A Parma State of Mind

Like a good little micro-blogger, I've been searching online for inspiration for the hearth and home.  I stumbled on Retro Renovation after tripping over the sister site, Save the Pink Bathroom. And, while I don't have a pink bathroom in the home, I can definitely appreciate flawless odd-colored tile. My grandmother's house, circa 1955 and as they say in the know a Cinderella home, had a lovely minty green bathroom. (And counter... and linoleum tile... and... and... and...) Perhaps that's where my general squee from the time period comes. Or perhaps it's just all that delicious Danish furniture.

At any rate, I completed the transition to full Parmite this year for my birthday.  My Don Featherstone pink flamingos arrived last night and they are gorgeous! I'm half-tempted to get a couple of the other color flamingos, but for now, I think just the classic salmon pink will grace my front yard right next to the Ikea solar flamingo!

Thank you, Amazon!

Chair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Hey folks! Sorry, it's been a while. The house has been keeping us very busy these days with housal (vs. spousal) honey-do lists that put a senate budget proposal to shame! The busy times shall pass.

In an attempt to clear my pictures folder, I shall tell you the fate of this lovely brown early to mid century chair.

It was lovely, although a bit well-loved on the arms when I picked it up on Craigslist. One of the cats, Moxi was drawn to it, despite being yelled at each time she drew near. Unfortunately,  Cleo had other ideas and claimed it as her own. And by claim, I mean... the ultimate claim. My exasperated response was to de-upholster it in the garage in a fit of rage, which was a fun project in and of itself. It was like sifting through the chairs history, looking under the covers of the many other lives it had lived. I found at least four different materials used over the last 50 years.

I had every intent to get it upholstered because the lines were so cool on it, but it wasn't meant to be. The frame will go out on big item day this month. We will see if any other picker would be interested in reviving her and I will also post a curb alert with hopes that someone will give her a good home.

Whoops!

In an attempt to clean out the garage, I have sad news to report... (well, I'm not that sad there was an exchange of money involved that made it a more pleasant experience.)

• The most excellent credenza that we found has moved on to a new home.  
• A trendy set of mid-century dressers went to a lovely young lady out of area.
• The French provincial dresser went off to refinish land at a new home.

Insert dramatic sigh here. No, really. Dramatic as in WHEW -- there's some space in the garage!

A Dresser Reborn

It comes as no surprise that I spend a fair amount of time trolling Craigslist looking at what appears to be my passion - dressers. I can only blame it on the fact that I haven't had one since I moved to Ohio in the late 90's. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

A few weeks back I spotted a rather plain pine dresser for far too good a price to pass up. I contacted the seller, but didn't hear back from them so I figured it had already been sold. About a week later, I received an email asking if I was still interested. Yes, please!

A ginger beauty...

It isn't the style that I'm usually attracted to but it was exactly what the apothecary ordered. It just so happens that we are both members of the Society for Creative Anachronisms which means we have what feels like four times the amount of stuff to store as a normal person. His and hers plus his and hers personas. Don't even get me started on the span of centuries and civilizations we cover. Needless to say, we needed a dresser that could serve our vast and often nefarious storage purposes.

The update process started easily enough with the decision to paint the dresser. Why? Well, we had a lovely blue color on hand in an enamel finish left over from the laundry room debacle.   (Never buy a quart of paint, always buy a gallon... lesson learned.) The body of the dresser is Sherwin Williams Calypso and the drawers are spray painted white. Thank you for the idea of mixing it up like that, Internet!

Tidy Cat should be in every picture!

Sanded, primed, painted, painted, poly, and poly. There she is in all her glory. It's hard to tell the color from the picture due to the warm tone of the overhead lights, but it is essentially Tidy Cat blue. We picked up the hardware at a local store and spray painted them blue. Overall, I call this a project a success... provided you don't see the several pieces of cat hair that mysteriously ended up in the polyurethane on the drawers...

 

Another busy weekend...

We went out a little earlier on Sunday to visit Big Blue for a curtain rod. When the first turn happened, I realized that the hunt was on. A few streets down we saw the back side of this behemoth credenza and quickly stopped by for a look. The buffet appeared to be solid concrete oak, but was in otherwise great condition. The four center drawers worked perfectly and, after closer inspection in the privacy of the garage, there are silverware drawers and shelves in each of the side panels. At least right now, I think this will fit perfectly in the mud room after a little elbow grease gets it into more modern shape. The feet are a subtle Greek key design, but  the drawer pulls leave quite a bit to be desired and the relief work on the two cabinets looks like a cross between cherry blossoms and safari. The picture looks a bit askew because it is technically resting on a furniture dolly on its side. Gotta save space, right?

Side note: While looking for drawer pulls, I managed to find an awesome refinished credenza that is exactly like the one we found. This is going to be a most excellent project!

TNR 3: Siamese

I have a soft spot for Siamese cats thanks to my childhood. One of my best friends was Daddy Cat, a seal point Siamese cat that my mother had. He was the best. Not only did he love and care for kittens, but he was happy to share his cat food with me too. (Kibble is tasty!)

When we caught this Siamese on Tuesday night, I was pretty hopeful that it would be as friendly as Domino and Snippers (so I could keep it...) When I picked it up at the APL, it was still pretty groggy from the surgery, quiet, and very unhappy to have to interact with this particular human. I looked at the paperwork briefly and asked the boy helping me carry it (and the trap) to the car at the clinic and he cheerfully let me know it was a female. I was happy as a clam, finally a source of kittens off the street...

While waiting at the stop sign, I looked at the rest of the paperwork: 5 years old, some issues with teeth... but I was caught off guard by another note... lactating. So my happy cheer was cut short by the realization that I'd trapped a nursing mother and kept her from her kittens overnight. D'oh. A quick call to the clinic and a browse of the internet advised that we should let her go the day after the surgery to be reunited with her brood. I don't know how old the kittens are but hopefully they are no worse for the wear. She looked alright this morning, so I opened the recovery room doors and she was back into the world by 8:00 AM. I hope to see her around at dinner time in the future, although not in the trap.

Other TNR Friends

When I got home, the aforementioned cat was still in the car while I was getting ready to release Snippers. He really wasn't too interested in going any further than my lap or however far my hand reached. He is SUPER friendly and very attentive, the kind of kitty you can (and did) take for a walk around the house. He lounged under my car for a while, then came back in to see what I was doing to his bachelor pad (sweeping...) After his snack, he walked back in to take a bit of a rest break in the box, then wandered out again. Kinda funny, he was my little buddy all evening. Domino showed up for dinner (as did Domina, the female cat) and he rolled around all friendly like and let me pet him. Snippers and Dom had a bit of a hissing row, but otherwise all was well in SLP-catland.

The caption on this photo should read "FEED ME" or "PET ME" ... and stop screwing around with that thing in your hand.

Off into the sunset...

Today is bittersweet. A large collection of items are going to their next home via Craiglist. Sniff! It was a bit serendipitous - the gentleman originally inquired about an Ikea console that I listed, but ended up with a little more than he bargained for. He asked the loaded question - what else do you have for sale?

He will leave with a dresser, two night stands with drawers, two end tables, six kitchen chairs, a gigantic kitchen table with thee leaves, an Ikea solid wood console table, and a free ($1.99 on sale at Target) table cloth.

Bon voyage!