freshvintage

I will slap you

There was only one estate sale in the area last weekend, so I ran into local bloggers/dealers Dona & Connie while I was there. They packed Dona's truck to the brim. I walked away with just a few things, but then noticed that the house across the street was having a sale, too. While I was paying for my pile of stuff, the homeowner's son walked into the garage, looked at my pile and asked, "Is someone really buying this stuff? Why would someone buy this?".  In my mind, I told him that someone would buy it because his mother is a sucker and was selling it all for a pittance. And then I slapped him in the face (in my mind).

Here's a white matte pottery planter, five apple green shutters, a pink apron, set of six floral-painted tin coasters, and a daisy throw. Does anyone know if that type of flowery knitting or crocheting has a name?

I found these at a thrift store. The heavy mother/baby statue appears to be a garden ornament. It is made from cement (or plaster?), and then painted to look like wood.

I have a feeling that the lovely ladies at the thrift store thought this pitcher was a Made-in-China castoff from HomeGoods. God, I love when people are wrong.  I think this one's an oldie.

 

And for something vintage-inspired, but not quite vintage...here is the new lamp over our kitchen table: the Porter Pendant from Pottery Barn. It has an adjustable cord and weighted pulley that let you adjust the height.

And the part that I am most proud of? Chris and I actually installed it ourselves. My whole family just pooped their pants from the shock of it all. I don't do electricity...ever since I stood in my brother's bedroom with a flashlight while my dad asked me to "keep an eye on that broken outlet while I go to the basement and flip the breaker". He wanted to see what would happen. Well, I'll tell you what effing happened. The outlet exploded in my face and my brother's bed caught on fire. I took my fried bangs, hauled ass out of the room, and ended up in the fetal position next to the front door. Thankfully, I was just far enough away from the explosion that I wasn't burned.  And there wasn't too much damage to the house because my dad ran upstairs with a fire extinguisher. My dad, the accountant: not the handiest of men, but at least he was prepared.

Junk Beautiful Book Review & Alltop Design

It isn't officially released until tomorrow, but I got my hands on a copy of the JUNKMARKET ladies' new book, Junk Beautiful. Their second book has 204 big pages of original ideas on using junk to transform rooms into beautiful and creative spaces. The book has nine chapters of makeovers, each in a different area of the house. The design and instructions are fun and lively, and the photography captures every vintage detail.

The book is filled with great decorating ideas for entire rooms, as well as detailed instructions and photos for each project. After finishing the book, I came away with a list of items that I often see at thrift stores and estate sales, but never would have purchased. Now, I have a reason to buy chicken feeders, casters, antique hand drills, camp toasters and so much more.

My favorite chapter is the "Laundry Lounge", where the junk gals transform a dingy laundry room into a bright & vintage-inspired craft room/laundromat. And that's where you'll find my favorite idea in the whole book: a croquet set used as a broom holder. I used to pass over croquet sets at yard sales because they are missing balls or mallets. Not anymore. Now I'm determined to find out if my Swiffer Wet Jet handle is the same size as a croquet mallet.

Sue & Ki will be demonstrating their junk style on the Today Show on March 27th. Don't forget to watch!

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I have some great news to share. The freshvintage blog was added to a new website called Alltop. The site is a summary of the most recent posts from the top blogs in a wide array of categories, such as sports, parenting, music, movies, education and wine. freshvintage is listed in the Design section, along with many of my favorites: decor8, Design*Sponge, Design Mom and Sk*rt. You can think of Alltop as a dashboard for stories from sites that you love, as well as sites that you've never heard of.

Alltop was created by Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur, speaker, eight-time author and all-around super-smart internet guru. Guy also created the site Truemors. His blog is one of the top 100 most-read blogs in the entire universe! Guess what mine is ranked? 62,410!  Maybe being on Alltop will give me some street cred, so that I can at least break into the fifty thousands.

[Have a blog? See where yours ranks on Technorati by typing your blog's web address into the search box.]

Loops & Labels

I bought most of my finds last week from a fancy-schmancy hospital thrift store. You can tell that they have rich donors and consignors by the bag that they gave me for my purchases:

 

I had the kids with me when I went to that store, which is always a challenge. Luckily, they were both in a happy mood. While Finn quietly played with the toys, Maeve followed me through the store singing "Sixteen going on Seventeen" from The Sound of Music. My petite three-year-old turned a few heads when she clearly belted out the lines:

I am sixteen going on seventeen
Innocent as a rose
Bachelor dandies, drinkers of brandies
What do I know of those?

She'd better damn well know nothing of them ever.

