Friday, December 10, 2004

The Snowman Cometh

It's rainy here today, but they say it may change to snow showers tonight. I'd love to have a little snow tomorrow, because one of my Saturday projects this week is to get all my Christmas gifts wrapped. I envision throwing a log in the fireplace, brewing a pot of peppermint tea, and wrapping gifts in front of the fire.

I hope to have a more productive weekend than I did last week. It was fun, but not very productive...*LOL* Daddy had hooked up the lights on a utility trailer for Randy, so to show our appreciation, we took Mom and Dad out to lunch. As we were eating, Daddy asked what we had planned for the afternoon. I told him I needed some new chairs to go with my kitchen table, and we were planning to look at unfinished furniture to see if we could find some like I wanted. (I wanted unfinished ladderbacks so I could stain them to match the trim on my table, a small square white-tile topped farmhouse-type table.)

Daddy said he wondered if we'd like to go see my aunt and uncle's new house (they'll be moving into it next week). So after lunch we made a couple of stops at furniture stores (no luck finding chairs) and went to see the house. There was still some work to be completed on the house, but it was all small items. It's lovely, with a HUGE "great room" or whatever they're calling it these days.

After we got back from seeing the house, Randy and I went to an unfinished furniture store in Johnson City. They only had one ladderback chair in the store; the manager said they're not able to get them any more. I found some Windsor arrow-backed chairs that I liked a lot, though. We had to go back home to get Randy's pickup to get the chairs; by the time we got them home and ate supper, it was much too late to start finishing the chairs.

I stained them early Sunday and got one coat of clearcoat on them. The weather had turned rainy and ugly by then, so they didn't dry hard enough for me to put the second coat on that day. I put the last coat on after I came home from work Monday. By that time, I was ready to get OUT of the furniture finishing business! *LOL* Actually if I had a good place to work on things like that, I'd enjoy it. However, since the only place I had to work was on cardboard in the middle of my living room, it wasn't all that much fun!

They turned out pretty well, though, considering I was a complete novice. They're much nicer than the chairs I had before, and seem very sturdy. I hope to get many years of use from them.

Speaking of "many years of use", my little 1998 Saturn SC-1 rolled over 66,666 miles on its odometer as I was driving to work this morning. It's been such a great car; I'm really enjoying it.

I can hear rain on the roof.....makes me feel all cozy and warm.....and sleepy.....*LOL*