UPDATE - End Tables with Birdie on Branch - September 14, 2011

My end tables at Swank. Coffee Shoppe and

Handmade Market in Downtown Southern Pines!!

SOLD!!!  The ladies at Swank. Coffee Shoppe and Handmade Market in Downtown Southern Pines bought my end tables this afternoon!!!  Thanks Petra and Jessica :o)

Funny story:  Rachel and I were walking the kiddies last Friday morning in DoToSoPi, and decided to stop into Swank. for a morning pick-me-up...and as a snack break for the kids too.  With coffee in hand and babies in strollers, we found a seat towards the back of the shoppe to sit for a spell, relax, sip, feed goldfish to hungry little mouths.  I look around at all the handmade goods in the shoppe, tons of great handmade items from local artists by the way, and notice the four private little "coffee cubbies" to my right.  In each little cubbie there is a comfy chair for private reading, sipping, or web-surfing.  But I notice that only one of the four cubbies has a side table for newspapers, mags, coffee cups, laptops, etc.  Having just started painting my end tables the day before, they are fresh on my mind.  I think to myself, "I wonder if they are in need of end tables?"  I mention this to Rachel, and she and I both agree that I should ask Petra, one of the owners.  So I do on our way out of the shoppe.  She asked me what color they were and if I could send her a photo via Facebook?  I said that I definitely would.

After finishing the tables yesterday, I took some final photos and sent them to Swank. via Facebook last night.  I hadn't heard back from them by about 10:45 this morning, so I put the end tables in the back of my car, and left to pick my son up from preschool.  After I picked him up, I swung by Swank. and met Jessica outside, explained my story about talking to Petra last Friday and my end tables.  She invited me in the shoppe, asked me more about the tables, and if I would mind leaving them for a few hours until Petra returned to the shoppe later in the afternoon?  I left the tables and my phone number and headed home.

A few hours later I receive a message via Facebook from Petra that she liked the tables and wanted to buy them!  Bingo!!  I literally jumped up out of my desk chair and ran into my bedroom jumping for joy (quietly so I wouldn't wake my son from his nap)!!  It was a great feeling!  How very satisfying...that someone appreciated my work and wanted it for their shoppe.  Makes me want to work even harder now!

Thanks again Petra and Jessica!  If you're ever in the area, Swank. Coffee Shoppe and Handmade Market is a fantastic little shoppe....yummy coffee and fabulous handmade gifts from local artists.  Go in and get your Swank on :o)

Perfect fit!

End table already hard at work, holding up some mags!!

One last close-up!

End Tables with Birdie on Branch - September 13, 2011

Well, after taking nearly an entire month off from "reLoving" furniture...I am back!  Boy, it sure was a HOT summer!  Making it very difficult for me to get outdoors to sand and paint furniture.  Paint does funny things in high humidity and heat.  The joys of living in the Sandhills.  The first week of September brought a break in the heat wave thank goodness, still warm, but not nearly as humid!

I just finished 2 of the cutest end tables yesterday!  These tables were originally from Pier1, my mom bought them several years ago and my parents painted them white...originally they were stained a dark brown.  The tables belonged in the sitting room of my parent's beach home for about 6 years, one on each end of the pull-out couch...perfect!

It's a long story, but my brother and I actually broke one of the tables playing around one night...let's just say, I will never try to pull my muscular brother up off the floor with my bare hands...the weight distribution between us just doesn't balance out.  After we were sure my brother had not broken any ribs, my mom made the necessary repairs to the broken table, but they were never the same after that incident...

Many years later, the beach home long sold, my brother and his wife become owners to these end tables...along with their sweet boxer, Finley May.  Well, Finley thought the other (non-cracked and still in good condition) end table would make a good snack.  Yet another casualty to the end tables, a whole corner almost eaten all the way off....sigh....they just couldn't catch a break....

Before: Both tables repaired with wood filler

These tables had seen better days.  10 years later....they make their way to my house for a yard sale that we had back in June.  I see these overly beaten, chewed up, sad, pitiful looking end tables and rescue them from the yard sale pile!  I had full confidence I could bring them back to life!

Before: Crack sanded and filled with wood-filler

Before: Crack sanded and filled with wood-filler

Progress:  Wood-filler dried and sanded

Progress:  Wood-filler dried and sanded

Before:  Chewed corner with wood-filler

Before:  Chewed corner with wood-filler

After a little sanding, a lot of wood-filler, more sanding, painting, more sanding, more painting...a Birdie on a Branch cut out of scrapbook paper, and some polyurethane.....they were as good as new...and maybe even better....

After: Finished end tables with decorative touches!

After: Finished end table side view

After: Top view - with Birdie on a Branch cut-out

My own special touch underneath ;o)