Craigslist find!

Ah, Craigslist. There are few things I check for periodically: an armoire for our bedroom (we don't have a closet in that room), a cupboard for our bathroom, and seating for our front porch. Among other things of course...Craigslist is wonderful for window shopping!
I was excited to find this cupboard when I started my search:

After a number of emails back and forth with the seller during the day I decided to drive out after work to pick it up before someone else snatched it up. As he told me, the first one to pick it up gets it. Well by golly, that person was going to be me! :) So I called my dear husband and asked if he would accompany me on a little road trip (about 40 minutes drive from home...hmmm). After all, I couldn't very well go to some strangers house I have been in contact with over email by myself, right?

Turned out the owner is in the process of moving to Canada and has connections to the Detroit Tigers, so I think my husband was hoping we could stay and talk baseball!

Once we got it home I went back to the bathroom and I'm pretty sure the room had shrunk! The piece will fit, but will completely cover the wall to the toilet. The room is so small that I think it will look too crowded. So, I changed my plan, which was accompanied by rolled eyes and sighs by my husband. But he just doesn't have the vision! At that point he gave up trying to understand me and went back to watch the game, telling me to call him if I needed help moving it somewhere. After nearly 10 years of marriage, I think he realizes that there are some things about me he will never understand. Some girls love shoes, and I love vintage furniture! lol Maybe one day I will find the perfect vintage couch to replace the ugly black leather couch from my husbands bachelor days, but even I have to admit it is practical with two kids...much easier to wipe off leather than fabric and I don't care if the kids are crawling all over it. One day though...

So once he left me to my own devises, I grabbed the can of stripper that I used this summer to refinish our front door and went to work. Yes, I am impatient, but I really couldn't wait to see what was under the green paint! It's actually a pretty color green, but isn't the color I wanted for this piece. And the owner said that the unpainted drawer was original to the piece, so I hoped the rest of the piece would be as pretty. I got the paint off the top, wiped it down with mineral spirits and found this:

Gorgeous!!! I was literally doing a happy dance in the middle of the room.

So now I have a plan: I'm going to finish stripping the top and the lip of the piece, then I will add some soft wax to the top to protect and seal the wood (I ordered Fibbes & Sons soft wax from Etsy). The rest of the piece I will paint white and I think some glass knobs would really look better than the white porcelain knobs that are currently on it.

Love the beaded details!!!

Next I need to look at the back of the piece. The panels that are missing seem to simply be a veneer, and I don't think they affect the actual structure of the cabinet. But I need to inspect it more closely to be sure. There are also two small pieces that have come off the bottom right of the cabinet that need to be attached. They aren't broken, just detached, which is good. I think some wood glue will take care of that without a problem. You can see the open spot in the top photo, just look at the bottom edge, just past the cabinet door.

Once it's all done, I think I will use it as a tv cabinet for the front room. We bought a very boring tv stand from the thrift store a year ago for our old tv that has since broken and been replaced by a smaller one. This will raise the height of the tv a bit and there is still plenty of room on top for the small cable box and the Wii console. The cupboard can hold games and dvd's, and the side cubbies can hold coloring books, etc. I wouldn't mind it for some craft supply storage, but at this point it would serve more of an aesthetic purpose, rather than a practical storage purpose...I have too much stuff! lol

So what do you think of my Craigslist find? Would you have jumped on it, or is it too "old-timey" for your taste?

It's been nutty!

When last I wrote, I mentioned that things in my tiny speck of the world have been incredibly busy. No busier than many other people I am sure, but still a whirlwind for us! :)

August & September was full of school prep for the kids. Abby started Kindergarten, which she has been looking forward to for at least 2 years (when Davin started). She was nervous and excited at the same time. No tears for my little champ...she stood proudly in line with her new classmates, said a few shy "Hellos" to some of the other children, and when her teacher came out she happily went inside with her class.

Davin started 2nd grade (oh my goodness, how is that possible already?!?!) and for him it was all "Wash, Rinse, Repeat". He was excited to see his classmates again and do "boy stuff". :) This year he is at a new door at the school so for me it was tough because I had to choose which child to stand with in line! Davin was so excited to leave me, so I went with Abby. He was in good hands with his class, and I barely got a kiss and a "Bye Mom!" before he dashed off. :) Love that boy!

