Couching my words

The couch I'd love to have:

The couch I have:



The temporary or possibly permanent solution:



I'm thinking of this as a Speedo for my couch. The couch is a hand-me-down from my best friend and her hubby, who loves to shop. He was ready for a new couch, as were we, so about three years ago he pulled up in his pickup truck with some of the young men from church, et voilà! There is nothing objectively wrong with this couch. It’s well-made and has great lines [not too fussy and traditional, not too sterile and modern] and is comfortable. It’s just, well, blue.

I was puzzled for awhile that I have this urge to nest each spring. I realized last year, about half-past summer, that it's due in part to Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance books. They are much about tidying the nest, making home a pleasant place to be, etc...

Which explains why three years ago I bought the new plates on closeout at Target and made that delightful budget-busting trip to Garden Ridge with Brother Sushi, where I got my bowls shaped like poppies and the little heart-shaped dessert bowls, and later the goblets and napkins at Pier One and the placemats [with a coupon, please note] at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Two years ago, I got the draperies on closeout at JCPenney's online outlet [one of their Wednesday Specials; I think I got them for $10 a pair???] and the tablecloth for the dining room and the Wall Words for the dining room wall. And last year I reorganized the kitchen drawers and the linen closet.

This year looks like it will be the slipcover for the couch, and possibly getting the fainting couch recovered at a little place in BigD that one of my attorneys uses because the upholsterers are both skilled and affordable. And I have my eye on a couple of armchairs at Pier One that please my eye nearly as much as the [discontinued] Malabar chairs at Pottery Barn and please my pocketbook far more. Witness:

I found a different chair online, and when I went to the store to sit in it, it was nice but not-me. Then I stood up, turned around, and saw this chair. Definitely love at first sit!

I have bought very little furniture in my life. Most of my dining room chairs are from a flea market in Alvarado, from when we were living with friends in 1993. I painted them while we were living in that first bare apartment after we came back up here from financial ruin in the Texas Hill Country. And I taught myself how to re-rush chair seats. They could stand to be repainted, but the seats are holding up nicely after fourteen years. [Better than mine.] The rest of my dining room chairs are wooden folding chairs bought for $15 or so at World Market. My coffee table is from that same flea market, also repainted. Several years ago I sprung for a glass top for it. My end table is a hand-me-down from when I took over Firstborn’s apartment after Secondborn’s wedding. [The sectional sofa that went with it is, mercifully, history. It was mostly blue.] I have an excellent bed that I accepted from one of the girls in lieu of repayment on a debt.

And here I am doing a creditable impression of a grownup, researching and pondering the acquisition of grownup furniture. Not expensive, arm-and-a-leg-and-firstborn-male-child furniture, but real furniture nonetheless.

Still knitting away on the fronts to LittleBit's hoodie. Two months on this sweater and still going. If I weren't enjoying it so much, I'd be honor-bound to join MDKnitting's slogalong. I will probably have a picture for you of the "recumbent biking" project sometime next week, at which point I will need to figure out another bikeworthy project.