Wardrobe Re-do Part I: Deconstruction

When Terry and I first began dating, this beautiful piece of furniture lived in his bedroom.

He used it as storage for his tools and other construction type stuff, which seemed unfortunate.  This big girl was far too pretty to hold a skill saw.  In spite of it's purpose, I was impressed with Terry's taste in furniture and thrilled he appeared to have an appreciation for antique and vintage pieces.

 
And then I learned it was actually his mother had the awesome taste in furniture - Terry just needed something to use for storage.   

A couple years later when we moved in together I was excited to have the opportunity to make the piece functional again (aside from providing tool storage).  Our apartment at the time lacked storage space and this wardrobe was my solution.  I begged for Terry to build shelves into the wardrobe so I could use it properly.  One move, and three years later that's finally happening.

This project is proving to be a beast of an undertaking.  To start, this grand lady weighs approximately as much as the state of Rhode Island.  I'm used to being able to manipulate my little tables, or at least take them apart enough to be able to maneuver them as I work.  This lady is solid as a rock.  Due to it's weight we didn't move into the basement to work on it - it's staying in Terry's office where it's lived since we moved into our house.  Taking that into consideration I'm scaling back the work I would normally do.  There's minimal sanding, and I'm not stripping or applying wood filler in the cracks and chips in the veneer in an effort to keep my temporary above-ground workstation relatively clean.

The first step was to remove the guts.  This consisted of drawers on one side, the other half was open and intended for hanging clothes.  We saved the drawers (which I have in the basement) and took apart the rest.  I hated to lose the original integrity of the piece, but it just wasn't practical for continued use.  Ultimately I decided it was more important that she was functional again versus serving as a massive dust collector with historical accuracy.  

Here's what she looked like when her deconstruction was complete:

Once she was gutted we hung new plywood on the inside to give her a clean, finished appearance.

Next - we paint! 

   

Ramblings from 36 Hours of Travel

• Arrive at airport and immediately spend far too long in airport "bookstore".
• Decide books are crap.
• Leave bookstore in just enough time to achieve the impossible: obtain breakfast from McDonald's!  Deem trip a success.

• Socks with sandals are rampant in the airport.  Feel sad.
• Begin reading newly purchased book and rescind previous statement that "books are crap."  Kudos to Piper Kerman - this book is awesome.

 

 

• Loathe the smell of airplanes; smells like jet fuel, recycled air, and desperation.  Consider inventing new aromatherapy flights featuring relaxing fragrances like vanilla, lavender, and eucalyptus.  Vow to investigate this venture upon returning home.
• Hit vicious turbulence - screw aromatherapy, new goal is to not vomit.
• Reading a book about prison while flying allows for several accurate comparisons between prison and air-travel.  Begin to feel like a prisoner of the plane and take it personally when asked to return my seat to the up-right position.   
• Florida smells like Summer.  Consider relocating.
• Remember Florida has alligators, re-think aforementioned move.  
• FACT: The one time you travel with only a carry-on is the one time your carry-on will break.
• Weeknights in a hotel bar are depressing.
• Appreciate all the natural lighting in the hotel lobby.  
• Airports are a private hell for people who are naturally fast walkers.  Navigating around man with travel pillow is proving difficult.
• Dear Florida: When it's 50 degrees outside, it's ok to turn off the air conditioning.
• FACT: No matter who you are, a McDonald's cheeseburger will never not taste good.
• Arriving at the baggage claim of your home airport is sad when there's nobody to meet you.
• Feel an odd sense of pride when parking garage attendant notes she can smell your car from her booth and "it smells real good!"
• Hitting all the green lights heading home is like the universe welcoming you back.  This didn't happen to me, but I imagine it would be nice. 
• Nothing is greater than arriving home to puppy kisses and a hot shower.
• Whether you're gone 36-hours or 36 days, one thing remains true:

This Isn't A Real Update

Last week I learned that I had to travel to Florida this week for work.  This morning I woke up and thought to myself "I go to Florida on Tuesday."  Well, nobody told me Tuesday comes after Monday, and Monday happened to be today.  

In addition to this morning's general confusion about days of the week, I encountered a Cave Cricket.  He was staring me down from my office/dressing room.  If you don't know what a Cave Cricket is (also known as Camel Crickets) or what they look like, I suggest you Google it but do so with caution.  Once seen, they can't be unseen.  I beat this morning's intruder with a broom.  Repeatedly.  And then I left his carcass on the rug as a message to his friends.  Really, I just didn't want to pick him up and figured Terry could do it when he got home from work.  This was a fine plan until I left work early to come home and pack for tomorrow's trip only to find a dead cricket waiting for me.   

