12 Chairs, 10 Stories

For some time I've had in mind a series of "stories" to publish on my blog. The stories are about the acquisition of the various chairs around our home.

A number of you read the Eyes of Wonder blog that we all loved so much. Interestingly, it was that blog that got me interested in blogging and introduced me to many of the blogs I now read. I know many of you started journals similar to what Jewels showed on her blog. My sisters and I had an afternoon of pure fun getting ours started and then I never got to writing in it until I was stuck in bed. It's funny how much I found to write in my journal when I was doing nothing but sitting in bed all day!

Anyway, as you will notice in some of the sample pages below, I seem to have a thing about chairs. I noticed I kept being drawn to chairs and found them pasted all over the pages of my journal. Maybe a chair symbolizes rest and relaxation and that's why I like them so much.
Then I mentally looked around my house and realized our house is covered with all sorts of various chairs, each with an interesting story. And that's where I got the idea to tell some of the stories behind the 12 interesting chairs we have right now.
We moved home from Scotland nearly two years ago with 13 pieces of luggage and 30 boxes (20 being books). We had our wedding presents in storage, with some furniture that amounted to Michael's desk, our bed, and a few dressers. Friends so kindly donated any bits and pieces they had and then we started keeping our eyes out for odds and ends at garage sales and thrift stores.

This chair, and its twin, sits at the far end of our kitchen/dining room. There are five windows surrounding this area and the light that comes in makes the room so cheerful and inviting.

One Monday evening as we were taking the garbage out to the sidewalk, Michael noticed a wicker chair sitting by one of our neighbor's curb, quite obviously meant for the garbage. We decided to give it a home (that night we also acquired another chair I'll mention some time, a coffee table and a garden hose winder). It took a bit of work to clean the chipped paint, and a spray can or two of white paint, but then we had a nice wicker chair for the kitchen.

Several weeks later Michael was driving into our development one Saturday and saw ANOTHER wicker chair in front of the same house. Since it wasn't garbage night yet, he decided to knock and ask about the chair. The owner heard Michael's story and was so pleased we wanted the chair, and delighted we had the first one too! So, down the street came Michael with the wicker twin which we then cleaned and painted.

Early in the summer I managed to find some material I really liked at Walmart and got two pillows sewn for the chairs. I still have plans to sew cushions for the seat bottoms.......

So, that is the story of the first two chairs. When I feel like it, I'll put up another story. :)