A Tale of Two Tables

Both of them red, actually:

Exhibit A:

A little maroon table with a weird black lace trim glued onto the side aprons, used for a long time as a little house-altar.  It was a little afterthough-ish, though, and far too small to even light a stick of incense comfortably.

The blue thing underneath, by the way, is a glass planter from Ikea.  I honestly have NO idea why it's there, but it's been there for like ever.

Exhibit B: 

Enter my friend Sylvan, who recently procured for herself a new bedside table, and needed to find a new home for this old one.  "It's such a great red!"  I said.  She looked at me like I'd grown an ear out of my forehead.  Once I got it home and looked at it in a different light, though, I realized that  it was not a great red.  It was at her place, but not mine.  Since the finish on it was a factory spray-job (over MDF), I spray-primed this thing the second I brought it home.

The next step was to actually paint the thing.  And until I did it, I had no idea what I wanted to do with it.  It just sort of evolved (sometimes that's good, and sometimes not so much).   I've been really into the two-tone furniture thing lately - wood + stone, wood + paint, etc.  Turns out, I  just happened to have some dark brown spray paint, and some in a very light almond color as well.

 plain brown + white

Which doesn't remotely look like anything except a table spray-painted in two different colors. 

click on these to expand

You guys know what my favorite paint treatment is, right?  Faux bois.  A bit of black, a bit of a dark gold, and a bit of water, and the body of this thing was done. 

  "alabaster" top!

The next step was something I'd never tried before.  I've done stone textures with sponges, rags, plastic bags, specialized rollers, even bits of torn cardboard...but I've never done veined marble before.  I was going for a sort of alabaster look here, with the warm almond-colored base paint;  for a first try, I don't think it sucks too badly! 

I have an alabaster compote (on the smaller red table in the first pic, actually), and was going for something along the lines of that look. 

OMFG!

But then, the failiest thing ever happened.  The top and faux-bois both came out beautifully, and without a single problem.  Since I didn't want brush-marks in my finishes, I opted to clear-coat this thing with spray, which went just fine on the body of this table.  But on the top, well...look at the picture.   I have no idea why this happened only in a couple of spots, and only on the top.  Maybe something was spilled here once; or maybe I didn't clean it as well as I thought I had.

There was nothing to do for it but wait til it dried, scrape off the wrinkled, bubbled paint, and sand it back smooth.  Fortunately I didn't have to strip the entire thing - but you can see that whatever happened with the clear-coat went straight down to the original red finish.

Sigh.

Fortunately, the rest of the process went off without a hitch.  The veining on the "alabaster" came out a bit differently than the first time, but I like it better, actually.  I only used two colors in the first draft;  this one has five:  white and brown for the stony background; two shades of brown, black, and silver in the veining (the silver to give it some sparkly where the "rock" is "broken").   This time I sealed it with plain old brush-on Polycrylic;  I crosshatched it with the brush to eliminate brush marks and to give the clearcoat a burnished look/feel.  It came out really well.




After: 

I am IN LOVE with the way this little table came out!!

Here it is replacing that dinky little red altar table in my living room, shining in the morning sun.  Heart!

The top, including the alabaster compote.  Pretty good match, yeah?  

Last but not least,  the inside of the drawer.  I love little color surprises inside drawers and cabinets, and this piece seemed like it needed something more than just a hidden paint color.  I printed this out on my color printer, set it in with spray adhesive, and sealed it with that damned spray clearcoat. Thankfully, it didn't ruin anything this time.









Oh, and what about that dinky little red altar table?  Here's it's after:  

This little thing got a paint job, and is now being a plant stand in the window corner of the living room.  It looks lighter than it is, in the picture:  it's actually an intense cobalt blue, with a black fade on the bottom half of the legs.






Later this week:  another table,
and more on that Day Sofa cover.








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Yippie-Kai-Yay

Is that how that's even spelled? Does anyone really know?  Anyhoo:  TABLE RODEO this weekend!  Similar to the "Houseplant Rodeo" I do 3-4 times a year, wherein houseplants get moved around, put into new pots, trimmed, bathed, and generally spruced up and reorganized.  This time with tables!


#1  Altar + Meditation Corner
My little prayer altar got moved from the tower of cube-furniture in the bedroom, to a small wooden chowki in the "back" of my living room where my little meditation corner has been set up.

Before:  the meditation corner, with the "tower" altar next to it, before I moved the tower into the bedroom. Also before I moved the couch into its current spot. Old picture.

 

After: The new Meditation Corner, rotated 90º (because it functions, and is more comfy, that direction), and the new little devotional altar next to it.

I like this version a lot better.  It's simple, and quiet, and pretty. 


<-- also some new cushions. :)








Talk to you about #2 later this week...when it's finished, hehe.

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Straight from Nature to You

Aw, man!  I took ALL these pictures of the awesome lounge area we made around our campsite this weekend, and most of them didn't come out.  Most of the close-up shots worked okay, though they don't give you any idea of how *badass* our campsite area was.

We pitched our tents in a circle around a group of three trees and four large, flat boulders next to the creek.  Between them we laid out piles and piles of rugs, cushions, blankets, and pretty sarongs and tapestries spread all over the ground to sit and lay down on.  Naps were taken, songs were sung, and food was eaten here.  This candle lantern, from my living room, hung directly over the center of the lounge area.

