Antique Chairs Revisited and Refinished and Reupholstered!!

Do you remember a few months back I took my beautiful antique chairs from my Aunt Bea down to finally be refinished and reupholstered?  If not, please go look back for the post titled "Antique Chairs" and check out the BEFORE pictures.

Then come on back here and see the after photos.  They are even prettier than I pictured they would be.

Here we go with the photos!!!

Above is chair #1.  There are 3 chairs and chair #1 is a regular standing there with it's 4 legs kind of chair.  It has the needlepoint on the front of the back with the new edging stuff that I found out is called "gimp" and then the nutmeg color velvet on the seat and the back of the back.  I am so in love with the way these turned out I can hardly stand it.

This is chair #2 which is almost identical to #1 except it sits on a base with a rocker spring and is a rocking chair.  It has the matching needlepoint to #1 as well.  Love this chair!!

This big beautiful chair is #3 and it is essentially a chair-and-a-half or a settee.  This is the first time I have seen it with the springs tied down.  They had become untied over the years and talk about bouncy!  Just sitting on it was like taking a roller coaster ride!  This settee is just spectacular now.

This little guy is the one and only foot stool that came to me with the set.  I don't know if that is the way they were sold originally or how it is the only one to survive with the chairs.  It is topped with the fourth and final needlepoint that I was given by my Nana.  It fit perfectly. And can I just say how lovely my rug looks in that photo?

Another shot of #1

And some close up views of the needlepoint and the velvet on the settee.

So, please go check out the before photos and now the afters and let me know what you think. I am beyond thrilled with them.

Now my only issue will be which of my children will get to inherit them.  Because I am not breaking up the set.  No way, no how.  They deserve to stay together.

And stay tuned for my dining chairs to be reupholstered!  The fabric is ordered and due in any time now.  I will post some before photos of them as well.  How on earth that current fabric got so stained is beyond me.

Thanks for reading!  Hope you all have a happy and restful Thanksgiving!

Random Musings

The Random Musings posts are the easiest for me because this is how my brain works, popping from one thought to the next with no regard for connectivity.  Here goes!!

Last night I was in bed getting ready to fall asleep  play games on my Kindle and Mr. Big Ed was already fast asleep as he goes to bed about 4 hours ahead of me.  When all the sudden he started jerking, moving and making sounds (reminds of me how a dog barks and runs in their sleep) and then he kicked me!  He KICKED me!!  AND DID IT AGAIN!  I started trying to wake him up and said "Hey, you are kicking me!" And in his dream fog he replied back "Yeah, I know. I was trying to kick the zombies".

Huh?  Zombies?

That was quite the unexpected end to my day!  Can't wait to talk to him about this over dinner and see if he remembers any of it.

A few days ago it was one of my sister's birthday.  She was turning the Big 5-0.  I did that just a few years ago my own self and wanted to come up with something fun to mark the occasion for her.  So I turned to my friend Google, and speaking of Google let me say this:  I do NOT like the new Google logo thing.  But back to the Googling adventure.  I asked Google about what products were put on the market the same year that she was born, 1965 and got a nice long list of really fun things.  Then I set about trying to find some of them.

Here's what I got:

The Sound of Music - they had a 50th anniversary edition available

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella - similar 50th anniversary edition

Mattel's See n Say, the Farmer says - This was a reproduction and it was the very first toy she was ever given as a Christmas gift so I was really happy to find one.

Operation Game - vintage with all the parts, money, even the original rubber band.

Mystery Date - reproduction of the original.

Spirograph - Be still my heart!  I loved the Spirograph so much!!!  This is an original one with everything still in the box minus the green pen.

Barrel O Monkeys - old, vintage, original.  Cute!

Spaghetti-Os - brand new can

Honeycomb Cereal - of course, new.

I found really fun brightly colored striped and polka-dotted giftwrap papers and wrapped them and set them out in a big pile in my family room because she happened to be in town this weekend.  She and her friend and friend's son all came over for dinner last night and I had her open them and try to figure out the connection between all these things.  I think the "50th Anniversary edition" on the damn DVDs gave it away but it was still lots of fun and I hope she likes them.

