Random Musings and such

Yea!!!!  This is one of the chairs to my beautiful breakfast room dining set.  I just had the chairs refinished, refurbished and re-upholstered.  I immediately got "buyers remorse" after I bought that fabric and wasn't sure how I would like it.  But I believe they turned out nicely.

Let me just tell you how I came to be the proud owner of such beautiful furnishings.  Way back in 1981, around August or Sept., I was toodling along in my car which was the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life.  Let me just show you a quick photo of Molly.  I think you will agree, the cutest thing ever.

This is a cousin of my car Molly.  Molly Metropolitan. Molly was a 1959 Nash Metropolitan.  Hilariously cute car!  I would drive down the road and people would point and smile and laugh.  Every day.  It was that cute.  Molly was described as a soap dish, a tennis shoe, one of those weird amphibeous cars that turn into a boat, all sorts of things.  And I can promise you this, I have never before nor since gotten such great gas mileage.  Loved that car.

Back to the quick little story of the antique furniture.  So there I was just toodling down the back streets going to the grocery store, when out of the corner of my eye I spied the prettiest little sideboard just sitting in some people's carport.  I went to the store and on my way home I thought I would go back by there and see if perhaps it was for sale.  As I was walking up to their door I saw that there was also a china cabinet, a table and six chairs.  All matching.  Anyhoo, I rang the bell and asked about the furniture and the lady told me this really long story of how much she loved that dining room set but that her husband's aunt out in Tennessee called them and said that she wanted to leave him, her only living relative, all the family antique furniture, and could he pay for the freight to ship it to Texas?  So the new-to-them family antiques had arrived and now the set that that she had had previously (my set) was relegated to the carport till they could get it sold, even if this set was way prettier than the new-to-them set they had just gotten from the aunt.  So I wrote down my name and number for her and asked her to talk to her husband and come up with a price.  I really wanted it and I really wanted it moved indoors before it sat out in the weather and ruined.  Then I went home and called my boss who loved her some antiques.  She was one of those people with a real eye for quality and knew how to safely strip, refinish and show off these prizes.  I told her all about this set and asked her to guesstimate the value so I would have a better idea when they called me with a price.

The owners of said furniture called me about an hour later with a price of about 20% of what my boss told me I should pay.  20%.  NOT 20% off.  More like 80% off.  Only paying 20%.  So I said SOLD! And then he said, "Can I deliver this to you so it doesn't sit out in the carport overnight?"

SCORE!!!

When I got this set the chair seats had kind of an ugly white/ecru color with a strange pattern fabric.  A couple years later I re-upholstered them and took off the ugly white to discover that it was actually re-purposed drapes with that rubber backing on them to keep out the heat and light.  Under that was a gross watermelon red color and under that was the original beautiful wine, claret colored velvet.

Over the years, this dining room set has been with us through 4 countries and 9 moves.  The seats have had a variety of fabric coverings.  This is the first time I have gone with a plaid.    It takes me a while to adjust to change, so I am still not too sure about this one.

And here is a neon sign I had to take a pic of to share with you.  I was at a very famous local hamburger joint the other day and looked up at this sign and wondered to myself, WTF???  Have a look.

Seriously?  Nacho's??  Nacho's what?  Nacho's bad grammar?  Nacho's bad signage?  Aaarrrrgggghh!! Why, oh why, is there an apostrophe there?  Idiots.  They are everywhere.

And here is one of Mr. Big Ed's birthday gifts I thought you might like to see.  I found this at one of my favorite new stores. P'lovers is a wonderful ecological store that sells some of the coolest stuff.  Lots of recycled and organic stuff. (and another place with a weird apostrophe)

Look here at what I got Mr. Big Ed.

In the first picture you can tell that this is a record album.  In the second you can tell more clearly that it has been re-shaped and re-purposed as a bowl.  And in the third you can see that it was a Bob Dylan greatest hits album.  Now, if you know anything at all about Mr. Big Ed, you know that he loves some Bob Dylan.  And now, he has his very own Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II bowl with which to store his crap.

Personally, I don't care for Mr. Dylan's singing.  But I know, it is un-American to say that out loud.  When we lived in Minneapolis, home town of Bob Dylan, he was touring with his unplugged acoustic version of all his songs and Mr. Big Ed was beside himself with giddyness to go to this show.  He and the kids went and enjoyed themselves immensely.  I on the other hand, stayed home and did not subject my ears to 2 hours of Bob Dylan Live.  Which is practically what I get when I have to ride in Mr. Big Ed's car.  He has a six disc changer in his car and at all times, 5 of the 6 discs are Dylan.  Seriously?  Aaarrrggghhh!  again.

And here are 2 more photos of my furry babies.  Just for fun.

This is my camera-shy Princess Nikita Babushka.  I don't know why she was avoiding the camera today, but every time she saw it she turned her head.  She is a beautiful girl with gorgeous baby blue eyes.  I love my Husky!

Stretched out on top of this buffet is Stanley Manley.  He is one handsome cat.  Stanley is the twin brother to Lester Buster.  It's not clear in this particular photo but Stanley has one green eye and one blue eye.  And cute black specks on his little pink nose.  If looks were what we based awesome pets on, Stanley would be a winner.  He has it going on in the looks department.  What he has problems with is 2 things.  He's a shedder.  And he's a pisser.  He sheds and pisses all over things.  It is aggravating in the extreme.  Other than that . . . .