Going tubular!

Not referring to the ribber this time. But---how cool is this?! My husband, ever the faithful consumer, bought some shelves for his antique record albums (from the 50's) from Room and Board. They came in heavy cardboard tubes that are about 8" in diameter and 6 feet long. I asked one of the workmen who are remodeling a room for us to cut these two tubes in half. Their nice saws make a clean cut. Then I nabbed some leftover pieces of lumber and glued them onto the boards with "liquid nails" for stability. It took a few days for them to dry, but now they're like one of a piece. It would take a lot to dislodge them. Yesterday, I got the inspiration to paint them with some old leftover acrylics from some other dumb project---- and voila' I have storage tubes for my long knitting machine paraphernalia, like cast on combs, ribber combs and garter bars. They can sit right next to my machine(s) and the contents won't get bent just sitting around. And, I'm a proud repurposer!!!

I used this technique I saw on a painting show once. You take a fat (1") brush. Put a blob of one color on your palette, and another color next to it. Brush back and forth a few times so that the left and right sides are the original colors, but the middle is a blend of the two. Kind of looks like hand painted yarn, doesn't it?

I have been reminded, though, with this project that I have a weird thing going with my creativity. I can't seem to think through what I want the finished project to be. I just start out hoping that the muse hits me. I don't admire this habit of mine and wish I could change it. It actually wastes a lot of time in the long run. In this example, I'd try something, decide I didn't like it and ended up painting over it. O well, it's not a big deal, but I do that with so many things. Picasso in the blood? o ya.

These will come in handy, I think. I have two more---one is promised to my friend, Sandy. The other, I don't know. It might hit me one of these days.