An Update on the Sofa Project

I have to say that I have learned a lot about furniture restoration and it is probably not the career that I want to pursue.  As I think about it this is actually my second sofa project; last year, I took our old sofa and recovered it for my daughter to take to college.  It was a completely different type of restoration from staining a leather sofa, but still not one I want repeat. Just like the current project, I'm glad I did it, but once was enough.

My leather sofa is coming along much slower than I anticipated.  I always seem to have a much more optimistic outlook on projects than I should.  Yesterday I worked on the sofa for about 4 hours.  These were the most challenging hours I have spent on the project.  I had to stain the back cushions, which are not removable, and to get to all the seams and crevices in the cushions took major maneuvering, but I did it.  Only half of a cushion to go!  Only one problem, I think I had almost as much stain on me as the sofa!  When my daughter walked in the house that evening the first words out of her mouth were "What happened to you!"  I did seem to have nice brown spots all over my arms and legs and somehow even managed to get a nice spot on my face.  Everyone who has seen it has positive comments, so that is good.  I even have a friend who said together we might tackle her sofas too.  The only one who is a little apprehensive is my dog.  She normally spends her mornings perched on the back of the sofa like a cat watching the birds and squirrels outside and I have definitely disrupted her routine.  She keeps looking at it, but won't get near it.  I guess she doesn't like the new color.

Today was a different day.  I got up and scrubbed all the stain from my limbs to look presentable because I had a job interview.   As it turns out, I wish I had not bothered because it was more discouraging than ever.  A business associate of my husbands had said that he was looking for an inside sales engineer.  My husband asked him if he minded if I sent him my resume.  He called me and asked me to come for an interview.  I guess that he thought he was doing my husband a favor by being nice to me, I'm not really sure.  I got to the interview and we talked for about 10 minutes about his job, what he was looking for, and my qualifications when all of the sudden he stopped and told me that he need to be truly honest with me; he said he really had no openings and had done all of his hiring prior to talking with me.  He spent the next 40 minutes telling me what a nice person I was and that the right thing will come along.  I tried to stay engaged in the conversation and listen to stories about his family and his suggestions on where I should try to look for a job, but the whole time I just keep wondering why he would waste his time and mine.  I really wish he hadn't even bothered, but I guess it might have made him feel like he was doing something good so at least one of us got some benefit from it. 

Oh well, at least the weekend is here and we have some nice things planned.  We are going to visit the Perot museum and do some more crafting.  There are only a few weeks left before Anna goes back to school and we want to enjoy our time with her.  Next week I will finish the sofa projects and have some other career ideas to pursue.

So Much for Commitment to Myself

I guess I failed already in my commitment to myself to write.  I fall so easily back into the job of mom and doing what needs to be done and putting my projects on the back burner.

My oldest graduated from college and went straight from there to an 8 1/2 week training program to be a flight attendant.  She graduated from training on July 23 and flew immediately to her new base.  She returned home on the 25th with her relocation date; she had to be in Miami, Fl and ready to fly her first flight on July 31.  That meant a road trip and  I became a relocation specialist for the next week.  We not only had to finish up the details of purchasing a car, find an apartment and get to Miami.  It is a bit of a nerve racking task to find an apartment over the internet in a city you are not familiar with, but we did it.  We were able to do everything over the phone and drive into Miami on Tuesday afternoon to pick up the keys and move in that night.  We purchased a bed and the necessary starter items for a new apartment on Wednesday we even managed to  make some time to get to the beach to have lunch.  She flew here first flight on Thursday.  Mission accomplished!  I headed for home of Friday.


Weekends don't really seem the time for me to write either.  I just couldn't seem to figure out a time this weekend.  I thought that maybe I didn't find time because I had been gone for a week and had to catch up. As I reflect back on the weekend I think it was just that we do things together so I don't feel as lost as I do during the week.  It is when there is so much quiet, alone time that I am lost. On a more uplifting side, I had a great weekend with my husband, brother and youngest daughter.  My daughter and I were crafters extraordinaire. 

Anna is a member of the Delta Gamma sorority and wanted to make crafts for her sorority little sister. We had hundreds of ideas so we started on several.  We painted drinking glasses and I expanded the idea from sorority to airlines.  I made a special glass for my oldest daughter and if I can say so myself, it turned out really cute.  We decorated letters and made letter shirts.  Not all of the crafts are complete, but we got a great start.  Maybe that is something I should pursue, but when I mention it to my husband he always says that it is too time consuming and you can't make any money.  I will keep that in mind.

 

Our completed crafts.  They look pretty good!

On Monday I went back to staining my sofa.  The progress is slow but the outcome is completely worth it.  I know that when it is finished it is going to look great!  I will keep you posted with the progress.  It is on my What Now? list to do tomorrow.  Tomorrow I will be furniture restorer again.

  
Tuesday I was Juror.  I was not at all happy to be down at the court house at 8:30 am, but it proved to be a kind of interesting day.  I have received a jury summons before, but have always been lucky enough to get dismissed and make it home by lunch time.  Yesterday was different.  I was actually selected.  I was dreading it but it was an all new experience to see it from that side.  This is not a career that I want to pursue, once was enough for me.

Today, well it seems like I didn't really accomplish much.  I got up and baked mini rum cakes to send to my nephew and son.  I try to send them care packages a few times a month just to let them know I am thinking about them.  I enjoy baking, not cooking.  My problem with baking too much is that if I bake it I eat it.  I used to tell my husband that my dream job was to bake cakes and decorate them.  Maybe I should reconsider that as my next career.  Andrew says all I would need to do is a great marketing job in order to make it a career. 

How are you supposed to choose what to do?  There are things I know for certain like I need a project or goal to work towards every day to work or else I feel like I wasted the day.  That's why I keep thinking that I need a job or a business.  I have pretty much concluded that working for someone else is not an option because no one wants to risk hiring a person who has been out of the workforce for 15 years, so a business is my goal.  I just have to figure out how to do it without disrupting the college tuition payment or the retirement.  Any suggestions?