This year I was also elected as the PTO President for the school. I was the Secretary last year, but as our previous President has moved on with her older children it was time for a new person to step up. Sadly, our school has a low parent participation rate...for lots of reasons I think, mostly that so many parents work and many just aren't sure how to "step up". I don't think they don't want to help, but it can be kind of scary to just jump in. It was for me. But it's an important part of our school, so when I was asked if I would be willing I said yes. Now, I also knew what the challenges would be. I work full time so I can't be at the school as often as many other PTO members, but the VP and Treasurer are closer to the school, one works from home and the other works nights, so they have been great at stepping in and filling in when I can't be there. I will say though, it's hard work! Fundraisers, communicating with businesses, volunteers, teachers, meetings, websites, you name it and we are doing it. :) I don't know if this is something that I can do for years down the road, but I hope that we can build a solid parent base who can chair projects and teams so that the three of us aren't solely responsible for all of the events and projects. And most importantly, to build "a pipeline" of future leadership at the school.

My husband finished his last season as the high school tennis coach this fall, so he was occupied for most of August through October. Practises daily with the team and tournaments on most Saturdays - oi vey! He has done it for a number of years, but after this year he decided that he wanted to step down so he could be with the kids more. With their schedules getting busier and busier it will be helpful to have the extra pair of hands! :) I love that he is so involved with the kids, and being a teacher, he is able to be home with them after school - a huge help for me, since I usually work until 6pm or so.

The fall was also full of soccer practises and dance classes. Both kids wanted to play soccer, and practise was on Tues and Thurs at 6pm, at different schools! Yikes! We (I) made it work, dropping Davin off first under the supervision of his coach until my hubby could get to the field after tennis, and I would take Abby to hers. Games on Saturday mornings and by the end of October I was very glad to wrap that up! :)

Dance class this year is on Tuesday as well, so we had to let the coach know that we couldn't attend soccer on that day. This year, she was moved up from the intro Kinderdance session to Mini, which is the first opportunity to focus on individual classes. She couldn't decide which she was interested in, so in the end we opted to try to Mini Combo program, which is Ballet, Tap and Jazz back to back. It's nice that it's all on the same night, but Tuesdays become long nights when we are at the studio for 90 minutes. I have discovered though that if you ever need to catch up on the latest teen sensations, spend time at a dance studio...I've been caught up on all of Taylor Swifts music by now...on repeat. Yay. *wink* Abby manages the classes pretty well so far...I was a little worried that she would be really tired on Wednesdays, but she seems to be doing fine so far. She is loving all three classes and is really excited that she will be dancing in three numbers at the recital in June. That also means three costume changes, but so far the studio has been really conscious about appropriate costumes for the girls ages so I am sure she will look cute. :) I still have a tough time with makeup on a 5 year old, but after seeing how they look from the audience I understand the concept of stage makeup...and at least I don't have to put blue eyeshadow on her! :) Can you tell I didn't dance when I was growing up? I was climbing trees, so this is all new to me! lol

My job has been super busy this fall too. We closed a major exhibit on September 30, which brought in a fair few folks and left us all a bit winded. :) But we have now moved on to the holiday programming and I'm just working through all of the piles that went untouched when we had lines out the door. It was a good problem to have! :)

We spent a lot of time going to see the Detroit Tigers play this summer and fall.

We were cheering them on as they made their way to the World Series. Sadly, they were handily beaten but not before hubby and I had a chance to see one of the games! What a fun (chilly!) night we had!

I interspersed that with visits to the Physical Therapist 3 times a week to work on my back issues for about 5 weeks. Ugh. I have some compression on one of my discs so it causes pain and numbness in my left leg/foot. It helped, though I think I might be dealing with this permanently, so thats frustrating. But I did love the heat packs at the end of the sessions! lol

Let's see, where does that bring us? We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house for 10 people, and I had a lot of fun cooking and cleaning (ok, not so much fun cleaning!) for a couple days before hand. On Friday I worked, and then we dashed off to another family gathering. I was kicking myself that I didn't take any pictures, but we were having so much fun talking, eating and playing that no one remembered to take any! Good times though! I do have two pictures of Thanksgiving...of the Frozen Lemon Gingersnap Pie we made...very lemony, but very good. The kids made the ice cream by hand using this method. I also made a Pumpkin Roll, using my best friends mom's recipe - delish!

