Painting Frenzy

Despite the fact that I have been writing six days a week for a minimum of an hour and a half a day, my creative impulses have not been completely satisfied. I've felt a compulsive desire to paint.

Now, for me, this isn't about a canvas or creating a picture. I want to paint three-dimensional objects. Since I first moved out on my own, I've found a certain meditative pleasure in painting, and very few items in my home are safe.

It started innocently enough. My mom gave me this attractive lamp. 

Originally the fisherman's pants were dirty brown, the jacket a drab blue, and his beard was lost in the fleshy tones of his face. I stared at this single source of light in my bedroom the first day it was at home, and thought: What fisherman wouldn't be proud to have a coat with fish on it? Plus, this lamp is so...unique it needed a little cheering up.

Once I had started, I began to look around at my belongings with a new perspective. The dully beak of a duck passed down to me from my grandpa needed to be brightened:

My plants no longer needed to be housed in boring terra cotta pots when they could have colorful bases:

My filing box needed some cheering up:

I've painted my nightstand drawer fronts, knobs for the closets, borders on corkboards, and picture frames. I look around at these items, and they mock me. I want to paint something now, badly!

The problem is I don't have anything left. So I've been wracking my brain for something, anything, that I might want to paint. My standard (lamps—I've painted more than one) is no longer an option since we have sleek stainless steel lamps throughout the house. All my plant pots are filled, with no room for new additions; I can't paint a filled pot and I can't fit another pot in my house. There are no figurines to be seen that would benefit from my hand wielding a paintbrush anywhere near them.

I'm getting desperate. This weekend, we went to an antique store, because along with expensive antiques, there's usually a plethora of junk interesting items. I found nothing paint-worthy (but I was tricked into buying a religious necklace that I'm going to pretend is a tiny lightbulb).

I need ideas! Soon I'm going to cave and start painting surfaces better left alone, like our TV tray/coffee table (goodness, don't I suddenly sound too classy) or my cats' fancy water bowl. Help! Suggestions wanted!