monster project, part 2: reflections

I hope you had fun reading about my adventures in my last post on the dresser I just stained. It was super hard work, but I had a good time doing it. I actually did it for a reason, and it was a great experience for me.

As I’ve mentioned before, I work in the Young Women’s program at Church. There’s this program they have for the girls called “Personal Progress.” There are eight categories (“values”), and in each value there are “experiences” or goals. The girls complete seven experiences per value, and one big 10-hour project. For example, for the value of "Faith," one of the experiences is to pray morning and night for two weeks straight and record in your journal how you feel. It helps the girls establish a pattern of prayer in their lives.

So, after they complete all of these (what is that, like 48 experiences and 8 projects), they received their Young Womanhood Recognition. They have 6 years to do all this.

When I was in YWs, ahem, 10+ years ago, the program was a little bit different. We had seven values, and we completed 2 experiences in each value every 2 years, for the first 4 years. After each 2-year increment, if we had completed the 14 experiences, we’d get a recognition. Then, for the last 2 years, we did two big projects per year, 4 projects total, then we received a third recognition. If we got all three of the 2-year recognitions, we got the Young Womanhood Recognition, as well. Well, I did all of this – way back then! Yay!

BUT! Now that I’m a leader, they let us work to get the award AGAIN! So I’m all excited. Now that the program is different, the award looks a little bit different, and it would be cool to get it again.

So. That brings me to this post. I decided this dresser would be one of my 10-hour projects. I did it for the value “Individual Worth,” and as I was doing the project it really struck me how appropriate this project was, and how the project really applies to Individual Worth.

This is where I get sappy. I really felt like doing this project was a spiritual experience for me, and here are a couple of my insights:

• As I was sanding, I thought about how each of us has years of wear and tear on the outside, but underneath we are all beautiful. In one metaphor, we are all the same underneath, perfect unblemished pieces of wood – children of God – but on the outside we are all a little bit different. In another metaphor, no matter how many scratches we have, they can be erased and the perfection underneath can shine again. The Atonement does this for us. When those scratches are gone, it’s like they were never there. Wow.
  


• As I was staining, I thought about how this piece of wood wasn’t very flashy when I first got it. It was plain. But with a little time, energy, and patience, I was able to take it and turn it into exactly what I wanted. I could match it with furniture I already had, so it fit in my “grand plan” for Wesley's nursery. I think in our lives, the Lord has a plan for us. He can shape us, if we let him. He can turn us into something so much better than what we can do on our own. He doesn’t see a plain-ol’ piece of furniture – even if we see ourselves that way! – He sees a masterpiece.
  


• I really felt like this was an impossible project. As I got started, the thought crossed my mind, “why on Earth did I think I could do this?” I was sure I was in over my head and it would be disastrous. But now that I’m all done, and I perservered, it doesn’t seem so bad. It wasn’t impossible, I could do it. Did I need help? Yes! The guys at Lowe’s, Shane, my neighbor who kept asking me if I was done already, they all helped. I didn’t do it alone. Life is like this, too. Sometimes we are in over our heads. But I know my Father in Heaven helps me. I ask for his help. I am worth it to him; he wants me to succeed. I can do whatever I set my mind to; I am not a disastrous failure.
  


• I realized during staining that the stain isn't a just a "top coat" or finish of some sort; when a piece of wood is stained, the wood is forever changed. The new color runs through its very fibers, and they are permanently altered (like a tattoo or something). I think for those of us who know the gospel and love it, we feel that way, too. Or, it's that way with anything. When you discover scrapbooking or marathon running or being a mother, and how awesome those activities are, you're forever changed. The inside of you is permanently altered.
  


• When we work hard to erase trouble spots in our lives (maybe spots that are sins that we're giving up), and we're changing so we can be better, we've really got to sand away at them or they'll keep coming back. I was so surprised that that gash on the top of the dresser, the one I thought for sure was gone, came back up when I stained it. I guess it goes to show that things that haven't been completed eradicated can show up time and time again, if we don't make sure they're really gone in the first place. Perhaps it's the same way with our "favorite sins." If you decide to change, really change. Don't let those things back into your life.
  


• Lastly, although the wood did have knots and other various imperfections, those unique things give the finished piece of furniture character. It's nothing to fret about! Of course it looks different than any other dresser; there's no other one out there like it. Just like us.
  

See how all this fits with Individual Worth? Cool, huh?

