100, table.

Just in case you weren't keeping track... this is my 100th post. Yay. I will have a cupcake to celebrate.... you should probably have one too.

After I posted my short list of ideas the other day, I received a rather curious e-mail that went something like this:

"Hi Mandy,

 

I especially like #4, I think you should move it to the top of your list.  You know something for the winter doldrums" ... "getting that list down is really rewarding. 

Have a good day."

Curious... I wonder who could have sent such an e-mail? Do you think it was the Grandmother who has been eating at a patio table about 3 inches too short for the past 3 months? So I did finish the table for my Gramma, which was #4 on the list. It required quite a bit of work along the way...

To refresh your memory, it all started innocently enough with me giving her 8 hours of my time for Christmas, 2011. In October, 2012 she cashed in the hours with the request that I refinish her kitchen table. So I brought it home and got to work.

Then everything went wrong.

and missing from this photo montage is how the table looked when I sanded off the veneer right down to the press board that was underneath it all. Big oops.

Queue the paint!

With the creamy white paint, the table would have looked pretty good... if we had painted the base.

But, I didn't. I don't think she really wanted me to... and with the unprecedented length of time it took for me to get her table from wood to white, I don't really blame her.

It doesn't look great. It barely looks good at all. But the white is better than the unevenly stained veneer, and way better than the plain press board. My intention was to paint and sell the table - giving her the money to buy a newer, real wood set. But I think she just wanted something to eat on.

I knew this about her, so when I spotted a tablecloth at Target that happened to match all of the colors in her kitchen, I bought it and presented it to her with the table last night.

It's certainly better than nothing, and I can say from experience that it works. We had some homemade chicken soup to celebrate.

And if you are curious about the other things on that list, you should know that I bought foam and upholstery tacks last night on ebay.