I interrupt the unpacking to bring you some photos

There was a lot of furniture in this shipment. Two couches, dining room table (that got busted so bad that they couldn't put it together), kitchen table (still not put together- the moving company's carpenter will come and put it and the entertainment center together later this week), entertainment center (lovely piece of furniture that I bought in Italy- full of shelving, drawers and open areas to display items.. including a space for a tv), end tables, 2 coffee tables, 12 chairs (6 each for the kitchen and dining room), 2 different bed frames, one queen sized mattress and box springs set, and other various small chests, etc.

Here we are... the 8 1/2 sea crates full of 'stuff!'


Stacks and stacks of boxes in the big storage room in the basement... and where I've been spending the past few days.


Of course, whenever one has a 'storage shipment' delivered... there are always treasures that you are happy to see once again.. like my small marble table that was made for me when I left Italy the first time in 2000. Isn't this beautiful? I've lived in some very small places-- in one place.. this table was my only table for meals.


Here is the complete view of the table and chairs. I found a wrought iron artist.. to make these for me. Actually, a local flower/gift shop that had opened up close to my home in Aviano helped me find the man who made this table/chair set. Their family members made the marble table top for me.. shipped it to their shop and the man who made the wrought iron.. was in a nearby town.. They had called him and made arrangements for him to make my table base and chairs for me. They got the directions to his shop for me and I went by train.. followed the directions and found his shop quite easily as I walked to it from the train station. He didn't speak English and I spoke only a few limited words in Italian. His son had 'visited' America... and was designated as our 'translator' by the dad. Of course, his knowledge of English was only a few words better than my knowledge of Italian.

So, we ended up drawing our ideas for each other. I drew some ideas as to what I wanted the chairs to look like... he added to my drawings. When it was time to make the chairs and table base, he actually drew the designs in chalk on his cement shoproom floor and made my wrought iron chairs/table to match the drawn lines. None of us (myself, the flower shop owners who had family members about 200 miles away make the table top for me, or the wrought iron man) knew what the designs would look like until everything was delivered to the flower shop. I just told them that I did want some of the beautiful Italian green marble used in the design.

Don't they look like we had all worked side by side sharing our designs? It was a perfect mix of talents. Once we oohed and aahed over the marble, table base, and the 4 perfect chairs... and had taken lots of photos... (of which I didn't know that my camera was busted-- until I got to the states- nothing turned out) the wrought iron artist.. packed everything up and took it to my apartment just a block away... and the movers packed everything up the next day.

I really didn't have room inside the house and decided to put the marble table/chairs outside in the semi-protected patio area. There is a roof overhead and I'm going to see if I can find something to put on the bottom of the chair/table legs so that standing moisture (snow/rain) doesn't cause a problem. I'll also buy a heavy plastic covering for the winter time.. since, snow did get blown in this area last winter.


AND always... when you unpack boxes and boxes of stuff from a move.. there is always a 'mystery' object found. Sometimes the 'mystery item' is part of something that got divided up and now no longer looks familiar? Maybe it's part of a broken item- that got thrown away and now the remaining part is the mystery item?

Or maybe it's something like this wooden thing. I have no idea as to what it is or where it came from or why I even own it. I don't remember seeing it ever before. The twigs have been sawed off flat on the bottom. Now, I have to figure out 'which' recyling bin that I'd be allowed to put this unknown object in......


Does anyone know what this is?


All I know is It's times like this ...After days of unpacking and moving things from basement, to ground level and up to third floor... hauling stuff from one floor to the next that makes me dislike 'stairs'... and that I have got to get serious about getting rid of some of this 'stuff!'