This is probably the most involved series of posts I’ve ever written, so if you’re still reading, and remained interested, thanks for the support! Here’s to many more seemingly impossible yet thrilling projects!

monster project, part 1: the process

I just completed a huge project, and I’m feeling darn good.

We’ve been struggling with the issue of a Wesley dresser for quite some time. First, we used Sterlite plastic containers under his crib. But since we have WAY too many clothes, we needed an upgrade. Since our space is limited, I intially wanted a tall skinny “lingerie chest” of some sort. But I had a hard time finding what I wanted to match his cherry crib furniture. I finally gave up on that idea and decided to settle for a real dresser (and move some stuff from his room into another room to make space), but again, I had problems finding something um, not particle board but not wildly expensive that again, matched the crib furniture.

Enter this post, where I asked my loyal followers what to do. And the idea was launched to buy an unfinished dresser and finish it myself.

Here my saga begins.

I found a used unfinished five-drawer pine dresser on Craigslist for $50. It was 10 years old and belonged to some teenage boys. It had stickers, knicks, pencil marks, and more, all over it. The wood was in great shape, but it was really beat up cosmetically.

With it sitting in the back of the Impreza, I went to Lowe’s and the super-helpful guys there explained to me step-by-step what to do. I went in with a piece of the crib’s drop-rail so I could compare colors and select a stain that would match. I found the perfect stuff, Min-Wax’s “Red Mahogany.” I bought all kinds of stuff to get the job done.

Shane later went out and bought me a sandpaper holder, which was AWESOME, and I got some new knobs and screws for the drawers.

So, if you're wondering the final price tag:

• $50, for used pine dresser
• $20, for pre-stain, stain, post-stain, and sandpaper
• $10 for the knobs, $5 for everything else
  
  
• Grand total: $85

The dresser (for the most part) looked like this when I brought it home:

Actually, this picture is AFTER the first drawer got one round of sanding, when it occured to me to take a "before" picture. But, it mostly shows you the sad shape of the dresser, as previously described.

So, if you're adventurous and want to try this at home, here goes:

Sanding

• Sand everything, piece by piece, with a 120-grade sandpaper. The smaller the number, the more rough it is. I did all the drawers first, then the main dresser.
  
  
• Take a sock and go over the wood with it. If the material snags in any place, keep sanding until it’s smooth. Scratches of any kind in the wood are actually accented in the staining process, so work really hard to get rid of them. There was a huge gash on the top of the main dresser. I sanded and sanded and sanded. I really felt like I got it, and was proud of myself, but it STILL came up after the stain. So I shoulda sanded more.
  
  
• Vacuum all the dust away when you’re finished sanding.
  
  
• Finally, wipe the wood with a damp cloth. Sawdust is the enemy.

Pre-staining

• Apply the pre-stain with a paintbrush. The pre-stain supposedly evens out the stain and makes it more smooth and uniform, thus it looks more professional.
  
  
• Wait about a half hour to get started. I made the mistake of um, waiting a couple days, and I had to pre-stain again. You need to do it within a couple hours for the pre-stain to actually help.

Staining

• Don’t wear clothes you care about. My uniform: old running shoes, old running pants, old t-shirt, old sweatshirt. On my hands were a pair of winter gloves with yellow kitchen cleaning gloves on top. Not pretty, but functional.
  


• Gather your tools and prepare your work space. My locale: our balcony, covered in newspapers. I had a screwdriver to open the stain cans, a dowel rod to stir the stain, and an old white shirt ripped into shreds for staining.
  


• Day 1: Apply the stain, then “wipe it off” some interval of time later. The longer the stain sits on the wood, the deeper it gets. I had five drawers, so I’d do a drawer, let it sit while I did the next drawer, then wipe the first drawer, on down the line. I used the same cloth to wipe all the drawers, but I pretty much used a new cloth to stain each one of them. The cloths get super saturated. The can of stain says to wait two hours before doing a second coat. I waited not quite that long and did it all again on that first day.
  


• Day 2: Do another coat of stain, following the same protocol as Day 1. The wood, at this point, is looking more and more like how I want it to look. You could probably skip this step if you wanted a light colored stain; remember I’m doing a red mahogany to match cherry finish, so I wanted it nice and deep. I actually brought a drawer inside and sat it next to the crib to make sure it looked how I wanted. Then, when I did the main dresser, I had a finished drawer nearby to compare at all times.
  


• Day 3: Take a finer piece of sandpaper and lightly sand again. You’ll find that as stain starts to set, the wood feels gritty. I don’t know why. And, scuffs do rise off the surface and sanding again helps to mute them. After the light sanding, apply one last coat and wipe it off, making sure to spread the stain evenly.

