Stirring the pot

No not tea-pot. I don't drink tea. I might be Welsh and old but I don't drink tea. That might lose me a few readers but I have made my confession. On the credit side, I do collect interesting tea pots and my pride is Great Aunt Mary Ann's tea pot which is large and must be at least 75 years old.

Having digressed in the first sentence I hope you are bearing with me! Many people seemed to enjoy my first blog so sadly that has encouraged me to keep on keeping on. When dumped - at any age - one has to undertake activities never previously 'enjoyed'. Having got to my grand old age without ever painting a wall is, I feel, perhaps a cause for celebrating. But part of the reason having being continuously told I wasn't good enough to try was a little confidence destroying.

Well having had a carpet laying ceremony booked for next week for quite a few months, and the walls looking decidedly 'mothy' paintwise, I thought I would give the process a try. Later in the year I will probably employ 'a man' to have a go at most of the house. But for now  I thought a lick and a promise might suffice.

My mother used to do all her own decorating. She was good at it but she was another who told me I was useless at anything like that. However she also used to say she could 'hear' her father [a professional painter and decorator] telling her off whenever she was decorating. Through study of family history I see that I descend from a very long line of builders and decorators but without any of the genes rubbing off on me!!

Determined to be independent, I set about removing shelves from walls and cleaning resulting dirty marks. So far so good. Lining up my tools, my first fail was being unable to open the paint pot. Having got help for that I carried on. I stirred the paint pot. Used a small brush and tried to do the even stroke bits until I got bored and then splashed it on.

So the first coat is drying. It is not quite as easy as I thought, but also quite rewarding! I am writing this before the final coat sets and the final disillusionment sets in. I can always add plants and ornaments to cover the rough bits, but it will be fresher and I feel some sense of achievement! 

Please don't expect any pictures of the finished effort. But I have enjoyed the morning and am moving onto my next challenge. Just hope it looks a little bit better than this one!