Getting Ready to Paint Kitchen Pulls - Gulp!

Hola darlings! I have been a shopping fool today!  But first, my buddy, Ann, and I headed out for sustenance to sustain ourselves during our upcoming shopping ordeal.  We visited our favorite restaurant, Olive Garden, and had a veritable feast!  Our waitress, Gina, was WONDERFUL!  She gave us free samples of a couple of different wines and we each bought a glass of the Roscato Rosso Dolce.  It was absolutely sweet, cold and delicious for our uneducated palattes.  In fact, nearly in unison, we each exclaimed "It tastes like Kool-aid!"  LOL!

So now you know what a low life I am, drinking kool-aid kinds of wine...  But it was gooooooood!

Salad, meal, dessert and coffee later, we were well-sustained and ready for either (1) a nap or (2) shopping.  We opted for shopping.  Off to Menard's (a Wisconsin tradition) to purchase whatever I could on my list of items.  We headed to Highway 100 north of National Avenue where there is a strip shopping center that contains a Menard's, a Kohl's (where I also wanted to stop), a Pick 'n Save supermarket, and a Home Goods/Marshall's that I have never visited - but mean to get to soon.  It's PERFECT!

Our weather was perfect today!  It's been unusually mild this winter and well below-normal snowfall too.  The last two days were mild (in the low 40's when it should be 20 degrees colder) but gloomy and foggy, too!  But today dawned sunny and bright and stayed that way all day. 

So, let me tell you about what I want to do.  I won't get it all done tomorrow but I will get a start on these projects:

(1) Repainting 31 cabinet and drawer handles from the kitchen. 
(2) Sanding and patch-painting areas around the top of the walls in the kitchen and dinette where the wallpaper border removal removed some paint.
(3) Priming and repainting entire border area around the top of the wall sin the kitchen and dinette to get rid of the "ring around the walls" syndrome that would NOT scrub off.

I purchased 23 items from Menard's for a total of - $129.68 before the addition of our 5.6% sales tax (total $136.94), and an additional 7 items from Kohl's right next store for a net of $36.92.  Many of the items I purchased were reduced 50% and I had a coupon for an extra 15% off.  My total bill would have been $63.08 but the net was, as I said, $36.92 for a savings of $29.00.  Plus, darlings, I paid for it with a GIFT CARD!  Oh Joy!

I will not bore you with all the (yawn) details of how I hemmed and hawed and had Ann looking too for just the perfect metallic finish spray paint, or how I went back and forth with the clerk about why -- when Dutch Boy Paint listed "white" as well as "ultra white" on its paint sample at the end of the shelf I could not find any plain white and had to purchase "ultra white" -- ach, as if any paint will match the white Dutch Boy semi-gloss I used in my kitchen and dinette area 21 years ago!  LOL!  But I had a fixation in my brain, what can I say...

Hello!  That's me (why do I look so sad?  Seriously, maybe I should start saving for that face-lift I vowed I would never ever do in a kazillion years) -- I was trying to take a photo of my latest hair color -- it's a gorgeous burgundy-red with dark brown undertones - and this is the 3/4 bath on the main floor that serves as a powder room and second bath (because it has a shower) for guests.  I suppose the olive green and purple color scheme is really dated but I LIKE IT.  Look at that - sponge painted accent walls above the border!  And another border at the ceiling!  Border overkill!  Eek!  Anyway - back to the point--

My haul!  Not shown is 20 pounds of premium birdseed :)  Yeah, that's a furnace filter, and five double-curtain rods that I scored for 40% off at Menards, two larger oiled bronze finish curtain rods to go over the patio door in the dinette and the large window in the adjoining family room; assorted sanding blocks and steel-wool substitute scrubbers, painters tape, a quart of "ultra white" semi-gloss Dutch Boy paint; touch-up pencil and touch-up pen for my dark furniture that always seems to acquire mysterious nicks and scratches; Old English dark finish oil furniture polish; and the bombs - Rustoleum Professional Primer (Fast Drying with High Output Tip/50% Faster Coverage) woo woo! and Rustomleum Hammered Finish in Oiled Bronze.  Oh, I also bought a little mini-roller and tray - it was so cute, I couldn't resist!  It's hiding in this photograph somewhere.

From Kohl's I purchased the "rug paid" (it works like rug tape but I have to cut it into my own strips - perfect!) -- greatly reduced I picked up 4 pads, and twelve pairs of socks.  Suddenly I noticed a day or two ago that just about every pair of socks I own has holes in them.  And not just small mini-type holes, but massive half the bottom of my foot holes.  I'm no darner but in any event I defy anyone to spend the time these days to mend those ginormous holes in my socks!  So I've been throwing my socks out, pair by pair.  And today I discovered I only had 1 pair of black, blue and grey socks left and they aren't in very good shape, either. How did this happen...  Well, whatever.  It was time to buy new socks.  Sigh.  So, that's what those sucking socks are doing in the photograph. 

Unfortunately, these photos didn't turn out so well -- a little blurry!  I was trying to do "brilliant" close-ups like the very best blogs do:

The can on the far right -- the cap shows the color my kitchen cabinet pulls will soon (I hope) be!  Maybe I should have stood this can of spray paint up on its own pedestal and photographed it from various angles to get the very best shot???

Oy!  My inspiration for attempting to paint my mostly still very bright brass kitchen cabinet handles (except the ones that have succumbed to rust and various stages of metal smut) came from DIY kinda gal (I hate you, by the way) who showed me, step by step how to paint those obnoxious 21 year old "silver" colored bathroom faucets and the shower/tub thingies (not even sure what they're called).  Being the cautious sort of femme I am, I am doing an "easy" project first.  If I have success with the cabinet handles, I will seriously think about spray painting my bathroom hardware and the bright brass 21 year old toilet-paper holders and towel racks I own...

By the way, if I do attempt the bathroom fixture paint job, I will not be removing the sink faucets! I know I'd probably give myself a concussion with a plyers if I even thought about it...  Nope, I will be taping, baby, taping, and taping, and taping, and hanging paper all over the second story, and taping some more...