The Catbird Seat

Tonight I finished working on a nursery commission for MFL (Lindsey)…well actually, for a gift for Lindsey’s expectant cousin (didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea because of my awful syntax.)

ANYWAY…I used spray adhesive for the wings of the dragonfly.

Spray adhesive and me. Not friends.

The wings stuck to the paper that I put underneath to protect my table.

Then the outline part of the wing stuck too fast, and in the wrong place, on the transparent wing part.

Then the whole thing stuck to the tweezers with which I was holding the whole darn thing since my fingers turn into large Italian sausages when I glue tiny, delicate things.

And THEN, after I had it all glued properly (the end result is very cool, by the way), I realized that I had a fine film of adhesive overspray all over my IKEA dining room table.

Yuck.

I wasn’t so worried about whether the glue would come off the table (because I knew it would); the question for me, really, was, “What cleaning product will get it off?”

Since spray adhesive isn’t water-based, I knew any regular spray cleaner, or even soap and water, would just bead up and frustrate me.

We didn’t have any mineral spirits, and I was concerned about putting it on my table even if we did have it.

I thought to myself, “What would remove some unknown, but probably oil-based glue product?”

Oil-based glue.

Hmmm.

Enter Crisco cooking spray oil.

I have no idea what made me arrive at the conclusion to specifically try cooking spray (except that maybe I’m a genius and I just never realized it), but try it I did.

Worked like magic.

I’ve never been so proud at my ingenuity.

I’ve also never had the experience of dirtying my table with greasy Crisco oil for the sake of cleaning it, either.

I literally sprayed my table top with cooking oil, and rubbed it in. Then I sprayed the oiled table surface with 409 to degrease it. Then I cleaned off the 409 with a clean, soapy wet rag. Finally I wiped the whole thing off with a dry kitchen towel.

Now my table shines like the top of the Chrysler building! (sorry for the lame lil’ Orphan Annie reference, for those of you that caught it. I couldn’t help myself.)

If only Crisco spray oil worked as well for all the other dirty things in my house.

Something tells me, though, that my kitchen floor might not weather the experiment quite so well. (grin.)

(Oh, and just for the record, I used the “Original” in the blue can shown in the above photo. I know you were dying to know.)

Filed under: General, Catbird, Random Thoughts, Tidbits, SAHM on May 31st, 2007