the world in our hands

What do you do when your old dining room table really needs re-finishing and you just can't seem to find the spare month to:

1. haul that heavy thing outside

2. sand it down

3. choose a stain (so hard! should it stay oak to match the antique hutch, or maple to match the kitchen cabinets?)

4. stain it the chosen color

5.decide you hate it and repeat steps 2-4

6. polyurethane it

7. poly again, these boys play hard with their silverware

8. wait for it to dry

9. haul it back in



PLUS you really need a world map for school, but you moved school into the house in order to have a scrapbook room. Now all the walls are too small for hanging a giant map...
Oh, there IS a perfect spot where it would look lovely, but John isn't as dedicated to his sons education, and therefore the flat screen Samsung stays.
The table problem-
the wall problem-
(No, YOU put your chocolate in my peanut butter...)
so...
Walmart has matte finish, heavy duty vinyl for $2.47 a yard...


and a little adhesive on the back of the map to keep it from shifting around with my exuberant post dinner scrubbing...

and the boys will inadvertently get a geography lesson with every bowl of warm oatmeal served them...

and the patchy varnish on the table is hidden for another few months!


For about $20!? See, I did it to save John's hard-earned money. You know stain and poly cost WAY more than that...


I did this about five years ago, some of you might recall. But I did away with it, and this is embarrassing but here is why it went away...the bright blue maps?
Clashed with the colors in my kitchen.
I know! You see John isn't alone in not giving up his loves for academics sake.
For I love a coordinated visual space!
and though the boys liked the table and often commented on countries as they ate? One day I couldn't take the visual noise of all that blue ocean anymore.
LIFE LESSON ALERT: It's important to be healthily aware of your faults, and work with them when they can't be changed easily.
So when I saw this map on Amazon, and it comes in an antiqued finish? Oh I was typing in my debit card # to give them their $10 within minutes! Do you want one, too? It's also geographically accurate-not that I cared, heh heh.
http://www.amazon.com/Rand-Mcnally-World-Classic-Wall/dp/0528934767/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254266941&sr=8-1


Also, while we are admitting annoyances--the shiny vinyl of the old cover bugged me too. It was TOO shiny and therefore cheap looking. This matte cover is nice and soft and blurry and easy on the eyes. For the same price!


It's the little things, the tiny details, that make me happy...



That, and Granny Smith apples floating in a wooden bowl across the Atlantic.