All right, LLM readers! Do you remember my post about National Record Store Day last April? It’s more than okay if you don’t because it took us this long to bring our vinyl dreams full circle. Why? Have you ever had one of those “this will be simple” projects that quickly turned into “what the #$%& did I get myself into?!” No, just me? [Lol.] Well, either way, this endeavor has been quite the process:

Yes, last April, me and D went to Spin Records here in the Carlsbad Village and purchased our FIRST EVER vinyls for a record player we didn’t even own yet.

A few months later [let’s say June] I found a sweet deal for this Crosley Advance Turntable on FAB.com and thought, “YAY! We can now listen to our records.” But, sadly [sometimes] I’m not the brightest Crayola in the box = the system needed speakers . . . you know, to hear the music. OH! And, let’s not forget that the device had no volume control either 🙁 but let’s put a pin into that whole listening debauchery for one quick moment.

Our future music arrangement also consisted of a retro cart I found on Etsy that was beyond perfect BUT had it’s own set of challenges:

As you can see, it was an ugly color. It had to be changed, but the darn thing just wouldn’t paint. Well, let me rephrase that. I wanted to paint our “new” old wagon in a specific color [Kelly Green] but could NOT find my favorite succulent in a spray paint form. So did I change my mind? Pish-posh! Of course not 😉 that would be too easy. I instead bought a gallon of this beloved hue and tried to use a “make your own spray paint” contraption that was an utter disaster! After that failure and many bad words, however, I did finally get smart and called a local body shop, which referred me to North County Powder Coating in San Marcos, where I FINALLY got my answer.

Now, one would think, “Great! Jenna got the color she wanted. Win-win.” Nope. I mean the paint DID look great, but the plastic clasps that held its wheels in place melted in the powder coating process. [Absolute poop nugget!] SO, I had to put on my MacGyver jacket and get crafty = I used a flat head screw driver and a hammer to break out the molten rubber, purchased two, new pairs of wheels, and used upholstery dust cover plus spray glue to hold the wheels in its legs.

Is anything worth this agony?

I was quickly starting to think NOT, but assembled what we had anyway. Heck, we even bought more albums, but the entire system stood there and went un-played. What? I didn’t want to have some giant amp or buy any ole speakers. I needed them to be combined into one device and was determined to find only that. And you know what? Sometimes it’s important to wait, BECAUSE look what we have now:

“Vinyl is the real deal. I’ve always felt like, until you buy the vinyl record, you don’t really own the album. And it’s not just me or a little pet thing or some kind of retro romantic thing from the past. It is still alive.” – Jack White

An array that only me and D have 🙂 full of color, uniqueness, and contemporary to boot! Sunday was its maiden voyage and we had so much fun. It’s definitely going to be bringing us fun tunage for years to come!