Tag Archives: Vintage

Thrifting Thursday: They Cut My Shins Off

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Today is Thursday not Friday… I’ve been having to tell myself that all day long, wishful thinking I suppose. Not that today is a particularly bad day or that this week has been stressful, it’s just that I look forward to the excitement and energy that surrounds an upcoming weekend. There’s just something about the promise of two full days free from the office, and from the electricity in the air I know my officemates would agree. Again, it’s not that the 9-5 job is horrible, in fact I quite enjoy it, but to have time without a schedule is bliss.

And to celebrate that upcoming bliss, let’s partake in my weekly indulgence of Thrifting Thursday. I found something really awesome to show off this week…

kielradio

At first, I thought this was a pretty awesome coffee table, maybe a little rough, but with a little sanding and some paint it would be good as new. Then I looked a little closer and saw hinges.

antiquekielradiostand

GASP! Upon further inspection, I found two labels…

aatwaterkentradio

authentickielDOUBLE GASP!

At the thrift store I really didn’t know what all this meant, I just knew it had to be old and it had to come home with me. So, $25 later this rugged beauty was standing in my living room.

kielradiostandold

After a few moments of admiring by newest acquisition, I couldn’t take the suspense anymore and did a quick Google search.

wornkielradio

Turns out my unique and awesome coffee table wasn’t really a coffee table in her original life, and she was much taller in her younger years.

Via

Actually, she originally housed an Atwater Kent Radio! The manufacturer of the table was Kiel. According to this awesome ad:

Via

She’s pretty old, I’ve read several different sources that give her year of birth between 1929 and 1931. If she were a person, she could be my grandma!!

If you look at the ad, the going rate for this beauty ,at the time, was $179, in 2013 that’s equivalent to $2500. So, she would have been the center of one’s sitting room, much like a TV is today.

So, I’m pretty proud of my “coffee table”, even if she’s had her shins cut off much like Cotton from King of the Hill.

He’s the short guy on the right, short due to the lack of shins.

And I am having second thoughts on painting this piece, maybe a sand down to the bare wood and a re-stain is in order. I think she’s much too lady like to be painted.

What do you think?

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Thrifting Thursday: Smiling Mice

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Welcome to Thrifting Thursday, my own little personal celebration of Friday eve! It’s a day I’ve set aside to talk about all things thrifty, in other words, it’s a day I blab on about old stuff I’ve seen or purchased recently from a local thrift store. Fun times right? And honestly, what better way is there to celebrate the approaching weekend than to discuss all those wonderful vintage goods out there?

This week, I broke my non-buying pact with myself and bought a pair of amber beveled glasses…

amberbeveledglassesI couldn’t help myself, I’ve been looking for a set similar to these. I figure I’ll start out with two and build upon that with different colored but same in shape glasses. Maybe I like these so much because they remind me of the blue ones my grandmother used to have, somehow sweet tea tastes so much better when enjoyed from one of these guys.

bubbleplateI also picked up this little bubble plate, it’s clear but is the same texture as my favorite blue platter…

christmascookiesAccording to Bubba, who does all the research on these things, this design is from the 30’s and reproduced during the 70’s. The 70’s designs are usually in yellow or brown tones, but the older versions typically are lighter in color. I don’t know for sure if my plates are that old, but all I know is that I love them.

midcenturychinacabinetAnd what better place to put all that pretty glassware but a mid-century china cabinet. I saw this at the Humane Society thrift store and it took my breath away. Or at least had be stop my conversation in mid-sentence. At $100 I really considered this piece, but there was no glass on the shelves and I pictured myself having to dust dinnerware and other glass pretties off before use. That’s what swayed me away from this lovely, hopefully she found a good home elsewhere.

mouseAt another store I found this little mouse staring back at me. He has nothing to do with glassware or hutches, I just thought he was cute.

muddybikeAnd at the same mouse-y thrift store, I saw this bike. You can’t really tell from this photo, but it was caked in mud. I wondered if someone just decided to buy a new bike instead of washing the old one off.

Well that wraps up a nice week of thrifting. Have you found some hidden treasures recently? Possibly a muddy bike? Maybe a cute ceramic mouse smiling back at you? Hopefully no real mice, unless your into that sort of thing.

