Good Project, Gone Bad...

So I had this perfectly good, useful, and beautiful leather decanter.  When I bought it I thought it would make a great decor item, gift or sale.  When I got around to research pricing, I learned that they are pretty plentiful on the internet.  My great find wasn't such a big deal after all.  That being the case, I felt it was a perfect candidate for painting.  It was smooth, evenly colored and couldn't possibly look anything but great.  Right?  It's about 11" tall and has a great gold medallion decal.  Love it!

I decided to clean it up, not that it looked dirty, but if I was going to paint it, I wanted anything slippery to be removed.  No alcohol?  No problem!  Sea Breeze is just great smelling alcohol anyway.  

The chocolate is to keep me energized---!  BTW, have you ever had these things?  They're delicious, I'm just saying.

Don't face the sun when you're taking a picture.  I knew that. 

Shortly into the project, I realized that my "Jamaican Joy" paint and my leather bottle weren't getting along very well.  I decided to chuck the whole idea and just wash the paint off.  

Not so fast!  This side, which was a little worn anyway, wasn't letting go of that paint.  Soap and water did nothing to get rid of this, so I am at this point, committed to the Jamaican Joy. 

I started over:

Three coats in and I'm not happy!  Why didn't I use a primer?  The leather is devouring this paint.  What to do?  I know!  Leave it alone, go do laundry, and it will miraculously repair itself while I'm gone.  It worked for the shoes, didn't it?

Three hours later...

It is looking better, but the brush strokes just won't go away, and the finish is so DULL.  This is about six coats in.  What have I done?  

Unfortunately, that's all I can show you tonight.  I need more coats of paint and the lighting stinks.  I can restore the luster with some clear acrylic, which I need to use anyway, but this surface is just too porous for this project.  I will forge ahead anyway.  

On another note, I attended my nephew's play yesterday.  He didn't ham it up as much as expected.  I guess he's becoming a serious actor.  It was cute, he was cute, and for ten bucks, it wasn't a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  

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He played an angel.  I won't expose that myth today. 

And last, but not least, I am totally disappointed that I couldn't find orange fabric yesterday even though all the Halloween stuff is out.  Nothing suitable for clothing...not for an adult, anyway.  So the orange skirt didn't happen.  I even went to Salvation Army, looking for an orange skirt, dress or shirt that I could transform but to no avail.  What I did find were these great orange glass tumblers. 

And I did sneak in those white shoes, right before Labor Day.  Goodbye until next summer!

Have a great day tomorrow!