Rummage Sale Treasure

Thanks to my friend, Yoonha, the fam heard about a rummage sale in Princeton sponsored by the local hospital. We dug around here and there. Chief wanted a projector & screen probably so he could continue his FIFA career in style...but we ended up walking away with this.

It's an architechtural drawing of the Cologne Dome in Germany. It is one of the most extraordinary cathedrals in the world. The project started in 1248 AD. Fully completed by 1870s. Talk about a long project.

It needed some work. Not of fan of the birch framing. Very dusty. 

Painted the frame black and cleaned up. Fit well above my piano and chevron rug.



Lesson Learned:

1. I'm quite unsupportive of Chief's FIFA career.

2. Rummage sales can be a lot of fun.


Love,

Sunnyluna

The Greenhouse

Los Angeles
Buy potting mix.
Buy plants and containers.
Done in 20 mins.

New Jersey
Till the soil.
Pull weeds.
Remove stones.
Plant.
Shoo deer.
Shoo vicious squirrels.
Fill groundhog holes.
Rabbits?
So many dang bugs.
Done in 2 weeks with a backache.

Both are enjoyable, but the animals and critters are really hard to control. Deer fencing works, but if I were going to pay for deer fencing on someone else's land, might as well get a greenhouse so I can garden throughout the winter.

So Grandpaly and the family made it happen.

Bought lumber and parked out in the field

My laborers unloading, aka mother-in-law & father-in-law



Chief wondering, "When will this end? I'm a white-collar man. My body can't handle this manual labor..."

Needed to pull the grass. So heavy I tell ya!

"Nice job, guys. Keep it up.".....as he sips on his pouch.



The frame is up. Took us a whole day just to pull that corner of grass.



The vinyl is going up. Made the mistake of buying 6mm vinyl which only allows 45% sunlight. Changed to 3.5mm which allows 85%. 

Chief working late into the night to till that new jersey soil.



Has a door and everything. Hope it works. 

What was I doing? Cutting wild flowers and taking pictures. Something to that effect.

We will see if this works...


Lesson learned:
I really appreciate farmers.



Love,

Sunnyluna

Craigslist Finds: My Free Playground

One man's trash is another man's treasure. So true...especially re the stuff on Craigslist.

This lady was giving away her wooden playground set. I wrote her a very convincing email and she chose us over the tons she received in 1 hour of her posting and let us haul this hidden beauty away (I had checked out playgrounds like this for about 8 months now so I told her the details of how I plan on hauling this massive thing away. She felt convinced I meant business. I sure do, when it comes to Craigslist.)

Testing out the product at their house. I think the lil guy approves. 

We rented a Uhaul truck. This thing was massive. 

Very heavy, I tell ya. 

Have you ever gotten nervous after taking something apart because you may not remember how to put it back together? 

Somebody is ready for a playground...now, please. 

Grandpaly was the mastermind behind this project. Out there at the crack of dawn with his cigare...medicine. 

Chief sanding away the old wood, revealing fresh red oak. 

I think the set was 15 years old or so. Had to get rid of some rusted parts. 

 Put in new chains

Added some new color. Can you see the top vs bottom bar?

Oh, so patient...

And FINALLY! After three full days of hard work!

(Still a lot of detailing left to do. Need to sand some more, weather proof it, add safety sand paper here and there)

A happy kid in NJ

Lesson Learned:

Never despise the old or unattractive. You'll be surprised.



Love,

Sunnyluna

Lost & Found Child: From NJ to Toby Dawson

At the age of 4, I walked out of the house to buy some gum around 9am. Got lost. Police search began. Reunited with family at 5pm.

Now being a parent myself, can you imagine the horror a parent feels when they lose a kid?

I lost Caleb at Barnes & Noble for 3 mins. I thought my life was ending. I couldn't implant a chip like like M does for 007, so I got a sterling silver bracelet engraved with his first name and my phone number.

Can you see it on his left hand?

The story of Toby Dawson never ceases to bring tears to my eyes. A little boy lost in Pusan, South Korea. His parents searched for him for 3 years and even went to the orphanage that he was in. The staff denied their request to see the children to look for him. He later was adopted to Ski coaches and became an Olympic skier. He won the bronze for USA and was able to find his father who still lived in Pusan as a truck driver. The dad still had all his baby photos and passed by the orphange often, wondering about his little boy. The parents got divorced (can you imagine the stress on a marriage after losing a child?). Toby always wondered why he had such long sideburns, and after meeting his dad, it made sense.

 Toby's story

Lesson Learned:

My prayer is "Lord, help to raise my child well. And when my hands cannot reach, I pray Your hands will."

Love,

Sunnyluna

Chalkboard Dining

It's 6:50 am. My mom wakes us up and says, "It's 7:10! You're late for school." She did this everyday. Yet, everyday, we jolt up and race to get ready because we think we're late. I guess she liked seeing us work fast.

It's 7:30pm. Mom calls out, "Dinner's ready! Come down!" We come done and dinner is NOT ready. Yet, she calls for us 15 minutes in advance so that when we actually do come down, dinner will be ready.

