a) got really, really sick
b) got a diagnosis and got to work on learning to live with it
c) bought a house (bought a house!! ~ holy cow! We bought a house!), and
d) moved.
So, I have been kind of preoccupied, you might say.
I have not stained the table, but we did actually complete it. I have to go dig up pics of the process and add them later, but, for the time being, I will at least walk you through the steps.
Once the table was assembled, I enlisted the help of the rest of the family. We wanted this piece to be uniquely ours, and reflect who we are, and I wanted everyone to (literally) make her/his mark on the table.
I started by choosing a favourite quote. We went with: "Dance like nodody's watching; love like you've never been hurt; ing like nobody's listening; live like it's Heaven on Earth." This has been credited to Mark Twain, I believe, and it is one of my all-time favourite quotes ~ perfectly outlines how to live, IMO.
Next, I assigned one line to each girl, and Shane and I shared the last line. We each wrote our line in our regular hand, then I took then to Kinko's and blew them up (boom! ~ no, no, no...I ENLARGED them. Printed them out in a larger size).
I brought home the photocopies and handed them over to Justice, who used carbon paper to carefully transfer them on to the surface of the table ~ one line on each solid side panel. Then, she pulled out her woodburning pen and burned in the letters.
In my dreams, I will stain and seal the table, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. We did, hoever, manage to get a glass top for it. I called 55 Glass and ordered a custom top. I think it cost me about thirty bucks, but it was totally worth it. Our table is now easy to wipe up, easy to set a glass upon, and looks super cute. I am looking forward to filling that big empty space in the center with seasonal decorations, and will be sure to post pics when I do.
I will check back in with pictures of Justice doing her thing, as well as more angles of the table (and hopefully some pictures of the table after it is stained). In the meantime, feast your eyes on a picture recently snapped of our new living room, in which you can at least see the finished table.
Oh, and here I will try to crop and enlarge that same picture, so you can get a slightly better look at the table. I think. Let's see if it works.
Oh, yay! I think it did!
Oh, and for the record, I also built this shelf, to coordinate with the table:
Oh, and for the record, I also built this shelf, to coordinate with the table:
Sorry for the complete lack of instructions. I pretty much just played around with the arrangement of the crates until I like it, screwed them together in sections, stained them, screwed the sections together to make one big shelf and stood it up. Ta-da!
If you look behind the purple chair, you will see another, smaller shelving unit that will one day coordinate with this one. Right now, it coordinates with the table, because I haven't stained it yet. (*grumble*)