AND we broke out the Mystery Date game and played.  That was lots of fun.  We had dinner and I made a birthday cake which we were all too full to really enjoy.

This is the week leading up to the premiere of the new season of Doctor Who.  The 52nd season as a matter of fact.  And months ago they announced that there would be a showing of the first episode for this season in the movie theaters.  They did this last year and I got tickets and we all went dressed in our best Doctor Who outfits.  So the minute I saw this was happening again this year I snagged 2 tickets.  I have been beside myself about this ever since!

Until last week when I watched the trailer about the theater showing and see that it is actually going to be THE LAST EPISODE FROM LAST SEASON with a "special preview" of the upcoming episode.  WTF??

Are they kidding me?  What complete ass whistles.  That was a really crappy thing to do.  And guess what?  The new season starts this coming Saturday.  And this coming Saturday I will be at my mama's house at a family birthday party for my sister.  The one who was here.

Well, sonofabitch.  Now, not only do I NOT get to see the episode beforehand in the theater in 3D, but I also don't get to watch it on Saturday with the rest of the world.  I will get to watch it off the DVR much later then everyone else. Goddammit.

In other news, fall is shaping up to be absolutely gorgeous around here.  The sky is such a beautiful shade of blue, the birds and other critters seem quite happy.  And I have started decorating for fall/Halloween/Days of the Dead.  By decorating I mean I have hung Days of the Dead wreaths on my front doors and put out a package of Pumpkin Spice Kisses and some Halloween flavored Peeps. But it's a start!

Hope your fall or spring depending on your hemisphere is shaping up nicely!

Antique Chairs

I have these gorgeous antique chairs that came from my Great-Aunt Bea.  There are 3 of them.  One is a regular chair with 4 legs, one is a not so regular chair with a base and a spring on it that makes it a rocker, and the third one is a large chair-and-a-half.  Then there is a foot stool.

Way back in the 70s or the 80s judging by the fabric, my Aunt Bea refinished and recovered 2 of the chairs and for some reason left the chair-and-a-half alone.  Let me show you photos.

I just adore the old original fabric on the larger chair but that avocado green stuff where they were updated is not so good.  Sadly I checked and the original fabric is not underneath.

So I have been searching high and low for years to find something gorgeous to put on these chairs and bring them back together.  And I do mean years.  The upholstery needs to coordinate with the antique sofa and the rug.  You can see a bit of the rug in the photos.

And one night I was in bed dozing off and what popped in to my head?!!

I have some old needlepoint canvases that my Nana gave me years and years ago and I stuffed them into my hope chest and forgot about them.  I suddenly thought "what if there are enough of the needlepoints to fit the backs of the chairs?"

The very next morning I got up and got out those needlepoints and there are four of them.  2 that match that fit the chairs, one large one that will fit on the back of the larger chair and a smallish one that is perfect for that foot stool.

You can not believe how serendipitous this is!!!  Now all I need to do is find a neutral fabric for the seats and the back sides of the backs that will bring this all together.  So I trotted myself on down to Calico Corners and picked up some gorgeous velvet.  And I am taking these all over to the refinisher/reupholsterers to have them brought to their former glory.  Nay, even better than their former glory!

These chairs are going to be so beautiful that my kids will fight over who gets to inherit them.  I can't wait to get them finished and show you the after photos.

It's a photo version of how things go in my head

Believe it or don't there are photos today!!!  There will be cute pics and there will be admissions of guilt and stupidity.  There will be trips down Memory Lane. And!  If that weren't worth the price of admission, you will get to be the first people to see the new table.  Yay!!!

So, let's get started, shall we?

Look at my new friend, Scruffy!  Isn't he the cutest?  Scruffy was on Death Row until my brother-in-law saved his life.  Scruffy had just had a bath and I was trying to photograph how his hair just naturally wants to be spikey and mohawk-y.

Next we come to some pictures of the very first house Mr. Big Ed and I bought.  Way back in 1983 we bought this little garden home and signed our lives away.  I remember clearly hearing the title guy say "Now, you are agreeing to make payments till 2013" and we looked at each other and thought "Whoa!  2013!  Damn, that sounds all Space Odyssey in the future!"  And all these years later we have moved more times than I care to think about and guess what?

