Adventures in home improvement!

Or: time for another Mangled Finger Pic!

Yay! It's been warm for two days! Perfect actually ... chilly in the mornings then gradually warming up to a balmy 70 degrees. Not too warm, not too humid.

So I painted! Here's the whole story over on the Farm Blog.

I had only two mishaps. I prepared the area carefully, set everything out I'd need, then made sure that all four babes were close enough to see but far enough away to give me some breathing room and I dipped my brush and applied the first few strokes and ...

... then I looked down and Bitty Girl had her hand, up to mid-forearm, in the paint. She had, apparently, teleported there.

(Stand by. It gets better)

I did the one thing one does NOT do when surrounded by these elements: 1) a toddler, 2) paint, and 3) furniture, books, accessories and surfaces 80+ years old ...

I screamed.

Bitty Girl reacted as if she'd been touched by a live wire. She screamed. Out came the hand, slinging a perfect arc of bright blue paint upward and sideways. Both the older babies materialized (hoping to trod in some paint is my guess) and Bitty Girl ran into the house, shrieking.

I couldn't follow her because there was paint on things that pre-dated my grandparent's birth, and the Incredible Bulk was on the porch: our very, very high porch with the concrete steps, and I couldn't pick him up because I was liberally spattered with paint as well.

But the story has a happy ending. I always paint with acrylic and quickly applied soap and water and it all came up. I apologized to Bitty for scaring the snot out of her and let her keep the blue paint around her fingernails so she could proudly show it off to her older sibs (who were clearly jealous of having been left out of the fray), and I did, finally, get the door painted.

Yay!

Oh, the other teensy little snafu occurred when I drove the tip of my phillips head screwdriver into my finger while putting up the screen door:

It's amazing what one will take pictures of if one has a camera handy.

If the tip of that finger looks red and swollen to you it's because (see that dark spot?) I did the exact same thing when I put up the back screen door.

Ya know ... I'm amazed they actually let me in the Lowes.