Take a break! Put your feet up!

Made By My Mom, 1936

We have three footstools in our house.  They’ve all been here throughout my lifetime and longer.  Sad to say, I take them pretty much for granted.  One is in my office — more-or-less decorative only — and was made by my mother in 1936.  It is of woven sisal with wooden legs.  Mom made it as a “therapy” project during a nine-month hospitalization following my birth.  We seldom use it, but I think I love it best.

Leather Footstool with Oddments

Two footstools live in our East Room.  The large leather one has become the “repository” for keepsake oddments —  a 1943 Life with a picture of a woman steel worker on the cover;  a 1973 LP by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, “For The Last Time;” a booklet called “The Practical Meal Planner for Women Engaged in War Work” by Louise Espey, Home Economist, Bonneville Power Administration.  I think we kept that Meal Planner because of the author’s name — no relation, but my uncle Willard Espy’s wife was also Louise.

The leather footstool, itself, isn’t very attractive.  We had it recovered 20 or 30 years ago — I think by Mr. Mead in Astoria.  Previously its leather covering was in four pie-shaped pieces which were sewn together but it was falling apart.  It had seen lots of use — I can remember that my Aunt Mona (who was tiny; not even five feet tall) used to draw it up near the fire and sit on it when we gathered in the evening.  She said that when she was a child all the siblings vied over whose turn it was to sit on the leather footstool and when they were little, two of them could share it.  I wish Mr. Mead had replicated the pie-shaped pieces… It had a lot more character that way.

Footstool With Needlepoint Top

The other footstool in the East Room is tucked into the corner near the fireplace.  It has a needlepoint top and is the prettiest of the three.   I wish I knew who made it.  It’s also the smallest — too small for sitting except maybe for a very young child.  It’s the only one that I feel extends a personal invitation for me to “sit a while and put your feet up.”  Good idea on this blustery winter day!

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