 

Thrifting Thursday: Dr. Rice McSteamy

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When I was an infant my family spent about a year living in the back woods of Louisiana. Apparently, we lived near a rice field and were pretty close to the owner of said field, because we’d end up with huge bags of rice. Hence, the many rice centered dishes my mom cooked for us, hence my first solid food being rice and probably beans, hence my great love of this grainy carb.  As a child, I remember craving things with rice, particularly rice, gravy, and chicken with a handle (ya know because I couldn’t call it a leg, things from the meat tree don’t have legs!), and for dessert red jello topped with a little poof of cream. Well, the point of this story is not tell you about my favorite childhood meal, but to share with you an appliance I remember my beloved carb being prepared in.

hitachiricecooker

A Hitachi Chime-O-Matic Rice Cooker. Yeah, I realize it’s a weird thing to share on Thrifting Thursday, because it’s kind of an appliance and it’s not really something I’ve thrifted. But it’s old, and I think it’s kinda cool. I mean who wouldn’t love the giant orange bell, and where can you find something with a chime-o-matic feature nowadays?

Anywho, while we lived in Louisiana, my mom received this magical cooker of rice as a gift from my dad’s brother’s in-laws who were visiting for dinner. My mom was cooking rice on the stove top, ya know the old fashioned way waiting for the water to boil or however you cook rice the old fashioned way. Anyways, the point is that they thought it was taking waaay too long for that rice to get done, and that it was just a sin that my mother didn’t have a rice cooker to provide her family with rice almost instantly. So, they gave to her my most favorite of small appliances. That was 30 years ago, I was 1.5 years old.

So, I’ve grown up with rice cooked in a rice cooker, particularly the Chime-O-Matic Rice Cooker.

And ya know what?

It still chimes when the rice is done.

Thrifting Thursday: Kooky Corner

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Wow, I can’t believe Christmas is passed and we are already in a new year! You won’t believe the amount of photos I took over the holidays, which really shouldn’t be all that surprising considering the holidays are so jam packed full of fun and celebration. It’s no wonder I couldn’t carve out the time to put a quick post together during the Christmas break!  But never fear, I’ll share those once I can get myself settled down enough to edit the 978,368 photos I snapped over the past couple of weeks.

But the holidays are over, and things are returning back to normal again, and according to my calendar, it’s Thursday, and everyone knows what Thursday means around these parts right? Well, OK guess I’m the only one playing that game, so I’ll explain. Every Thursday and sometimes on Friday if I’m not feeling the bloggy vibe, I do a post centered around thrifting, I’ve titled these thrift centered posts that tend to occur on Thursdays, Thrifting Thursdays. Clever right?  This week, I thought it might be fun to talk about how I store all of my thrifted goodness. Actually, it’s not much storing as it is displaying. Alright, it’s really not displaying it’s more a piling of vintage goods.

redbookcaseThis little nook in my kitchen is where I’ve placed some of my favorite breakables. Actually, it’s not a nook so much as it is a strange random cabinet that is set off by itself in the corner of the kitchen. I call it the “buffet” makes things sound so much more posh. Anyway, it’s getting a little crowded, so it might be time to thin the herd so to speak. But for now, I’ll leave it as is, since I’m currently doing a small remodel in my bedroom, more to dish at a later post. But on to the oldies but the goodies. Most of these items have been blogged about in the past, so I won’t bore you too much with the details. I think it’s pretty obvious Bubba (the Hubba) and I enjoy vintage cookware and I’ve got a bit of an addiction to ceramic woodland creatures  as well as an obsession with milk glass vases.

vintagesquirelsandpshakerI tried to make things a little more Christmas-y here by adding some peppermints. They will probably be there till Valentine’s Day. But don’t my little girl and boy squirrel salt and pepper shakers look cute nestled in the minty goodness?

vintageowltrivets2

And what collection is complete without a bazillion owls? I’ve collected these from various thrift stores, yard sales, and estate sales. My favorite is the Sandia Crest spoon rest, I think I blogged about him at some point in the past, but I can’t locate the post. And I’m too lazy to sift through all of my many owl posts.

vintagemilkglassbudvaseOh and speaking of fowl, the egg chickens got a little dose of peppermint as well. And see that lime green casserole dish? That’s something Bubba brought home a long time ago, it’s an Anchor Hocking/Fire King piece that gets used pretty often. Surprising considering it’s at the bottom of the pile.

All in all, I’d say this is my favorite little nook in the kitchen. Someday all of the breakables will be nestled in a nice china cabinet, but until that day comes a book shelf atop a weirdly placed piece of cabinetry will have to do.

Duck, Duck, Goose

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Well look at that, a Thrifting Thursday on a Thursday, what a concept!! Maybe I shouldn’t babble on too much, lest I get distracted and this becomes another edition of Thrifting Thursday on a Friday.

So, keeping the babble at a minimum today, let’s look at a couple of items I snatched up at Goodwill a while ago. Actually, it’s a set of items.