It STILL ISN'T 2013!!!  That damn house STILL  wouldn't be all ours yet.  Good Lord.

But what I want you to notice is the 2 Wild Olive Trees in the front yard.  We planted them way back in the day and they were tiny little trees then.  They are big, gnarled and gorgeous now.  I just adore those olive trees and I would like to have some again.  Maybe we should find a place to put them in this yard?

While we were driving around looking at my old house we went by our old church and school.  This is where we chose to worship after we were married.  This is where my babies were baptized.  And also where we chose to start the kids in school.  It has also grown and changed over the years.

The first view is from the parking lot looking at the front of the school.  It didn't used to be green.  To the left of where I was standing is the Parish Hall.  And in front and to the right a bit is the actual church.

This one is the church.

And what do we have here?  This is the view from my front door waaaaaaay up at the top of the hill looking waaaaaay back down to the street at the delivery truck that brought my new coffee table for the living room.

And here it is!!!  Gasp!  It took me six years of searching and searching to find this table.  Notice anything?

Like maybe it is too f*cking TALL?  Like maybe this really isn't a COFFEE TABLE at all????


Like maybe I might have bought the wrong flipping thing?  I swear I read that this was a coffee table that the legs could be twisted up to be like a game table and then it opens up to be a spare dining table.

Let me back up to say that I bought this sight unseen.  Sort of.  I bought it on OneKingsLane where there were pictures and a description page.  And that is what I recall about it.  That and the fact that I saved $700 for buying it.  Whatever.

So I am going to have to go turn this thing over and find out if the legs actually do get shorter and longer or if I am going to have to chalk this up to experience and put it in another place.

I really, really, really don't want to have to tell Mr. Big Ed I could have screwed this up.  Cross your fingers for me.

I don't even know what to say about this table business.  I mean look at those legs do you see any possible way those things can telescope in on themselves?  It's too heavy for me to flip it over all by myself so it will have to wait till Sparky gets home this afternoon before we can start investigating.

You may want to cross more than your fingers on this deal.

New Bed!

Okay, here's Old Lumpy.  I had already put the quilt in the washer and removed all the blankies and was stripping the bed when it dawned on me to take some pics.  So that's why you are seeing Old Lumpy dressed up in 29 year old sheets.  You might further notice that we have a shitload of pillows up there at the top.  Mr. Ed has 3 pillows and I have 4 1/2 pillows.  We do like ourselves some comfy pillows!

Can you see the big high spot in the middle and the two low sinkholes on either side of the place where you get high-centered?

Ooops!  They took the mattress out before I could get a pic of it sans sheets.  Goodbye old box springs!!

Look, here are the brave, strong delivery dudes bringing in the new non-lumpy mattress.  See how they have to park waaaaaay down at the cul-de-sac and then schlepp that bad boy up the drive and then up the stupid steps that are a step-and-a-half wide each?  I hate those stupid step-and-a-half steps.

Here is one of the delivery dudes setting up the new frame.  Pay no attention to all the crap laying around the room while we make room for the removal and set-up.

Here's the new box springs all covered with a clean dust ruffle thing.  Lovely, uninformative photo.

And there's the new mattress!!!  See?  It still has the "Do not remove under penalty of law" tags.  It's all cushy, plushy and comfy!!

My friends Little Eliza and Virtuous Yvette showed up just in time to help me put new sheets on my bed and then try it out.  Don't we look like we worked really hard?  Don't you love my bunny slippers?  Don't you wish Yvette would put her whole self in and quit playing hokey pokey?

Actually, Little Eliza came by and rescued Old Lumpy from the delivery dudes truck and had them load it up on her truck and she took it home with her and it is now a "new" bed for her and her new husband. Yea for recycling and repurposing!!!

And here we have two more satisfied customers trying out the new bed.  Aaaaaahhh!  Can you just feel the relaxation?

Mr. Big Ed and I have spent more hours in the that bed this past weekend than I care to count.

