Saturday, April 24, 2010

What a find! What a project!

Look what I bought at the flea market this morning:



It's a giant slab of wood -- 51" x 44" x 3" thick. It has been used as a coffee table with this lovely base:



It is in rough shape. There were some pieces of paper stuck to the top -- were they decoupaged? Glued? Who knows -- they were partially ripped off. Then there was a piece of green fuzzy paper, like you use for model train layouts, and another bit of fuzzier brown, and some gunk with a lot of dog hair stuck in it -- very scuzzy. I started wiping it with water & Murphy's Oil Soap, just to get the yuck off, and then tried to scrape the old paper off. The big clumpy bits of finish started coming off, too. You can see where some of that is left:



This is what the "plain" parts (no obvious additional materials stuck on) look like:


Is this just old varnish?


It's kind of stripey:




Can I use a heat gun to take it off? I had thought I would just clean it up a little and then we could use it as is until I had time to really work on it, but I don't think I can stop now, it's just too weird looking. And still kind of grody. But I think I've reached the limit of what Murphy's Oil Soap can do for me.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Medieval Fair 2010

We look forward to the Medieval Fair every year, but this year was a little rough. Because of the remodeling, I spent almost no time getting ready for the fair before we left for spring break; we got back from our trip only two days before the fair opened. Such chilly weather was predicted that I decided we needed new undertunics and cloaks, but I couldn't find the patterns I used last year since my sewing supplies were half moved upstairs and completely disorganized. I did manage to make two undertunics (for Dean and me), one cloak (Dean), and a sash (Charlotte) but I think I was out of my mind.

Dean had a work commitment that meant he couldn't join us on Friday as he usually does, but the kids and I went anyways. The weather was good, if a little cool & windy, and we had a lovely time. Here they are, exchanging fire with (not medieval but cool) pirates:


You can't tell by her expression but Charlotte is having a blast:



Dean had to work again on Saturday, so the children and I were planning on going back & meeting up with friends. Unfortunately Charlotte woke up sick; fortunately George got to go to the fair anyways:

Next year he would like to have Viking shoes and a less scratchy undertunic.

Sunday was supposed to be our "family day" at the fair. However, although Charlotte felt better and wanted to go, once we got there she was very passive & wanted to be carried the whole time. George felt he had seen the whole fair the previous day & didn't have much left to explore, though he did enjoy the Human Chess Game and Daniel, Duke of Danger .... until he realized he had lost the fabulous axe you can see in the picture above. We searched for half an hour but could not find it -- someone must have picked it up. If your child (or you) found something like that, wouldn't you turn it in to lost & found???? At this point George just wanted to go home, Charlotte was a limp floppy doll who wanted to see the mermaids, and I was so frustrated I could have cried.

We made one last stop to see the mermaids. Their printer was malfunctioning and Charlotte ended up sitting with the mermaids for about 10 minutes while the staff fiddled with the printer. It took her about that long to start responding at all. The mermaids were wonderful, though, especially the one with the blue tail:



Dean wasn't enjoying the wait:


Better luck next year.

It took a whole week before we felt up to getting a family picture -- and then only because Dean wanted to shave. But here we are, Vikings version 2010:


It was about 20 degrees warmer this Sunday than last (85 instead of 65). Happy Easter!