My Orange Nightmare
What do you do when you unpack your last shipment of baskets for the season, and discover that 85 of the large ones you need the most are an unfortunate shade of orange? It was my orange nightmare revisited...ARGHHH!
I had just finished re-staining the last remaining few from a batch we got last fall. It was messy, smelly, and time-consuming the first time around...I used oil-based stain and I did it by hand with a brush. It took forever to dry, and alot longer for the odor to disappear. I was so happy to see the last one finished! The very last thing on earth I ever wanted to do again was to re-stain another basket.
But, there they were...85 more baskets that we couldn't send back and coudn't send out the way they were. We need most of them for a big project we're working on right now. Julie is beyond busy at this time of year, running the whole show. So there was no way around it...it was time for me to take one for the team.
I was pretty psyched to discover that water-based stain is not sticky, dries quickly, and doesn't smell like a carcinogen. It had to be the answer! I tried the stain-by-hand with a brush method, and it took at least 20 minutes per basket...it also looked like hell.
Plan B involved dipping the baskets in a some sort of container I could use as a vat. I scoured Home Depot for supplies, and came home with 9 quarts of stain which I diluted with water, several brushes, vinyl gloves, and a large plastic tarp. I emptied my Christmas ornaments out of a large plastic storage container and voila, I was in business!
The next part was tricky... I really have no open area in my home to work on an insane project like this. So I set up the dipping operation in my little kitchen on top of some large trash bags, and spread the long plastic tarp in the kitchen, and all across the length of my living room. I have off-white carpeting, so I was pretty much playing with fire.
Much to my delight, the new plan worked like a charm. It took only about 4 minutes to dip each basket! I was determined to finish the job up by Tuesday, just to get the whole big mess out of my little house.
Untimately WHERE TO PUT THE BASKETS WHILE THEY DRIED became the next nightmare. Picture 85 baskets the size of a shallow laundry basket. I sat on the floor and worked out a system...Dip three, set aside. Stand up, transfer into the living room. Carry in a dozen more. Dip three, and on and on. Every possible space was covered with freshly stained baskets, and I had piles more. So as they dried, I began piling them upside down in layers so they would all fit on the tarp. I worked for 4-5 hours straight, and when I was finished, I had a mountain of baskets about 4 feet high covering my living room. It was a Kodak moment!
My sense of relief and accomplishment at a job well done began to fade the next day when every part of my body began screaming at me, "What were you thinking? You are 59 years old, you have arthritis, and your knee is an orthopedic disaster zone!!! That day I dragged myself to work at the hospital, literally in tears. One of my R.N. friends threw a handful of assorted over-the-counter pain meds at me and said, "Take three of these and two of these, and don't argue with me!" It helped. Another friend went home and brought me back a miocrowaveable rice bag to use on my knee. I really have some good friends.
It's Friday and the pain is down to it's normal dull roar. My off-white carpeting is still off-white, and we're using the formerly orange baskets... they really look great! I just have to make a mental note to remind myself that I'm really not 25 anymore. And that the gift basket business is so fun...isn't it???
I had just finished re-staining the last remaining few from a batch we got last fall. It was messy, smelly, and time-consuming the first time around...I used oil-based stain and I did it by hand with a brush. It took forever to dry, and alot longer for the odor to disappear. I was so happy to see the last one finished! The very last thing on earth I ever wanted to do again was to re-stain another basket.
But, there they were...85 more baskets that we couldn't send back and coudn't send out the way they were. We need most of them for a big project we're working on right now. Julie is beyond busy at this time of year, running the whole show. So there was no way around it...it was time for me to take one for the team.
I was pretty psyched to discover that water-based stain is not sticky, dries quickly, and doesn't smell like a carcinogen. It had to be the answer! I tried the stain-by-hand with a brush method, and it took at least 20 minutes per basket...it also looked like hell.
Plan B involved dipping the baskets in a some sort of container I could use as a vat. I scoured Home Depot for supplies, and came home with 9 quarts of stain which I diluted with water, several brushes, vinyl gloves, and a large plastic tarp. I emptied my Christmas ornaments out of a large plastic storage container and voila, I was in business!
The next part was tricky... I really have no open area in my home to work on an insane project like this. So I set up the dipping operation in my little kitchen on top of some large trash bags, and spread the long plastic tarp in the kitchen, and all across the length of my living room. I have off-white carpeting, so I was pretty much playing with fire.
Much to my delight, the new plan worked like a charm. It took only about 4 minutes to dip each basket! I was determined to finish the job up by Tuesday, just to get the whole big mess out of my little house.
Untimately WHERE TO PUT THE BASKETS WHILE THEY DRIED became the next nightmare. Picture 85 baskets the size of a shallow laundry basket. I sat on the floor and worked out a system...Dip three, set aside. Stand up, transfer into the living room. Carry in a dozen more. Dip three, and on and on. Every possible space was covered with freshly stained baskets, and I had piles more. So as they dried, I began piling them upside down in layers so they would all fit on the tarp. I worked for 4-5 hours straight, and when I was finished, I had a mountain of baskets about 4 feet high covering my living room. It was a Kodak moment!
My sense of relief and accomplishment at a job well done began to fade the next day when every part of my body began screaming at me, "What were you thinking? You are 59 years old, you have arthritis, and your knee is an orthopedic disaster zone!!! That day I dragged myself to work at the hospital, literally in tears. One of my R.N. friends threw a handful of assorted over-the-counter pain meds at me and said, "Take three of these and two of these, and don't argue with me!" It helped. Another friend went home and brought me back a miocrowaveable rice bag to use on my knee. I really have some good friends.
It's Friday and the pain is down to it's normal dull roar. My off-white carpeting is still off-white, and we're using the formerly orange baskets... they really look great! I just have to make a mental note to remind myself that I'm really not 25 anymore. And that the gift basket business is so fun...isn't it???
posted by Marcia at 11:55 PM
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