i heart refinishing furniture!

My dear friend J reminded me a few days ago that I haven't blogged in over 2 months! Wow! Didn't realize it had been that long! Sorry about that! I wanted to let you know about what is going on in my life that I think is somewhat interesting---refinishing furniture! (...I'm so lame...)

Ok, usually I take a picture of the piece before I start refinishing it, but with this table I forgot- so here is a picture of a table similar to mine, the only thing different is the shape of the top.

The stain did weird things when I was trying to strip it...

After 4 HOURS of sanding last night, this picture is somewhat deceiving because it looks like the top has been sanded too, when really it hasn't.

All these little creases took FOR-EV-ER!

Another angle of the table....

Still have to sand the top, really excited about how it is coming along! I'll post pictures when I'm totally finished!

I'll try to blog more often, life has just been crazy! Happy Wednesday blog friends!

this is me. =P

Tornadic Weather Plan

I HATE TORNADIC WEATHER! Not that there is anyone who loves it-with the possible exception of storm chasers. I have a plan for when the clouds start to look unusally ominous. Here is how things usually go:

1. I receive a campus wide text message informing me of impending doom.
2. I panic and want to vomit.
3. I realize that now is not a great time to throw up and start to gather things and throw them into the bath tub.

Most people would grab items like important financial documents, maybe some photos, marriage license, etc. However I am not most people. These are items I grabbed in the order I grabbed them, not necessarily in their order of importance.

1. Big bag o' crap. This includes family photos (not all, but a small sample of them), a letter from my Dad, 4 cassettes (2 of the same Lou Reed album), one Jethro Tull 8-track, a rusty nail (important!), my great grandfather's Bible and other random items.
2. Wedding photos!
3. Borrowed books. I know my friends would be understanding, but still I hate to lose other people's stuff.
4. My bible
5. Grandmother's bible
6. EVERY SINGLE FLASHLIGHT I OWN!
7. iPod
8. Cell phone and charger
9. Random photo of my Dad, Aunt Jean and his brothers
10. Prudence
11. Purse and keys
12. ibuprofen, orange juice, pringles, and chocolate
13. Blanket
14. Voter registration card
15. 3 books of mine- no, not text books- my professors would have been understanding right?
Now, some say I overreact when a storm comes through, but you wouldn't agree with them...would you?

chair update!

I know its a little dark, but you get the idea. Like it?

-this is how school makes you feel-

School is stressful...


And sometimes it makes you sad...


Sometimes you feel like you are not going to live through it...


...but you will! I will, I hope! Only 414 days until graduation!

-the chair of doom!-

So I bought this chair... (hi, by the way, have you missed me?)

Its was $35, but I got a discount for being in college and "being a good person". No, I did not know the man I bought this chair from. But I did enjoy the random discounts!

The chair was painted black. What was underneath the black? I'll let you see for yourself. Sorry in advance for some of the photo quality, picture of a picture.


That's right friends, pink! The black paint came off relatively easily, but that evil pink wasn't so accomadating. This is after the first night I worked on it.


Joy's stripper worked so much better than mine (such a fun phrase!),so after she finished working on her table, she finished stripping the paint off of my chair, because she is just that awesome!


So there did end up being something underneathe the preposterous pink, a layer(s) of varnish and stain. Grrr! After Joy and I working more on it last night, we FINALLY got that off too!


I only have a few spindles on the back left to sand, and if my arms which are super sore from sanding allow me to, I will finish it tonight! I'll post a picture after staining it!

Anyway, I have missed blogging and missed you guys. How are you?

Hello? Anybody listening???

Ever feel like you have said the same thing hundreds of times? I think everyone experiences this. For me its "Hello. Have you done the online registration? No? Ok you can use those computers behind you on the table." That doesn't sound like much, but after you've said it a few hundred times in a day, its gets old. Other phrases could include but are not limited to "Put on your coat before going outside", (something I heard THOUSANDS of times while growing up) "Wash the dishes!" (this one is usually directed towards my brother), or even "Shut the front door". We all get annoyed when we have to repeat something a thousand times over just to get a point across.

I was thinking about this at work today when it occurred to me that I make God repeatedly say things to me. Things like "I made you, you're beautiful, stop insulting the works of my hand" (ouch!), and "I'm not going to give up on you and I'm not going anywhere, I love you", and one that makes me weepy at times- "I'm your heavenly Father, I'm Dad, just let me take care of these things instead of trying to take care of them yourself".

I hope this makes sense. I'm blogging this for me just as much as I am for anyone else who may want to read it. I need to write it down, make a note of what He says about me and about who He is.

Although I have mocked this song (because its hilarious!), I think it makes a good point. In the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" there is a line that says "Here I raise my Ebenezer". For a while I thought that meant "Here I raise my old man who hates Christmas", but really the word Ebenezer means a stone of help or remembrance. I want to make an Ebenezer of sorts I guess you could say. I want to have something, whether that be a blog or a literal rock or whatever, that is a point of remembrance of who God is and what He has done and is doing and will do.