raising them right

Hadley considers her manicure before beginning.

Emerson gets involved with her work.

 

Always color-coordinate your tools.  You can't go wrong with purple!

Check your work!

Daddy is a good helper, too.

Hadley works on the base.

A job well done!

lena's table update

Brandon hasn't quite gotten it finished, but I thought you might like a preview of how it's going. 

lena's table

Although we love our mid-century modern dining table and chairs, we've decided that we might be better off selling the set.  We're not sure its delicate lines will survive a toddler seated on either side of it, although there is a theory that mac and cheese work as a preservative when rubbed into the cracks of old wood. 

A search for a new table and chairs began, long before our new experiment in frugality began.  We couldn't find anything we liked in a Mission or Craftsman style that we liked, or that we could afford.  Everything on Craigslist was "New!" and that just wasn't what we wanted.  So I queried my cousins and sisters..."Anyone remember Grandmother's old oak table?  The round one?  Do you know what happened to it after she died?"  Everyone remembered it, but no one seemed to remember its fate.  Someone thought someone else had gotten it, but no one knew for sure.  Until I mentioned it to my sister Kathy, who said that Grandmother gave the table to her, but she didn't have room for it, so she left it at Grandmother's house, where my brother and his family now live.

I immediately sent a lengthy email to my brother asking about the table's whereabouts and if we could possibly borrow it if they weren't using it.  Days passed, and the response finally came.  The email contained just two letters:  "o k"  Hooray!  A few months passed as he tried to actually locate the table in the storage shed and forge a path to carry it out.  Word came..."it's in pretty bad shape"..."it's missing all the veneer"..."are you sure you want this thing?"  We worried but continued to assure everyone that we did indeed want the old table.

Finally, nephew Henry went for a visit and managed a few photos of the table (see below).  Mom and Dad drove up last week and delivered it!  Brandon's been working on it steadily since it arrived, and it's just awaiting a coat of tung oil before it's ready to move into the house.  You'll have to wait to see what it looks like now that Brandon's done some work on it!