I’M A CHEERFUL CYNIC about this time of the year. Not really a fan of all the seasonal hoopla, but I can see the positive in it.
So as my last blog post of the year, I’ll leave you, gentle readers, with 3 simple rules.
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1) PLAY NICE WITH OTHERS.
2) BE GOOD TO YOUR FAMILY.
3) MAKE THINGS PRETTY.
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AND WITH THAT, I say to you an Irish toast:
“Merry met and merry part, I drink to thee with all my heart.”
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, everyone.
See you next year.
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Just like on HGTV, here’s a teaser for the BIG REVEAL.
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I’M ALL ABOUT MISMATCHED CHAIRS. If things are too matchy-matchy, I get nervous. [What if I stain or break something? Then what? Things won’t match.]
I prefer the positive energy that eclectic style brings to a space. So after years of perfectly coordinating table and chairs in our kitchen, it was time for a change.
Here’s the story.
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Is this box from Hannibal Lecter or Pottery Barn?
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I BEGAN THIS PROJECT BY SEARCHING for chairs in brick & mortar stores and online. Eventually I decided which new chairs I wanted around our Ethan Allen kitchen table, which we’ve had since we moved here 15 years ago.
UPS plopped this very large box, filled with chair pieces + hardware, on our front stoop and I dragged it inside.
To make the table look better, Zen-Den painted the pedestal a warm neutral shade, SW6141 Softer Tan.
I figured that we’d use 2 dining chairs from Arhaus that we already had, knew to be comfortable, and were no longer being used in the dining room. To these we would add 2 new chairs from Pottery Barn, ordered online.
We received the Pottery Barn chair pieces in a very large box. Then one of us put them together in the foyer on Sunday morning while the other one of us photographed the event. For posterity, ‘ya know?
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Looking lonely, a chair back leans against the wall, waiting to join together with other chair pieces to make a seat.
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I’M GROOVING ON THESE NEW CHAIRS, brilliantly built by Zen-Den. After sitting on the wobbly, match-y Ethan Allen Windsor chairs that came with this table, these new sturdy chairs are wonderful.
They coordinate with, but don’t match, our former dining room chairs repurposed as kitchen chairs– all of which makes my frugal, design-y heart happy.
No higher praise than that, eh?
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The BIG REVEAL shows my eclectic sense of style works for us.
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[Hello FTC! I know it’s been so long since we spoke, but I wanted to make sure that you understood that there was no monetary &/or other compensation involved with these kitchen chairs. The foregoing is my opinion about things, shared here– just ‘cuz I can. We good?]
Our weather this week has been perfect.
The night temps are down into the 50s while the days are in the 70s. We have clear blue skies with sunshine going on during the day.
Twinkling stars have filled the sky at night, while the moon, which is now waning, has been such a small crescent that its light doesn’t diminish the shining stars.
With all due respect to December and the holiday season, I’d suggest that this is the most wonderful time of the year.
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I noticed the stars early this morning while I was taking the screens out of the windows.
Late yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from the man who cleans our gutters and washes our windows. He asked if he could come over today, the weather being so nice and all.
I said “sure.”
So very early this morning I removed all the screens from the windows, and gazed into the dark blue starry sky, appreciating its simple beauty.
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Tomorrow the sprinkler system will be deactivated for winter.
The man who does this is a delightful, talkative character who always leaves me laughing. The stories he tells, often about our neighbors, are, shall we say, insightful.
But after he’s finished blowing the air out of the underground sprinkler system, the rest of the winterization chores will be ours to do at our leisure.
Or not to do at all, I suppose.
And on that tentative note, I shall end this post. An old-school style blog post that offers no controversy or angst to the blogosphere, but tells its own quiet little story. Such as it is.
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It was a relaxing weekend here. Nothing special going on, but enough to do to keep us content.
I read an enjoyable novel.
He watched his latest TV obsession.
We went for a walk around the neighborhood noticing that the new houses under construction are very large indeed.
I did laundry.
He repaired and painted the mailbox post while I cleaned the mailbox and numbers.
We went to a triple-A baseball game.
I shopped online for a new lamppost light to replace the worn-out one shown above.
He caught up on work while sitting at the kitchen table.
We ate, for dinner, cold sandwiches instead of cooking hot somethings.
And we drank bottles of beer instead of goblets of wine.
It was a weekend befitting warm August days under clear blue skies.
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So gentle readers and kind lurkers, what did you do this past weekend?
Please tell all in the comments below.
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 