We burned incense nearly constantly throughout the weekend.  I was surprised how well the scent of Nag Champa & Amber went with the scents of hot dogs and marshmallows, LOL. 

Everyone contributed to the altar/shrine design.  There were symbols and tools and Goddesses from at least three different spiritual traditions on our group altar.  We figured they'd all get along with each other.  I really can't imagine any god not having a sense of humor about their silly little humans.  ;) 

I *love* the bright colors we ended up with.  LOTS of blue and gold and purple everywhere you looked, completely by chance.  :)

The remains of the community bonfire from Friday night (this is like 15' across!), with smoldering stumps looking for all the world like feet sticking up out of the sand on a beach.  :)

Looking down the creek from my campsite.

Ripening persimmons  in the trees hanging over my campsite.  I brought several home that I picked from the tree and from the ground below it, in various stages of ripeness and/or decay, to see if I can start a tree of my own at home.  :)

A painted tree stump I found in the woods. 

And, finally...

Proof that I really was there, lol.  I almost never get pics of myself when I go places.  But I started my own little tradition when I was 15:  everywhere I go on any sort of vacation, I take a picture of my feet in that place.  One day, when I sort them all into some sort of album, the feet pictures will be my cover/title page for each vacation.  :) 


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Meditation Space Available (Inquire Within)

Good morning!  Happy Monday, too.  Wanna see what I did over the weekend?* 

My heart really, really wants this just outside my  back door - to relax in on a rainy day, or sit and meditate in on cool mornings...

(Picture credit unknown - please comment if you know where this came from)

Mine would have one of these on it:

(The Hangout Place)

And lots of brightly colored lanterns and candles hanging above and all around:

(TripAdvisor.com)

But instead, I have this:

usairnet.com's heat index for Aug. 21st

*sound of brakes screeching* 


Oh, well.

For years I've simply plopped down on whatever expanse of floor in my house was available, sometimes with a pillow or a blanket under me, sometimes not.   These days, though, it hurts me to sit on the floor - so I'd been thinking about building a raised platform to pile cushions on top of.  Something a bit more springy than the hard floor.

Where, though?  Here, maybe, I thought, in this little empty corner of the living room under the windows:

It's out of the way enough, lit - but not heated, thankfully - by the windows all around, with a view of the garden outside and already sheltered by plants.  This picture kept springing to mind...

(photo by Di Lewis, from the book India Style by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren)

That's made of pallets!  Pallets, which are available for free just about anywhere you look - I found a stack of them behind my local grocery store over the weekend, and picked out several nice, relatively new ones from the pile (with permission, of course).  I took two apart and used the slats from both to make a new, sturdier top on one, sanded it, and painted it.  A few pillows, candles, and houseplants later...

YAY!!!

Aside from the pallets, this entire space was made with stuff I already had - candles, plants, the little ceramic cuppa-sand with incense sticks in it...

The little plant here I separated from the big palm-y looking one hanging over the area - a Bird of Paradise.  ...does that make this one a Chick of Paradise?

I really, really wanted to get a little brass Ganesh for this corner - and I found one at World Market over the weekend that I almost bought, but, it'll have to wait until payday.

In the meantime...

THAT didn't take long!  Silly kitty.  This is Rabi  (pronounced "robbie").  I was fully expecting this little corner to turn into a dog bed the second I turned my back, but Rabi and his feline brothers and sisters claimed it almost immediately.  I don't mind sharing. :)


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- 1 for camera, + 5 for Sari quilt!

Well, it seems my camera battery is pretty much out of commission for the forseeable future.  It won't hold a charge for more than a few minutes - not even long enough to take a picture and then get it onto the computer before the battery dies.  Sigh. Luckily, a new one's only about $15, so I'll get one on payday.  ...I just hope the battery is actually the problem.  Everything else seems to work fine, so, here's hoping.  

Add to this the fact that I have about three hours during the day when there's enough natural light in the house to get nice pictures for you, during which I was working and the house was torn apart yesterday, I have no shots of anything I did over the weekend.  So you don't get to see:

1. The little semi-shrine for Ganesh I created in the living room with a little statue I recently got in a raffle, and a side table I painted yesterday. 
2. Any of the "new" houseplants I did yesterday - same plants, actually, but some in new pots, some in freshly painted pots, and most in new places in the house. Or...
3. An astounding, breathtaking gift from a friend which came completely by surprise yesterday:   a queen-sized silk quilt made of sari borders patched together, handmade for my friend in India many years ago while she was there, by a local shop.  This she gave to me yesterday, simply because (a) she wasn't using it anymore and (b) she knows I adore Indian textiles.  I think I'm actually in shock.  It's exactly what I've always wanted on my bed; but with eight four-legged companions, two of which enjoy fucking up fabrics, there's no WAY I'm using it as a bedspread.  I think I'll find a way to mount it on a wall as an art piece.  Have I mentioned, by the way, how much I love tapestries and fabric art on the wall?  <3

So:  camera battery on payday.  Until then...we'll see what happens.  Hopefully that week I'll also find out that I've won the HGTV/World Market Antonio Treatment sweepstakes and have a $10,000 gift card to my favorite store.  :o)


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