Wooden Bench

My sister just gave me this bench when she moved.  It is old and warped and unvarnished.  I decided to paint it and put it in my house instead of outside.  

This is the beginning product:

This is after I brushed off all of the excess dust, leaves, and debris:

I found a blog online that said that there is a concoction that you can use to clean unvarnished wood.  After looking at the ingredients, the only ones I had were Hot water and olive oil.  So I got a bucket of hot water and added a splash of olive oil.  This is what it looked like after the cleaning.  I know it doesn't look much different, but believe me, there was  A TON of dirt that I scrubbed off of it!

And to prove it, the pile of dirt was a portion that was swept off of the bench.  The bucket used to have clear clean water, but it is now black from all the dirt.

Here is a picture of the freshly spray painted bench:

And these pictures are of the bench after it dried and is in it's home!

It is right in our entryway!  I love it and only hope that it doesn't become a magnet for stacks of paper!

All in all, I am pretty impressed with myself.  I have never done a project like that by myself before!

And so it begins...

When my good friend suggested that I name this blog, Katie's Garden, I immediately thought of this picture with that title.  Unfortunately, there is some random Katie that actually gardens who has that as her title of her blog about gardening--go figure.  So Della, thank you for reminding me of a sweet picture from my childhood (my grandma got me this print for my 8th birthday--never realizing that I would eventually be Katie Gardner).

Ergo, the winner of my blog naming contests of sorts is Greg who came up with "Diary of a Grateful Gardner".  I find that this is actually very fitting as I am going to utilize this blog as a diary of sorts.  Also, I am hoping that the title will encourage to make the words I post here positive and full of gratitude, because when I take the time to reflect, I truly am grateful.  Even the woes of my life now are blessings.  I never would have guessed 1 year ago that I would be in the spot I am now...and for that I am grateful.

Ok, now off the sappy stuff!  You may be wondering, "why is she even starting a blog?"  Well my friends, I am a teacher, and it is summer and I am trying new things.  This means I will probably post a couple times before August, and then be MIA until Christmas break, but I am wanting to try this whole thing out.

If you continue to read, please know that even though I am an educator, I don't really believe that spelling, punctuation, etc matter...(don't tell my students).  Hopefully you can keep up on the happenings of the Gardners through this blog... Happy reading....