Duckhead bookends. They’re shiny, and animal heads, I couldn’t resist. With my growing owl collection, my sweet goose head, and now these guys, the house is turning down right fowl. Sorry, I couldn’t resist, that pun was just asking for it. Just like these lil duckheads were begging to come home with me. And yes, I know bookends belong at the end of say, a row of books, but I couldn’t relegate these guys to the messy abyss where all of my books reside. Most people would call this abyss a spare room, but not I! It’s the room where thrifted overabundance and already read and re-read literary items go to die, unless of course we have an overnight guest, then the panic sets in and the shuffling of hoard begins. But I don’t wanna talk about that, I’m already getting hives thinking about it.

Speaking of hoard, I’ve recently been hoarding wooden bowls and trays. I love the texture of them, and everyone of them is different.

Plus, they look really cute cluttering up my dining table and holding part of my owl hoard.

And my giant dough bowl, filled with apples and pumpkins. To make things feel all fall like and such. Is it working?

Speaking of fall and being thankful and keeping with my promise to talk about everyday thankfulness, I’m thankful for warm autumn weather and the memory of a summer sunset.

31 Days: Do the Shuffle

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Today is the last day of 31 Days of Getting it Done. What did I get done the past 31 days? It certainly wasn’t 31 things, and I didn’t blog for 31 days straight. But I’m not going to be hard on myself, I got some small things done that have been bothering me in a big way. There are still a lot of things on my lengthy to-do list, and I’ll tackle them as time and energy levels permit, but for now I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished. And today, I wanted to show you one last small project I was able to tackle before the end of this titillating and life changing series. (HAR-HAR)

Yup, I’m gonna bore with my cupboard arrangements. The cupboard pictured above is really the only cupboard that can hold our plates, bowls, cups and glasses. It’s not the only cupboard in the kitchen, but seems be the one that is most convenient for these items. So, this time I wasn’t moving everything, just the plastic storage tubs and some additional plates that have spent time shuffling around the kitchen.

The top shelf originally held extra plastic storage tubs and a rice cooker, I decided the rice cooker could find a home elsewhere since it’s not used that often and was taking up valuable real estate. By moving out the rice cooker, I freed up enough space to keep all of my plastics on the top shelf. Which allowed me more space on that second shelf for the shuffled plates and some new additions to my vintage glass collection.

Those green glasses have really gotten a lot of use since I brought them home last weekend. At 1.99 for a set of six, I’d say we’ve gotten our money’s worth. Plus, they look cute next the amber colored glasses don’t ya think?

Here’s the final product of my little dish shuffle.

It does my little OCD heart good to see all glassware and plastic items separated and in their own little homes. It also makes it blatantly obvious the over-abundance of plates and glasses I own. But I can’t get rid of them, what if I invite 500 of my best friends and family over for a dinner party some day?

Oh yeah, and today is Halloween, so happy trick-or-treating to all!

Thrifting Thursday: Kooky-ness

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Maybe I should rename this series Thrifting Thursdays-but-sometimes-on-Friday or whenever the heck I can muster enough words strung together to count as a post. Sorry for the absence this week, it’s been kind of a busy work week, which translates into less internet time when I have non-work time on my hands which translates into one random thrifting post at the end of the week. Anywho, to blow off steam I’ve recently been doing more window shopping at nearby thrift stores. Since, I have put myself on buying ban until I can sort through the pile of treasures I already have in my arsenal, I have been a good girl and haven’t added anything to my pile. Yay for me!!!

This past week I spied many interesting pieces:

Like this lizard, he was made of wood and signed. He’s not really my style but I was very impressed with the detail put into it. Look at the scales and his horn type things. I used to know what those were called back when I was going to grow up and be a zoologist.

I had to use much strength and will power not to bring this iced tea set home. It even came with matching tea spoons, although the spoons and the rack were plastic, so I can’t be sure of how stable this set would be. If only I didn’t already have a huge pile of breakables in my home.

Speaking of breakables, I found this adorable hedgehog, doesn’t he look so happy? I don’t know what I would have done with him, but for some reason I was drawn to his happy face.

Then there’s always the owl, this guy was pretty big, and a little scary, but I found him to be picture worthy. Maybe it was his snooty expression.

And I can’t forget his teapot friend.

Nor their kooky-eyed companion. This guy was really big, probably about 10 inches tall, but again I found him to be picture and blog worthy so here he is.

Have you seen anything cooky lately? Or have you put yourself on a buying ban???