Next purchase needs to be new headboard and nightstands.  Those things are just old and tacky.

Hope you enjoyed perusing the old vs new mattresses in Chez Lisa Pie!

Here's what I forgot to show you earlier this week

Look at that!  It "snowed".  It snowed enought to cover the steps, sidewalk, street and other really cold stuff, but not fully cover the grass.  We must have really warm dirt.  See where there was another car that left early?

I wish we had real snow, real winters.  I loved it so much when we were in Minnesota, the land of 4 distinct seasons.  I loved how things changed so much from month to month.  Come spring, every single month there were totally new things blooming.  There was not a single season I didn't love there. Funny how it is not on my short list of places to retire.  I might have to think on that.

Then when the huge drifts of snow cleared, Mr. Big Ed and I went mattress shopping!  Yea!!  We have needed a new bed for forever it seems.  I got a fabulous coupon deal in the mail from Sears and we spent a lot of time online scoping out what was available and getting Mr. Big Ed over his sticker shock before we ventured out to brave the cold, snow and ice.  And listen, it can be downright painful shopping with Mr. Big Ed.  He shops with both hands tightly over his wallet and his eyeballs glued to the price section of all the signs.  "Mr. Big Ed, which bed is most comfy and the one you think you can sleep on for the next 10 years?"  His answer?  "The cheapest".  Really?  Low prices make you that relaxed, do they?  Me, I need a little more from a bed than just cheapness.

Anyhoo, we headed out to go to Sears and take advantage of the great deal they mailed to me.  But we stopped off at JC Penney first.  We tried out every mattress there.  Now, if you are like me and have not shopped for mattresses in the last 10 years, here's a little head's up. They have store models that have a "Firm" side and a "Plush" side.  This is good because they can show off twice as many beds in half as much space.  It is BAD because there is no possible way for you and another person to both try out the same bed at the same time.  But since Mr. Big Ed thought he wanted a Firm, Hard as a Brick, Really Cheap bed, and I wanted the softest, Princess and the Pea Plushy model, it would have been perfect serendipity if they would just sell us one of those floor models.  Right?

Not a snowball's chance in Texas.

I started taking pics of the beds to document which ones we liked but it turned out to be more informative to take pics of the signs on the beds to remember the names of that model, since they all pretty much look the same.  So we narrowed down the Penney's beds to 4 that we liked.  The Sealy Oak Grove, the Serta Gentle Haven, the Simmons Danvers and the Simmons Marlowe.

Then we drove down to Mattress Firm, which threw me off my game in trying out beds because they had the word FIRM on all the beds and I didn't want to try them out.  And can I just say here that you know you are getting old when you fall in love with the bed with the electric controls to raise and lower the head and the knee sections?  Loved that bed.  Loved that bed.  Mr. Big Ed?  Not so much.  He saw the price and went in to a complete sticker shock and refused to get in it.  Dick.

FINALLY, we made our way to Sears and tried out all their beds and narrowed it down to 4 as well.  Then I pulled out my lovely letter from them entitling me to not only the 50% off, but the store was having another 10% on top of that and my letter gave me an ADDITIONAL 10%, PLUS free delivery and hauling off of Old Lumpy AND a free bed frame.  Turns out only 1 of the 4 we had selected was eligible for all this free stuff.  So we were between 1 bed at Sears and the 4 at Penney's.

Mr. Big Ed came out of his high price-induced coma and told me that the one feature that impressed him above all the others was the ones that had completely separate coils that worked independently from each other rather than as one big connected wire bouncy thing.  That narrowed the list down to 2 of the Penney's beds.  The beds that have this are the Simmons Beautyrest, in case you care.  So back to Mr. J. C. Penney's store we went.

And here is the winner!  The Simmons Beautyrest Danvers in the Plush, cushy, comfy version.  It is due to be delivered on either the 16th or the 18th.  Then Old Lumpy will be carted off by the Penney's people to get a Viking funeral or some such thing.  Normally, I really care about what happens to things, where they go and keeping things out of the landfill that don't necessarily need to be there, but I don't know of anything I can do with this poor, tired old bed.  So if you are in the market for a really old, sad, lumpy, saggy bed you have until either the 16th or the 18th to come get it.

