Turnip Tray

Okay, today I hit a new low- grout on my pajamas.  I got up this morning and was absorbed in various projects which could not wait any longer and, as the morning wore on, I gradually replaced night-clothes with day-clothes.  The pajama top, which looks like a shirt anyway, remained.  I was definitely wearing a work apron when I grouted this tray.  But my sleeves weren’t covered and ….    This is what happens to people who work at home.  They wind up with grout on their pajamas.

This octagonal tray has been in existence for a long time, decades probably.  My grandfather made it out of scraps of stuff.  I have a pretty good idea that my dad, who was a great scavenger himself, had saved the mahogany strips of wood from destruction in a trash pile somewhere.  And then, passed them on to my grandfather who gave them new life.  Each piece has “12W” etched into the wood in the center.  Shoe size from shoe storage shelves?  I don’t know.  Mom has had the tray for years; the inside bottom covered in a 1950’s pattern of wallpaper.  It was time for something new- a mosaic bottom.  We chose a turnip theme because my grandfather loved to grow purple-topped turnips in his garden.  They were so fresh and sweet when they came out of the ground!