"Can you turn my fur boa into a foot rest?"

"What?"

This was a message someone left for me one Sunday afternoon and sure enough, it was exactly that.   The next day, I opened my door to a very sweet woman holding a wooden stool in one hand and a fur boa in the other, a christmas present from her son.  As she was sharing her vision inspired by a HGTV show,  I couldn't help but wonder what her son would think if he knew his mom was turning her Christmas present into a footrest.  I had to ask if she got "permission,"  she assured me he was fine with the idea.  I stood for a while after she left staring at the boa, trying to envision it on top of the stool but mostly, I was nervous about making that first cut.  It's different when you're working with fabric, if you mess up, you can just start over.  This was a beautiful fur boa all put together and here I was figuring out how to take it apart and turn it into something entirely different.  So, I measured, crossed my fingers, and made my first cut.... 

It came together easier than I imagined and when I flipped it over,  all I could think of was the enchanted stool from "Beauty and the Beast."

It's always a thrill to create something from someone's idea or sketch and a greater thrill to capture what they were thinking.