dear earth,

i am terribly sorry, but that eco stripper totally blows. i tried to be good. to treat you with respect. but, unfortunately, i do not have the time or energy to sand a crappily varnished wood tabletop down to bare wood. it just ain't happening.



i am enclosing a picture of said table in question for reference (see the lovely eco friendly bottle of stripper?). nothing special, just a small kitchen table used in lieu of a counter top. as you can see, parts of the varnish had been worn away, leaving it feeling scummy and sticky, even when "clean". just looking at this table made me bat shit crazy inside.



ahhh... here i am feeling good - happy to be doing something to calm my inner soul AND doing good by you, earth.



and here, i am feeling the crazies start up again. what the hell is going on here with the eco stripper?! i used it a couple of times (three), to see how much it could remove, but alas, it left me no choice but to abandon it to the trash heap. (actually, i think it's still in the garage. note to self: move that shit in the garbage, where it belongs.)

i ran out to home depot, bought the real stuff, all hardcore and AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! *insert choir of angels* (it was, at least, low voc.)

stripped it for real, sanded it with my new hand sander power tool and then gently and lovingly applied delicious all natural linseed oil varnish. (whoops, just realized that i only used 1 coat... maybe i should revisit the table later next month...)

the smell of linseed oil was intoxicating! it brought me straight back to college - adding linseed oil to thin inks and mixing, mixing, mixing the colors together with those flat spreaders. mmm... process. i love process.

additional pictures are enclosed to show you what real stripper helped me to accomplish. i'm sorry i had to resort to solvents that do not care for you, but... the table looks damn good, am i right?



delicious and golden - i can't stop touching it. i mean, i didn't do a super duper job - i wasn't that stressed about it. the legs weren't touched at all and there are some spots where i could have sanded even further to remove gouges or a weird pink marker spot, but all i wanted was smooth. smooth and un-chunky.

i. love. it.



and you! i still love you, earth. and i will continue to recycle and bring in my own bags to the grocery store and make a mini-ecosystem in my backyard! promise!

xoxox,
me