Post-staining

• Day 4: Apply the post-stain from a spray can of a polyurethane coating (I don’t know what “polyurethane” means). It’s best to do at least two coats, waiting 2 hours in between coats. The can says the furniture is OK to use after drying for 24 hours, but I say “no way Jose.” The drawers stank for days. When I was in Lowe’s and the guy was describing it to me, he kept using the terms “shellac” and “lacquer” and I kept thinking of Meet the Parents when Ben Stiller set that altar on fire then blamed it all on the shellac. So I was nervous and tried not to overdo it. And it still really stank.
  


• Lastly, put the knobs on, reassemble, and you’re done!
  

Words of Advice

• I brought everything in overnight. It is the middle of winter here. I didn’t want them to get condensation (or rain) on them.
  


• Shane has this big Rubbermaid thing he keeps car stuff in out on our balcony, and he let me put the bulkier and heavier main dresser on it so I could stain all the way down the sides without touching the ground. It worked out well. I used a step stool to do the top, and it was still tough. I'm just not tall enough. This is when my clothes got really really dirty.
  


• Be sure to watch for the smaller crevices. The drawers have some detailing and I can look at them now and see spots that I missed in the teeny little indentations. Oh well.
  


• I decided just to do the front wooden piece of the drawers, not the whole drawer. But, that meant I wanted to stain the backside of that front drawer piece. That was really tough. When the drawer was standing vertically on the ground, I couldn’t get upside down to look underneath that main wooden slab, and I couldn’t very well pick up the drawer and rotate it when other parts of the wood (and my hands) were wet. Usually when I tried that, the stain on my hands would transfer and I’d get smudges on the other parts of the drawer that I wanted to remain virgin. Really sloppy. I don't know the answer to that one.
  


• Also, stain drips, and it did get on parts of the drawer I didn’t want. I’d freak out and just keep going and say to myself, “I’ll deal with it later.” What I should have done, and what I discovered on the last drawer, was to wipe it immediately. The longer the stain sits, the deeper it is. So if it’s only been on a surface for a few seconds, wipe it right off! I wish I would have thought of that earlier.

So... the result?

I'm a pretty bad photographer, so you can't even really see how "cherry" it is. It matches the crib really well.

The crazy part is, I finally found a bookcase for the living room (for our movies, CDs, Wesley's books and toys, etc.), and it's unfinished. I'm thinking of buying it and doing another project out on the balcony! Am I crazy or what? (I might just varnish... not stain... but still!)

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this saga.... no, no, I'm not done.

in this skin

I'm in between cleaning the bathrooms and thought I'd take a quick minute to blog.

Last week I went to the dermatologist for my annual "mole check." Evidently I'm one of those people who have more than 100! moles and should get them checked every year. I feel pretty cool to be in such a prestigious category! The doc checked them out and sure enough, there are two on my back that she is "worried" about and I'm going to get them removed. She said with as many moles as I have, the chances of me getting through my life without a doctor being concerned about at least one of them was absolutely impossible. I had no idea! So in the next couple weeks they'll remove them and send them off for testing. The tests either say that 1) everything was fine, 2) there were a few abnormal cells, so it's a good thing the mole was removed, 3) there were a lot of abnormal cells, so let's go back and remove some more around the area just to make sure everything is OK, or 4) it's cancerous or pre-cancerous! Wowsers!

But my point in this post isn't to inform you of the means and methods of moles and dermatology.

After my appointment, I was thinking about all this and recalled a distinct memory from elementary school. I remember sitting next to a blond-haired, fair-skinned girl in 5th grade science class, looking down and her arms and seeing that they were clear (no moles), looking down at mine and seeing my speckled skin, and being so incredibly embarrassed with who I was.

I realized, last week, that I haven't felt that way in years. When kids are growing up (myself included), fitting in and being normal and accepted is so so so important, and being different in any way is scary. I felt so different. So unlike everyone else. So weird.

But, at some point, I'm thinking my freshman year of college (away from all my family and friends, trying to make new friends), I started to gain stronger self-confidence. I've always felt confident in my abilities and my education, but it took quite awhile for me to feel confident in my own skin. Even now, sure, there are lots of things I'd like to change (ahem! pregnancy does awful things to you), but overall, I'm happy with who I am. I haven't felt embarrassed to just be myself in years.

