BUSY

Lalo brought back the Gustavian stool today.....as usual, this little piece has a back story. I bought the stool at auction several years ago. When I won the bid, the owner of the auction house yelled out "good luck with that one, Mary".......I immediately thought that I had bought a cheap replica (I had not previewed and simply bid it). I paid for the stool, picked it up and put it in storage thinking that I had made a mistake. Truth be told the stool looked pretty bad as some one had painted over the original paint with thick house paint. Well, my musician grandson pulled it out and was using it as a keyboard stand for his "gigs"......so I decided to take a good look at the stool and upon close inspection realized that it was actually a period piece. So last month I gave it to Roberto to see if he could sand down the house paint and get to the original chalky white surface. Eureka! He was able to do an amazing job.....most of the original paint and gilt work was still there. And last week I gave it to Lalo to upholster in my favorite Clarence House Cerulean blue velvet and nail heads. It's perfect. And I'm also over-the-moon with the serendipitous photo--I didn't stage it; I was simply too tired to position it properly so I shot it while sitting at my desk. I love the richness and layers that showed up in the shot......In my next life I'll learn how to stage photos.......

Lalo also brought back this adorable 18th c. Italian slipper chair that we upholstered in a fine Italian silk velvet......pretty cute.

And last, but not least Roberto picked up the Secretaire Chest and we made a vignette with the Danish klismos chair and the pair of Louis XVI chairs that Gerry and I bought a couple of weeks ago. I had a pair of Fortuny pillows, fabric dates to c. 1950-60, that synced with the rust tone of the silk upholstery found on the chairs (Lalo has the chair slip seat--going to be upholstered in the same fabric as the stool). That's a set of four 18th c. Botanicals to the right that were just waiting for the right place in which to hang. Ooooooops: I forgot to give a shout out to the lamps. They are 20th century majolica renditions of the Piazza della Minerva in Rome. The elephants supporting the obelisks are to die for--the lamps finally found their perfect spot.

I just love it when a plan comes together: I love working with Roberto as our minds feed off of each other; we work in sync, sometimes without even talking.

On to my other passion--exposing and defeating small "t". I could kiss Pramila Jayapal (except we are in "Times of Covid")--she took Barr down (big time) during his testimony today. Another strong woman standing up to the powers that be. Thank you, Rep. Jayapal for making all women proud to be your sisters.

Well, I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open....so it's off to bed.

Thank you for reading my ramblings.

Mary