You know you have a keeper when (among other quirky
design decisions) your husband’s cool with you hanging two pictures of his
mother-in-law in the dining room. Honestly, I’ve probably had more push back
from the ever-humble Mama V. about the whole thing. (Does it give off a “my mother is dead” vibe? I
don’t think so.) But that is one of the few benefits of living 363 miles
apart. (Yes, I googled it.) I don’t have to listen to her. Or maybe that's a detriment of growing up? Hmmm…whatev. I think my mom's gorgeous. She'll just have to deal.
I had both pictures of Mama V. on the wall in NEPA
as well, so Mr. C. and the Momster have both had more than enough time to
adjust. This large pastel is a caricature she had done when we lived in Albany,
about 16 years ago now. She can’t remember where or why, but
judging by the date, it was probably a Veteran’s Day shindig of some sort.
(Mama V. was a certified child-wrangler back in the day, so she usually worked
Mondays.) I never saw it until she tried to throw it out during one of her ‘stuff
purges,’ which forced me to stage a “What are you doing?! That is awesome!”
intervention. She hesitated at the time, but now that it’s all framed and
cleaned up, I think she secretly likes it too. ;)
I came across the second picture the same way – on it’s way
to the garbage can. After high school, Mama V. worked at a crossword puzzle
publisher for a year. (No joke. I didn’t believe it at first either.) Her boss
liked to paint and did this watercolor of her. If I was 19 and
my 50+ boss wanted to paint me, I’d think it was a little creepy, but she says
it wasn’t like that. And she's a hot babe, so I guess I can't really blame the guy. Ah, the 70s. Such an age of innocence…
I never saw the painting growing up because Mama V. never put
it on the wall. (Again, the Mama V. modesty. ;) So as you can imagine, after
being stored in garages and basements and boxes for almost forty years, it
needed a little love. I’m starting a new job on June 4th –whole
‘nother story! – so I’m trying to finish up all my little projects before then. And this was Numero Uno.
The watercolor itself was in decent shape, but the frame
needed some help. It's made out of really nice, dark wood, but it hadn’t been cleaned in ummm…forever, there was no glass,
and I had accidently sucked away part of the ‘decorative paper border’ during a
particularly vigorous vacuuming session. Whoops. (Gotta watch out for those
Dysons, yo.) So I bought a sheet of replacement glass at Michael’s, assembled
my cleaning supplies, and got to work!
I started by tearing off the rest of the paper striping.
Even if it wasn’t ripped, it was still ugly. Rubbing alcohol works great for removing all sorts of
‘goo.’ (Better even than the commercial stuff and without the awful smell and danger
of burning your fingers off!) This adhesive was really tough and had a forty year head start, so it took five or six
passes with a combination of paper towels and cotton balls, but eventually I
got it to the point where I could just rub it off like an old sun burn. (Gross,
I know, but you totally know what I mean.)
After that, I wiped the rest of the frame down with my “I’m trying
so hard to be green” Method cleaner, popped the glass in, and viola! Better
than new! (And smelling faintly of French lavender. :) This painting's been sitting on the floor since we moved in - hence the run in with the vacuum - but now she's finally on the wall with her other self. Beautiful. I love that feeling when a long-procrastinated project is
finally done!
What about you? Any overdue projects in the works for the long weekend?
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