I am on the last steps now, and I am confident it will be finished by the time I go back to school.

The kitchen cart, however, was a different story.  

The body of the cart is a no-brainer:  paint, cut down, add a bottom shelf and castors.  But since the cart will be around a while, I didn't want to use just some random design on the top.  And since it will take a lot of work, I wanted it to have some sort of meaning to keep me motivated.

The cart will hopefully migrate to the new kitchen (another future project), so I had a few other requirements:

1.  I wanted it to be in colors that would not define the kitchen; in other words, neutral enough that it wouldn't clash with any color scheme we decide on in the future;

2.  It couldn't be anything people would want to add to in the way of gifts.  For instance, if I chose a funky chicken design (no pun intended) all our peeps  (lol) would be gifting us with chicken-shaped pot holders and platters and such.  

So it has taken me all summer to finally come up with something.  I actually put two ideas into Photoshop, but after fully transforming one (outlining, filling in with color):

  and just starting the other,

 I decided that they weren't what I wanted.  

Then one evening I took a good, long look  at our completely-devoid-of-any-design-or-color-scheme-living room.  My eyes landed on the small collection of Don Quixote statues on top of a high shelf.   My husband and I absolutely love the movie, (Man of La Mancha), and I spent an entire semester of college in a lit class devoted to the book, so we have a special fondness for the guy.  And, it's also one of the few things we whole-heartedly enjoy in a "couple" sort of way.  So yes, I had a "ka-bam!" moment:  I would do the cart top with old Don!

Next post:  choosing the right Don Quixote