Of Storytelling, Furniture and Such

What I love about my life is its variety. I am never bored as each day flies by. Here's a bit of what we've been up to recently.

Storytelling: last week I told stories for Sand Fork Elementary School in Gilmer county, WV.

It's a very rural area with good farmland, big creeks and an old school soon to be replaced by a larger consolidated school in a nearby town.

When I arrived a boy called out, "Hi Granny Sue!" I am not sure how he knew me as there were no photos posted--perhaps he saw me at some other event? I felt welcome and as if I was visiting friends. We had a grand time with some Appalachian stories--stories about that rowdy boy named Jack, tall tales and stories from Larry's and my childhoods, and of course we sang too. It had been a while since I told stories with children and the joy came back full force.

Furniture: several projects are ongoing or completed.

Before:

 In progress: 2 of these chairs with a square table. The seats will be re-covered with a "Paris" theme cloth.

This is finished at last! I rolled this big top around the log room for a month, honestly, just putting off finishing it. I still need to find some chairs to go with it but I'm not too worried about that. I'm just glad to get this big boy done!

Larry refinished this old tool box, stripping off lots of ugly paint--not the kind of paint that could be made look cool distressed.

Another project that had me pulling out my hair, this round oak end table. I love the way it looks now but my goodness it was difficult to paint! I don't have the best lighting in my work area and painting black in the dark...well, you can see the problem. I finally rigged up some lighting and used Brightest Flashlight app on my cell phone to be sure I had it all covered. The things we do.

I wish I had a before of this chimney cupboard. Rough is not good enough to describe it. Larry took it on, replacing the back and most of the shelves, then repainting. I was going to keep it but Marietta mall called and had sold a desk we had there--we needed something fast but nothing was ready! So this one went off to the booth. If I can get something ready soon I'll bring it back home. I priced it high enough that it's not likely to sell, but if it does, well, we have another one in another booth so I'll bring that one home.

This was a fun project for me. I bought this shade on another lamp. That lamp needed a glass shade, not one like this. I just happened to have a glass one so I replaced it, then I painted a lamp that was blue with those geese on it from the 90's. I used a butter yellow chalk paint, and I love the result. This one is a keeper, at least for a little while.

Other projects for us: cleaning up the gardens, planning a trip to Oregon this summer and one to Florida in the next few weeks, and several storytelling events coming up soon.

And then there are those firepit evenings and sunsets...

Right now I've got to get back to work on my next storytelling adventure, so I'll sign off and get to it. Have the best of days, my friends.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.