My Castle Is Complete

I realize some of you may be new to my blog...Although, since nobody COMMENTS any more, it's hard to tell!  And yes, that is a shameless ploy for more comments.  Anyway, that is not the point.  The point is that if you've been with me since the very beginning, you realize that while my house may in fact look like a typical middle class home, it is in fact a castle.  Complete with scullery maid.  You can click here to learn all about my fabulous life in a castle.

My Grandmama Dolly passed in January.  My mom and her siblings separated her belongings among themselves, and my mom had asked if I wanted anything.  "I was always fascinated by those chairs with the lion head and feet."  As it turned out, those had already been laid claim to.  I philosophically shrugged and said, "never mind.  Those chairs were too majestic for my garage sale/hand me down/eclectic house decorations anyway."

Guess what?  My mom called me a while back and said the chairs may be coming available again.  "I WANT THEM!"  I shouted into the phone before she could finish her sentence.  You see, my grandparents had a somewhat eclectic decor themselves.  From green flocked wallpaper paired with gray paneling, to chairs with lion heads carved into them and velvet bullfighter pictures, they had a little bit of everything.  Everything to be found at "ESTATE sales" that is.  "ESTATE Sale" is the more elite form of a garage sale.  You see, an estate sale apparently occurs when the family of the dearly departed simply cannot decide who gets what, so they have a giant auction and split the profits, or since it's an ESTATE and therefore very hoity toity, I'm sure the profits are donated to charity...

It is obviously nothing like it's low brow counterparts where people actually take the stuff from their dearly departed family member and then have a sale out of their garage and pocket every bit of the cash for themselves.

As you can clearly see, my grandparents only had the most discriminating tastes, and such things as a chair made from steer hide and longhorn horns, would not be found at your average run of the mill garage sales.  Such treasures as these could only be found at the very exclusive ESTATE SALE.

Okay, now that I've edified you with my vast knowledge of garage versus ESTATE sales, I will now show you what my darling husband brought home to me after a weekend of dove hunting with his brothers.  Carefully duct taped in sheets and blankets to keep their pristine condition, naturally.  At first, I was almost certain he brought home the wrong chairs.  After all, the chairs of my memory were huge and clearly once belonged in a haunted castle.  How or where my Grandpa had the opportunity to visit an ESTATE sale at a haunted castle, I was never completely clear on.  However, I was certain that these must surely belong in one!

Now that I'm the very modest age of 35, these chairs have shrunk considerably!  They are no longer giant arm chairs where I feel much like Lily Tomlin surely felt in her giant rocker when she played Edith Ann.  Instead, they are just perfectly ordinary sized arm chairs, with an unusual black upholstery and lion heads carved in the arms, with claw feet.

Oh, well.  I love them.  I can still picture their exact spot in the front living room of my Grandmama's house. I will treasure them for that reason, along with my childhood fanciful thoughts.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, my girls found them immediately fanciful.  In fact Popcorn said, "Now we can have the scary chairs with the old haunted Raggedy Anne doll sit right here in this corner."

Well, I resent that statement.  You see, I had a dear friend make me this doll.  She is gifted at making folk art crafts, and when we moved away, she gave me the doll, along with a pillow that is embroidered with "Live in such a way that those who know you but don't know God come to know God because they know you."  Isn't that beautiful?  Studmuffin, however has refused to allow the doll to sit on our bed.  He thinks it looks like a voodoo doll.  I scoff and say it's supposed to be folk art.  I fear we will never agree on the topic.

Apparently my girls agree.