My first upholstery project is complete!  I finished on Tuesday and I really am busting at the seams over how good I think it looks: the fabulous fabric…the dark shiny wood…the tight pleats on the corners of the cushion.  I love it!  It fits perfectly in a little nook in my bedroom by a window. In fact, it has created the perfect window seat for me to perch and look out on to Worcester Square (although in the cold, dark land known as New England in Winter there’s not too much too watch – except for snow melting). 

I was practically giddy throughout this week’s class because I finally got to work with the beautiful fabric I had bought weeks ago: a modified ikat print in several shades of blue.  It’s from the Iman – yes as in David Bowie’s wife — collection from Calico Corners.  I was so excited to finish the bench that I nearly ruined it by not making sure the fabric was situated just right on the bench.  The center of the almost egg-like design had to be in the exact center of the bench.  I figured with an abstract print it didn’t really matter, but my teacher Paul was adamant that I would regret it if I didn’t “measure twice and cut once,” as my father would say.

As I left the small wood-framed school house that is the Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts — nearly tripping up the stairs with my bench awkwardly balanced on my back — I was more proud of myself then I have been in a very long time.  I was really very blasé when I was nominated for an Emmy as part of the production team of “Rules of Engagement,” and it wasn’t about feigning false modesty.  I was over it at that point, “it” being news, New York, TV, everything that had been so central to my previous life.  The weekend the Emmys were handed out (not to us) I was packing up to drive to Boston and into my new life (remember I have a flare for the dramatics). 

Completing this little bench, and having it look so good left a bigger grin on my face than that Emmy nod. I realized this on my bench and mine walk to my car. I initially thought I should have my head examined.  But then it dawned on me that this was one of the surest signs yet that I made the right decision by making a big change in my life.  The sense of satisfaction I got from finishing this silly little bench was a beacon for me to see where this new life of mine — not to mention this blog — takes me!