Feeling Crafty

This post is part of the link party at Anderson+Grant's blog.  See more great projects by clicking on the link below the button (since I don't know how to make the button an actual button).

Your turn to shine link party

I tend to assign a little too much personality to inanimate objects, so when this cool basket languished at my friend's garage sale after 2 days and a price reduction, I had to claim it.  Its first life was as a baby bassinet long ago and I couldn't stand for it not to have a good home. ;)  Can you see how this feeling sorry for objects might be a problem? 

I liked the white paint on it and the natural distressing provided by age, but to go in this particular spot, I thought a dark color would work better.

 So...black it is!  I painted it with a Martha Stewart paint I found at Michaels.  It's supposed to have a matte chalk finish that works well for distressing.  As I painted, I realized how long it's been since I worked on some sort of crafty project.  While painting something solid black might not really get the creative juices flowing, I had a good time painting!

After letting it dry overnight, I took some fine sandpaper to it for some aging.  Here it is...it's not that it's really that much lighter than in the above picture, but the sun was shining on it from the window in the picture below.

 More often than not, the end result that is in my head is seldom the end result that I actually get.  It's usually a little disappointing.  But this...THIS turned out just like I pictured!

I will have to admit...I turned on the dining room light this morning just to admire it one more time.