How Do You Say No?

My niece was at my house for the weekend not long ago and while she was here I wanted her to test the height of some little chairs with a table I had been given. The table and chairs hadn’t come as a set so I wanted to make sure they worked together before I painted them and she was the perfect size to test them out. As we were looking at the set, I said “Gracie, can you sit in these and see if the table is the right height?”

“Sure!” she responded enthusiastically.

After sitting for about 2 seconds in one… she quickly and excitedly asked “Are you selling this??” (like I was going to sell it that minute out from under her).

“I will be after its painted but I wanted to make sure the chairs fit.”

She looked at me with her huge, giggly smile (she’s ALWAYS giggling) and said “I’ll buy it!!”

As I began to say “you don’t have any money silly girl…” she fished in her pocket and laid a $5 bill and a $2 coin on the table that my parents had given her the day before for helping at the cottage.

As she laid out her money she said “I have money. Is this enough?”

How do you say no to that? She was willing to spend her hard-earned $7 on a table and chair set for her room. Even after I explained to her how it would look, she was still just as excited about the thought of owning it.

I had already chosen Country Chic Paint in Mermaid’s Tale and Ocean Breeze because it was going to be for a guest post I was doing for them. Oddly enough, as she pointed out, those are the colours of her room!

“That’s perfect!” she exclaimed. I just didn’t have the heart to say no. (who would?!) No amount of extra money would have been worth keeping it to sell to someone else when it made her so happy.A few weeks later, I delivered the set. When she saw me arrive, she immediately ran out to help me carry it in. As I was taking it out of the car, she looked at me and said “this is more beautiful that I even imagined Aunt Lisa!” She could barely contain her excitement.

And, as it turns out, she had earned an extra $7 from her parents that she wanted to give me to bring the grand total to $14. I just love seeing how creative my nieces and nephews are and if I can encourage that, in any way, it makes me smile. If you would like the directions on how this set was painted, please see the original post on The Country Chic Paint blog…