Happy Valentine's Day

Subtitled: The continuing saga of cleaning and decluttering my studio

 When my mother died suddenly 16 years ago, I was heart broken.  My husband wanted to bring some happiness into my life.  Did I want to go on a trip?  Did I want to go shopping?  What was it that would cheer me up?  After much thought, I decided I wanted to redecorate our bedroom.  I don't know why I thought that would work.  Was it part of a nesting instinct?  It was definitely a multi-step job that kept me occupied for a while.  I always wanted a blue and white bedroom.

This denim chair was part of the redecoration. 

After all these years, it was time for the chair to go.  The fabric did not hold up well and the chair was not even decent enough to pass along to the kids.  It was sitting in a guest room waiting to be put out for bulk trash pick-up, one day. 

While cleaning my studio, I discovered this roll of upholstery fabric that I bought at least 5 years ago.  I really didn't discover it.  It was sitting in plain view all along, but now I had to figure out what to do with it.  I think I paid about $5/yard when I bought it.

Was these enough fabric to cover that denim chair?  The challenge became finding someone to do the reupholstering.  I turned to my DIL, Olivia.   She is a top notch shopper and researcher, and definitely a keeper.    She turned to one of her on-line message boards of women that live in the Philadelphia area.  Lo and behold, she discovered The Berlin Farmers Market, located in Berlin, NJ.  I knew reupholstering was not an inexpensive prospect.  It could cost as much as a new chair, but the idea of this fabric on that comfy chair was too much to resist.  I told my husband that it could be my Valentine's Day gift. 
(Who needs jewelry anyway?)

That Saturday, the chair and the fabric was loaded into the car and off we went.  We both love road trips.   About 1 hour away we found the market along with Berlin Upholstery.  The first stop was to drop off the chair and hope that I had enough fabric. 
They looked at the roll and said I did.

Then we roamed the indoor market.  It is really a very strange place, but with some very good bargains.  The shops ran the gamut from automobile tires, socks, produce, spices, fabric, furniture, food, jewelry, housewares and even a barber shop. We decided we had to come back in the nice weather when there are acres and acres of vendors outside.

In less than a week, I got a call from the Upholstery Shop. I looked at Caller ID and thought there must be a problem.  Not enough fabric?  Nope - my chair was ready!  That was really fast. What a great job they did matching the pattern. 

I love this chair!

And so does my buddy.

It was meant to go back into a guest room.  But I think I'll put it in my studio. 

Happy Valentine's Day!