This afternoon was a balancing act of trying to pack while avoiding a dead cricket, and phone calls.  Phone calls about phone calls.  All leading up to a conference call tonight.  Needless to say, I'm still not entirely packed - and I'm only going to be gone for 27 hours.  Of those 27 hours, about half the time will be spent with dead people.  It's not like I have to dress to impress. 

Which brings me to my next and final point.  The purpose of this trip is to assist on-site at a surgical workshop.  This time tomorrow I will be thawing...  Well, let's just say I won't be thawing dinner.  And yet, I can't pick up a dead cricket.  

My life is full of paradox.    

Martha, Taylor, and a Mirror Collage

For some reason I receive issues of Martha Stewart Living.  At my office.  I'm not complaining, they're always fun to peruse, it's just a little odd that I work for a surgical organization and I've somehow ended up on Martha's mailing list.  I received her February issue on Friday, and this was the first thing I saw when I opened the magazine:

Hey lady - that's my table!

I even showed it to a friend of mine who confirmed "Hey, that looks like your table!"  I've got no beef with Martha; she went to prison and is devoted to her Chows.  At least we know she's got good taste.

There was lots of rambling about building new furniture to accommodate our new sofa in this post, and it occurred to me I never posted a picture of the actual sofa.

And there you have it!  

I've said before that I love the mirror on my table that is now named Martha, but because of it's height it appears as thought it shortens the wall.

It hits part way up the wall, and there's nothing left to continue to draw your eye up.  We don't have spectacular ceilings or anything, but I don't want it to look as thought I've cut the room in half.  My solution to this is a mirror collage.  

It's something I'd been wanting to do for a while.  See, I come from a family of collectors.  Our family mantra is that you have to have at least two of everything.  If it fits, if it works, if you like it, you have to have it in every color, pattern, or flavor.  Which is why when I received this gift for Christmas, I didn't question it:

OK that's a lie, I totally questioned it (to be fair, I didn't realize that it was T.Swift Diet Coke!).  It was very matter-of-factly explained to me as such: "Do you like Diet Coke? Yes.  Do you like Taylor Swift?  Yes.  So you get Taylor Swift Diet Cokes - they're a collectors item."  

Can't argue with that logic.

The point of all this is to say that I come from a family that has a penchant to collect and I am no different, so it was not difficult for me to imagine putting together a collage of mirrors.  Let's take a look, shall we:

I've got a couple holes to fill, but I'm happy with it so far.  By hanging mirrors at the top of the wall, it adds height back into the room.  The mirrors also help make the room look bigger but most importantly brighter.

All of these mirrors came from thrift stores and flea markets, except for one which was saved from the thrash.  Seeing all of them up on the wall helps me visualize what I need as far as size and shape for anymore that I add.  

I love the concept of collages - whether they are groupings of similar pictures, mirrors, whatever - I think it's a wonderful way to create a focal point in any room.  Collages may translate as making a wall look cluttered but to me it feels natural.  As natural as receiving a 6-pack of Taylor Swift Diet Coke for Christmas - love you Andrea! 

And I'm totally not kidding, can you get me another 6-pack for my birthday?  I need two after all; it's better to keep one unopened in it's original packaging.

Obligatory New Years Resolution Post - Part V

Alright, this is the last resolution post for 2014!  This final resolution is two-parts that tie together nicely: patience and hope.

One of the things I learned very quickly when I started this furniture gig was how much patience is required.  From the stripping and sanding, waiting for stain to take, waiting for a piece to sell, patience is a requirement from beginning to end. 

Lo and behold, I am not a patient person.  I try to rush things in an effort to finish faster and hurry on to the next project.  Then I make mistakes.  Then I get frustrated.  Then I want to walk away forever and say lots of cuss words.  This year though I am actively going to work towards becoming more patient.  When I catch myself getting frustrated through my own impatience I'll take a step back and remind myself of all the good that comes from being patient, like puppies and flowers and cake.

Getting today's stuff done yesterday does not free up today - it only allows for more stuff to get done in it's place.  In short, my impatience will never allow for more naps so it's better to trust in the moment.  

To hinge off of patience, comes hope. 

Hope is this Gardenia that at least two people, including my mother, told me not to buy (I'm sorry mom, sometimes you just have to let your kids make their own mistakes).  I was warned to avoid this plant because of it's fickle nature, yet I trepidatiously planted it anyway.  