The realization made me feel good. I don't think we need to be like everyone else. I'm glad I'm not afraid of being different anymore. Sometimes it's hard to look past the flaws, but we have to, or we'll never know exactly what we're capable of doing. Every person can add something amazing to the world, whatever that is, and it is unique only to them.

No one on this planet is worthless. I believe that.

happy birthday, shaner!

Ahh I love St. Patrick's Day. It's Shane's birthday! Today I made him green shamrock sugar cookies with chocolate icing to take to work. I luckily saved one for myself and got to eat a casualty as I was making them last night. Casualties are the best, huh Twining kids?

I'm working on a big post; probably the longest one I've ever done. I can't guarantee it's interesting. But keep your eyes peeled.

For today, I'll be making lasagna and store hopping, trying to find a gift for Shane I accidentally bought in XXL size. Oops.

Happy Birthday, my sweetie! I'm celebrating that you were born.

who wouldn't love this face?

It's that time again; time for another Wesley update.

Wowsers. The little tyke is 9 months old. I can't believe it. Recent stats: 15.1 lbs (under the third percentile), 27 inches long (20th percentile), 43.5 cm head circumference (third percentile).

New pictures on google picasa here.

When I was pregnant, I got a bunch of goodie bags from my OB's office, and in one of them was this cute "Picture Me One" book. It's a board book with slots for pictures, and you write in milestones when your baby hits them. I thought I'd recap what Wesley's book says so far:

• Smile, 1 month
• Hold up head, 1 month
• Grab toy, 2.5 months
• Clasp hands, 3 months
• Laugh, 4 months
• First tooth, 4 months
• Roll over, 4 months
• Pass toy between hands, 5 months
• Crawl, 7.5 months
• Stand (pull up), 8 months
• Pincer grasp, 9 months
• Cruise, 9 months

Recent developments:

• He LOVES Cheerios. WOW. I can't give him enough. He probably eats a cup at a time.
• He still doesn't really get the concept of a sippy cup. He plays with it; it's just another toy. We're trying our second brand, with our third brand already purchased and waiting to be tried, to find one that he actually takes to.
• The doctor is a bit worried about his weight, so we have to up his meals to FIVE A DAY and get him reweighed in a couple weeks.
• The newest foods include yogurt, mango, and biter biscuits (what a mess!). Broccoli and peaches are next on the menu. His favorites are peas, mixed vegetables, and acorn squash, oddly all vegetables. He hates green beans. I keep trying and still no luck. He also is taking forever getting used to oatmeal.
• He's sleeping most magically: all through the night for at least the last week or two. He goes down at 7 or 8 pm and I don't hear a peep until until 7 or 8 am. It ROCKS.
• He's doing lots of babbling. "Dadadadadada" and "Bababababa," not quite many "Mamamama"s, but some. It's hilarious just to listen to him talk.
• He entertains himself so well. I love it. Now that he is crawling and can grab toys he wants and wander around, he really engages himself in different way. It's so fun to watch him and see his little mind work.
• I bought him some alphabet blocks awhile ago from Value Village, and thrown in the bag were some additional wooden "builder blocks," like triangles and alphabet-block-sized cylinders. His favorites are these long, skinny rectangle blocks. We have three or so, and he loves them. He always has one. He chews on them, he uses them to hit other things (like, pretending they're hammers or something), or he just waves them around. Funny!
• His stands up a LOT, and his knees are really wobbly. As a result, it looks like he's dancing or something, and it's HILARIOUS. Shane and I can't even take video of him because we're laughing too hard.
• I think he really knows and enjoys our bedtime routine. We change him into PJs, then we read books together. No matter how fussy or squirmy or crazy he has been, I feel like he melts in my lap when I start reading books. He instantly calms down. Then dad gives him a kiss good night and I put him to sleep.
• I am still doing baby sign language, but he hasn't signed back. Darn. I have so many friends that tell me not to give up! Shane laughs at me, but I'm still trying. We do lots of signs: eat, food, more, all done, book, hot, cold, bath, wash, water, dirty, diaper, tired, sleep, cat, milk, mommy, daddy, and more I can't even think of right now. I'm really trying.
• When we lay him down on his crib or changing table, he likes to raise both his feet and pound them down. It's really funny. I have no idea why. But he does it a lot.
• He loves raspberries on his tummy. He giggles and giggles!

It is such a joy to get to know this little guy. I just can't imagine parenthood being any more fun than it is now. He's so amazing. And it's true, there's just this dimension of love that you don't know before you have a child. It's unlike anything I've ever felt. I feel so blessed.

new beginnings, yet another project

Some of you know I work with the Young Women at Church. We get them excited about their "personal progress," and try to get them to set goals in different areas and work hard to be better people. It's super fun.

