Lucky in Lighting

Hello friends, it's good to talk to you again!

I hope I remember how to do this blogging thing...haha! Anyway, I have been spending a lot of time on facebook and I realized that 1) while fun, it is not the best venue to go into lengthy detail about my projects and finds, and 2) probably a lot of my "regular" friends do not care about all that stuff. But all my blogger pals might and I miss you guys! (And if you want to be fb friends leave a comment below, and I will message you.)

Of course I still thrift a lot and frequent as many yard sales and flea markets as I can. In the last couple of weeks I have been really lucky to find some really cool stuff that I wanted to share. One of the things I love to find is cool mid-century lighting.

Now, the thing about lighting is that if there are any issues with the wiring you have a situation on your hands. A bad one. So I always make sure that the wiring is good and replace it if necessary. It is a good thing my brother is an electrician because he is always on hand to advise me!

I have been looking for a cool atomic lamp for our bedside table. Actually I would have loved to have found a pair of lamps, but anything was better than the crappy 80s brass faux-Stiffel lamp my husband was using. (Did I mention he won it in a poker game? Well, game ON!) Anyway, I grabbed this awesome lamp at a flea market for $3. It was marked "Miller 1955" on the turquoise ceramic part. It was also covered in mouse poop and super nasty.

Yeah, that bottom is supposed to be shiny metal. I think I actually hosed it off with a pressure washer- clearly it had to be re-wired in addition to completely cosmetically restored. 

I took it apart and repainted all the metal parts with gold spray paint. Instead of going to the hardware store and buying a $10 lamp kit, I went to the thrift store and bought a donor lamp with a good socket and cord for 99 cents.

After putting it all back together and testing it out- success!- it was time for the fun part: trying on shades. I may be a bit of a vintage-lampshade-hoarder...

 I really wanted the larger tiered shade to work, but it sat too high. I may try again if I can find a smaller harp. I ended up going with the green fiberglass shade on the right. I actually like the look quite a bit and to my relief, the light in the room is not actually green.

Since we have a lot of green, including the bedspread, in our bedroom, it works well.

 My second lighting score was just the other day. I went to a thrift store I haven't been to in a while. (Basically they price everything "vintage" ridiculously high, like 3x ebay prices, so I just haven't bothered going.) But for some reason I decided to go. And whadyya know, I actually found a something!

I bought these two Mid Century Modern pendant lights for a song. They even have their original ceiling plates. After doing a little research, it looks like they might be by designer Paavo Tynell. They would be so cool in someone's MCM house, so I listed them in my Etsy shop. Here's hoping Katy Perry buys them, lol.

I did test them out and they work great!

Now, my third adventure in lighting is a little bit different. No fab modern pieces here- just trying to update a fixture on a budget. We have a bit of a rustic vibe up at our cabin. At least I have been trying to get that going. And clearly this fixture above the sink that my mother-in-law picked out was not working for that look. (She picked out all the finishes for the place about 15 years ago after she retired from working at a bank, where she was in charge of the appearance of all the bank branches. I tease her that her house even looked like a bank.)

Maybe it's because I grew up in the 80s, but I cannot stand that shiny brass look. So now that the place is all ours, I have been doing what I can to get rid of it, but without spending a lot of $$. I discovered Rust-o-leum hammered bronze spray paint, and painted all the shiny brass cabinet knobs last year. I figured, why not try it on the light fixture as well? So I took it down, lightly sanded it and painted it. I left the frosted glass globes off entirely and swapped the bulbs for Edison bulbs, I think it came out pretty well, and definitely cost less than a brand new fixture!

A Red Letter Day

Hello friends, it's good to have you here! I know, I've been a bad blogger and haven't updated in a while. I hope you are still reading!

I have been getting out to the thrifts again, after taking a bit of a break in December. I just have way too much stuff and when I got the holiday decorations out, I realized I have to clear some stuff out. So a lot got donated- things that didn't fit or had issues, and I couldn't sell them for what I needed to get. There are some that believe in thrift karma; that is, when you donate good stuff, you get good stuff. Well, I think that was the case with today's excursions. I took a bunch of stuff to the thrift store and came home with some better stuff!

