Door Table (is that like a wall flower???)

I've noticed that my coffee tables never sell at shows, I I think I know why.  I use them as displays.  I think people don't notice the table because they are looking at what is on the table, or they don't want to take away my display table, and may not even know it's for sale.

So, I came up with a solution.  I built a simple yet awesome display coffee table so that if I have another coffee table I can display it on its own and this one will remain for my display.

Here's the top!  I found this cool/strange old door at the RE-Store.  It was a kind of Dutch door, but only the top 18 inches or so opened.  Strange, huh?  Anyway this made it the perfect length for a largish, but not huge coffee/display table.

I screwed four legs that I found at good will to the bottom and that's it.  No painting, nothing, just like that.

Here she is in action, and just to make her feel good, she did get noticed quite a bit.

Here is a close up of her 'charges.'  She did an excellent job displaying the little pretty things.

It's in the box

So, those of you who know me personally know I kind of have a problem with my cell phone.  OK, it's not the cell phone's problem, it's mine.  I loose it, I loose the charger, I forget to charge it, I don't check my messages, etc.  It's bad.  I know.

Well, I can't promise that this solution will solve all those problems once and for all, but it should help.

I've been looking for one of these bread boxes for several months.  I finally found one at a yard sale for $1.00.  I snapped it up!  I took it home, sanded it a bit and gave it a light coat of the same soft yellow I used for The Buttercup Chair.  The I distressed the livin' daylights out of it, gave it a coat of wax and a good buffing, used a 1.5inch spade drill bit to put a hole in the back of it. . .

We now have a place to store and charge all of our electronics.  Hurray!

Just don't expect me to be checking my voice messages any more oftne.

A Natural Solution

We are still working away at getting our guest bathroom to the spa like state that we want to offer our guests, and like the rest of the house, there are a lot of things that we would choose to change if we owned this house, but can't because we don't.  The ugly 1970's light fixture feel flat into this category.  It's all good, though, because it gets our creative juices flowing and forces us to be inventive instead of just buying something new.

 I spray painted several apple tree branches a creamy white (The branches are from last years new growth that had been recently pruned off.)  Then I bundled them together into two bunches, hot glued them to a scrap piece of 1x3, tied them up with some twine, then hot glued each bundle to the existing light fixture (using the flat part of the 1x3.)

There are CFL bulbs in the fixture, since they do not get very hot, I don't have to worry about the hot glue heating up and releasing its hold.  However, when I want to take them off, I will be able to use my hair dryer to heat the hot glue and remove the bundles.

We were also worried about blocking any light in this bathroom, as it is a rather dark room.  This address that concern nicely.

I'm excited about how this room is coming together.  Just a few more things to do and we will have one room done- even if it is the smallest room in the house, it will still feel good to say that something is finally finished.

I Like Simple Solutions

When I first looked at the Apple House, our land lord's wife pointed out the Staircase of Death to us.

Clearly, the original owner was not worried about small children living or visiting this house.  Yes, those posts are about 18 inches apart and a full size adult can fit through them.  A baby could just crawl right through those inviting looking slots and fall to their death!

True to our nature, we told her we weren't too worried about it.  We would figure something out before Leo started crawling.  We talked about it often.  We though wrought iron bars might look nice.  We called someone to come look at it, but they never made it out. . .

Then.

this adorable innocent looking creature started to do this:

Time's Up, Mom and Dad.  Time to fix the problem.

It was time to find a solution, and do it quickly.

I had a ball of jute twine sitting on my counter from a gift wrapping use and as I was thinking about this problem I saw it and inspiration struck.

Plain old jute twine is useful for so many things.  I laced it around the top and bottom of the banister, spacing the strands about one inch apart.  Those strings are on there tight tight and no baby is making it through there.

Cheap, simple, and 100% removable.  As a bonus, John Henry has found that they are strung so tight that when you pick them they make "music."  (Lucky me!)