This morning: 40 at 7am. overcast with rain/snow showers and dropping temperatures predicted. As a young man said yesterday, "Welcome to Jackson county, where it rains every day!" I am sure I'll be praying for rain this summer but right now it can stop anytime.
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| In place--what a job this was to move. Our son Derek was a huge help! |
We have been moving furniture this week. It seems like we've made more changes in our log room in the past couple months than we've made since we built it in 2003. This time the changes were driven by a big cupboard we needed to move out of our Marietta booth. It had been there two years with no offers, and we are giving up that booth. So, rather than move it to one of our other spaces at the mall, we decided to keep it and bring it home.
That meant clearing out the old oak secretary and moving it out of the way (to be repaired and painted for resale), removing a straight-back chair, and changing out a table we just put in there a month ago.
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| We used the secretary as is, but it needed work when we bought it. Now it will get the repairs it needs to be beautiful again. |
But the table was too big with the cupboard in place. We tried the table in the living room but it was still too big, so we took it to our Ravenswood booth yesterday. In its place in the log room, we moved in the small oak washstand we'd just moved into the living room a month ago when we got the new couch. Because then the washstand didn't fit anymore.
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| New corner created |
Sheesh. Round and round the furniture goes! All is settled now, except that we now need a table in the living room. So I'll have to hunt through our stock to see what I can find.
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| I've had this African drum for several years, bought from a lady whose parents were missionaries in the 50's-60's. Now I am trying to find out its origin. All carved from one piece of wood, and very beautiful. I plan to sell it, but sure have enjoyed having it for a little while. |
Meantime though, we are enjoying the change in the log room. I really like this big cupboard. It's solid walnut and pegged together. Has it's original hardware too, and it's huge--7 feet tall, 4 feet wide. It holds all my books and notebooks for my Ohio River stories, Christmas program wildflower and superstition programs, poetry workshops, and more. In the bottom I have sheets, towels, quilts and pillows for guests who might stay and sleep in the log room on the hide-a-bed. I bought the cabinet from a friend who did not need it, and thought it too big for her house. She bought it from an antique store, and was told that it came from Clay county, West Virginia. How old it is I do not know, but the pegs seem to indicate that it's at least 1800's.
That whole project started me on another: weeding my book collection. I have too many books. I tried cutting down the stock last fall and did manage to move a few out.
This time I really got serious about it. Most of my collection is for storytelling, writing, and ballads research. As time has passed, I've narrowed my storytelling focus to Appalachian, West Virginia, and Celtic stories and ballads. I had hundreds of books of world folktales-- Russian, German, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, Jewish, African...you name it. I made the hard decision to remove those books from my collection. I also pulled all books about making flannelboard stories and other children's storytelling books--those went to the local library. The other story collections went to a storytelling friend, and only a bag of odds and ends went to the thrift store.
So now I actually have a little empty space on my shelves, which is good, because I am always buying more books. One arrived yesterday--Cicely Mary Barker's book of flower fairy songs.
A recent article said that we should always own more books than we will ever read. I certainly follow than mantra; I still have a few hundred books and quite a few I've never read. Just having them on the shelves makes me happy, like an anticipated pleasure. I know at any time I can pull a book and browse, knowing I will find something new to me. But it feels good to have a few less in the house.
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
Its sounds like that game where you have to move things around but can only do so when you create a space! I love the flower fairies books we have them all here and read a poem out of them each week.
ReplyDeleteMusical chairs! Lol
DeleteBeautiful cabinet, and it looks good in the log room.
ReplyDeleteI've weeded out a lot of my books, moved too much. I like my kindle, but real books are a must have.
I just love that cupboard! :)
ReplyDeleteIt must be the same game, sustainablemum! I've never been one to move the furniture around much so making so many changes seems very odd. At least we're getting everything cleaned underneath!
ReplyDeleteBrig, I've never gotten comfortable with ebooks. I bought a Kindle years ago but didn't like trying to read on it. It died when it was only a couple years old and I didn't replace it. I just like a book in my hand, one I can put my post-its in to mark special places, and just hold in my hands. No explanation for that feeling.
ReplyDeleteQuinn, it really is lovely. I priced it at $700 and I know that was low compared to similar ones I found online. I'd rather keep it than sell it for less than that :) Although, this will be its final stop, I think--if we move, it will stay right where it is probably!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed seeing your furniture moving. That cabinet is a Godsend when it comes to all the storage you can do.
ReplyDelete