It was a banner day for MCM, as you can see. But first, the Pyrex, as always. I have not been finding a lot of Pyrex lately, mostly because I know some of the thrift stores I frequent have been putting it all on ebay. Which kind of sucks, because that is what primarily gets me in the door right now- if you put it all on ebay, I have little reason to come and shop the rest of your store. But some always slips through the cracks and dinnerware is a prime example of that. The lime plate is actually a chop plate or a platter, and I don't have anything that size (it's over 12" diameter- that's a regular dinner plate in front of it below) so I bought that. I would like to find more lime plates to mix in with my turquoise- I love that color combo.

These turquoise melamine dishes are Russel Wright- I love this style and have a few other small pieces, but nothing close to the whole set. It would take me forever to collect it, most likely, so I may let these go. But right now the little handled bowls are getting a lot of use holding snacks for the kids.

At one of the thrifts I went to, someone had donated a whole Mickey Mouse collection, including a lot of older pieces from back into the 60s. I picked out this gumball machine and will try to resell it in my booth- we'll see how it goes!

All right, I know you all are here for the Finel bowl, so I'll get right to it....

 But first, I did get a Fire King Blue Heaven custard cup- isn't it cute?  :) hehe

OK, so I have been seeing these online for a long time, and loving them. The graphics are so amazing on all the Finel Arabia bowls, and the heart one is so iconic. I read on the Recycle-ista's blog about her finding one after imagining she would and it got me doing the same thing. I was reading her blog, thinking, that's so cool that she found one just like she had been hoping for, wouldn't that be neat to happen next time I go into a store...?

And what do you know...there, in the middle of the Valentine's Display it sat. I have never seen one in person, so I was surprised at how large it is! But now I have one, and I promise you I am already dreaming about my next find, and hoping that dreams will come true all over again!

Merry Kitschmas! Thrift finds

Hello Friends, Merry Christmas!

I have a few thrift finds to show you. Not as many as usual; I don't know about you, but around here its slim pickins this time of year.

First the Pyrex:

I didn't think I would like Woodland, but it has grown on me. Just the mixing bowls, though. I can still pass on the casseroles and such! These were really reasonable ($8 for the three) so I picked them up. I am trying to find some solid blue Horizon bowls to mix it with- I think a blue and brown set would really look sharp. The one on the right is an Americana fall colors 403, which I definitely love. Gonna have to find the rest of this set!

And speaking of fall colors, I found almost all of the Autumn Harvest Cinderella set the week before Thanksgiving!  In a thrift store- I mean, who donates these things the week before turkey day? Everything but the rust colored 442, and they are in great condition for $12.99. I am almost done with my AH- just need this 442 and the 402 from the mixing bowl set. I also treated myself to an early Christmas present and bought a fridgie set on Etsy for a super price.

I also found 3/4 of the primary fridge set with old-style lids! I happened to have an extra yellow 503 laying around, so that completed my second set of these. But I don't have the space to keep both, so these went to my booth.

I also got really lucky right after Thanksgiving- I was in a little tiny town that had a ton of junk shops and found my first ever 933 lasagna pan! It was only $6, but I am not a fan of Butterfly Gold, so I ended up trading this one. I also found a red 404 for $8 which I am keeping- for some reason I don't have a picture of it, and my camera is barely working so it's more hassle than it's worth to take one. (It's also super hard to blog with it, so that's my excuse! :)

It's not all Pyrex goodies, though- 'tis the season for vintage Christmas! I don't buy as much as I used to; back when it was still cheap I bought dozens of ornaments for my tree. I think I probably have a gross of Shiny Brites at this point. But these red ones are really neat and were reasonable- will probably be headed to Etsy in the near future! 

I also bought not one, but two 4 ft. aluminum trees from the same thrift store! I think I paid about $35 for both. I took both over the the booth, and never got a photo of them completely assembled, so I'm sorry I can't show you.

Speaking of my Etsy shop, I added a bunch of new stuff- check it out and use the coupon code PIT20OFF for a 20% discount on everything!

These last two are the only non-Pyrex, non-Christmas things I've bought in probably 2 months.
I love this dog and leaf planter (despite his weird eyebrows) and it is much bigger than it looks here. I'm debating whether to take it to the booth or put it on Etsy.

