Letters and Numbers and Symbols..Oh My!!

My family has been in the newspaper business for over 100 years.

I like to think that there is some ink in our blood.

 So a couple of weeks ago when I was redoing my Craigslist table, I put chalkboard paint on the top. But even when I bought the table, I kept thinking how cool it would be with letterpress blocks on top in a giant collage.

The letterpress blocks are what they used at newspapers a long, long time ago...

Back when my family was starting their business. 

 Over the weekend when we were watching a movie, I lugged out my giant sack of letterpress letters, numbers, symbols and advertisements. (When I say giant, I mean the big plastic bags with zippers that comforters come in...And a smaller version too!) I have been collecting them for years. I started by separating them into number/letter/symbol and ad categories. This is just a smidge of them! 

 Then I began spelling out our names. And the names of our beloved pets. And important dates. And teams we have loved and/or played for. And things we love to do. When you use letterpress blocks you are spelling things backwards....you do realize that don't you? That way when ink is rolled on the letters and the newsprint is put down, the words are then facing the right direction. 

 Here's the table when it was a cute little chalk-table. But then I added all those words and started filling in around my words to form my giant collage. It is fun to look at and try to find some of the words I have embedded. 

 Boomer (our cat) and OKLAHOMA. 

 Sooners! and right now it says "Wucas"...but as soon as I cabbage on to another "L" it will say Lucas. Wucas is okay for the time being, since our youngest son, Luke, pronounced his "L's" as a "W' and called himself  "Wuke Wucas" when he was about 3 or 4. ha!!!
Edited to add: Luke was at his grandparents house yesterday and I told him to get an "L" from his granddad, which he did not do...So I guess he is fine with the "Wucas" for now! (Until I get the "L").

 Tim and Lori

 Luke 18 (his birthdate)

 Cool punctuation marks throughout

 Former jersey numbers from ball teams

 Kelly

 I bought an entire collection of old flag blocks once...and a bunch of filler stars. They are all interspersed throughout. 

 Fractions...Aren't those fun? 

 A little nod to the political side of my family as well...

 And when it was all done, hundreds and hundreds of different blocks. All shapes, sizes and colors, combining to form the cutest little table for my office room. 

 All our names are in there somewhere...and all those other things I added too...pets, teams, hobbies, towns, dates, special numbers. 

 With the rest of the filler numbers and letters and symbols, the whole collage is wedged in tight. In fact I had planned on gluing each piece down and now I am not so sure. I had to get a screwdriver to pry a letter up that I wanted to change! I think it is safe as it is. I will watch and see how it goes. 

 I don't really expect people to try to abscond with any of the wood blocks! 

 I think I love the ink variations the most. I can visualize the printers with their printing aprons on and their rollers full of ink. I remember the printers at my Dad's paper very well...Sparky and Maynard. If I try really hard I can almost conjure up the smell of the ink and the newsprint. 

 That's why I love the table. It brings back so many memories I have from childhood. 

 And also so many recent memories because of the letters and numbers and names and words I put throughout the table. 

 A conversation piece for sure!!! My husband thinks I need to put a piece of glass or plexi-glass on top. I am holding out on that as well. We will see.

In the meantime, I am going to sit back and enjoy my little table-that-could in its latest makeover! ....And all the memories it provides! 
Edited to add also: While the blocks are stained from ink, the ink does not come off on things. They are old enough and used enough that they are "clean". Although I still am thinking about the glass top!

Linking up to:

Metamorphosis Monday

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