thankful thursday

Once upon a time we bought a new couch. It had all sorts of features that we wanted: a recliner for him, a chaise for her, a pull-out bed for overflow company who, thus far, have never materialized. On the second day of its presence in our house Rigel decided to mark it as his own forever. It was an omen of things to come.

Enter McKinlee, the lovable holy terror who quickly became Rigel's partner in crime (though she's quite capable of committing crimes all by herself). Between the two of them two holes appeared in two different cushions of the couch. On the recliner cushion, pictured above on the left and upper right, the dogs managed to devour or at least pull out in pieces nearly half of the cushion. See below. With every tug that tore off a piece of cushion, the cushion itself was pulled to the fore. Over a period of several months it became more and more difficult to sit with comfort on the ever-shrinking cushion.

When Ken took the folded blanket that came off the bed as temperatures warmed this spring and placed it on the recliner I knew the day had come. Fortunately, among the stash of upholstery samples that are folded neatly in my closet waiting for their designated project, I found a sample that matched the couch fabric in color with perfection. It has a woven design that differs, but the color match would prove less distracting and therefore draw less attention to the patches that were about to be applied to the couch cushions.

I bought a section of foam for a new cushion and, needle and thread in hand, last night I applied my sewing skills to the task of repair. Below is the finished result. You can't really make out the location where the smaller hole was, but the square patch on the recliner is clear. Should've turned the fabric the other way so that the nap matched the original. Oh well. The couch is now restored, Ken can sit in the chair without complaint, and the room feels almost like new again without the ragged holes and pieces of torn cushion covering the floor.

For what am I thankful? 1) That I didn't have to go farther than my closet to find a suitable fabric match for this couch. It is, frankly, an ugly color (what you see in the photo is not true to life--it's greener in reality--yes, greener), and finding a match would have been a challenge. 2) I have the skill set to do the repairs, which were a bit tricky. 3) The fruit of my labor evokes a smile from me whenever I pass through the room now. 4) Ken says, "it feels like it did when it was new" when he sits in the recliner.

Sometimes it's the simple things. And you--for what are you thankful today?