Our big event, at the beginning of the year is called "New Beginnings," and boy was this one fun! We had a basketball theme; we called it "Get Your Head in the Game." There was a program with spiritual thoughts (we called them "pep talks" and "game plans"), and the Young Women's Theme was our "Spirit Song," and we, the leaders, were "coaches," "cheerleaders," and "scouts." It all worked so well on the metaphorical level; I was super impressed.

Anyway, the fabulousness of the night really was up to everyone else. I was in charge of refreshments. I went to a SuperBowl party at the beginning of February and our host had a stadium cake pan from Williams Sonoma that one of the guests borrowed to make this awesome stadium cake. I knew at that party that I'd be in charge of refreshments for this basketball party, so I thought it would be super to make a basketball arena cake. It was exciting!!!

First of all, I followed the directions on the box religiously (my friend, the owner of the pan, saved the box the pan came in for its "stadium cake recipe). If you know me, I usually cook fairly free spirited, but for this, I was scared of messing it up. You can't use a box cake, since the cake needs to be a little more dense (think pound cake-like) on order to work with the pan. So, I did everything to the T, including get the eggs and butter to room temperature (why? I have no idea) and sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together (why? I have no idea).

I documented every step. My tools of the trade:


Here's the pan, upside down, covered in (fake store-brand) Crisco and flour:


Here's my batter in the very cool pan:


And, here it is, 40 minutes later, my "naked" cake (funny Twining family joke: Dad says "we'll eat the cake naked," meaning no frosting, then Brad says "you mean, the cake would be naked, right?"):


My plan was to replicate the cake from the SuperBowl party, which had little "fans" piped onto the stands with the mechanical pastry bag. The Young Women's theme has eight values which each have a corresponding color (for example, young women should aspire to have "divine nature," and its color is blue). The most time-consuming part of this entire process was getting these colors of frosting in and out of that mechanical pastry bag. I piped fans in the stands, as well as something else on the cake, in each color. Voila, eight colors. PLUS chocolate frosting for the lines on the basketball court, so nine colors total. (Editor's note: Don't be deceived. The frosting was Betty Crocker whipped white cream cheese frosting that I colored myself. Not homemade. I'm not that much of a chef.)

Also, haha, I had to use Google images and search for "basketball court" to make sure I was doing it right.

The final product:



Whoo hoo! How COOL is that?!?

Then, the finishing touch, was the basketball hoops. I made them with a chocolate bar, peppermints, and candy canes left over from Christmas. I made a teeny teeny amount of royal icing (from a gingerbread house recipe book), which meant I took the recipe and divided it by like 8, which was weird math. I'm sure I did it wrong, but the hoops stick together long enough to be eaten by someone so that's good news.


I was thrilled.

The night was really fun. The girls had a great time. Wandering Nana also blogged about it, so you can check out her summary, too.

I also made basketball cupcakes, in case the cake wouldn't feed everyone. I didn't expect, um 35 people there, so we definitely could have used more food. If we do it again, we'll get ice cream, too.


The program included a fun game where they were in two teams, with one team shooting as many baskets as they could while the other team did like a "scripture chase" with their Personal Progress books. They had clues and they all had to find the corresponding part in their books and put their fingers on it before the round was up. Cute game.


Each of the girls got a "trophy" as a take-home gift, which of course would motivate me if I was 14. I love that kind of stuff.


There you have it. My most recent culinary adventure and excitement with the Young Women at Church. I'm definitely having fun.

still 100%

Imagine my surprise when, approximately 6 loads of laundry ago, out came not one, not two, but three single socks missing their friends. For a mom with a 100% record of no lost socks, I was unnerved. Three in one load? Was this karma getting me for my perfect record, since it's impossible for one to have a baby and never lose a sock?

Well, as of today, all three now have friends again. In summary:

• One was still dirty, in the bottom of the hamper under the hamper's cloth lining. Check!
• One was stuck to the Velcro on a folded and put-away bib. Check!
• One was wrapped inside the corner of a crib sheet, which had also been folded and put away. Check!

I feel great. And now that little Wesley's feet are bigger, his socks seldom fall of in transit.

Take that, missing sock Gods! I don't need to bow to you! I'm still winning!

(Ah, maybe I should tone the arrogance down a notch, just to be safe. I know my perfect record is a matter of luck as well as excellent sock-sleuthing skills. It's not just me.)