A Day
The workshop Maddie choreographed had there performance today so I stuck around to watch. After hearing all her grumbling about kids not paying attention and not knowing their songs I was pleasantly suprised to see an entertaning production. The three songs that Maddie choreographed were great and the kids did a super job with few mistakes and appropriate loudness.
She was very proud of them. That was a great boost to her as she found out just before the performance that the job she was supposed to do next week and had finished all the choreography for had gone bust. It was for a group of girl scouts in Beloit and they only got half the number of participants. Edie (the director) had to cut her staff. They also changed the times to go later. Maddie was the furthest away and the new times conflict with her job at the pig so she was one of the cuts they had to make. She put up a brave front, but I could see the tears welling up. It is the hardest thing to handle, knowing how much work your kid has put into something then see it pulled out from under her and feeling pretty helpless. I told her to get letters of reccomendation from Edie and the director of Schoolhouse Rock so at least she has that.
I recieved a small inheritance from my late grandmother's estate and have struggled with what to use it for. I wanted to use it for something that I really did not have the money for and finally settled on getting our sofa and chair re-upholstered. The sofa and chair are both from the turn of the century and were things I inherited from my other grandma. We have had them almost thirty years and they are showing their age. I repaired the back welts on the sofa couple times, but they just are not holding anymore and under the cushions I used brown duct tape to hold the fabric together where it was splitting and thread just would no longer hold.
The chair is a big overstuffed one with a deep seat. Unfortunately the deepness of the seat is a little out of control. The burlap underneath has come loose and several of the springs have come untied. I retied the springs and tried to relace the burlap, but the place where you would normally nail the burlap down is too full of holes to hold anything so the whole seat sags down to the floor. Over the years I have resolved off and on to upholster the thing myself, but really didn't want to make a huge investment in fabric just to have a shoddy result so when this small windfall came in it seemed a good way to use the money for something permanent that grandma would approve of.
I started looking for upholsterers at the beginning of the yellow pages. I spoke with the owner on the telephone and got a very good feeling from him. He was third generation in the business, spoke like he knew furniture quite well and was friendly. I stopped in the next day with pictures of the pieces and a cushion from the chair. I explained to him that although I was looking to restore the pieces they also lived in a house with cats and people that used the furniture daily. These would not be show pieces! He had thousands of swatches and I was quite overwhelmed. He hauled out several books of things he thought would work and I started pageing through. Finally I found one that I liked and cautiously asked how much a yard the fabric was. $44.00/yd... yikes... I would pick a pricey one. He steered me away from the more fragile fabrics and eventually we settled on several choices. I asked him for an estimate and although I almost choked when he told me it was pretty much what I expected and within my inheritance, although I had to cut out the ottoman. For $200 dollars I can re-do that myself. I upholstered that initially 20 years ago so I think I am up to that job again.
I brought the books home and was ready to find something without looking anywhere else. Puck wanted me to look further, but I really did get a good feeling from the guy and was ready to just have it done. We found a lovely brocade called Lisette in sage..... We both kept coming back to that one even though it was that danged expensive one. I dragged him back to the shop the next day. While Puck was talking to him I walked around the shop and noticed several newspaper articles about the shop on the wall and he talked about his sons helping him in the shop and he helping his dad down in Chicago. Puck said lets do it :) and I was relieved. We are bringing in the sofa next week and will be without the two peices of furniture for 1 or 2 months. It should be interesting. I hope we made a good choice. He seemed to think it was good for the period of the sofa and assured us that the fabric was a midrange price. I did see a couple in there that were $60 and $70 so that made me feel a little better. He also was delighted to find out that I was a chair caner. People apparently are always calling him for that service. He took a couple of my cards and said he would direct them to me. That could be good.
Yesterday I got up early for the library book sale. I was so good and only bought a few books on movies and one Tony Hillerman. I got a couple books on tape and four movies so not too terrible. I did come close to buying back one book that I had donated to the sale though... that was close!
I always enjoy standing around with the other earlybirds waiting for the doors to open. They are usually the same people and are booksellers. They know each other and talk about all the local sales and other odd book people they know. It is fun. I even avoided the city wide rummage sales except for the one down the street where a got one car window shield and a pair of crab socks. I think I am reaching the saturation point here at home.
