Let's See....What's Been Happenin'

It's been more of the same...my continuing projects and healthy dose of hunting! We also celebrated another anniversary and hubby wanted me to celebrate it with a new bullet planter for the sitting room that I've been redecorating in mid century style.  Of course I didn't argue with him.

I was gifted a pair of beautiful sterling cuff links for French cuffs.  Though they were intended for menswear, they fit my blouses beautifully.

I've always got a list of projects and picking up this mid century shelf for my new decor is another one. I spent a whole $12.50 on it.  It's simple and the tops are laminated and show wear. I'll prime and paint it in a blonde tone and add a faux wood grain to coordinate with my new space.

When I saw the shelf assembled at the store is was three columns wide, but I decided to make two shelves as I  prefer the look and it fits in my space better.

Picked up this funky vintage lamp and little table that someone made into a stool.  Used the legs on another piece of furnite. I'm going to paint the lamp and rewire it.  I've got a vision.  Hope to purchase a vintage style fiberglass shade in the future. Also found this beautiful orange Krenit bowl.

I'm doing really well in being selective about what thrifted vintage items I bring home.  Pyrex must be a piece I really want for my scaled down collection, something for one of my traders or something I'm certain I can trade.  Pink daisy and friendship met that criteria. I pick up Melmac/melamine dishes for a trader and myself. Was thrilled to find another reindeer Dream Pet like the one that I keep from a healthy collection I had but decided to sell.  This particular guy just gets to me!

Hubby has more time right now and he loves to hunt.  Hawaiiana is one of the things he collects.  There are particular things and brands he looks for and he's been lucky lately.

Pyrex Butterprint 442 bowls in white is one many people I know are missing so I picked it up to trade.  Had to get the yellow/green ashtray for my new room just for its pretty color and periodness LOL

Some things I thrifted couldn't resist and will enjoy. I've since picked up some plastic grape leaves and tendrils for my grapes...orange/red are perfect for the family room decor. I've been wanting some for years but never found a color I really liked. Hubby got a nice rhinestone cufflink set that he will wear to work.  Pink Melmac bowls we will use--they are light weight and can take a lot of abuse.  The glass are simply fabulous!

Vintage Swedish China Cabinet

I have in all my years never owned a china cabinet.  I always expected to have one.  It wasn't a priority and I wasn't in a hurry to get one.  I always felt like it was one of those things I wanted to buy only once.  The past 6 years I've really been stepping up my search.  I knew what I wanted and I knew what I DIDN'T want to pay for one.  The past year I was starting to let that feeling of hopelessness enter.  But low and behold, a few days ago as I was leaving a vintage shop-- right by the door was my dream cabinet!  We brought it home yesterday and today I anchored it to the wall, cleaned it up and selected things to put in it.  I left the sliding glass doors off to take the picture and avoid the reflection.  I'm so happy with this little Swedish cabinet and I'm even happier I didn't have to pay an arm and a leg!  I let hubby ceremoniously hand the cashier the credit card, he's been wanting to buy me something to commemorate our anniversary in less than a week.

$13 Thrift Store Bookcase Find and Playing with my Pyrex

I picked up a vintage bookcase at the thrift store for $13 a few weeks ago.  Solid and sturdy, but it needed TLC.  I've been needing something to display some of my Pyrex in, such a shame so much sits on the storage shelf until I rotate my kitchen displays.  Finally I have one permanent display!

Must show a picture of my Pyrex first, I can't get enough of how pretty it is.

Here is the whole bookcase.  It's just 2 feet wide and 39 inches tall.  It fits under the window in the family room which was a requirement.  It was stained, but after stripping it, it appears to be walnut.

The stain covered up the grain and made the bookcase darker than the natural wood.

 

This picture is after sanding, applying an oil varnish and installing lighting.  My plan is to get two custom glass shelves later in the fall.

And here she is all dressed up.  I like it so much the way it is I don't think I'll be changing it, at least not soon.  Not sure about what I have on top, I have a couple other space savers in other patterns--I may put them up top with additional pieces. Have to work that out!  I'm looking forward to seeing how the glass shelves and lighting will look.

Linking up with Sir Thrift-A-Lot over at Thriftasarus!  Come on over here to see what everybody else found!

Catching up on all my finds!!! -- Pyrex, pottery and More!

As usual, I'm rushing to put this post together.  I have been so busy with vintage collecting activities, Pyrex trading and selling and all those other things life demands.  Now the weather is nice and I need to tend to my garden as well.  I hastily took pictures this morning, so they suffer, but we'll just ignore that today.  Enough dialog, here are my finds!

One of my fun Pyrex finds last week, a red 401!

And the elusive Friendship 404!  Yay!!!

Had a great trade with a trader on the west coast.  Finished up my Daisy and so close to being done with Verde!

Found some great vintage pottery including the California pottery lazy Susan set.  I've never seen one with a deviled egg plate as the center piece and it has this awesome rooster on it.  It looks baby blue in this image on my computer, but it is turquoise.

I absolutely DON'T need anymore atomic pottery dishes, but no way I was going to leave these Salem China North Star pieces at the thrift.

Found the mate to my salt/pepper set and this turquoise pottery egg cup looking piece that is too big to be an egg cup.

Mod kitsch--the footed mug is Holt Howard dated 1967.


Lots more kitsch...

Love this darling little deer with pink rhinestone eyes.