After becoming a mom, I understand the time constraints and the pressure to move a whole family on schedule. So, decided we're going to have a chalkboard in the dining room so that everyone will be doodling together nearby while I prep dinner.

Our chalkboard in dining room

Picked up some hardboard and trim at Home Depot and made the chalkboard.

The trim was pine white so it needed a stain...but I didn't want to buy a whole pint of stain...

So I made this concoction: vinegar, rust, and old nails over 2 days

At first, I was disappointed bc I didn't see any stain. But came back in 30 mins and WAH-LAH!

Homemade Wood Stain!

Putting up the chalkboard was really hard. Drilled 8 holes within 2 inches of each other...finally decided to use some cardboard and tape to get it level. Ugh.

Nice reminder for a cranky couple who were extremely irritable at the end of the project.

Lesson learned:

1. Should've helped mom set the table.
2. Don't do any projects with the spouse past mindnight.


Love,

Sunnyluna

Farm House Table

Before I got married, I used to live in a "half-studio" that was the size of the smallest Uhaul truck you can rent. If I lie down in the middle of the room, I could touch all four walls within one roll. And yet, it worked for me and I was happy.

Then, a month before I the wedding date, all these adults (Korean) started to say, "When are you going to pick out your furniture?" What, my twin bed and ikea dresser ain't enough once I'm married? So within a day, I picked out all the adult furniture I was supposed to have as a married woman.

However, I felt like I was living in someone else's house! With everyday, every year that passed by, we still felt like we could not comfortably place a cold drink on the dining table without a coaster. So six years later, we decided to build a table that we would love and be comfortable with.

Bought lumber from home depot, calculated some numbers, and built this during the winter.

I love the "X" legs. They were hand chiseled and fitted together.  

We rounded the corners so that we can avoid any bloody toddler foreheads.

 I stained it in weathered oak which has gray tones and lightly finished with polycrylic.

Also built a bench. This is before it was finished and reupholstered.

I made Chief cut circles for the fabric buttons on the bench.

Still got some work left to do on this bench, but this is it so far.

My favorite part of this set are the chairs. These are chairs from Restoration Hardware. They practically cost my entire Roth IRA. I just couldn't spend that much for chairs. I'm the household CEO and decide on the spending, but the guy I'm married to is the CFO and finances the spending. He has veto power.

So I sold a solid wood dining table, 6 leather chairs, and a modern bookcase through Craigslist and finally had enough money to buy the chairs and bought em.


Eventually, a rug under the table would be nice, but for now, I really like to sweep and mop under the table since we've got spillers old and young. So I felted the bottom of the legs for a smooth surface.

Our very first time using the table was with our good ol friend, Pastor Bryan!

Lesson learned:
Nice furniture is great. Good company to use the furniture with is even better.



Note: Chief asked why he is called "Chief." It's because he drives a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Love,

Sunnyluna

Lies Adults Tell Children (and the Effects They Have on Them)

10. "If you swallow gum, it takes 7 years for it to come out, or it may get stuck in your ribs while trying to pass. So stop swallowing your gum." --my mother

Gave me a psychosomatic stomachache. I was sure it got stuck.



9. "I found you under a bridge."--my father.

Thought it was the bridge behind the playground. Hoped they wouldn't return me to the bridge. Only dawned upon me after college that "bridge" in korean is the same word for "legs" in korean.


8.  "Ouch." --my mom, after I tickled her.

Really thought my tickling pained my mom until I asked her why it tickles for everyone else but hurts for her. She said it's to make me stop. I thought to myself, "Confusing, but good tactic."


7. "If you swallow, watermelon seeds, you will grow watermelons from your ears. Same with grape seeds." --my father

Worried all night about all the watermelons that would grow from the seeds I had swallowed before he told me this and wondered if it would hurt if I plucked the watermelons off.


6. During elementary school, Mrs. Kirby's hair went back and forth from strawberry blonde and platinum blonde. I asked her why her hair color keeps changing, and she said, "It's the change in the weather that changes my hair color." --Mrs. Kirby

I'm still confused if blonde hair changes according to weather.


5. "If you cut your fingernails at night, a ghost will come out and eat you." --Grandma

I cut my fingernails in daylight to this day, even as an adult, just in case.


4. "If you cut your hair shorter, you will grow taller." --Older girl at church

Nope, didn't help. Maybe I didn't cut it short enough.


3. "Santa Grandpa came last night to give you this card and gift."--Mom

Wondered why Santa's handwriting was the same as my mom's and wondered how he knew my korean name.


2. Caught my mom slipping a 20 under my pillow. She said "Uh...The tooth fairy told me to give it to you." -Mom, in the morning

The tooth fairy has 20's??? She's rich!


1.  [Tooth threaded] "Close your eyes. I won't pull the string." --Dad

Liar.



Lesson Learned:
Adults lie to children because they love them. The children grow up loved, but slightly confused.


Love,

Sunnyluna