On the crafting side, I had to table a lot of projects because I was just too busy. I had hoped that I could get my Etsy shop up and running in September, but that definitely didn't happen. :) I haven't made a card in ages...my poor colored pencils and Copics have been sitting forlornly on my desk since August! I finally unearthed them yesterday when I had a chance to clean off my desk...they were buried under a mountain of things! :) I'm hoping that I can finally get back into the groove...at the very least get some Christmas cards done for my family! I have been doing some yarnwork though. Crochet especially, but also some knitting. My mother sent me loads of yarn that belonged to my grandmother. She has had to stop knitting because of arthritis so they decided I should get it. I was so excited! I will miss my grandmothers work...she was an amazing knitter and I still can't bear to part with any of the things she has made for my kids, even though they can't wear the sweaters and socks and hats anymore. I just love them too much. I love the yarn that she gave me, and whenever I open the boxes I get a lovely whiff of her house. I love it, and I hope I can do her justice with the projects that I make from it.

I was gifted knitting needles and crochet hooks from an employee last year after his wife passed away, and I prefer to use those for many of my projects because I know how much she loved them. I suppose its sentimental, but of all the people who could have recieved them, I was the lucky one. I don't think I could ever turn someone down if they offered something like that to me.

I was super excited when a friend on Facebook saw a photo I had posted of a Hello Kitty hat I made for Abby and asked if I would make a hippo hat for a shower gift. I had never made a hippo hat before, but I did some research of other earflap hats and then scaled the patterns down to fit a newborn. It turned out pretty cute I thought! :)

I'm also working on this baby blanket in teal & tangerine (I am loving these colors!):

Still working on my first pair of socks (I kind of lost steam for them, but I'm determined to finish), a scarf for myself, a winter hat for Davin, and a doll blanket for Abby:

I just finished a couple of knit dishcloths (I love those for really scrubbing things!), a few preemie hats for the local NICU and a couple of coffee cup cozies for a coworker.

I've also been doing a bit of hunting for some vintage goodies that my end up on my Etsy shop site...what do you think of these little finds?

Wow, this has turned into an incredibly long post! If you have stuck with me through it, I think you can see why I haven't been blogging much. :) I've been around though, as I mentioned before. Now that I finally caved and got a smartie phone I am addicted to Instagram and update my Twitter page more frequently than before. Feel free to drop me a line and say hello! :)

Now that Thanksgiving is done I don't have to listen to Christmas music in secret anymore and I am slowly bring out the decorations. It has turned quite cold here in Michigan, so I am stalling on putting out the twinkle lights, but it will look so much more like Christmas once we finally bite the bullet and do it. :) By this weekend, I promise. We are supposed to reach 50 degrees this weekend, so perhaps I can coax hubby onto the ladder when it isn't in the low 30's like today. :)

New vintage finds!

Finally sharing the vintage goodies I found at an estate sale when we were up north!

Above:

Blue Gingham metal tray

Silhouette picture in frame

2 cards, Birthday and Mother's Day (the back has a sweet note from "Mildred")

Photo

Above:

A collection of magazines & small books (Open page in the center right)

Singer Home Decorators Guide & 2 Insurance Receipt books (1940's - open pages on bottom right)

Half circle table (thankfully it was so small and light it fit in the car for the drive home! I haven't decided if it will get a coat of paint yet)

2 School Books (Speller and History, on top of table)

All this for $25.00!

Just realized I forgot to take a photo of one other item, but I'll post a pic as soon as I get it framed and hung. It's a marriage license, and so pretty!

(And on a side note...I am so excited to finally know how to make a photo collage! I don't know what I was so nervous about...using Picasa it was so easy! Maybe one of these days I'll finally figure out all of these blogging tricks! ha ha!)

Thrifty find!

Look what I found at my local thrift store for $10.00! Woohoo!

I'm a sucker for a typewriter...especially one that looked like it was still in working order. It came with the case, and besides smelling a bit musty as though it's been stored in the garage for a long time and in need of a good cleaning, I thought it was worth seeing if I could indeed get it working.

