Since I've been running Camp Henry this summer, I haven't found much time for blogging. Even now, I had to pick a topic that will take me five minutes or less to post on, because although Henry is banging on pots in the kitchen, he will undoubtedly get bored with that in a few minutes and go looking for trouble.
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A couple months ago, I decided to work on procuring a table for Henryland that would eventually become a little art table- or maybe even a place for an afternoon snack. After feigning surprise at how much little wooden tables cost online (I should know by now)- it dawned on me- we HAVE a little wooden table that we haven't put to good use. This was an end table, purchased in the college years during the IKEA obsession, that was neglected for a couple seasons on an outdoor patio and collected a nice layer of mildew. I was tempted to just get rid of it, but it turns out a little bit of mildew is easily removed with a sander (thanks, Dad!)
It looked much better sanded, but it still needed a little paint to elevate it from belongs-by-the-roadside status. We have almost a full gallon of white paint leftover from our move-in, and so I breathed some new life into it with just a few brush strokes.
To make it a little more appealing to a baby's eye, I decided to paint a big graphic beagle on it (we don't know too much about Henry's tastes yet, but we know he LOVES his beagles!) I had a beagle stencil leftover from a
craft in the nursery and just needed to figure out a way to get it on a large scale. My mom had this awesome 70's episcope for projecting small objects to a larger scale... buuuuuuuuut it didn't work. I guess the shelf life of an episcope is 40 years- not 42.
So I had to freehand it. As you can see, my beagle has a bit of a robust chest- but that's okay, so does my real life beagle. I also happened to have red and yellow acrylic paints in the garage (if you know me, that's not a surprise)
After I made him orange, I have him a little red piping in the spirit of Henryland colors- and here's how he turned out:
Our little cub seems pretty excited about the final result:
And these picture were taken almost two full months ago, so he looks so young to me here. The main difference is the amount of hair he has- he's getting more each day!
So let's review what we have so far:
Large area gate and extension panel: $155.42
Foam mats (plus many extras for replacements): $107.82
DIY light fixture: $29
End table I already had $0 + paint I already had $0 + stencil I already had $0 + acrylics I already had $0: $0
Running total: $292.24
Leaving $307.76 for the rest of the furniture, accessories and wall hangings.
Will I come in under budget or will I be sleeping on the couch?
Stay tuned to find out!
