I purchased this large green wooden tote at the Linden Hills sales.

I love reviving these.  This one wasn’t a terrible shade of green, but it was a bit too shiny for my taste.  So I sanded it thoroughly and then gave it a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

Next I pulled out a small section from the I.O.D. Gregory’s Catalogue paint inlay that I used on the bench I shared last week.  They say you can re-use the paint inlays up to 3 times, so I thought I’d give that a try.

I’m not sure if you can tell in the photos, but the 2nd time around the color fades to more of a dark grey rather than the original black that was on the bench …

It’s just a bit more washed out.  That’s not a bad thing, but just something to be aware of.  Especially if you’re thinking about trying to use a paint inlay over again on the same piece.  Some areas would look more faded than others.  Still, not necessarily a bad thing, but something you want to be aware of.

I also found that the backing paper was a little flimsier the 2nd time around, and in fact I couldn’t keep one section from tearing into pieces, so a 3rd use is out of the question for this section of my paint inlay.  Keep in mind that I had trimmed the inlay down to fit on this tote, had I kept the entire sheet intact it would likely have held up better for a 3rd use.

I simply had to stage my photos with the last of my lilacs.

They are about done for this year.

If you’ve been following me for long you may remember the story of my lilac hedge fail (you can read all about it here).  Looking back at that post I realize that I’ve been working on my lilac hedge for 11 years now.  Man, talk about determination!  Or maybe I’m just unwilling to admit defeat.  Either way, this year we ripped out one more of the non-performing lilacs and then added three new ones at the end of the row.

But the lilacs in the middle of the hedge are looking great.

They are about 10′ tall, and a couple of them have filled in nicely.  Now I just have to get the rest of them to look as good.  Maybe in 11 more years it will be as I envisioned it.  A tall, dense hedge that completely blocks the view into our neighbor’s back yards.  Fingers crossed on that one.

Well, even if my hedge isn’t providing the privacy we want quite yet, it is providing some pretty lilacs for staging photos.

This tote is for sale locally, so be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and sealer used on this project.