This past Sunday, I finally finished a project that has been a long time in the making. Picture this....a young mom ordering her first customizable upholstered chair. She picked out the cutest plaid fabric..it was a greens and cream plaid with a red thread running through it. She loved the fabric and the chair, and really wanted an ottoman to go with it, but alas she is so painfully cheap that she did not order an ottoman. What she did do, was order an extra yard of the chair fabric for $40 so she could recover a soon to be found old ottoman herself. It would be less expensive, cute and crafty and if there is anything this girl loved, it was being thrifty and crafty.
She searched on and off over the next several months (and eventually years) for the ottoman. Ottoman's are elusive. Either too big, or too small, or too expensive. What is the point of choosing the "extra fabric, crafty route" if you end up spending more than a new ottoman would have cost you in the first place.
Fast forward to few years ago, when the young girl was now a middle aged, peri-menopausal, gal that still had a crafty streak went antiquing with some friends. She was on a quest for three things...a small side table for her son's bedroom, a classic white diner coffee cup and the perfect ottoman. Wouldn't you know that one of her friends (Hey Sandy!) said she had an old ottoman that had been in her closet for years and years and she would gladly donate it to the ottoman project. On that day, we also found the side table and the coffee cup and declared antiquing day a complete success!
The ottoman was delivered a few days later and it was indeed perfect! The perfect size and price (FREE!). The girl pulled the old fabric off the donated ottoman and then tucked it in the garage to finish another day. She had to find the fabric which she knew was in an envelope in a closet - but which closet? More months pass and the ottoman is forgotten until a friend stops by for an unexpected visit (Hey Karen!) and home projects and crafts are shared and the ottoman project comes up in conversation.
On Sunday afternoon, the ottoman project was finally completed. The envelope with the fabric was found, buried deep in a linen closet. When the fabric was pulled out of the envelope, the receipt came out with it. The fabric was purchased in July of 2001. Y'all! The ottoman project had been in the works for over 18 years! Please note, fabric that sits out and has sun shining on it and people sitting on it fades over the years and fabric in an envelope in a linen closet does not fade. So, the ottoman and the chair are no longer a perfect match, but the sense of pride in finishing this project was still so satisfying. I had some trouble finding a working staple gun (Hey Connie!) but once I started stretching and stapling the fabric, it took less than an hour start to finish.
I was just tickled by the whole project and the darling little ottoman! Welcome to the living room, little ottoman. It has been a long time coming!
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