Betsy the Builder

You've heard of Bob the Builder, hero construction artist to the pre-school set, right? Well, meet Betsy the Builder, hero furniture builder to the middle-age female set. Yes, this is my sister, Betsy. She is compulsive. She is obsessive. She is wearing a tool belt. She is going to kill me for writing all that. But it's true. Neither one of us can stand someone telling us we can't do something, and we both think we can do everything. And we can, and we will.

The furniture building kick has probably been simmering somewhere deep inside her for a long time. She "collects" furniture, because she likes it. Lately she's been hitting the thrift stores and finding lots of treasures. She has plans to paint and/or refinish, fix and/or refurbish all this stuff, and I keep telling her she needs to sell some of it. You know, make some money. She's really, really good at the spending it, so I'm thinking she might have some talent for the making of it. Just so you know, she's not the first generation to do this type of thing. I have an aunt who has a barnful (and I mean a BIG barn) of antiques and assorted everything. She collects too, and she will someday sell some of it. Are you reading this, Margo? Excuse me, Aunt Margo? Lucky for me, she's still in the giving it away stage, which is why I now own a full collection of aluminum pots and pans, and a pristine set of Hall orange tree bowls. Thank you, Aunt Margo.

Back to Betsy - so she found a website, this website, which has inspired her latest furniture obsession interest. Please visit the site AFTER you finish reading this, because if you go now, I'll have lost you forever.

I will now openly and publicly profess my love for the aforementioned website. I love you. I also love its creator. Pure, antique white love. Love with a capital robin's egg blue B. Or something like that. You'll understand after you spend a few days with the site, as I have.

Wow, that was freeing. Back to Betsy, again. She is going to make this table:

Remember that table from Pottery Barn?

With a little (okay, a lot) of help from Ana, she did this today:

Look closely - this is THE table base. How cool is my sister? I know, I know, she takes after me.