Round but Petite: Painted Coffee Table

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Have you ever had one of those projects you were so excited to get started on and completed, and surprisingly started it and completed it in the same month? And then gotten so excited about sharing the project with all of your loyal blog readers (Hi Mom!), in the same month the project was started and completed in? Yeah, I only got the first thing done. So here a year later, I shall share with you the saga of the round coffee table.

You see, I’d been looking for the perfect round yet petite coffee table to place in the petite but not round living room. I had been using an old Lane cedar chest to act as a coffee table, but with a dog that was oddly curious about the blonde veneer (she enjoyed the occasional lick) and sweating glasses of sweet tea it was time to find something a little more durable and less cherished. I toyed with the idea of using  the ever trendy ottoman in place of a coffee table, but that didn’t quite work out as planned, a tray does not provide enough hard surface for our needs. We spend a lot of time in the living because, well, that’s where the TV is, and where ever we spend time we are going to be doing little projects that require a hard surface. So, I knew we needed a true coffee table, one that could with stand sweating sweet tea glasses, and even tho I don’t like to think about it, dogs that enjoy tasting the furniture (“Sharona, wipe!” Don’t ya miss Monk?).

Last year around this time, I was perusing through our local Goodwill and came across this beauty for 9.99.

Needless to say, since she’s in my backyard, I was all over that deal like Goldie fur on black denim. But, the finish was a little too dark, as in the exact same color as my couch.

See…

So, I needed a little contrast. Plus, I really wasn’t diggin’ the fake wood top and the scratched up legs.

 

I could have made it work, but honestly I just wanted to experiment with painted furniture. So, I read up on different techniques, I found that Centstational Girl has some good pointers on these types of things. You may know a lot more about this than I do or have another resource you found more helpful, but in my case her simple pointers were a life saver.

First, I decided that since the top of the table was super shiney, I would need to prime it before painting.

Then once the primer was dry, I painted my precious with Behr Premium Paint in Gardenia White semi-gloss. It’s a nice white, not too white, but not heavy in the blues or the pinks, it’s juuuust white. (Qwiet I’m hunting wabbit!) To keep from having those pesky roller or brush marks on this piece I used Floetrol. Essentially floetrol helps to sort of thin the paint, it makes for a slightly longer drying time but it’s worth it.

To apply the paint, I used a small trim brush for the sides and the legs, and a small sponge roller for the top. Nothing fancy, I know the experts say you should use good quality tools, but I’m too lazy to wash out brushes and rollers, so I pick mine up at the dollar store. Once I’m done painting, the brushes and rollers go away. Not exactly green, I know.

Anywho, I love how it turned out! Did I mention I finished this project in the fall?


Let’s just pretend I’m ahead of the game and this picture was taken more recently than a year ago.

Naw…I can’t lie,here’s how she looks now…

Here’s a closer view, also I just wanted to show off my yellow cow again.

The coffee table has held up pretty well over the past year, there are a few knicks and scratches. But that’s a given seeing as how much this table gets used, plus I didn’t bother to seal it with a latex paint sealant. I may repaint it, and  use that sealant to further protect from those knicks and scratches, and also to help with the stickiness. Latex paint has a little bit of a sticky feeling at first, so if you’re like me and can’t wait a few days for the paint to fully cure, a sealant would prevent decorative trays from sticking to your newly painted coffee table. Not that I’ve ever had to pry a decorative tray off of a newly painted coffee table…

Thrifting Thursday:Chair Twins

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In this installment of Thrifting Thursday on a Friday(click here for the first thrift-centric post), I wanted to brag about a pair of handsome chairs I scored at my local Goodwill. I won’t lie, I purchased these chairs last summer, as in almost a year ago. And sadly, I have done nothing with them except shampoo the dickens out of them. But I have tried them “on” in just about every room in the house. I still have no idea where to put these beauts, maybe I just need to take the plunge and finally change them up into something I really love. Oh yeah, you probably want to see what I’ve been jabbering on about. Here are the twins:

Please ignore the dirty grey floors, these were taken in my sunroom which is patiently awaiting a makeover. Alongwith the rest of the house.

I love their shape, and their size, they are compact but big enough to hold a large-ish girl like myself. Granted, they aren’t the type of chairs you really want to curl up in and read War and Peace. They seem to have a slight whoopie cushion quality to them, but minus the rude sound. And were pretty dirty when I brought them home from Goodwill.

