paint - or no paint

Ok, so I've been looking for a neat desk, preferably in white, or to paint white. 

Last night I found a pretty sweet table. It's not exactly a "desk" but when I mean "desk" I guess I really mean table because I tend to need  a lot of space. ADD folks have to be able to see everything or else we forget we have it - or maybe that's just my bad memory... whatever. Either way, I've been scouring Craigslist, the free section first, and then for "desk" - although I found more luck looking under "table"... but tables/desks aren't cheap and most of them are that awful, cheap looking, fake wood stuff. And the ones that are real wood and awesome are pretty expensive.

So you can imagine how excited I was when I popped into a thrift store yesterday and found a sturdy, all wood, table for $40. It definitely needed some TLC but it had a great foundation. 

I couldn't wait to get started. Stopped off at Lowe's on my way home to pick out my paint, and if it hand't been night and the neighbors would have assaulted me with Lord knows what, I would have worked all night. Considerate of my neighbors I got some good sleep and started bright and early.

Armed with electric sander in hand I started on my new project. 

Plan: Sand it down, paint it up.

But here's my problem... I got it all sanded down... and now I'm torn. It's a beautiful table... should I really paint it - or am I just emotionally attached now that I've spent about 3 hours wearing a face mask and goggles sanding every square inch of this sucker. 

I need some opinions. I'm not even sure what kind of wood it is, but I sure think it's pretty. 

Paint - or not to Paint?

Here's a closeup of the wood.

it even has this cool detail on the ends

I imagined something like this originally

Help.

Bikes on Mantles...

With the holidays upon us comes tree trimming and outdoor lighting and in my case, attempting to make homemade ornaments for my friends. 

Well so far, they're not so great. 

I mean heck, if I'm hanging Xenergy cans on my tree, imagine what that box of ornaments I'm sending you looks like...

Ok, so maybe I need to spend a little more time with Martha or Nate next year but I'm still adamant that trees and decor should reflect you and/or your family. 

For example, my parents have a brown piece of construction paper that is the size of my preschool foot, with light brown construction paper "antlers" that are the size of my preschool hands and of course a red fuzzy nose just for good measure. 

It's an ornament I blessed them with (my first go round) at preschool, and it still, very carefully gets hung on their tree each year. 

Some people have those really nice looking tress, that usually sit in those really nice looking (hardly ever used-sometimes even forbidden) front rooms that the world can see as they walk down the sidewalk... While the real Christmas tree, complete with the homemade ornaments sits in the real living room where the real people live. 

Well... I don't have a nice front room with nice unused furniture, therefore I do not have nice, but meaningless ornaments either. 

Therefore... you can probably gather that I also don't own a lot of fine art, or heirloom statues to adorn my mantle either. Nor should I. I mean really... do I seem like the Crate and Barrel or Pottery Barn living room person? I'd have that stuff broken in no time... klutz.com
And yet... I still find myself looking at all their nice stuff...

It dawned on me as I was writing the Christmas card this year, that all the pictures I was including were pictures that included bikes. No cute professional holiday pictures with the dog or beach shots of that non-existent get-away... because, let's be honest... we don't have either of those pictures. 

We have bikes. 

And so instead of scouring the thrift stores hoping to run across an abandoned Pottery Barn vase I can pawn off as my own... I've embraced that it just ain't gonna happen...
 I've been fighting this for awhile now... but without any new purchases this year, I suppose it was bound to happen.

Fine... just put it on the mantle. 

However... if Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel were to design a bike... I'm pretty sure this orange and gray, accented with vintage leather handles and seat... would be it. 

It's the Trek District

Even their logo says... "Where fashion meets functional"

According to recording Great, and classy... artist Ke$ha... "We are who we are" :)
ha