~~~Lara Zielin~~~

I’m a sucker for a good rehab project. Not the Lindsay Lohan kind, but rather the crafty kind.

Yesterday, on our way to a band organ rally in Sandusky, we stopped at a barn sale that was giving away old metal toolboxes. For free! So I picked up two. I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but they called to me.

Here’s the red one.

You can see it’s in rough shape.

And no, that beagle in the photo didn’t come with the toolbox. If he had, we would have dropped them right there and sped away. (Love you, Amos! Mwah.)

Anyway, today I got out my paint (Behr paint and primer in one, which will change your life, swear to dog) and started in. I wasn’t sure exactly where I’d end up, but my general philosophy is that paint, plus a hot glue gun and some ribbon, can fix just about anything.

Here is what I ended up with.

Isn’t it cute?! Then I lined the inside with some extra fabric I had sitting around.

No idea what I’ll do with it yet — am contemplating selling it on Etsy, actually — but I love it nonetheless. Oh, and I still have one more old toolbox to play with! Hooray for garage sales!

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: Improv Everywhere made this hilarious Star Wars bit, which takes place on a subway car. In New York City. I love!

Recently at the gym, a friend in my spin class, Patty, was talking about her travels and she used the phrase “chocolate for flight attendants.”

“What’s that?” I asked. And she told me one about one of the best best practices I’d ever heard of.

Every time she goes on a flight, Patty takes all the flight attendants a little baggie of goodies. Nothing huge, but usually something along the lines of Zingerman’s brownies (which, if you’ve never had one, you simply must try). Patty said she did it because being a flight attendant was one of the most thankless jobs ever, and it made such a difference to these men and women.

She doesn’t do it for special seating. Or free booze. Or an extra blanket.

She does it simply to say thank you to people who don’t get thanked very often.

I love this idea. I love Patty for thinking about being grateful to people who we interact with but sometimes don’t even see. And I want to put it into practice in my own life. For shizzle. I don’t have any flights scheduled in the coming weeks, but when I do, I’m going to Zingerman’s and I’m going to stock up.

Thanks, Patty, for the awesome idea, and for making our skies just a little bit friendlier.

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: The intro for He-Man. I recently saw a Facebook status update where someone was threatening to quote the whole thing because they had it memorized. But now I can’t remember who that was. Which is a bummer. Because probably that person is my hero.

Here’s the thing about the awesome reality show Tabitha’s Salon Takeover: Tabitha is so completely passionate about what she does, that you can’t help but be inspired. I know what you’re thinking. It’s reality television, Lara, how good can it be? Well let me tell you — it’s better than chocolate. Okay, that’s not true. But it’s still really, really good.

On a recent episode,  Tabitha said that at the end of the day, she can’t walk because she gives so much of herself to her clients. Some people might think, meh, all she does is hair. But her business is hugely successful (she has a three-month waiting list at her salon!) and shouldn’t we all get worn out, at least a little, by the things we’re passionate about?

I love how Tabitah chooses to live her life and run her business. She’s inspired me to give so much of myself to my books that I can’t walk at the end of the day.

But not so much that I can’t still apply lipgloss.