Stanley Tiered Table - Refinishing Progress

I got the base of the table stripped this week.  It is suppose to rain the next couple days, so I had to take advantage of the nice weather today and get to sanding.  I still have the two sides (that hold the top tier) to sand and finish working on the drawer.  I've got a coat of (oil) varnish on the second tier and I'll wipe that down tonight and let it cure. Here's the before stripping and sanding and the after.  I'm so glad to have gotten to this point--a lot of work.

Wood Cabinet - Add Some Glass (UPDATED)

Another great $3 find today.  This cabinet has a solid frame and that dense composite board backing.  Very solid and measures 24" wide by 19" long. It obviously held glass at one time and I knew I could replace that.  I checked my stash and I had a piece of glass big enough to cut two doors, I did that lickety-split.   Now I have to decide which wall I'll hang it on in the kitchen.  We will be packing our vintage kitsch into little guy soon.

Couldn't wait to get the cabinet mounted.  After breakfast this morning I got started.  I'm just so tickled it only cost me $3!  This girl loves a bargain!  Here is is.  I'll take my time filling it up.

Vintage Magazine Holder

Hubby and I hit the thrifts today.  The clouds cleared and the sun came out!  I picked up a few things while out, but my vintage find that I was really excited about is this mid century magazine holder.  I see them all the time, either in metal or wood, but I wanted just the right one at the right price.  I wanted something that looked atomic.  Today was the day and I found this one for $3.  It holds my 50s-60s Saturday Evening Posts I got a while back.  Perfect!

New Find for my Laundry Room

Today was the day!  The Westbend bean pots were on sale today and I got 2 for $2.50!!  Sweet deal!  I wanted something to replace the commercial packaging of baking soda and oxygen bleach in my laundry room and these are great.  Their nice wide opening makes it so easy to scoop from and I don't have to unscrew a lid anymore.  Still thinking about something to replace the box behind to hold the other stuff.

Tiered Table - Making Progress

No way I could stay away from working on my new table--sore back and all.  I got the top shelf stripped sanded and touched up with stain where the veneer was gone off of one of the edges.  I was so excited to get a coat of Danish oil on!  Can't wait to start stripping again tomorrow!

 

(stripped and sanded)

  

(wiped down with damp cloth)

(first application of Danish oil)

Tiered End Table - Stanley Distinctive Furniture

This table sure has seen better days!  The burl inlay is damaged on the base and the wood is very abused.  Never-the-less, I don't have a mid century end table and this one was $9.99.  All I had to hear was my husband say "you should get it".  So I did!  I forgot to take a picture before I put some Ready Strip on it.  The top tier has stripper on it as well as the the burl inlay on the bottom.

First pass with chemical stripper on top tier.

The burl veneer is in bad shape.  I applied stripper (the hazy grey) and scrapping lifted some of the burl (two light patches).  I reapplied stripper and will try to carefully remove the finish without too much friction.  I will just have to patch and disguise the flaws as best I can.

Here is a companion piece to my table that is being sold on ebay for $349.  Mine will never look this nice, but I'm pretty excited to see how much I can improve it.  Both of these tables feature a drawer as well.

Yesterday's Finds

Ooops!  Had some finds I wanted to share from yesterday.  I spent $2.99 on both items, the vase was half off--yes!  This 1950s Pioneer Pottery vase has 22 karat covered handles and an iridescent finish. It is about 7.5" tall.  I have a number of crystal vases that I'm totally bored with and can't wait to put my first garden bouquet in this beauty.  The mosaic bowl is in mint condition.  Not terribly crazy about the colors, but at 99 cents I couldn't pass it up!

Coordinating my Finds

 (Cat planter and fish salt shaker, Harmony House pottery dinner plate)

 (Lefton dogs, spaghetti poodles and glass chrysanthemums)

My finds are pretty much limited to the thrift shop.  I can't justify buying inexpensive things on line and paying a bunch of postage.  It's kinda neat though--because I'm more limited to what I can buy, I have an easier time deciding on what I will get.  Here are a couple shelves on the wall in my family room.  I have my vintage finds on them and I do change things around periodically.  The Lefton elongated dogs were the most expensive find, but still under $10.  The other items are in the 99 cent to $3 range. I found the glass mums today!  I've always liked jade trees, so I was really excited to find this pot of mums.  They are really nice!

 

(wall at night with up lighting)

My Pyrex Collection (some of it anyway)

Here's some of my Pyrex and Fire King.  I took this photo in January and I've since parted with some pieces and purchased more.  I bought the pink bakers and the 4 quart Cinderella mixing bowl for the Horizon mixing bowl set, from ebay.  The rest is stuff I found at the thrift that I liked.  I've since moved this collection to make room for my daily dinnerware...Franciscan Oasis, Grant Crest Tempo and Vernonware (I'll have to take a new picture of the pantry).  Did I say how much I love Pyrex and Fire King before?

New Fire King and Pyrex Finds

I was so excited to find this Summerfield Fire King baking pan!  Not long after I ran into the blue Butterprint Pyrex small mixing bowl.  Almost missed it as it was sitting inside an other bowl.  Price was pretty steep on the Pyrex for the thrift store!  It was "tamale pie" for supper with homemade guacamole, salsa, fresh cilantro and sour cream.  Yummy!