This little gal needs a new do.  Gonna see if I can find a troll to get some new hair for her.

So excited about this set of metal worked pictures made in Hong Kong.  They need cleaning and hanging.

And we got hubby this super cool chest of drawers for his dressing room  He saw it and fell in love with it.  I could tell he was dead set on getting it and I couldn't blame him.  Fits perfectly in his room.

All of this and I'm tending my garden and still making sure Mr. Bossy Boots corgi gets the attention he demands!!!

I'm linking up with Sir-Thrift-A-Lot at Thriftasaurus!  Gotta get over there and see what's happen' on the finds for everybody else!

The Library - My Ongoing Project

Last week I had to turn my attention to our library.  I've been thrifting so much it has eaten into time that I should be spending on other things and I'm going to ease up on thrifting for a while.  One of the things we keep our eyes open for at the thrifts are interesting things for our in home library.  When hubby is not lecturing or in his office at the university,  he needs a place to work at home as well as a place for all his books. I made a home office for him some years ago, but the 11' x 12' room became stuffed full--overflowing onto the floor, so I decided to give him the front room which is about 17'x18' not counting the adjoining entry way and hall.  It feels so open and uncongested--what a relief!  He's loving it.  Here are some pictures.

The first thing I had to address when creating this new space was the desk.  We had an Ikea dining table in his old office.  It was larger than a standard desk, but I had to use an additional piece of furniture for the scanner and printer.  Since that room has to also double as his dressing room, there were too many pieces of furniture for my liking.  For the new library I built him a desk out of 2 old 2' wide closet doors and a couple of rolling cart/shelves we were using in the family room that I wanted to get out of there (I want a mid century credenza!!!!!)  Not only does this provide a spacious working surface, but I only had to spend a few dollars on hardware to secure it all together.  I reused the 12'x15' area rug we once used in the family room as well.

I put the desk together one day when hubby was at work.  His old room was deconstructed and repainted end of Spring and it was well into Autumn.  He didn't have a table anymore and he was pining for his old space.  I had packed all of his collectibles into boxes--I kept telling him to be patient.  When he came home the day I put the desk together--he was speechless.  Not only had I assembled the desk, but I also unpacked some of his collectibles and decorated a bit.

We pick up interesting objects from the thrifts, a certain amount are those souvenirs people buy and then get rid of.  We have found a number of pieces of reproduction Greek pottery that way. Hubby is a historian so art and history dominate in the library making it feel a bit like a mini museum.  There are things I have made for him.  His mom made this Castile Leon coat of arms latch hook from scratch. I had already made him a griffin latch hook and had all these leftover yarns that I collected from the thrift.  His mom took them and made him the Castile Leon piece, she did a great job!

This 1950s ranch has one of those built in entry way shelves...

Shelves are stuffed with books and collectibles, I try to match the collectibles to the subject matter of the books...

...but it's not always possible.  I recently picked up another bookshelf and had to shift books around a bit.

 

We call this the Asian corner. I have my own collection of Asian porcelain that is packed away, have to figure out where to put that.  Last week I hung the four Japanese woodblock prints we found recently, they surround a piece of embroidery I completed and framed.  Hubby found a second halogen up light like the other we already have.

 

We picked up this short bookshelf at the thrift last week.  There is still enough room for one more on this wall!  There is a fourth wall with fireplace and a recessed wall where I put wire shelving.  It is 12' long and 20" deep.  I mounted curtains on the ceiling in front of it.  There are two wands to pull the curtains open and reveal the shelving unit. It's a great storage space for all that other stuff, but it could become additional bookcase space in the future!

There is still more to do.  It will be an ongoing project.  I'd like to get new window treatments for the 10' window.  Currently there are mini blinds, which work, but I would like something a little nicer.  And sometimes I daydream about having a carpenter come in and constructing wall to wall bookshelves!

 

Labor day weekend can't be without a little work!

I had big plans for today--I was going to sand the Egyptian revival desk I bought a couple months ago.  I won't have 3 days off in a row for the rest of the dry season.  But I laid in bed this morning struggling with the thought--there are so many other things I need to do  I decided not to stress out about it and ended up working 7 hours straight on all kinds of other stuff, to include--cleaning up that Egyptian ottoman that's been sitting around...even longer than the desk!  This piece is likely from the 60s, I've seen some similar, but this one is way cooler in that it has hieroglyphs embossed in the leather cushion and there are three different styles of medallions in a very classical ancient Egyptian motif.  The other ottomans I've seen have camel medallions and a large pyramid on the cushion.

 

Initially I thought it was missing an end cap, but I found that they were stacked together.  Very, very grimy, I dare not speculate what was all over it.  

 

I had to bang out one of the end caps and here I already shined them up. 

 

Here it is all cleaned up.   I fluffed up the stuffing and put a new (old) shoelace in.   I will order a special leather product for leather cleaning and restoration--just to perk up the tone and sheen hopefully.

 The ottoman in it's new home under the vanity of the Egyptian themed bathroom.

Stanley Table - Finished!!!

I'm thrilled!  I got the table refinishing done!  I think it looks great--better than I expected! It was a lot of work, but so worth it!

Oh yeah and before!

Stanley Table - Progress

Moving along on the base of the table. After much thought, I decided not to re-stain it.  Here it is after a few coats of Danish oil.  It is supposed to be nice and dry this weekend--I plan to sand the last two side pieces and drawer front.

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.

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)