Thursday, September 20, 2012

Sunshine, Lollipops and RAINBOWS!!!

{pretty}
Shortcake and I ran a quick errand the other day and spied this full rainbow in the sky. We could see the whole thing! And it was a double rainbow! You can see the fainter outside rainbow if you click the pictures. We pulled in to a parking lot to snap these pics and then saw about 30 people all doing the same thing. I should have taken a picture of that funny sight.

{happy}
Sleepy babies make me happy but not when they sleep so restless because their nose is drippy and congested all at the same time. : (

{funny}
A day in the life of a homeschooled freshman...reading about the journeys of Abraham while entertaining your baby sister with a piece of tape.

{real}
I am a Craigslist noob. I admit it. Craigslist has always scared me. I don't mind buying second hand stuff from a thrift store or friends, but a total stranger? I think that's why I've never been a big garage sale shopper either. Anyway, we needed an activity table for Cupcake. She's gotten very busy these days now that she can walk everywhere! The basket of measuring cups in my kitchen really doesn't keep her entertained very long anymore. So I made the arrangements via Cragslist to purchase a "Pottery Barn style play table". I knew it wasn't authentic Pottery Barn but I figured a generic knockoff was perfect for our needs. Sean brought it home and I was... um... surprised? Is that the right word? Well, we'll go with it.

I know that when you purchase something sight unseen, you want to ask a lot of questions. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that one of those questions should be "did you make this yourself"? Hah!
Yes, this was a homemade table. Homemade by someone who has intermediate carpentry skills from what I can tell. It's kind of rough around the edges (and the top). Whoever made it used some pretty rough plywood and also didn't know how to miter edges properly. Look, my husband, being a computer guy, doesn't have any kind of mad carpentry skillz but he can miter corners like nobody's business!

I also had forgotten to ask how tall it was and considering our Cupcake is on the very short side of the growth chart, my first thought was, "There is just no way this is going to work." Only I didn't say it as nice and reasonable as that. But, a few hours and a couple of coats of paint later (oh, I grabbed that paintbrush as fast as I could), we put our heads together. I wrapped the rather rough shelf underneath with some pretty shelf paper and Sean chopped four inches off the legs (miters corners and chops off legs!) making it the height of a standard coffee table. BTW... all of the pics above were after the painting.
I admit, it's kind of grown on me. And Cupcake seems to like it! Win!

IMG_8896-3
~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

9 comments:

  1. Hooray for paint, cute shelf paper and handy husbands! It turned out super cute, Charlotte. Did you do the painting of the apple trees on top? That is definitely the icing on top. :)

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    1. Oh, no, Kelly! My kind of painting is done with gallons and rollers. I wish I could paint something like that! That is an old Pottery Barn Dollhouse Playmat that the previous owners included with the table.

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  2. I love to see teenagers helping with their baby siblings. Tape - always fascinating.

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  3. The table looks adorable! I love the shelf paper you choose, it really adds a cute touch, and the playmat on top is darling. So glad you were able to make it work after all!

    Love all the pictures and hope Cupcake feels better soon!

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  4. The table is AWESOME! Way to make lemonade, girl. ;)

    And that picture of Cupcake playing with tape made me giggle out loud.

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  5. great save. very cute. tape huh? need to try that one.

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  6. I thought Cupcake was doing sign language until you mentioned tape!! LOL The table turned out great but I CANNOT believe it was described as PB with the bare particle board. Holy Toledo!

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  7. Totally adorable Freshman with Cupcake and good save on the table!

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  8. Good going!! It's easy, isn't it, to just say, "no way", but when you force yourself a little to make lemonade out of something, it's a great feeling of accomplishment. It looks wonderful.

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