Every time that Christi goes out of town for work, I try to knock out a project around the house that we've always wanted to do, but have never started. It started with the bathroom renovation and I even used a few of the weeks to complete the patio project.

So when she left to back to Nebraska a few weeks ago, I decided to give myself more of a physical break and tackle a smaller project. We bought a floating island from Ikea right after we moved in, and it's been used almost daily ever since. It came with a butcher block top that we never cured, so it was time to do a little maintenance to the surface. I sanded the top and applied 4-5 coats of stain/finish to the top for a nice smooth surface. Everything worked perfectly, except for the spot where we I spilled some olive oil a few months ago. Apparently oil soaks in very deep to wood and really sticks out like a sore thumb when stain is applied to it. With that, Christi got creative and I get more snacks with with the candy dish that has been re-purposed for our island.