Now, on to my finds for this week:

• FiberCo LaundriPak box. This was used to ship your dirty clothes home to mom. It originally had a strap that would be wrapped around the box.
• Black floral biscuit tin. This is the third one that I've bought with this pattern.
• Baby quilt with circus animals
• Wooden chair/booster seat
• Photograph album
• Green Bingo cards
• Two Watt Pottery covered dishes

Yes, I bought more Bingo cards. I had the itch after I found the white cards last week, so I bought these from eBay. There were nine different designs included in the lot of 128 cards.

I never realized that Bingo players suffer from triskaidekaphobia. This bingo company doesn't make cards that start with the number 13:

I was so excited when I saw the two Watt pottery bowls at the uppity thrift store. I collect the Loops pattern in the pumpkin color, but this is my first set of covered dishes. I paid twenty for the two of them.

Here's part of my Watt collection, along with a McCoy fish pitcher (c. 1935) in the same pumpkin color:

The vintage white shelf is on the kitchen wall that is closest to my mandarin-colored family room. You can see four newly-framed apple crate labels in the background (and one in an antique frame under the shelf). My in-laws have given us so many of these vintage labels, and I have been waiting for the walls to be painted before I hung them up. They are all from Yakima, Washington, which is Chris' hometown. I bought these four black 11"x14" frames at Wal-Mart for five bucks each. 

I have five other labels hanging in different rooms in my house, and I have about 12 more labels that are sitting in an envelope.  I love the colors and the images. And the fact that they bring a little bit of Yakima into our house. I'm just worried that my house is going to look like an apple crate label museum if I hang them all up. I might have to start charging admission.

Bingo!

I got lucky this week. I found a few things at thrift stores and I hit a great estate sale. The ladies running the sale were a hoot. They were having way too much fun. I wanted to chug a beer with them.

Here is $47 worth of finds from the past week...

A gray chippy bench, white planters, and Alcoa aluminum cooler:

There was only one happy tomato glass to match the happy tomato pitcher. I'm on the lookout for a whole set, so if anyone finds any glasses, please let me know!

My favorite find of the day? An old Bingo game with 75 cards. Last week, I just happened to visit The Cottage Girls' blog with photos of their sale at the Big Flea. I went to an estate sale this weekend in Delaware and lo and behold...a big box of old heavy-duty bingo cards with greyhounds on them! Not the same cards as The Cottage gals, but adorable nonetheless.  I didn't find them until my second sweep of the house. It always pays to make a second sweep!

Floral frogs and bingo gamespieces...

I bought these two Better Homes & Gardens books at the estate sale. The Decorating Book is from 1956 and looks like no one ever cracked it open.

And then there is the Handyman Book. God, he is sooo hot. Just look at that goiter (muscle, I mean) on his arm. And his babe in pink is just swoooooning over him. I love a man who smokes a pipe while using a manual drill with his eyes closed. HOT!

And the necklace goes to...

Lucky comment #53: Kelli. There were a couple of people named Kelli...this one has the email address that starts with "taureau". Congrats, Kelli! I'll be in touch.

And thanks so much to Lisa for the giveaway!

Semper Tinnitus

Holy sheisse! I can't believe how many people entered the giveaway for Lisa Leonard's necklace.  I'll announce the big winner on Monday.

Now, for my finds this week...

The tin picnic basket was a great score because it is so hard to find them at a decent price anymore. The suitcase was on consignment at a local thrift store for $25. Re-damn-dick-u-lous! The manager of the store knew that I wanted it, and that no one was going to buy it for $25, so he talked to the consignor and he let me have it for MUCH cheaper.  It pays to schmooze (and beg a little).

"Irish" ice skates...

An unused baby book with the cutest graphics and this bookmark tucked inside...

I bought a few pieces of ephemera, including this old composition book...

A 1913 order ledger from an Oleomargarine manufacturer...

I so look forward to summertime when I can use these labels for my homemade boisenberry chutney and my delectable pickled baby carrots.

Kidding. The only pickling going on in this house is of the liver variety. But these labels are damn cute...

This copy of First Year Latin brought back memories of high school, when my mom convinced me to take Latin because it would be helpful when I eventually learned other languages. I probably should have just learned the other languages instead. And, the only thing I remember from two years of studying a dead language? The Latin version of Jingle Bells. Horrible, I know. Tinnitus, tinnitus, semper tinnitus!

I also bought this handwriting workbook from 1898, "The Natural System of Vertical Handwriting"...

The student practiced writing a receipt. Six dozen eggs for a quarter! They must be feeding a shitload of people with that many eggs. But they're only buying five biscuits. I guess they were hoping for some loaves and fishes action with those biscuits.