Sit On It

s the table re-finishing project moves along I can't help but think about how badly I want some new chairs to go with it, and of course how I would like to (re)decorate the whole dining/office area. I am dreaming after these beauties but unfortunately being fun-employed means I don't have enough pennies to buy these =[

They are of course the Eiffel Tower Wire Chairs if you happen to have four sitting around your house that you want to donate to charity me then I will think you are the most awesome person in the world and I want to raid your house for whatever other awesome treasures you have but until then I will just be oogling over them through my computer screen and thinking how good they would look with my table every time I walk to the kitchen.

Up next on my wish list is a card catalog, I have been looking for an awesomely priced one for years with no luck but I am hopeful. I especially like how they used this card catalog to store the booze–perfect for my dining/office area. I mean drinking is appropriate while dining and it is sometimes necessary while doing homework.

Image via apartment therapy

So there you go, what my greedy consumerist mind is coveting right now. I am insatiable I tell ya....JK (sorry for typing JK but it seemed appropriate)

The Dining Table Chronicles vol. 1

ecently I wrote about how I ruined something that I got from Patrick's parents and unfortunately I have to tell you that I have ruined more than one thing. Well, I guess I didn't ruin the dining table but I didn't make it much better. Let me start from the beginning, we got a table that belonged to Patrick's grandmother, the table was awesome but at nearly 100 years old the finish had seen better days. We (mostly Patrick) sanded the table as best we could but at the time we were cold because it was in the middle of winter and we were in a rush because we were working on it at Patrick's parents house and we needed to go home (with the table) we ended up getting rid of the old cracked stain and then washing it with some black paint, it looked pretty good but we used a really crappy sealer and that has not held up. In the year and a half since we redid the table, the table has gotten cup rings and scuffs and it looks baaaad and this table deserves to look good.

On my first day of school, June 18th, I got busy applying the first coat of stripper. I started small and did one panel of the table top at a time. This project is going to be slow going and I am not planning on completing it until my last day of school, August 8th, so look forward to a few progress posts. Oh, and in case you are curious as to why I am planning on taking so long to finish this project it is because I am busy with school and don't have tons of time to commit to it and because I get impatient and bored with things and that usually leads to half-assed crappy projects so I am hoping that by working on it for just a little bit every few days that I will not get tired of inhaling stripper and will make for a beautiful finished table.

 I forgot to take a proper before shot but at least here you can see half of the before and half of in-progress

The stripper is working its magic

Halfway through stripping the top

Not Quite a Vacation

riday morning Patrick and I headed to Modesto where we met up with his mom and then headed down to Big Bear. The ride was long and hot (despite the air conditioning) but I got some good nap time with Patches, Patrick's 17 year old family cat!  Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this portion of the trip because my camera was packed away and beyond my reach, and I am still trying to get used to taking pictures all the time, hopefully the photography class I am taking this summer will help with that. 

We woke up early Saturday morning (in my favorite room ever!) and got straight to work unloading the Pod, it was heavy, dirty work(there was a lot of tools) but with six of us helping it was finished by two o'clock. We were pooped from the day but wanted to try and take advantage of being at the lake so we went fishing. We didn't catch any fish but we did find an abandoned canoe. The wind and lack of fish got the best of us so we called it quits and headed back to the cabin (or lake house.)

By 12:30pm Sunday we were in the car and headed back north, this time with Patrick's brother, his girlfriend, and we got cuddly with Ranger. Once again the ride was hot, since a lot of the ride is through the Mojave Desert, and the ride was long, especially long while I was feeling car sick. Patrick and I made it back to Oakland around 9pm and pretty much went straight to sleep since we had to wake up early the next morning. While this trip wasn't exactly a vacation it was nice to get out of town for a few days and to see the beautiful California landscape, and of course it was nice to help Patrick's parents move into their new home.