Meanwhile, please feast your eyes on the soon-to-be new bed!  Aaaaah, can't you just feel the relaxation?  I sure can!

And for the last time this month, please do let me know if you want to be in the drawing for some FREE tea!  I will be choosing someone next week.  Maybe I will get organized and do it Monday for Valentine's Day?  Let me hear from you!

Collections

My friend Paula told me once that if you have more than 3 of something it is now a "Collection".  That's a scary thought, isn't it?  Paula is a great collector and would know about these things.  Hell, I have 3 or more of damn near everything I own!  I mean, for Pete's sake, by this standard I have collections of:

1. Red shoes
2. Mexican cookbooks
3. Dictionaries
4. Sets of silverware
5. Sets of glassware
6. Sets of dishes
7. Tennis shoes

You get the picture, I have a lot of crap I mean to say treasures.  But I am not here today to discuss my collecting tendencies.  I am here to show you some photos.  Just a few photos of the collection I saw at my aunt's home in AZ.  My aunt is a nurse.  She is a surgical first assistant.  She teaches nursing.  She takes her vacation time and travels with an organization to other countries and does free surgeries on orphans with cleft palates.  What I am trying to convey here is that nursing is her life.  Everyone got that?

She started collecting nursing memorabilia and such years ago.  She specializes in invalid feeders.  I know all this because over the years when Grandma would visit me we would have to hit every antique shop in the area and she always was on the lookout for nursing items and invalid feeders.  In case you are as uninformed about invalid feeders as I used to be, they are really quite cool looking.  They look kind of like a beautiful little porcelain or ceramic neti pot.

Way back in the day, the nurses would fix up some gruel-type thing and pour it into the large opening of the feeder and then stick the spout part into the mouth of said invalid and then feed them.

Anyhoo, I was at my aunt's house on my way to Grandma's place and got to see what she has done with her collections.  They are truly a sight to behold.  I was really impressed with how she has everything displayed and truly honored.  So many people call something a display and just aren't doing the items justice.  I see people get called out on this behavior all the time on those Clean up your House types of shows.

So let me show you a few things in my aunt's nurse collection.

I didn't ask her if this shelf was custom made for her or not.  But it was really cool with all the inset places to put pictures below the shelf where items sit.  All of her nurses collection were in 2 rooms of her house, not spread out all over the place.

This is a close up of one of the inset photos from above.  Isn't she a spectacular nurse?

Now, here she has displayed the nursing diploma and whole uniform from the cap to the cape to the shoes of a nurse in World War II.  In the package on the floor next to her nursing bag is an afghan her sister nurses made for her and sent to her when she was in the war.  Each of the nurses made one of the squares and then they put it together for her.  How all of this stuff stayed together and ended up with my aunt, I do not know.  But I love that she has the history and documentation of it all.

This is a different uniform with the cape, black nurses bag, and get a load of those comfy-looking shoes that this poor nurse would get to wear for hours on end!

This is the top part of the above uniform and her diploma that goes with it.

Next we have some posters and magazine covers that she has framed and hung in her office.  How do you like that one?

No pressure there, right?  If I fail, he dies?  Yeah, no pressure.  The next one is my favorite.

'Cause what says "Let me help you heal and regain your health like lighting a cigarette.  In the hospital. Where we use oxygen.  While you are lying on your back. In bed."

And here are some of the invalid feeders.  Aren't they pretty?  You just poke the spouty thing in the bed-ridden person's mouth and tip it up so they can take their nourishment.  I love that they are all painted like fine china.  Isn't that way better than all plain and sterile and hospital looking?  And isn't it way better than the plastic disposable crap they now use for everything?

Grandma has been pushing my aunt to donate her collection to the nursing school where she teaches.  I don't know for sure what she plans to do with it all, but I am really glad that I got to see it all and wander through it.

Do you collect anything?  Does Paula's criteria fit for things in your life that you never thought of as collections before?  Let me hear from you!