I finished a couple of small projects. I had bought an urn at the Goodwill last week:


I didn't really love it gold, so I repainted it and gave it an antique finish - which is to say, I made it look a bit dirty so it would be more interesting:


I also refinished a laundry basket, inspired by Cindy at www.romantichome.blogspot.com. She has the most amazing taste. She did a picnic and laundry basket in light colors and then whitewashed them. I had a similar style basket that my kids gave me years ago with a Christmas present inside. I never really liked the light finish, so I had tried to stain it darker but that failed, so I've just had it in the closet for years. I didn't have a color I wanted to make it, so I just did the whitewash on it and made a liner. Cindy mentioned trying a liner but found it difficult. I am by no means a sewing expert, so I made a pattern out of newspaper and then sewed it up out of some old fabric:


I sort of wish I had got some nicer fabric, because I don't totally love this (actually the picture makes it look better than it looks in person), but I am happy that I did it successfully. I put drawstring in the top, made out of a complimentary fabric. Basically I ironed long strips into a bias tape form and folded it over, then sewed it to create long "strings".



I could probably line a lot of baskets now that I figured out how to do it. I have pretty many. Something I'm thinking about doing is figuring out all the collections I have and showing them all. I have quite a few. But I will save that for another day.