About

Everyone asks me about my name. It all started years before I was born. You see, my father promised his best friend that they would name their first boys after each other. But, by the time I was a bump in my mom's belly, they already had two girls. My mom declared "this is the last one...the name is promised whether it's a boy or girl." And she kept her threat word. So here I am, Michael Suzanne. My family and friends call me 'Mike'.

Living life with a man's name has been full of highlights. I always got letters to play football when I was in school. Mom even called one summer to try to sign me up - then she told them I was a girl. That was that. I got my notice to register for the U.S. military draft when I turned 18 - something only required of boys at the time. And when I went to university, I got a letter inviting me to join a fraternity house. It was never easy when I dated guys named 'Mike' - yes, that happened - and it works wonders with telemarketers when I tell them "HE'S not home."

Best of all? I received the compliment of my life when a mentor told me that no other woman could carry off the name like I had. That's the one I always carry with me.

Sweden now claims me as one of their 'love immigrants' - I never returned back to the States after meeting my Swedish hubby at the train station while traveling across Europe. Eleven years and two kids later, my experiences of making my way in Sweden are chronicled in my other blog called 'The Accidental Swede'. Culture shock? Check!

But my passion is here - with Blue Velvet Chair. It's real, you know. The chair. It represents my joy of seeing the ordinary become extraordinary. Or creating the unexpected instead of the expected. I found the chair at a garage sale in Phoenix (Arizona). She was a brilliant blue velvet with an awkwardly pale pink Gustavian-style frame. She was bold...and she was mine! Entire rooms have been designed around this chair. I had to leave her behind in my move to Sweden, but we were finally reunited after an entire decade apart. It was a 'return to me' that triggered this blog - a place to showcase and share recycled, repurposed, and reloved arts and crafts.

I hope your life has a blue velvet chair, too!

Michael