I had a “yellow brick road” revelation two weeks ago while
attending my first interior design course. It’s a class on the business of
interior design. While sitting in the class, I realized that most of the
students in it have taken some of the interior design courses already so I felt
intimated that I didn’t know a lot and that maybe I shouldn’t be in this class
just yet. Then I thought I probably know more than most of them. And that even
though I don’t have those other classes behind me I have something that they
probably don’t have. I’ve already ran a business. I was ahead of the game. I
knew the ins and outs of the day to day minutia. I knew my failures and my
successes. I look back on that time as some of my happiest moments, I lived the
good life and that’s when I came to my “yellow brick road” revelation.
I sat back and listened to my professor speak about how he
got to where he was today and how he started this program at the university and
I thought about my own life and my own “yellow brick road”. I thought about
what I was doing now in life, what I had done in my past, and how that has all
lead me to here. The song says “follow the yellow brick road” but in the movie
Dorothy had the option to venture off and to choose one way or the other. The red brick road or the yellow brick road. What
were my choices in life that lead me to that class? What if I had opted for a the other road? See I’m a ruminator. I think things over and over again and try
to figure out why something is the way it is or why I am at this place in my
life. I go over my past and my red and my yellow brick roads and try to figure out at just
what point in time got me to here. That’s a ruminator. It’s who I am. So as I still
try to figure out where to go from here I think about how I even got there. How
I ended up in that class. All I could come up to was last winter while re-doing
our kitchen I looked at Tom and said this is what I like. This is what I enjoy.
This is what I want to know more about. And from that point last February I went
out and got books, searched the net, reached out to different schools and
decided that I was going to go full throttle. I was going to sign up for
classes in interior design, I was going to take sewing lessons and painting
classes, I was going to read, (Something more than just a magazine. It would be books!) and I was going to go home after
work and try new things. Life wasn’t just going to be work, work, work, weekends
and back to work. It was going to be work, home doing something, weekends
taking on big projects and then back to work. I planned to feel accomplished by
the time Monday mornings would roll around. And as always life does get in the way
and sometimes it’s hard to stick to those plans but I told myself that I needed
to start doing that. Because at the end of the day that would ultimately make
me happy. Doing something that I would feel accomplished about would get me to
my happiest yellow brick road. The road that would lead me to what made me feel
good about life, what made me feel accomplished. That sense of accomplishment that
I used to get in my previous job when I’d redo the store window or have someone
acknowledge the collection I just put on the floor. The sense of pride that
someone loves what I created.
So even though I don’t know where this road will ultimately
take me I know that those many roads I had followed in my past got me to where I
am right now. And I can say I’m a lot happier now than I was a year ago because
I’m following my dreams again. Following our dreams. And when I awoke this morning
I couldn’t wait to get dressed and run to our garage to see how my latest
project turned out. I slaved over our new desk this weekend. Started it last
Saturday and finished stripping it yesterday. (I'll eventually get around to a tutorial on how to strip the veneer. I know I even owe our followers a video of Tom's Halloween display. That had to take a backseat this weekend. I'll have it posted by end of week. Promise.) I took out all the drawers and re-stained
the inside and side panels but not the front as I will paint that. (It’s a good
idea to stain the drawers if you don’t plan on painting the insides. I never
paint the insides as they tend to then get tight and stick. By staining the
drawers it will lock in any smells and give the drawers a clean finish. Even if
you are planning to line them as I am leaning towards it still gives it a
cleaner appearance and kills any smells that might be lingering behind when
refurbishing an antique.) I’m still undecided what I’m going to do with this
piece. I’m thinking of staining the top and then painting the base old white
with a distressed tone and a dark wax finish. The hip cup is the leather inlay. I've tried to clean it up as you can tell from the picture but it’s taken a good beating so I’m on the fence and thinking I might paint the
leather inlay the old white. I think it will look beautiful with the dark wood
top. Or maybe I'll give the top a crackle finish. Guess we will just have to wait and see what I ultimately decide.
Ideas? Suggestions? Thoughts? Because I can really use them
right now!!
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