Re-creating my fathers Legacy: April 2013

A few days ago I had a dream, it was a little of a Dr who dream, except it was my Dad and he had a key to a tardis like something, but it was the key to the shop! My dad wasn't very much like Dr Who, but when I was a kid I remember people calling him "Doc" all the time, he was a Doctor, a PhD in range and forestry sciences. Somehow all the Dr Who watching with my kid, fez and Bowties are cool, Making Fez, working on the shop all coming together in my mind shaped like the episode where Rose tries to prevent her father's death, causes changes in the timeline, bringing monsters when and the Dr calls her stupid monkey, and there is the key. The Key. My key. My Dad giving me the key to the tardis and it is up to me to start it up. And it is much bigger on the Inside.
It feels like as much of an approval as I could ever hope to get from my Dad. Wherever he is, I believe he is proud of me.

I worked this weekend(first weekend in April 2013) at the shop. Saturday I kinda milled around and wasn't sure what I was doing, I swept out the storage room, sorted some more newspapers, not sure what was important. So I decided to work on the front, thinking that if I can get the shop area looking like something, then the rest of the space will sort itself out.
So before one of the last dump runs I took the UGLY mustard colored vinyl off the counters and it left behind some sticky adhesive that new was going to dry out. How to deal with this? I tried some stripper, some industrial strength cleaner, sanding it off, and if it did anything, it kinda pushed it around. Hmmm what to do what to do. I decided to go by several gallons of goop off, or whatever that product is that get sticker adhesive off...
Then something wonderful happened. I went that night to my brother's house and took some of my home made kombucha and we had a little tasting. chatted, and mo was in the other room watching a show I hadn't heard of, "Flea Market Flip". I wasn't paying attention. Well after we were all talked out me and mom went back to her house and I stayed up and watched some mindless TV. I watched som dumb show about a girl apartment hunting in Bankock, and I couldn't get over how much of a brat she was! then Fleamarket flip came on again. They pit 2 design teams against each other and give them 3 design "projects", such as a lighting solution a storage solution and an art piece, give them a budget and they go to a flea market to buy components to build the things. Then they go re-sell them at a more upscale arty show. Really some interesting ideas.
Then that's when it happened. I got the Idea, or rather they gave me the idea of how to deal with the sticky counters. Decoupage! but not just any decoupage, vintage sewing patterns, layers of thin printed tissue paper, only I will modify it with layered in images from godeys' lady book drawings, and Harper's Bazzar pictures of men in top hats and they made an antiqued patina by staining it with soy sauce! Brilliant! so I raided my mom's pattern box(with her permission) and found some ugly dated patterns that I didn't think should ever be used again, and in the process found a few more patterns for clothes I think I will be making sometime soon.
So back at the shop, with patterns, glue and sow sauce, I watered down the glue and set to work. The first layer went on easy because I was using the adhesive that was the original problem that I had to deal with, now it being an advantage, instead of being a problem! So I kept applying the tissue and layering it on, and since I didn't have the other images that I want to layer in handy I stopped feeling renewed with a distinct purpose and vision for how the shop is going to look. Then, as I looked around I could see how the different areas of the shop should look and I could see it coming together in my imagination. I moved the now partially reclaimed countertop from where it was to where I had already wanted it to be, and felt like I had made so much progress! Leaps and bounds! So next time I go to work on the shop I will go with the images needed to layer in and finish the countertop project. After it dries then I will coat it with layers of thick Urethane. Shiny!