Did you ever buy a piece of furniture you later regretted but couldn't take back?
Never, ever buy something like this out of a catalogue at the furniture store where once bought it's yours, no going back. The BIG MISTAKE was buying something we could not sit on-test first.
And it was EXPENSIVE! Coming from years of having bought in thrift store/Salvation Army store furniture or just very, very inexpensive stuff, to finally being able to purchase something NEW and of GOOD QUALITY ... I went to a local family run business in town to shop. I really went in for a coffee table. I wanted a coffee table with a bottom shelf for magazines and books, as our coffee table was always piled HIGH with books, magazines and STUFF. (usually my HUSBAND'S STUFF)! And it had to have drawers for more of his stuff.
So I found the right coffee table in beautiful wood. So I bought that. Plus two end tables to match. With drawers for more stuff. And then I decided to get the Love Seat to go in the middle of it all. But none of this was "on the floor" in the store to try out, it was all in the catalogue. My best friend had furniture like this. The funny thing now that I think back on it, I was never that comfortable sitting in her furniture like this. But I bought it anyway. When it finally arrived from the factory the leather on the seat of the love seat was so slick I slide right off. If the coffee table was not there to brace my feet on I would have landed on the floor.
I did complain. About a year later they took the seat cushions back and stuffed them differently. They do have a little give to them now, but people do still slide on them. I do NOT sit on this couch. Only visitors sit on it for short periods of time. Family members will get a wooden hard backed chair instead to avoid sitting on it. The guitar does not slide off. It's happy there. So the moral of this story is if you really love your guitar, you will NOT park you car in it, you will buy it a very expensive couch to call all it's own!
End of story.
PS My mother, may she rest in peace, knit the beautiful afghan thrown carelessly over the top of the couch.
And the coffee table is still piled high with books, magazines and STUFF but now on two levels instead of just one, and the drawers are overflowing!
PPS Forty Two years ago today, I filed for divorce from my first husband. We are still
Black Primacolor 08 pen
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Nature Sketch 6in. x 12in. 130 lb. Artist Quality Sketchbook
Oh my gosh, Lynn. You made me laugh - A LOT! :) Beautiful guitar by the way. It looks very happy on its couch. (Now mine is saying, "what, I only get a chair?" :) ) Love the afghan too, and the photographs, and STUFF!
ReplyDeletePS congratulations :)
DeleteOh goodie, glad I made you laugh. Hope your guitar gets over it! ;-) And PS thanks. LOL
DeleteLOL...I think your furniture story is brilliant. Your seat could bring so much fun, not only to us reading about it, but to you and your visitors....watching people slide off it, this could almost become a new Olympic sport! Your painting of this remarkable purchase sets the scene so well :-)
ReplyDeleteI am submitting your idea to the Olympic Committee today, Ann. Brilliant idea!
DeleteLove the story about the furniture...sorry it didn't have a happier ending...but it makes a great subject for a story and a sketch. lol You did well sketching it! Is that a Laurel Burch cat pillow/something hiding behind it with the cats on it? I could never buy a couch without sitting on it. There are too many of them where either my back doesn't reach the pillows or my feet don't reach the floor.
ReplyDeleteYES! It is a Laurel Burch pillow with cats! I got it at the thrift store for $3. In wonderful condition! I'm stoked that you recognize it as such. Wow! I can't draw people who look like themselves, but I can draw recognizable cats??? LOL Love it.
DeleteAnd you are a smarter woman than I... my feet do NOT reach the floor. But who knew? I'd never bought anything sight unseen before. One assumes, however incorrectly. I am so much WISER NOW! ;-)
I recognized those cats too! She used to come into the bookstore where I worked in Marin, many years ago (Laurel Burch). She was lovely! (Btw my parents had a couch that was made by a colleague of theirs. It was basically a slab of wood with a very thin cushion on it. But you couldn't tell by looking at it - it looked comfy, but then when you sat down, HARD, you got a nasty surprise :) ) We/they had that couch for 30 years…)
DeleteOh too funny, another Laurel Burch siting! I love it! And you had her for a customer! So sad she is no long among us.
DeleteYour couch story is funny too. Like a whoopee cushion in reverse or something like that. LOL
Thanks for recognizing my, I mean Laurel's, cats!
The guitar has got a comfortable place to be in.Your story makes the couch so familiar. your drawing is good, Lynn.
ReplyDeleteThank you dear Sirkka! ;-)
DeleteYour loss is the guitar's gain! :) This is a fun painting with lots going on. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who piles books on her end tables! Who are all of the cats behind the sofa?
ReplyDeleteOh, I should have read the other comments and I would have known about the cats! :)
DeleteOh Lisa our piles of books and stuff are never ending here.
DeleteYou and others might find it interesting to look up Laurel Burch on Wikipedia.
Over the years I have owned cups, jewelry, and clothing with her art on them. She was a native Californian too, like yours truly!
This cracked me up..not the couch bit but the moral.parking the car in guitar..Joan's slip is becoming a cute funny running joke. Lol on another note..we bought a mattress by laying on one in the store that was to be 30 day money back guarantee ..I swear the one we got was NOT the one we tried in the show room ..it was hard as a rock and heavy too and they refused to honor that guarantee . And it was very expensive. Oh and the sketch is great. :))
ReplyDeleteOh dear. I think we all ought to go to the better business department together and file a gigantic law suit against such poor business practices.
DeleteGlad you like the guitar story and the sketch too. ;-)
Love the story and happy anniversary, of sorts!
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan. A funny anniversary I know, but the date sticks in my head. We all get along well.
DeleteI love this story! Funny stuff...and a moral to the story too!! I have a really old couch in amazing shape it's a bit out of style but so comfortable so it has to stay a little while longer...where as the ones we sit on daily need replacing but comfort is the only way to go...and not going to get pillows on it either... big mistake... But hey it was affordable at the time, comfy and PURPLE.....how could I resist...it said my name when it saw me....I swear! I can take ten years to pick a couch...but I knows it when I sees it!! lol
ReplyDeleteHugs Giggles
Oh yes, not at all surprised yours is purple! Perfect!! May it serve you well for years to come! Xo
DeletePlease do not tell my guitar that yours has it's own couch. I don't want it getting any ideas! We don't have a coffee table because when we did it was always piled high. So now our end tables are piled, LOL. Love the afghan!
ReplyDeleteOkay, Melisa, I won't tell. I know how guitars can be. Yes, I deluded myself into thinking if I got a two tiered coffee table it would suddenly have a neat top with neatly stacked short piles of magazines and books. HA HA HA! Not hardly. Oh well, I tried.
Delete