my yellow umbrella: A Love-at-First-Sight Story

On a recent December day, I went to Goodwill to look for a lampshade I could tear apart without feeling guilty (for another project brewing in my brain). It was a routine trip, nothing special about it. I pardoned my way through the droves of moms with screaming kids, elderly women looking for something good to read and college kids looking for treasures to take back to school with them. (Really, that's just a nice way of saying that there were an extremely high number of people there and I was overstimulated the second I walked in the door.)

And then I saw her.

Victoria. Victoria, the chair. It was love at first sight.

I looked at her tag and was reassured of her worth to me. Her appearance was a bit ragged and dated, but I could envision her potential. But was her structure sound, I wondered? Then I sat on her. And I was sold. That girl was as solid as your grandma's morals.

I walked away for a few minutes to look for a lampshade, but I knew it was fate when I kept watching over my shoulder to make sure no one took her: MY chair.

So I rushed back and carried her to the front without giving lampshades a second thought. On my way out to the car, a woman in the parking lot stopped at my car where I was loading her in and exclaimed, "what a NICE chair! That'll be so easy to cover and fix up..."

"I know!" I said with a giddy smile. Boy, did I know...

...OK, I think that's out of my system. I honestly wasn't looking for a chair...I don't NEED a chair, but when I saw "her" (yes, I really did name her Victoria), I knew I couldn't pass up such great potential. I got a pretty good gut feeling about it, ya know?

And the chair was $9.99. Solid wood chair for $9.99?! I love Goodwill.

See for yourself:

Before

A little paint...

A little recovering action...

A little love, and Victoria's got her class back.

And then you add this awesome pillow I found for 99 cents.

I mean really...this chair almost has more personality than I do! (Almost.)

By the way...I should admit here that I bought the pillow at Goodwill. Before you judge me, let me share my little tip of the day. If you ever buy something that can't be washed (a pillow, stuffed animals, etc.) at a garage sale, consignment shop, or Goodwill/Salvation Army (which I wouldn't normally recommend unless it's in great shape...like this pillow that still had the Homegoods tags on it!), you give it a little home in your freezer for 48 hours. This will kill the dust mites living inside. For the bacteria, use lysol or disinfectant wipes on the outside (unless the pillow case comes off...which it did in this case and I handwashed it in some VERY hot, soapy water). And you have a perfectly good, disinfected pillow (or whatever it is you're hoping to clean).