It's a Remington Quiet Riter Eleven and dates to probably the 1950's. I didn't need to do much to the body of the typewriter itself. All of the keys work, nothing sticks and the rest of the mechanics were in good shape. The only thing that wasn't so great was the ribbon. It was fairly light. Not surprising considering how old the tape could have been. It's a cloth tape and I was surprised that there was any letter image at all when I tested it. So I did a bit of research to find out if a replacement ribbon could be found. Well, yes, it could be (was I really that surprised? No.) But, then I also found out that these fabric ribbons were often inked with an oil based ink, which last a very long time. I wondered whether I could reink it. After a little digging I found some chatter among folks who restore vintage typewriters and learned that some revive the existing ribbons & ink by applying WD-40. Who knew?

So I sat down with a can of WD-40, a few cotton swabs and paper towels and set to work.

I took the spool off and started to unwind the ribbon. I then sprayed a bit of WD-40 in a plastic cup and used the cotton swab to dip into the liquid and wipe it on the ribbon. I found it was easier to lay the ribbon on the paper towel and apply it that way so my hands were a bit freer.

It actually went pretty fast. Once it was applied I rolled the ribbon up again and placed the spool back into the machine. Then came the test!

Beautiful!

I love well how my typewriter works! I'm hoping to use some typed phrases for lots of projects down the road. I don't know about typing long passages at this point...it's amazing how different it feels to type on a typewriter again. In high school typing class we used electric typewriters and I had a great Brother electic typewriter all through middle & high school. This one needs more physical force to type. If I press as lightly as needed for a computer keyboard, the manual keys don't have enough momentum to raise the letter up to the paper. We are indeed spoiled in the modern age, and I have a new found appreciation for secretaries  who could sit at this machine and type 85 wpm! Well done ladies! :)

I also found this great 1950s commercial for the Remington Quiet Riter and I just have to share it!

Vintage Finds

I wanted to share a few recent thrift store finds!

Two pair of vintage salt & pepper shakers...I love the little Michigan set! The little smiling toadstool set are also really cute, and my daughter loves them, but I thought they might be a fun set to sell...Etsy maybe?

They had a sale running that day...50% off dishes and glassware. I found this teapot and 2 cups - so cute! I can't find much on the manufacturer "Capistrand Japan", but will keep looking.

Then I found this set. Isn't it cute too?? The price tag was 12 for $5.99, so I got all of this for $3.00. The downside is that there were only 11 pieces. I don't know what the other piece was, or whether they just miscounted the set. This set is by Seltmann, a German company. The stamp on the bottom says "Seltmann Weiden K. Bavaria W. Germany". I've been trying to track down the pattern and haven't had any luck yet. There are dozens of patterns from this company at Replacements.com, but for some reason I just can't find this pattern. Frustrating! :)

I also found this sweet little glass dish. My hubby laughed when I showed him, and told me that it would always have to have "old people candy" in it. Right now it has plain M&M's, but I'm waiting for him to come home with something like bulk store hard candy or buttermints as a joke. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but there is an eagle and a star alternating on the sides which I really liked.

I also found a milkglass mug, but I didn't post a photo because I couldn't get a good photo of the three figures on the front. It's tall and narrow and will make a great vase.

I'm currently on the hunt for some kind of cabinet or shelves for the ugly bathroom. This weekend hubby had to make a repair to the toilet. In the process we decided to throw out the metal shelving thing that was around the toilet. We bought it soon after we bought the house. It was metal and glass, which worked because it mimicked the metal stripping on the walls, but over time the legs have become very rusty. It was impossible to clean, and looked terrible. So we tossed it. But now we need something to store brushes, lotions, etc. So maybe I'll get lucky and find something fun at a thrift store or on Craigslist...fingers crossed!

Vintage finds

I am becoming a thrift store junky. It starts innocently enough...I thought that some little glass sundae cups would be a perfect way to add a little pizzaz to some simple sundaes for the kids this weekend. So on the way to the grocery store I made a quick stop at the local St. Vincent de Paul and headed straight to the glasswear shelves. Searching through, I find these little juice glasses:

Aren't they cute? Into the basket they went. But no luck on sundae cups. So I head down aisle full of household goods, just in case. Plus, I might find some vintage Pyrex or milk glass, right? Nope, but my daughter did find this:

A little girl with a kitten? Of course she loved it. :)

Then I found this:

Swoon!

