Go Greyhound

I have to go on the record and admit that we do a lot of odd things in our house. Very on the whim. We like the road less traveled. Personally, I love change. I've raised my kids to adapt to situations quickly and to also embrace the "fly by the seat of your pants" nature. We like adventure, we like taking a chance, we like risk...we like to do things a little different, I guess. Fortunately, it works for us. Not always, mind you, but when it does the payoff can be fantastic.

Case in point...we are currently on the hunt for a coffee table. Or rather, we *were* on the hunt for a coffee table. And not just any coffee table, but a circa 1960's Lane Acclaim series round coffee table. With our new sofa, we need a round table. 1960's Lane coffee tables are moderately easy to find if you like the long surfboard type, but round becomes tricky...and expensive. But I'm determined (read: stubborn), and I hate settling once I have my mind set on something.

Enter my discovery of the exact coffee table we've been looking for and at the cheapest price we've found (by at least half) on ebay. But where was it located? York, Pennsylvia and it was marked "local pick up only." Doh! That won't work, as last time I checked Washington (the state) is nowhere near Pennsylvania. Todd looked up shipping and came up with heart stopping figures like $350. I was down...but not out. I messaged the seller and asked what he could come up with for shipping the table to Seattle, if he was willing. Response came back...$65. You've heard of doing a happy dance? Well, I busted one out right in the middle of my office at work. In my attempts to be a good wife, I forwarded the email to Todd and asked what he thought (secretly knowing I was buying this table whether he thought it was a good idea or not). No response to my initial email, so I called in a panic on my way to pick up Huddy and Soph at school and practically screamed at him over the phone the great deal we were about to score. His response to purchasing the table..."do it!" That's my guy!

So currently our coffee table is in transport with Greyhound, on its way to its new home with my Lane end table I scored at Goodwill for $5, plus the 80+ year old sideboard we hauled out of this lady's basement for a ridiculously good price. It should arrive at about the same time in a couple of days as our rug, which we also got on a great sale. Could this backfire on us? Of course it could. But it could also turn out to be a tremendous win, and that's a chance we're willing to take.

We geek out over house remodel, so this has been a good week for us. Below is our new table in all its original, untouched beauty. For now it will stay as is, but eventually (when the kids decide to be less destructive) it will be refinished.

She's crafty

Except, I'm not. Like, I am the anti-crafty. All actual crafty, creative people, please look away now. You will not be impressed. In fact, you'll probably find this a tad pathetic. But I'm gonna be proud of this project, as this is something we've (which really turned out to just be me) wanted to do since last summer. And I actually pulled out the glue gun and did it myself. Clearly snowballs are falling in hell...

It's not a secret that the kids make many trips to the beach during the warm(er) summer months; low tide, the peninsula, West Seattle...they love it all. And they LOVE to collect sea shells. I've kept a lot around, and Isabelle has a lovely clear jar she keeps the extra special ones in, but we've always wanted to do something more with them.

Enter a trip last summer to a bed and breakfast on Whidbey Island. We spent the night in Coupeville at the wonderful Lovejoy Inn. I cannot recommend it enough, and if you're ever looking for a place to stay for a night away, look no further than this house. The owners are wonderful, children are welcome (even our crazy grubbers!) and the food outstanding. One of the finer parts of this place, though, was the inspiration we look from a large seashell array they had up in their main entrance. Yes! we thought, this is what we're going to do, albeit on a smaller scale since their crafty display was a huge wreath and Lord knows how many years of collecting it would take to make that happen.

Our ultimate plan finally came into play with a trip to Ocean Shores with the Coverts a weekend or so ago. We took a little adventure drive over to Westport and gathered a large number of sand dollars, what we felt our collection was missing. With this final piece in place, we were ready. We ultimately decided to leave the "special" collection of shells alone, and try to work with what we got in Ocean Shores. After a week of drying, and searching Goodwill for just the right frame or mirror (I was flexible), I was ready to roll.

And here are my pictures. These are taken with just my iPhone, so have mercy on the photo critique.

I'm pretty happy with the finished product and where it sits above the new sideboard we picked up over the weekend. We scored the sideboard out of someone's basement in West Seattle. I made poor Todd squeeze the trip in between an ice cream party for the soccer team and a night out with the ladies. The sideboard had to be loaded on top of the van (we had our kids plus one in the car and absolutely no room) and it had to get a little wet in our lovely Seattle weather. The things I will do for a deal!!! Come visit us and see my little craft in person. BTW, total for the project was $5.50 ($3 for the frame and $2.50 for the picture) - not too shabby - and only took me about an hour, which includes final clean of the shells, gluing everything, and picture installation.