Fail!

How often do you read about failures on design blogs? Not very often, at least I haven't ran into many but want to share one with you today. I think when we view blogs we get the Christmas Card effect. You know how folks like to send Christmas Card letters every year that highlight all the wonderful things their families have done and accomplished that year. Everything is picture perfect and they fail to highlight any failures they have had that year. (I admit I have sent them and will probably send one this year!) We know they have failures, we have all had them, but in reading them we see all their success and only our own failings. So, I am sharing a 'fail!' with you today and I hope it makes you feel better when things don't go exactly according to your plans either.

It started with another piece of 'The Crate.' I have made several things from this old weathered crate and next on my list is a large farm table for my dining room. This is what it looked like when I started:

You can see that it has plastic backing on it trapping almost 15 years of dirt, spiders and other treasures. I would have to first take off the cross boards to get the plastic off and clean up underneath it. Since our weather is already turning rainy again I couldn't leave it outside. I would need to bring it into our basement so it could dry out and I could work on it without worrying about it getting wet. I swept it off to try to get as much of the dirt and spiders off as I could.

Once inside I had a real task of getting the cross pieces off and ended up having to get help from my husband as my muscles just did not cut it.

 When they were finally off I was able to strip off the plastic and the tar paper underneath it to reveal the reclaimed wood I was after:

 Next came the sanding...

 And more sanding...

 And more sanding...

On a sidenote. You may notice I am in my 'nice clothes.' Something I have learned about getting things done. If I wait until I have several hours carved out to do a project, I would never get anything done. So when I find myself with even a few minutes of unscheduled time I grab a sander, hammer, paintbrush and go to work. If I am doing a particularly messy project I will throw on an apron over my clothes, but for the most part I have found sanding dust, dirt and other project byproducts wash out just fine. I usually have somewhere to go after I work and don't want to take (or may not have the time) to change clothes several times in a day. So...where was I, aw yes, so far so good. My tabletop from a crate is taking shape. I am getting it sanded down and things are humming along. My idea, I had gleaned from another blog, was to simply place the table top on an already made table. This way, I would not have to figure out how to add legs and keep the whole table together. So, I had dug out this table that had been holding unused decorations in my basement.

Upon placing the crate piece on top of it though, I was not happy with the proportions and realized I was really missing the huge chunky legs that I so love on farmhouse tables.

Not willing to give up, I primed it with white paint in preparation to distress it and stain it to make it looked aged, hoping this would help me feel better about things.

But in the end, it did not help me feel any better and I knew it was time to take a different approach. It was time to accept this idea was a 'fail' as my 16 year old daughter would say.

I love this picture. I think it makes me look like Super Woman. I am moving so fast I am a blur! Moving to get things done, make things better, make my home more inviting and 'picture perfect.' Awww, but look at this picture. My table design is failing and my basement is a dis-as-ter! Judge me if you must, but I love it. We are all real woman, we are not Super Woman. We have our good days and bad days, days when things work out and days when they just don't. No worries, there is always tomorrow. Go sit on the couch, turn on the TV, snuggle with your little one and eat potato chips. That's my plan. I'll come up with a new plan for my table tomorrow.