She was very proud of them. That was a great boost to her as she found out just before the performance that the job she was supposed to do next week and had finished all the choreography for had gone bust. It was for a group of girl scouts in Beloit and they only got half the number of participants. Edie (the director) had to cut her staff. They also changed the times to go later. Maddie was the furthest away and the new times conflict with her job at the pig so she was one of the cuts they had to make. She put up a brave front, but I could see the tears welling up. It is the hardest thing to handle, knowing how much work your kid has put into something then see it pulled out from under her and feeling pretty helpless. I told her to get letters of reccomendation from Edie and the director of Schoolhouse Rock so at least she has that.
I recieved a small inheritance from my late grandmother's estate and have struggled with what to use it for. I wanted to use it for something that I really did not have the money for and finally settled on getting our sofa and chair re-upholstered. The sofa and chair are both from the turn of the century and were things I inherited from my other grandma. We have had them almost thirty years and they are showing their age. I repaired the back welts on the sofa couple times, but they just are not holding anymore and under the cushions I used brown duct tape to hold the fabric together where it was splitting and thread just would no longer hold.
The chair is a big overstuffed one with a deep seat. Unfortunately the deepness of the seat is a little out of control. The burlap underneath has come loose and several of the springs have come untied. I retied the springs and tried to relace the burlap, but the place where you would normally nail the burlap down is too full of holes to hold anything so the whole seat sags down to the floor. Over the years I have resolved off and on to upholster the thing myself, but really didn't want to make a huge investment in fabric just to have a shoddy result so when this small windfall came in it seemed a good way to use the money for something permanent that grandma would approve of.
I started looking for upholsterers at the beginning of the yellow pages. I spoke with the owner on the telephone and got a very good feeling from him. He was third generation in the business, spoke like he knew furniture quite well and was friendly. I stopped in the next day with pictures of the pieces and a cushion from the chair. I explained to him that although I was looking to restore the pieces they also lived in a house with cats and people that used the furniture daily. These would not be show pieces! He had thousands of swatches and I was quite overwhelmed. He hauled out several books of things he thought would work and I started pageing through. Finally I found one that I liked and cautiously asked how much a yard the fabric was. $44.00/yd... yikes... I would pick a pricey one. He steered me away from the more fragile fabrics and eventually we settled on several choices. I asked him for an estimate and although I almost choked when he told me it was pretty much what I expected and within my inheritance, although I had to cut out the ottoman. For $200 dollars I can re-do that myself. I upholstered that initially 20 years ago so I think I am up to that job again.
I brought the books home and was ready to find something without looking anywhere else. Puck wanted me to look further, but I really did get a good feeling from the guy and was ready to just have it done. We found a lovely brocade called Lisette in sage..... We both kept coming back to that one even though it was that danged expensive one. I dragged him back to the shop the next day. While Puck was talking to him I walked around the shop and noticed several newspaper articles about the shop on the wall and he talked about his sons helping him in the shop and he helping his dad down in Chicago. Puck said lets do it :) and I was relieved. We are bringing in the sofa next week and will be without the two peices of furniture for 1 or 2 months. It should be interesting. I hope we made a good choice. He seemed to think it was good for the period of the sofa and assured us that the fabric was a midrange price. I did see a couple in there that were $60 and $70 so that made me feel a little better. He also was delighted to find out that I was a chair caner. People apparently are always calling him for that service. He took a couple of my cards and said he would direct them to me. That could be good.
Yesterday I got up early for the library book sale. I was so good and only bought a few books on movies and one Tony Hillerman. I got a couple books on tape and four movies so not too terrible. I did come close to buying back one book that I had donated to the sale though... that was close!
I always enjoy standing around with the other earlybirds waiting for the doors to open. They are usually the same people and are booksellers. They know each other and talk about all the local sales and other odd book people they know. It is fun. I even avoided the city wide rummage sales except for the one down the street where a got one car window shield and a pair of crab socks. I think I am reaching the saturation point here at home.
posted by Orbie/\;;/\ @ 3:54 PM
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