See…

Yeah, that dark stuff on the back of the chair is not a shadow, it’s dirt. I suspect these guys lived in a garage for a while before finally being donated, or something died on them (eek). So, I pulled out my trusty shampooer and shampooed the daylights out of these little guys. Most of the dirt came out and they smell a lot better now. But after a year of holding on to these little chairs, I’m still not sure what I want to do with them. I originally wanted to paint or re-stain the exposed wood frame, and then reupholster them in a modern fabric. Sorta like this:

Source was Pinterest, which was originally pinned by another user from a Craigslist posting. Sorry, I tried to find a better and more linkable example but this one was too perfect.

The current upholstery is a floral velour that has seen better days, the print is pretty and I am sure the fabric was nice when it was new in 1971, but I’m still not sold on it. Since the current upholstery is kind of shedding and isn’t quite my cup of tea, I played around with some upholstery fabric I had laying around.

I love the boldness, but it may be too bold and too much of a statement to be able to be used in other rooms. I’ve got some white upholstery grade fabric that might work well, but with two dogs in the house that shed and get on the furniture, I’m a bit hesitant to use it. Any piece in my house needs to be able to take a beating, and tolerate two shedding dogs.

So after a year, I’m still stuck on what to do with these guys. Maybe they just aren’t my style at all, or maybe the whoopie cushion-ness of them makes them too uncomfortable for me to even want to keep them. But since they were so cheap, 9.99 each, the cheapskate in me doesn’t want to let them go. The Nester preaches against having fear when it comes to decorating or even re-doing furniture. Afterall, she states that it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. Oh, how right she is, maybe I will finally take the plunge and do something creative with my chair twins.

What would you do if you had these chair twins in your possession? Would you reupholster them? Paint them? Or simply clean them up and enjoy their vintage quality?

Thrifting Thursday

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In my last post I talked about the happenings of the weekend and shared this photo:

With today being Thursday, which sort of rhymes with thrifting, I thought I’d finally share with you, my vintage loving trash to treasure making friends, my thrifting bounty. I have toyed with the idea of making this a weekly series, in which I’d share all the great treasures I’ve found and added to my hoard or have simply found blog worthy. This series will be titled Thrifting Thursdays, original right? I’m sure there aren’t a zillion blogs out there with that exact blog series.

Anywho, for those of you who are unaware of what thrifting is, here is a definition according to Wikipedia:

Thrifting refers to the act of shopping at a thrift store, flea market, garage sale, or a shop of a charitable organization, usually with the intent of finding interesting items at a cheap price.

Now that we have established that I enjoy buying items at a cheap price,  let’s move on to the eye candy shall we?

First off, I’ll talk about the newest additions to my owl hoard.

These little owls were a bit of splurge. The matching set was sold as separate pieces, at $3 each that brings the total investment to $9. But I just couldn’t leave them, that coffee owl makes me very happy, his wing holds a spoon. I think I will let him hold my peppermint tea bags, and just add a cute little spoon for fun. The salt and pepper shakers will probably be just for looks. Alongwith all the other S/P shakers I bought and have no idea what to do with. And those three owl trivets, they were .69 each. And I’ll actually use them! Nothing makes me happier than buying something cute and useful!! And that little owl there in front of the big guys, he’s a momento from someone’s vacation to New Orleans. I have no connection to New Orleans, nor have I ever visited, but he was just so darn cute, and only .99. It may be time to seek help for this owl addiction.

I also picked up these pretty amber tumblers, I loved the texture of them. And they aren’t huge, just right for a glass of lemonade. You might notice what those tumblers are sitting in…

A rustic dough bowl, I know it sort of looks odd, but they can be dressed up to be totally awesome. Stay tuned on a post dedicated to making dough bowls pretty, aren’t you excited?

This particular dough bowl is basically a hallowed out log, unless I’m completely wrong in calling this item a dough bowl and it’s actually meant to be used as a latrine, in which case I may need to remove it from my dining table. Either way, I love it, especially for 3.99!

This pretty little blue cake plate is also part of my hoard now, I thought it would be nice the next time I bring brownies to the office.

And I can use these cute nesting goose measuring cups when I do make those brownies. After they’ve been cleaned up of course.

My most favorite items found this weekend are these quirky necklaces. I wore the lion the other day. He’s huge at 3 inches long and nearly that wide, definitely a statement piece.

People either hated it or loved it, I love it.

Here I am awkwardly modeling the bow necklace. Excuse the quality, I attempted a self portrait with poor lighting and shaky hands. Next time I’ll have to use a tripod and a remote. But you get the idea of what this little bow is supposed to look like.

  Goodness, I need to slow down on the old stuff shopping or get a bigger house, because honestly I’m running out of room for all of my pretties.

Have you bought or “shopped” for anything on the side of the road that turned out really awesome?