New living room furniture? A painful process, but.. check.
Now?
The den needs an update.
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The furniture in there is… I’m ashamed to admit, 35 years old. ( What can I say, we’re frugal New Englanders. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it) And while this ugly old set ain’t broke, it’s definitely seen better days. Decades of cats have split and torn the fabric and the cushions are just plum worn out.
It was time to go furniture shopping.
Again.
I know my husband was looking forward to it.
Not!
The den is the only room in our house that has a wallpaper border above the chair rail moulding.
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It’s shore birds with shells and wildflowers in a soothing blue and beige tone. I thought about ripping it off to have a clean color slate , but I have fond memories of my late mother helping me put it up. She always called our den “the blue room” and I simply couldn’t bring myself to erase that… so blue was on the menu.
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Here’s my husband, once again looking thrilled to be part of the process.
But I had a surprise for him. Since we were pleased with the quality of the Flexsteel we purchased for the living room and overjoyed with the low price and great service we received from the little family run store in Waterville … it was a one stop shopping trip.
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I came home with blue samples.
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And found a perfect compliment to the wallpaper.
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This is the couch.
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The chair.
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And the ottoman.
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Chair and ottoman will be done in the pattern. Couch in the blue (which is a bit lighter in person) with coordinating patterned pillows.
I excel at very few things in life, so when it comes to games.. I stack the deck.
I like to play what I win.
And there are three games at which I am virtually unbeatable.
1.
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Scrabble.
We have one these fancy spinning boards in the man cave/Barn Mahal and on rainy days I love nothing more than mixing a drink and beating the pants off my spouse.
2.
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Trivial Pursuit.
I am a font of useless knowledge and have loved this game since its inception way back in the dark ages of 1981. My husband has yet to beat me (at the original or any of the additional card sets) which makes me love it even more.
3.
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Gin Rummy.
Seven cards, down and dirty. None of that ten card easy matching shite. My mother was a shark and taught me how to play with no mercy when I was a child. My husband, who loves to play Cribbage and Pinochle… quakes when I break out a deck.
Every morning dozens of starlings gather on our bedroom roof, run back and forth, drink water out of the gutters and generally drive His Lordship crazy.
These are the stone samples we brought home from the hardware store.
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They’ve been sitting by our kitchen door for a month waiting for my husband to be ready for that part of the porch replacement project.
Every once in a while I move them to sweep.
Yesterday?
I dropped one on my big toe instead.
I don’t recommend that.
At all.
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Nope.
Not fun.
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Needless to say I won’t be going to that friend’s 4th of July party today. It hurts to walk and forget about putting on a shoe, I can’t even tolerate a sock. My fingers are crossed I won’t lose the toenail…
A girlfriend I hadn’t seen in a long time was having a yard sale so we decided to surprise her and drop in.
Little did I know it would turn into a dangerous visit.
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Dangerous because she was selling her convertible Jaguar.
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No, we didn’t come home with it.
Though for a while there, I thought we might.
We chatted, had a nice visit … and before we knew it the lunch hour had arrived. Not being familiar with her area, we asked for dining recommendations and were pointed to a golf course.
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Open to the public, it had a lovely mountain view…
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And the most redneck, down home clubhouse I’ve ever seen.
This sign was in the ladies room.
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See what I mean?
But yeeha ambience aside, the food was quite tasty.
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Chicken broccoli Alfredo for the hubs, ginger chicken teriyaki stir fry for moi.
Goes to show you can’t judge a kitchen by its tacky rest room decor.
😉
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.