Years ago, when my husband and I decided to redo our family room, there really was no question as to what theme around which we would decorate it. We love watching movies down there. Our favorite movie is Star Wars. No brainer.

I don't think I've ever had so much fun decorating a room. We already had quite a bit of artwork - puzzles glued and mounted and posters - to hang on the walls. When I found some celestial fabric for our futon, I ordered some extra material so that I could make curtains and valances for the two windows. I went on the hunt for some starry wallpaper for the accent wall, and, after hours of pouring over sample books, I finally found what I wanted at a little paint store. Too bad this was before the day of Star Wars wallpaper. Now, that would have looked grand in the room! Yes, I know we could redo that wall - and sometimes I think we just might - but I rather like the stars on that wall because they go along with the "stars" I painted on the expansive ceiling. I spent many an hour poised on a ladder - and developed a crick in my neck, to boot! - to dot the ceiling with white paint in my effort to create a starry, starry night. Not to toot my own horn, but I am quite pleased with the result. (so what if my neck never has been the same! )

It was fun going into furniture stores with my husband in tow. "I'm looking for an escape pod chair," I said on one such outing. Oh, that gave him a lot of information. "I'll know it when I see it," was my response to his query, "just what constitutes an escape pod chair?" The wonderful husband that he is, he is used to the fact that I have a vision when we're out shopping. He is content to amble along with me until I exclaim, "Aha! That's it!" And, it isn't as if he doesn't help in my quest. As we meander through a store, he'll point to one object (in this case a chair), and ask, "Is this what you have in mind?" "How about this style?" Sometimes I'll answer with a flat-out "no," but I do try to explain as to why a piece of furniture does not fit the picture so firmly planted in my imagination. He gleans information from these explanations to develop a clearer sense of what I'm after. "Think of a chair that envelopes you when you sit in it," I explained in this particular case. I just couldn't get out of my mind C3PO and R2D2 squeezing into the escape pod in A New Hope. While they may not have felt very cozy, that's exactly the feeling I was after for this particular piece of furniture. In time, my excited exclamation "Aha! There it is!" escaped my lips. I had found our "escape pod chair."

The will of the Force was with us on this particular day. Plopped in the "escape pod chair," I was happy as a clam, spinning around when my eyes alit upon a table ensemble not too far from where I sat. "Thomas P., (that's what I call my wonderful hubby!) look! Those are the perfect tables for our Star Wars Room!" I was really excited now! They were black and geometric in design. Exactly what I had in mind . . . almost. The coffee table, much to my dismay, had a glass top. I know a lot of people like glass-top tabletops, but not me. The coffee table we were replacing had a glass top - and let me tell you, as far as I'm concerned, they're a pain to keep clean! But . . . but . . . but . . . except for this one feature, the tables really did fit my imagination's view of the room. Okay, I said to myself, I could suck it up and deal with this all for the sense of my image of Star Wars Style. Thus, not only did we come home with an order for an escape pod chair that day, but the tables were a done deal, too!

Which gets me to the real reason behind this morning's entry . . .

As luck would have it, within one month of getting the tables delivered, wouldn't you know it - the glass got scratched. Accidents happen, but that 5-inch indentation across the tabletop was, shall we say, pretty darn obvious. What to do about it???

Option 1: Have an entire new piece of glass cut to size to replace this marred surface. A viable solution, but was I going to incur that cost every time the glass got scratched? That could run into some pretty hefty expenditures over time. And our children still were young enough that I'd be shelling out plenty of money if I took this route!

Option 2: Get rid of the glass - permanently - and replace that part of the tabletop with a tile mosaic. Maybe I could arrange the tiles to highlight the Rebel Insignia, or some such easily identifiable Star Wars picture that did not require a lot of artistic ability. I love arts and crafts (and thoroughly enjoy watching the home decorating shows for all kinds of ideas ), but I am not artistic! (Oh, how I wish I was!) This option had real - and sound - possibilities.

Option 3: Paint the glass surface (from underneath). This wouldn't hide the scratch, but one's eyes would be drawn to the picture. My personal favorite, but I had a big problem here. Like I explained in Option # 2 - I'm not artistic.

Option 3 won out, but challenges (notice the "s") ensued. (I never do anything the easy way if I can make it difficult. ) I really didn't want the Rebel Insignia painted on the tabletop. It would have been fine if I had gone the route of the mosaic, but it wasn't right for a painting. It had to be a scene. But, which one? And, considering I was leaning in this direction, I knew I'd be in trouble considering I'm not artistically inclined.

Yoda's words echoed in my brain: You will know. When you are calm, at peace. Passive.

That other Yoda lesson - patience - always comes to mind. I really do try to put the "P" word into action as often as possible, but, I must admit, like Luke, patience can be elusive.

Patience paid off in this instance. In time, it was revealed that one of my oldest padawan's closest friends was (an still is, mind you! ) quite artistically inclined indeed. Always looking for ways to expand her repertoire, Betsy agreed to paint the scene of my choice. Since Luke is my favorite character, I knew I wanted one that included him. I also wanted a scene that featured a lightsaber battle (which probably would include that Dark Lord of the Sith himself), but didn't feature distinct images of these two characters. It wasn't long before the opening shots of Luke's and Vader's epic lightsaber battle in The Empire Strikes Back came to mind. I printed out a picture, traced the tabletop that was to be Betsy's canvas and gave the materials to this very talented young woman. Within a few days, she had a sketch ready for my perusal. I was not disappointed.

Getting Betsy on board occurred this past summer, and, because she, my daughter and their friends soon would be taking off for their various corners of the country in pursuit of their college degrees (Betsy's career path is headed in the direction of that as an illustrator), we decided the actual work would take place over the girls' semester break. She'd be home for a long enough stretch at that time to begin and finish the project. I was so excited I barely could contain myself!!! (Patience, patience . . . )

I must interject here (thus lengthening this entry ) that my padawan is blessed to be surrounded by a) very talented individuals and b) young adults who take their jobs as seriously as she does. (That isn't to say they don't have fun. They do! They all are responsible, hard-working individuals who always strive to do the very best they can. ) I knew that Betsy would do a superb job. I was not disappointed in the least. You judge for yourself. And here are a few of Betsy at work, plus another of the finished product in place. Don't you agree with me that she did an outstanding job?! She even put my concern that she would, basically, have to "paint the picture backward" (so the image would appear correctly) to rest when she told me, "That's the way I paint all the time!" She had to start with the foreground (for example, paint the lights on Vader's breastplate), imagining exactly where each dot should be placed. What an eye this young lady has!!!

Amazing. Her work is absolutely amazing.

Some things are well worth waiting for, and this was one of them. I am so thankful and happy I waited for Betsy to come along and agree to do this for us.

So, the next time you're up in my neck of the woods, please feel free to stop on by so you can see this amazing work of art in person. We can sip on glasses of blue milk or steaming cups of Hoth chocolate, talk about Star Wars (and anything else that comes up) and enjoy each other's company. Until then, I'll see you around these here blogs.

MTFBWY
JMW

p.s. If you're interested, head on over here to view an artistic creation of a different sort. My oldest padawan and her cousin (it is soooo uncanny how alike they look!) whipped up this video in 15 minutes on the spur of the moment this past summer. "Not my best work, but it was fun!" she said. While I enjoy watching it just to see her since she's so far away, I like the "boyfriend" in the background of many of the shots. Luke is posed so well for this particular song.