Nevco Salad Servers

( Before refinishing)

  (After refinishing)

I went to hunt for more flatware for my Americana Star, but didn't find any.  I didn't come home empty handed though, I found this set of Nevco salad servers !  I sanded them and applied a Danish oil finish.  The bowls are dull from my oily hands, but I'll shine them up once the finish has cured.  Very happy with my $1.98 find.  We are big salad eaters here and these will be used a lot!

Vintage Granville Nested Tables from England

Finally!  I have finally purchased a set of nested tables!  These have been something on my wishlist for decades, but either I didn't like what I found or there were other priorities.  I've been checking out the furniture shipped from England to St. Vincent De Paul and today I spotted these.  Nice solid wood construction in a classic simple design--just my style!  I'm looking forward to refinishing them.

Find of the Day

I wasn't planning on stopping by the stores today.  My husband I and were just going to do some grocery shopping, but we live so close to so many of them, we said what the heck.  I decided to peek at the flatware today and lo and behold--28 pieces from a set of Americana International Stainless in the 'star' pattern.  Cost me $7, but what makes it so sweet is that I am replacing my 30 year old everyday flatware that just looks terrible.  This Americana looks a lot better than my old stuff, nice and shiny!  Now my husband has something else to hunt for when we go to the thrift stores--I'm not all that keen on looking through flatware.

There are a lot of teaspoons, which for me is great.  I cook everyday and frequently use multiple teaspoons.
I also like to eat with salad/dessert forks, so I was glad to find four. Gonna need dinner forks though, only one of those. 

Grant Crest and Vernonware - I'm in Love!

 
When I was in the thrift store, I picked up a Tickled Pink Vernonware pink speckled bowl and I showed it to my husband and said "there is something familiar about this".  I didn't buy it that day, but I went home and did some research and I was back to the thrift store the next day!  That started my quest for 1950s dinnerware.  To make a long story short--I ran across the Grant Crest Tempo pattern and it was love at first sight.  I became obsessed with finding pieces and I have been successful.  Prices on these are not for the faint of heart!  I've mixed the solid color Vernonware bowls from Heavenly Days, Anytime and Tickled Pink with my Grant Crest Tempo which give me a great selection of shapes to use on a daily basis.  I'm still on the lookout for some pieces to add to my set, but I'm quite content with what I have amassed so far!

Vase and Vikings

I have a weakness for Asian cherry/plum blossom designs.  Spotted this vase at the thrift store.  It wasn't a giveaway , but it was very reasonable and I just had to have it.  The stand I purchased on ebay from a gentleman in England about 10 years ago.  I was elated that the vase fit into it!

It was my lucky day when I found a bag of wood Vikings at Goodwill.  I knew my husband would like them.  Here are a couple of my favorites.  I call them Laurel and Hardy.

Thrifty Finds for Today

I had a wonderful day with my very dear friend. The girls went out and hit the thrift stores!  We also had a nice leisurely lunch.  And to top it off, it didn't rain like the forecaster predicted, but was partly sunny the entire day!

Here are a few of the little gems I found.  1940s cow creamer--I've been keeping an eye open for one as someone in my home has been dropping hints.  This little gal is so cute, even cuter in person.

There is quite a bit of vintage pottery made in the USA  at the thrifts, but I've been resisting because I don't really need any more dishes.  But I found this nut dish--perfect size at about 12" and I love the color!  It has feet too, which is really neat.

A set of  spaghetti poodles!  I thought these were sweet, the mama has a pompon tail made of a cotton fiber.  The little pups have some the black on their eyes rubbed off on the other side, but they don't appear to have any damage.  I only recently ran across a blog post talking about these, so when I saw them I was excited!  They were dirty, but I took a toothbrush and some soap to them and they cleaned up nicely.

Critters in the Laundry Room

I'm shuffling my knickknacks around.  After hanging up my new vintage curtain in the laundry room, I decided to moved some ceramics from another room into the laundry room.  Found this sweet sugar container with a mama goose and her two babies at the thrift store for a sweet price!  My laundry room is such a bright cheerful place!

My New Kitchen Flor

 

I got my new Flor tiles for my 1950s ranch galley kitchen.  As always, I worked within my budget and settled on these red tiles.  I integrated them with existing tiles I had.  It was a bit tricky and I hated it at first--the red was so overpowering, but it has grown on me and now I really like it. 

Little Atomic and Eames Style Finds

Found these at the Goodwill.  I don't find stuff with these mid century designs very often.  It's really exciting when I do. 

Vintage Curtains for my Mid Century Ranch Laundry Room

One of the things on my wishlist is mid century curtains.  There are some pretty neat ones out there, but for Mrs. Vintage-on-a-budget, I've come up empty handed--until now.  I found these on ebay and put them on my watch list days before auction was ending, and 2 minutes before the auction was up, I remembered to go check on them and I decided to bid and I won. 

These curtains appear to be polyester and are a bit textured, slightly shiny, and off-white.  One of the pinch pleats was frayed (which was pictured in the auction), but since I knew I would be cutting them down and removing the pleats--no biggie.  There is a bit more wear than was described, but re-hemming them up gave them a new fresh edge with out destroying too much of the pattern.  I sewed them by hand and did it the day after I got them--determined not to let another project go undone! Now I have to do a little redecorating (an excuse to go on the hunt  for more vintage!)