A few weeks ago I saw a gorgeous tufted chair, but the burnt orange color just didn't work. This one however, will work great in my living room! I should have stopped there...really I should have. But then I found this:

Now let me explain about the living room. It is a collection of random furniture from all over. We have black leather couches from my husbands bachelor days, a small dining room table from my single days, a piano, rug, and lamp from hubbys parents, and a set of stacking tables that used to belong to hubby's grandpa. Throw in a couple of mismatched bookshelves and it's a room that has no cohesion and generally drives me crazy. But it's also the kids playroom, so I try to let it go. The rug can get animal crackers accidently ground into it, the couches wipe down easily and can handle their fort building, tv watching, and anything else they can throw at them.

But I hope that slowly we can start to transform this room into something bright, cheerful and still comfortable. This little table will replace one of the stacking tables. I'm thinking of painting it, but not anytime soon. There are other projects to work on (like the marble topped table that I haven't had time to tackle yet).

So I went to the store to pick up the chair, because I didn't have our bigger car to take it this weekend. I just should wait outside! lol

Because I found these:

They didn't have a price so I asked the sales clerk. She looked at them and said, "How about $5 for all of them?" Sold! I love them, even if its a completely mismatched number. 5 cups, 7 saucers and 6 bread & butter plates. But the pattern is great and I loved the shape of the cups. I'm really picky about teacup shapes, it's just a thing. :)

I've done a little research on the pattern. It's by the Homer Laughlin Company and the code on the bottom indicates it was made in 1955. It doesn't have a cool pattern name, but I eventually found the pattern number after more digging than I expected. I checked everywhere I could but no one online seems to have replacement pieces in stock. I'll have to keep looking, because I would love to even out the set.

Finally I found two wire chairs...nothing fancy but I think I'll spraypaint them in a bright color and use them in the yard.

So, needless to say I had a LOT of fun at the thrift store. :) It's becoming dangerous territory for me! lol What are some of your favorite thrift store finds?

Have a great day!

Vintage finds!!!

One thing I know...the Thrift Store gods were smiling down on me this weekend. I have a project I'm working on as a birthday gift which called for a twin bedsheet. A perfect time to head to the thrift! I stopped by one on my way home from work yesterday...no luck on a sheet, but I did find a 2 quart casserole dish (with lid) by GlasBake. It came out in 1917 as a competitor to Pyrex. The dish I have has a mark identifying it as coming out sometime between 1961 and 1983. It's just plain white with the original clear glass lid. I only paid $4.75 for it after a 25% discount, since Friday is "Ladies Day". :)

Today I continued the hunt for sheets. There is a little thrift in my town, so off I went. Again, no sheets, but I did find something I went a little gaga over: a whole rack full of vintage laces & trims! The laces were alright but nothing screamed "Buy me!" (yet!) but the trims...oh my, the trims. Take a look at what I came home with:

I loved that they were on their original spools. The labels are fantastic and hopefully I can salvage them to use as ephemera on other projects.

Then I found this:

Wow. I didn't buy it with the trims. At $50.00 I thought "No way, hubby won't go for it". But I couldn't get it out of my head...I had to have it. So after trying to describe it to him we went back. I bought it and we loaded it into the car. Small it may be, but light it is not. I have the perfect spot for it bit it needs some work...maybe a lot of work. But it was too good to pass up and I can't wait to fix it up for the house.

Then off to yet another thrift. I was finding a sheet come hell or high water! Thankfully I finally did find one that will work. But I also found this:

$9.99? Score! It was coming home with me! It's in great shape, just dusty. The color isn't my favorite but there isn't anything wrong with it. If I really don't like it, I could just paint it with a white enamel. I think it would be great as a little cart for parties and lots of other things. But yet again, I found something I drooled over. A beautiful chair. It was upholstered in a pristine burnt orage velvet (so soft, but not an ideal color). The back was rounded and had lovely caning on either side of the upholstered back. I loved it. But it was also $50, and there was no way hubby was going to go for that. So it's still at the store...sigh.

So there we are. I can't wait to work with the trims and put some elbow grease into the cabinet. Once it's done I'll post pictures, but it may be a while. I've never tried to fix up something like this so I need to figure out the best way to go about it. Any suggestions?