Yesterday, at the hair salon, I met a woman who was wearing a beautiful black and white houndstooth check scarf.
I stopped to tell her how much I liked it; and pretty much anything else that is black and white check.
She said she felt the same way, so I pulled out my phone and showed her the pictures of my latest 'redemption project'.
I had been searching for a small chair, because I'm short and because we need a chair or two which we can move easily to suit our needs.
I had also been searching for a gentle rocking chair.
On a pass through the local thrift store one day, I spied a little chair crammed in among other odds and ends, extricated it, and made the wonderful discovery that it was also a rocker.
It wasn't pretty.
One must overlook the looks.
It was small, in good shape structurally, and it rocked.
We went home together.
I carefully took the upholstery apart - taking pictures as I went - and kept the pieces of fabric in tact so I could use them for patterns.
Inside the seat cover, there was a layer of batting...
...over the original seat cover.
Yikes.
And inside that seat cover was the original seat pad.
It was all pretty disgusting, even if the print was 'interesting'.
I was, for some reason, very happy about finding this stapled to the bottom of the chair:
I kept it.
After I had dismantled all the upholstery, I sanded the chair and applied three coats of black gloss spray paint.
Actually...
I applied a partial coat of red gloss spray paint and didn't like it, so I had to sand it again.
Then, I applied two coats of black gloss (starting to look awesome) and followed it with a top coat of black lacquer.
The black lacquer caused the undercoats to pucker, shrivel, and do all sorts of terrible things (starting to look not-awesome).
I put the chair away for many weeks (months?).
Then I sanded it all again and applied three coats of black gloss spray paint (starting to look really awesome).
I took my sweet time doing the upholstery parts of the chair, too.
I cut new foam and extra padding and wrapped it in batting.
I put it in the new seat cover and sewed the opening shut with the tiniest of stitches.
Then, I ripped out all those tiniest of stitches...took off the batting...reshaped the foam...wrapped it in batting...put it in the cover...and sewed it shut with the tiniest of stitches again.
Times two.
It wasn't fun doing those things over and over again, just as it's sometimes painful while God is shaping and molding - and re-shaping and molding - us into His perfect image.
But, remember, though I started with this...
...all that re-doing brought me closer to my goal, and...
"...He, who began a good work in [me] will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."
Amen.