Lessons Learned

If you find yourself in possession of chocolate chip cookie dough made with lard instead of butter, resist the temptation to eat it raw. Seriously. Just put down the spatula.

If you can stand it, more Davidson

So I'm a few months late with this. With all the Davidson hoopla this spring I missed this simple article that captures so much of what it is to be a Davidson Wildcat. Well done, JT.

Thrift Store Finds

I've wanted a cake platter for a long time, so this diy project from Design*Sponge caught my eye. I found a great candlestick and a plain white plate at a local thrift shop - I haven't glued them together yet but that's the next step.




I also found this fantastic metal Beatrix Potter platter. It matches two pencil cases I've had forever so they're all on display now in my hutch. (Speaking of the hutch, that was the ultimate furniture rehab project. I really wish I had some before pictures.)

Finished Catalog

Here's the final catalog post! I really couldn't be happier with how it turned out. So far, I've labeled all but 13 of the 60 drawers. If you know me at all, you will spot the one task I hadn't completed when I took the pictures. Obviously, I couldn't live with unordered drawers - they are now in alphabetical order.

Card Catalog in Progress

Turns out I only had to sand the catalog and not strip it. Here are a few pictures of the refinishing in progress.


The existing stain on the drawers had worn unevenly so the stain I put on didn't create an consistent color. It ended up looking fine since the darker area is covered by the hardware and labels but it was frustrating to deal with. It also affected how the polyurethane covered the surface. In the end, it's not perfect but I am calling the imperfections "character" instead of "flaws".


Having all these drawers stacked in the middle of the living room served as motivation to get the work finished.

Brain Dump

The card catalog is finished! I love it and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Of course I keep forgetting to upload the new pictures, but trust me - it's fantastic.

In lieu of photos, here are some links and items that have been occupying my brain lately.

Loving - John Adams. Seriously. I started watching the mini-series on HBO but decided to stop after the fifth episode and read the book first. For the past week or so I've developed a nightly ritual of popping kettle corn and reading for an hour before bed. From what I've read and watched, the show stays pretty faithful to the book with the exception of some timing details. Laura Linney and Stephen Dillane are so wonderfully perfect as Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson that I want to send cookies to the casting director. I can't recommend the book or the show enough.

Listening - To the Indie Soup Runner podcasts. Although the weather is getting nicer, it's still too pollen-y outside for me to move my runs outside. I don't really mind the treadmill, but these podcasts are perfect for relieving any gym-related boredom. All of the songs are high-tempo and work really well for timing your steps to the beat. Only downside - it's difficult to execute appropriate dance moves on the treadmill.

Links!
Science Tattoos
The nerd in me loves this. It's probably for the better that I'm not super-passionate about econ because I don't think a tattoo of supply and demand curves would look as good as the squid anatomy tattoo. via Boing Boing

Vintage Microwave
This fills in the hole left by The Week in Craig posts when The Black Table stopped publishing. The weeks where she covered the Free Stuff section of craigslist were always the best, and Vintage Microwave ably carries on the tradition of mocking people for what they try to get rid of. via Evany

Where was the Class of '03?

Two weekends ago my parents were at Davidson for my dad's reunion so I decided to drive down for the afternoon and have lunch with them. We went to the official alumni event on campus and my dad had registered me ahead of time so I had a nametag with my name and graduation date like everyone else. All major reunions except the five year one are held in April so everyone there was celebrating 10, 15, 20, etc. years and I was the only one at five years. It became the joke of the day that I was the only one who had shown up for the five year reunion so dad made sure to take a class picture of me to document that I was there. I had a really nice time and got to hang out with her parents and other classmates of my dad.

Here we are by the thumbs-up wildcat.

New Project!

I haven't had a good project (home-, not work-related) in a while so I'm really excited about my new piece of furniture, just waiting for sanding, stripping, and finishing:


I found it on craigslist in Charlotte and it just happened that my parents were in the area with a van so getting it home was relatively painless. It was pretty dusty, so I spent last Sunday vacuuming out the inside and rinsing off all the drawers (60!). The drawers are plastic with a wooden front, and I've since removed the drawer fronts and all the hardware. Due to the location of the screws holding the wood fronts to the drawers and the size of my screwdriver/drill I had to detach the fronts by hand - not fun.

This weekend is going to be spent sanding it and getting it ready for stripping. It's possible that I can just sand off the current finish rather than having to get chemical stripper involved but we'll see how that goes. After contemplating the sanding possibilities I gave in last night and bought a sander so I'm excited to get to use my new toy. I think it will look really nice when it's finished but there's a lot of work between now and then.

Here are some more pictures showing some of the stains/damage on top, the pull-out writing boards, and one fan of the new furniture. I'll keep you updated during the process!