Vintage Train Case Revamp

Finally going to post about a couple of things I did a while ago. I’ve had this cute little train case for a while, and the interior wasn’t terrible, but it was worn out, dirty, and smelled like an old lady.

So I decided to rip its guts out! Eep!

The first step is always the hardest, just plunging in, knowing there’s no going back:

Once I got started, it was basically just ripping, ripping, ripping:

And then scraping, to get the last bits of paper out. Then a little vacuuming to get all the dust and paper shreds:

Then was the fun part: picking out the paper. I used scrapbooking paper, but I’d bet that wrapping paper or even wallpaper would be just as good.

I sprayed the backs of the papers with spray adhesive, and pressed them into place.

Then I brushed a layer of Mod Podge on (my first time using Mod Podge! Can you believe it?) each time I put a piece of paper down.

I also used washi tape to secure the edges and some places that were a little squinky to get into. I let it all sit for 24 hours and did another layer of Mod Podge.

Last, I spray painted the plastic shelf (I had first tried to washi tape it, but that just got out of hand).

And voila!

I used to do face painting, so I’m using the case to store all of my face painting supplies, in case I ever do that again. I might add a little mirror pocket to the lid, like it had before.

One lesson I learned for next time (and I do have another case to redo): Use some sort of cardboard or thick paper panel to go underneath the pretty paper. The inside of the case was pretty lumpy and rough (you can see some of the bumps in the lid), so it would look a lot better if I had padded that before covering it.

Also! I found a gumball machine at Goodwill, which I had to have.

So I bought a stand on Amazon, and ain’t she pretty??

 

 

A Letter

To the charming bicyclist guy who yelled “Must be nice to be entitled!” at me because I was walking along the very outer edge of the bicycle path:

I hope that you soon encountered the many other people doing the same (at least I was keeping to the edge):

And I hope you realized that it was because of this:

And I hope that it didn’t ruin your circuit around the lake like you ruined mine.

And I hope that you have a great day and a wonderful life.

Regards,

The Woman Who Never Did Anything to You

The Truman Show

I’ve always suspected that my life is like The Truman Show, where I’m secretly being filmed at all times, and everyone in the “real world” is watching my (boringest ever) show. Yes, it’s super egotistical (yeah, because I’m soooo interesting that anyone would want to film me), and totally paranoid (it is actually supposedly some sort of fear of judgment/self-judgment), and basically insane. I even thought this was happening BEFORE the movie The Truman Show was made. So you can imagine how nuts I went when I saw that they had made a movie referencing MY movie. Boy was my producer playing games with my head.

Aaaanyway. I’m not actually crazy, I don’t actually think this is happening. It’s just kind of a “feeling” that I have. It’s basically a little inside joke I have with myself. So it’s funny to me when stuff like this happens:

I walk around Lake Calhoun a lot, and when I was there a couple of days ago, I passed this couple (a tall bald guy and shorter blonde woman). I remember them because the guy was holding this small stereo that was playing upbeat music SO LOUD that I could hear it from far away and wondered where the heck that super loud music was coming from, until I saw them ahead of me.

Well. I was there again today, and they were there. Same couple, same loud hand-held stereo, and we passed each other AT THE EXACT SAME TIME as before. I generally go to the lake around the same time of day each time (early afternoon), but I’m pretty sure this was at least about a half an hour different. What are the odds?

And this is what happens in The Truman Show. He starts realizing the truth when he notices that the people around him (the people hired to be “extras”) were always the same people, and that they were always doing the same thing at exactly the same time. They’re on a loop, they just go round and round!

My director is usually a little more on top of these details, but I found a crack in the system! I caught some of my extras in a loop!

Also, geez, this rain is serious business. At one point on the path around the lake, the lake had overflowed so far that the path is gone and you have to walk through about 4 inches (at the shallowest) of gross lake water. And then you squish squish squish in your sneakers the rest of the way around the lake. Yuck. And there were lots of places where the lake had just risen much further than it normally does, leaving scenes like this:

Peach Galette

I got to do a little baking this weekend. First, I made some shortcake to go with a bunch of strawberries that my mom had.

I actually didn’t like it much. It looks pretty and all, but it didn’t taste right. I added lemon juice to the strawberries (as a recipe told me to do), which made them taste like rubbing alcohol to me. And the shortcake wasn’t sweet enough for me. I don’t love this kind of shortcake anyway (I’m more into spongy, cakey, strawberry shortcake), but it was Father’s Day, so I made what my dad would like (at least what I figured my dad would like).

And then I made a Peach Galette for a get-together with people in my choir. I’ve made it before (probably not the exact same recipe). It’s super easy and really good.

Just slice a bunch of peaches (I sliced 6 big peaches and made two galettes), and put them in a bowl with sugar and cinnamon for as long as you can.

Then buy Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust, and unroll one crust (they give you two) onto a greased baking sheet. Put your peaches on top, leaving about an inch at the edges. Then just fold the edges up all the way around and bake at 400 for about 30 minutes. You can also brush the edges with egg and sprinkle with sugar before baking if you want. So easy!

I Went for a Walk!

Today I took my first walk around a lake of the year. It’s been, what, like 9 months since I walked around a lake. It was wonderful.

I would have gone out before today, but I’ve been too busy working on my mystery project!

We’re getting there. I’ll be able to reveal it all in probably about a month.