This little lovely was headed for a burn pile (literally). What's that, you say? A burn pile is precisely where it belongs? Well, that's just what my parents said, and Steve said, as it was sent away not once but twice. Oh, but I got it back, and knew I only had a matter of time to do something with it before someone tried to clear it out of here once again.
So one day recently, with just two at home, I dove right in (it's very silly how all of a sudden "just" two or "just" three becomes miraculously easy, but of course when we had just two or just three total, it wasn't that way at all. Hmn).
And then I cut up a bunch of tee shirts. Do you know where I'm going with this? Oh yes, an Alabama Chanin chair. It's from her book Alabama Studio Style (the only online photo I can find of one of her chairs is here in Anna Maria's post about her time with Alabama).
The chair got a good scrubbing, a fresh coat of paint, and then I began tying the jersey on, and weaving, and tying some more. Annabel napped a lot - right on my chest, and Ezra and I played Scrabble. All day long. Which is his favorite game to play, and fabulously fun and funny with him...but goodness, it really is an all day affair. He prefers to play with no time limit on turns, which is just fine by me so long as one is able to do something else while he's thinking and planning and plotting his next move for however long as it takes. Which can be a very long time. Which is just how the weaving and tying was done on this chair.
I painted a favorite quote on the ladderback of the chair. It reads, "Do the best that you can where you are, and be kind." by Scott Nearing. I'm a little bit in love with this chair, I have to tell you. And I love how it tucks so wonderfully into this corner of our living room - where the little ones often sit and browse the nearby photo albums, or climb up to play with the rocks. Or read a little Gertude Stein as the case may be (Harper's quite advanced for his age, you know. Hee).
With a newborn baby, a house with so many renovation projects in progress, and a garden that needs some love...there were so many other things I could have done that day. Sleep. Weed. Clean. Cook. You know...the list goes on. But oh, sometimes it just feels so very good to make. And not just to make, but to make something entirely 'frivilous' and fun and for the sheer purpose of making something (hopefully) beautiful. It feels good. It fuels the soul. And it was just what I really needed most of all on that day. (That and a good long game of Scrabble. I love that too.)