Laume's Studio

I had to take William to Reno yesterday for a doctor's appointment so I squeezed in a fast trip back to the fabric warehouse to get fabric for slipcovers for the rest of the living room furniture. With new wall paint, new rug, new slipcover fabric for the loveseat, it made the old upholstered couch and wing chair look drab and dingy. Which, they are. It's just now you can tell because the rest of the room is no longer drab and dingy to match. New furniture purchasing isn't in the cards. Even if I wanted to spend that much money, I woudn't spend it on new furniture for the shredding pleasure of my cats and the spilling and soiling pleasure of the men in the family.

I discovered that the new rug and the new loveseat cover weren't exactly best buddies visually. The new rug, it turns out, after finally unrolling it the other day, works PERFECT in the room with the new walls and adds to the "look" I pictured when the whole project began. The loveseat fabric isn't completely the wrong style per se, but it is rather an attention grabber. I had to find a way to make everyone play together nicely and nudge it all back towards the mood I was hoping to create. New fabric for the couch, I decided, was the key.

I did find some fabric yesterday. I found a vvelvet-y green at clearance price ($3.99 yard) that was what I'd gone hoping to find. My only concerns were that it was a solid and might not be strong enough to compete with the other elements in the room (solution - add bright pillows) and it might be hard to keep clean. I also found an unexpected fabric that I suspected might be EXACTLY PERFECT. It wasn't on clearance, although it was inexpensive enough that I knew I had to take the chance. I spent the entire drive home convinced I'd just thrown $70 extra dollars away and I was bringing home nine yards of fabric that would end up with no purpose.

For reasons completely unrelated, I had a long, exhausting, crabby day yesterday. So it wasn't until evening that I finally unrolled the my new fabrics. Maybe I was just avoiding the inevitable disappointment. I unrolled the green and saw that it was, in fact, the right color and would work nicely. So, at least I had something. I felt better. Then I unrolled the other fabric and..... Oh! OH! OH OH OH! It worked! It was EXACTLY PERFECT just as I'd imagined it in my head! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Sometimes life sends us little gifts. And if that wasn't enough, hubby took me out for Chinese food and I must have looked pretty pathetic because the waiter brought me a free soup and at the end of the meal, free dessert fruits. And MORE frabjous, I just found out that in one short week, Pumpkin Spice Lattes will be returning to the menu of our local Starbucks. Here I thought I had months left to wait. I am thrilled a little bit more than is probably reasonable for a sane person to be excited about a simple drink choice.

Moving in the right direction, albeit slowly, I've finished patching and painting the wall where I had to pull out the old baseboard heater (and the little strip on the other side of the new heater that I totally forgot about painting in the first place) so the bookcase can go flat against the wall. Hubby helped me secure both bookcases to the wall because they are very tall and potentially tipsy (I'm picturing grandkids pulling themselves up on a bottom shelf). And most amazing of all, the loveseat is finally inside. I kinda miss having it in the front garden, it was a nice cozy place for stargazing. But hubby said his grass was dying because he couldn't water around it so, in it came, even though it's sitting in front of the boxes along the wall where it will ultimately sit. It does fit though, I wasn't sure if it would. Whew.

This is not to say that things are anywhere near to put back together. Boxes still reign supreme. But the tasks I got completed this last week were a few critical baby steps closer. Now, knock on wood, there doesn't appear to be any notable stumbling blocks to finishing. It's all down to plain ol' hard work.

Except, I have a busy schedule coming this next week. And I'm injured. My wrist. I whined about it over on Beach Treasure if you really want to know more. I'm being optimistic and assuming that this too shall pass by quickly. Clutter and chaos will NOT win. So I have spoken. So it shall be. And just to make sure I'm taken seriously, I've raised my sceptre high while making the decree, and thrust it firmly into the..... OWWWW. My wrist. Whimper.