86'n It

We really intended this weekend to be all about working on the kitchen, which it did end up being for Marc. Franca had other plans for me. I'm feeling back to 100%, but Franca was a little off and then Sunday turned into a full-fledged sick bomb, a cute, happy, funny sick bomb, but a sick bomb nonetheless. So my kitchen time was eaten up by the Target diaper run, grocery, and several loads of very gross laundry.

Before the craziness really set-in, we did score some pretty great furniture. Franca's daycare had a yard sale where we got this huge, low table:

It needs some cleaning up, but will be great for big art projects and serve also as a coffee table.

We also got three of these classroom chairs. The back on them pivots, so they are pretty comfortable. They were made in Michigan, and we know how Marc is a sucker for that.

All of this for $12. Not bad right?

I'd also like to spot light some of Franca's new furniture. The personalized rocking chair was a birthday gift from her Nana and Nonno. She absolutely loves it.

The bench and doll cradle were mine, handcrafted by my Grandfather Herman. He (like my dad) was super crafty. We put these all together in a corner of the living room for her.

Yes, the kid stuff is spreading around the house, but she needed a place beyond the now-too-crowded parlor to play. Here she can tear all her books off the shelf and "read" them in peace.


Speaking of the parlor.... When we were adult-rocking chair shopping, we went to a local antique place called the Tobacco Barn. We did not find a rocking chair, but I did fall in love with these leather ottomans called "saddle stools". I didn't even show them to Marc because I knew we couldn't afford something unnecessary, so of course, after we left I couldn't stop thinking about them.

Three weeks, and a cheap rocking chair solution later, I was still thinking about them, so I dragged a not-napping Franca back to the Tobacco barn. We looked high and low and couldn't find them. We looked again.
Nothing.
We asked the clerk. They sold 2 of them in January. Wait, January 2010. So mine were still here somewhere.
We looked again. Nothing. Then one last ditch effort look in the booth I thought I originally saw them. Low and behold, under two wooden trays:


Franca loves them to put her head on, stand up against, and beat like drums.
We love them to put our feet on while lounging on the couch. (A coffee table is fine, but with a toddler, the corners are weapons.) They also stack and can be strapped together a couple of ways: