I Didn't Want White Hands Anymore Anyway

I have quite a few projects in the works, and with my attention span, I have to try to do them all at once for 5 minutes at a time.  :)  Since we had some sun today and won't again for a bit, I decided to:
1)  Waterproof our old dining table.  We are getting a new dining table that fits more than 2 people with food or 4 people without food, so I've decided I want to move the old small one outside to the patio.  Once we put in a patio.  Now it sits on our very small covered porch.  Hence, it needed waterproofing.
2)  Stain this spool (you know, the kind that holds the big cables) that we use as a coffee table.  Now that we are in a house and buying furniture and putting stuff up on the wall, we have developed a style and a rustic spool just didn't fit.  Rather than buy a new coffee table, I wanted to try and personalize something we already own to my liking.
3)  Try out this oil-rubbed bronze spray paint on some cardboard to see if it will work for a couple of additional projects on my mind.

Seems simple and straightforward, right?  Not with me and my klutzy ways!  I started with the waterproofing. I just bought some spray I found at Lowes, covered everything, and all was cool.  No problems at all.  I was feeling pretty good about myself.  Next, the spool.

As I was staining the spool, I realized I had splattered some of the stain on the dining table chairs.  They are already stained with some paint, and I plan to use them outside so it wasn't that big of a deal, but I decided to try and wipe them down.  Luckily, that worked just fine.  That was klutz-move #1, but it was easily resolved. I wish the next problem had been as easy to solve.

Once I was done staining, I realized I had gotten the stain all over my hands.  I had started out using this special sponge thing which soaked the stain all the way up into it leaving nowhere for me to safely hold it.  I did switch over to the much easier and recommended sponge brush, but the damage had already been done.  I went to go wash my hands and realized that stain does not wash very easily.  I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and it just wouldn't come off.  I looked like I wanted to change my skin color!  And that wouldn't have bothered me very much except it was VERY sticky, I wanted to eat lunch and couldn't touch anything without getting stain on it, and I had errands to run and I looked like a freak.

 I had the idea of using dish soap to help counteract against the stickiness, and that was pretty successful, but my hands were still black.  I was really wishing for some pumice soap at that point.  By chance I happened to wipe my hands on an old fleece blanket and that was surprisingly effective.  It got a bunch of the stain off.  So I kept doing that until my hands were more or less their old color.  See-through white once again.  I have often wished I was little more tan, but that was not exactly the look I was going for!

Now that I could safely prepare food, I ate lunch and finished it off with a small pack of Sixlets (one of my absolute favorite candies).  They were A Valentine's gift from Nathan's mom, and so they were white and pink.  Once I was done, I looked down at my hands and realized I had eaten them with wet fingers and had turned them pink!  So back to the sink with loads of soap I went.  At least this wasn't sticky.

After lunch I decided to go to Target for some stuff I needed--one thing being the now all-important pumice soap--and Michael's for some craft projects.  I went to both stores, was feeling pretty good about things, got home, and realized I forgot the soap.  Oh well.  I was done with sticky stuff that stains for the day anyway.  Or not.  It was then I decided I was on such a roll with getting stuff done, and I really wanted to use the nice sunny day to its full advantage, so I went out to test drive my spray paint.

It turns out I'm a spray paint idiot.  I managed to turn the nozzle right on my left hand and spray paint oil-rubbed bronze.  I ran to the bathroom to try to wash it off immediately so I wouldn't have a repeat of my earlier adventures with the stain.  Sadly, it wasn't enough.  Turns out spray paint is pretty sticky and stubborn too.  So I was left cursing my poor memory and lack of pumice soap.  Good news, though.  The spray paint is going to work beautifully for my faux-metal artwork.  And the spool is now the right color for my living room.  And once the dining table dries it should survive the elements.  And you can no longer practically see through my hands.  Although if I ever really want to go through the trouble of tanning, I might try a lotion designed for that rather than stain and spray paint.