Hope are the buds waiting patiently to bloom.  Hope is catching my breath when I spotted this flower. 

Hope won't let it die and patience will keep it alive.

So this year I resolve to hope.  Hope for change, hope for peace, hope for cheeseburgers for dinner.  Hope is pink and bright and greets us at the start of every day.  Hope is what keeps us going.  

Embrace hope and patiently, anything is possible. Like keeping these resolutions.  

Obligatory New Years Resolution Post - Part IV (I swear I'm almost done!)

New Years Resolutions wouldn't be complete without talking about saving money.  I say this every single year, but the difference is this time I have a plan!

And to be fair, my past "I vow to not spend any money ever except on gas and groceries and that really cute skirt I saw at Banana Republic" resolutions must have worked somewhat because for the first time in my adult life I am beginning the new year debt-free.  No car payments, no credit card payments, nothing.  Also for the first time, I have a savings account.  With actual money in it. 

With all that said I struggle to manage my money.  To start, I'm terrible at math.  Thank God there's an app for that.  Secondly, in the nature of what I do with furniture, part of the gig is having to spend money to make money.  I get to shop and kind of sort of in a very back-asswards way, get paid for it.  I also have a tendency to jump the gun when it comes to my savings account.  I see my checking account balance, transfer way too much money from checking into savings, and the next thing you know I'm left with $25 to live off for two weeks which causes me to then transfer funds back out of my savings which makes me feel like a failure.  Feeling defeated, I then decide if I can't save money I might as well spend it, and I go buy that cute skirt I saw at Banana Republic.  

Mo' money, mo' problems y'all.  

Which is why this year I am truly going to try to budget (oh boy).  One way I plan to do this is to use more cash.  Cash isn't just for yard sales and flea markets - it's a for real currency accepted at all major retailers and more. 

Using cash will hopefully force me to budget because well, once it's gone from my wallet, it's gone until I'm allowed to withdrawal more the next week.  Also, if you know me, I'm not carrying around a LOT of cash so please don't rob me.   

So far we're on week one of this resolution and I've done kind of ok.  Although we did go over our weekly grocery budget because someone decided he needed $9 worth of granola bars despite already having $9 worth of granola bars stashed in the pantry he forgot about.

...

 

In other news, I think Winter has finally gotten to all of us.  Kenny was officially ready for bed at 8:00 PM.

 

 Today was a rough day, so I made the conscious decision to come home and paint.  

Of course I would choose red which is probably the least satisfying color to work with because it needs so many coats, but it felt good! 

Obligatory New Years Resolution Post - Part III

One day last week while I was home over Christmas break I took a nap.  I love naps and think they should be federally mandated.  

This particular day happened to be one of the coldest with warnings about wind chills and low temperatures.  The sun was out though and I found Kenny on our bed, cat-napping dog-napping in the sun.

So we all dog-napped in the sun.

Dozing off with two dogs and the sun on my face was glorious.  It served as a reminder that not only do we need more Dentasticks because the boys have some serious dog breath, but that I am so fortunate to share a nap with my boys.

So I resolve to take more naps.  Sort of.

Seeking balance isn't only to maintain my sanity.  It's to allow for more naps with my dogs.  It's to make time to love more.  

I don't mean just loving the obvious - my boys (all three of them), our families, etc.  It's about taking the time to love the things that often get overlooked.  Our home, for one.  I love our little house, and it certainly has become a home in the year and a half since we moved in.  But certain things about our home got ignored, for example the two mismatched sofas we had in our living room.

Taking the time to love my space, which in my case meant finally purchasing the damn sectional sofa we had talked about getting for three years, has created a sanctuary.  Our home was already our safe place, but now it's become a comfortable space that is relaxing (so long as you pardon the barking) and cohesive.

The sectional of course required new furniture to accommodate it, which Terry and I worked hard on creating.  First we built a new coffee table since we needed something more square than rectangular.  

Yay for reclaimed wood!

Then we worked on our new entry way table.

More reclaimed wood, and one half of an old set of french doors.

I loved this mirror the minute we brought it home, but I had no where to put it. It's so big and heavy it's really ideal for a mantle.  I'm happy to finally show it off!  

Oh right - New Years resolutions...  The point of all this is to say that by giving our home a little love I've created a space I long to be in for reasons other than it's where I live.  In turn my home has loved me back.  So that's the resolution in this long-winded post - to take the time to love a little more.  Give a little love to aspects of myself and my life that might get neglected, and get a little love in return.  

Oh yea, and totally take more naps.