Chair Makeover

I've been wanting to reupholster this chair since we lived in Connecticut and thanks to my nesting insanity and some extra money we got this spring, it is finally done!



This is that scratchy orange chair that we took all Grace's and Violet's chair pictures in. Is it too busy now for chair pictures? We might have to switch to a different chair for that. I just love how this turned out, though-- a lovely intense graphic pop of interest in the room. I was really drawn to a bright peacock print (intense blue and teal peacock feathers) but I decided that was maybe borderline too eccentric and this was a better balance of interesting with sane. It is such a delight to finally have fixed up this chair. The man at the upholstery shop said that the chair looked like it had been recovered once already, sometime pre-1960 (because that orange fabric was done with spit tacks, whatever those are, instead of staples) and it was probably about 20 years older than that. He thought it was likely originally built in the 1930s. And what a lovely 80-year-old chair it is... It originally belonged to Rob's grandparents, like much of our furniture.  We joke that everything we own is either 60+ years old or from IKEA, but I love having old furniture that has been fixed up. Like most Americans, I have a fraught relationship with material possessions, but I am happy to have quality things that are worth fixing whenever I can instead of disposable things.



In other nesting news, Rob is making great headway on the chicken coop. This picture is from Friday, I think, and right now it looks like this. That top part has the roosting area and nesting boxes and the bottom part is for them to run around in the grass. The chickens themselves are growing HUGER and HUGER by the day, at least compared to the eensy little puffballs they were when we first got them. One of them in particular has grown just amazingly big. She is the Buff Orpington, which is a "dual-purpose" breed, meaning you can raise them for eggs or meat. I have realized that what this means is they grow shockingly fast. (In case you are wondering, we are keeping chickens just for eggs. When they reach the end of their useful egg-laying years, they will probably be eaten by someone, but I seriously doubt by us.)

I am 25 weeks pregnant now and my main pregnancy symptoms are:

• getting tired easily (NAAAAAAAAPS-- I NEED NAAAAAAAPS),
• getting bigger and bigger, and
• disorientingly wild mood swings.

Sometimes the second and third are related as I once again experience just how much pregnancy changes one's body. I am not one of those women who look all normal except for an adorably round belly; I am one of those women who wonders why must my face and arms and legs get all puffy/fat because a baby is growing in my abdomen. This time around I have even been gaining slightly less than the "normal" range but apparently it makes no difference. Sigh... Other things that have made me woeful and despondent recently include missing our dog who died last summer really badly and answering Grace's questions about what a homeless man's sign said. Seriously, I was sobbing in the car explaining that no, he did not have a bed or a place to keep any food. I think I freaked her out with my reaction; she is about as unaccustomed to me being crazy emotional as I am. Of course, the mood swings do go the other way too. I have felt ridiculously gleeful and giddy about the songs on the 90s station on the satellite radio in our new car (which is still working for now, despite us not paying for it). And is it just me, or are 30 Rock and Doctor Who and How I Met Your Mother totally the most awesome TV shows ever? And getting that chair done made me way happier than it normally would have. I am fragile and everything is just so intense, I guess. Including the heartbreaking beauty of my children.