This cool mid century clock is also a lot bigger than it looks! I can totally see this in someone's retro 60s/70s kitchen or living room. It's probably 18 inches in diameter and works, too! Most likely going to booth because I don't want to have to ship this! 

Well, that's about all the news that's fit to print. Have a Merry Kitschmas!

Tour of Chez QT- our Living Room

OK, so I've been talking about this for a long, long time. And then I proceed to blabber on and on about thrift finds and Pyrex.... Well, now it's finally here- the living room reveal!

Last year we (OK, me) decided to revamp our living room. Part of this was by necessity, in that we had to move our entertainment center and some other furniture up to our mountain cabin, so we would have living room furniture up there. And it was also necessary to bring up some of the beautiful mid century modern furniture I had stashed away in the basement!

So here is the only "before" shot I could find- the plaid sofa left over from my husband's bachelor days kind of epitomized the entire room. The coffee table got a MCM makeover, which you can read about here.



I did not paint or really change the overall color scheme. Our walls are kind of a terra cotta color and the sofas are still olive green, although they are new and more modern-looking. The rug is the same burnt red color that used to match the drapes, but then I found these amazing deadstock pinch pleat drapes which you can read about here.

So, to start the tour, you come in through our original 1960 three-paned mahogany door. At one time we almost changed it to a more modern door, but I am super glad we decided to keep it. The wood is beautiful; it just glows.

The oak cabinet is a reproduction of a vintage ice box. It doesn't really match the style of the room anymore, but we do need the storage for videos and records. (Yes, records- as you will see I have many radio/record players in this room.) That is a 1946 GE tabletop radio next to the atomic lamp and the two amazing Rosenthal candle holders I got from Dana over at Mid2Mod! The B&W photo is a family piece, as are a couple others in the room. All the photos are B&W because there is plenty of color elsewhere!

On the right of the door is a little nook that is the perfect size for this 1946 RCA console radio. The front flips open, as you can see, to reveal the radio dial. The record player is under the left side of the top. That is a vintage weather station (Bakelite thermometer/ barometer) on top. There is a round mirror up above (see first photo) and I would eventually like to have a hanging modern ceramic light (W. German style) here, but haven't found the right one yet.

To the left of the door is the main living space, with the large window and large sofa backing it. The other sofa is a loveseat, which we had to special order from Rowe, because apparently no one buys loveseats anymore. They just buy a big sofa or sectional and two Lay-Z-Boys, I guess. That is the same coffee table I posted above, it just looks a lot better now with hairpin legs and a Dansk Kobenstyle enamel piece on top!

You can see my favorite photo of FDR and a 48 star US flag there on the left.

Here is a detail shot of all my vintage planters on the window sill. The two on the right are German ceramics, which I collect.

The leaded glass cabinet was inherited from my Grandmother- she had it removed from a house they lived in long ago. It was built in, so some of the sides are a little rough- which is cool with me. I have a couple more radios and vintage electronics in there, as well as my collections of tiki mugs and cocktail shakers on top. They are up there out of harm's way, because normally this room is full of my kids' toys and books. (I had to get up so early to take these photos, before they came down and filled it with their clutter, LOL!) And another radio on the left at bottom, a Zenith black dial chairside.

Continuing around the room is my famous TV-quarium in the corner. It's a 1950 Motorola that I took the guts out of and put an aquarium inside. The clock is a George Nelson repro, and the owl TV lamp with glowing eyes is a fairly recent thrift find.
 

In place of our giant entertainment center we brought up this 1958 Motorola HiFi console, which had belonged my husband's parents. It has the perfect sleek modern vibe and is a great platform for my light up globe and another vintage TV lamp. On the left are two W. German fat lava planters that actually match. I found them separately, almost a year apart. One thing about this living room, almost nothing is new. The only things not vintage here are the sofas and the TV.

If you would keep going at this point, you'd be in our kitchen. I've done a post about that here, although things are significantly different now that I should probably do another post on that! Oh well, stay tuned I guess!

MCM Thrift Success!

One of the things I've learned in the brief time I've had my antique store booth is that Mid Century Modern sells. That was very much contrary to my expectations, since I live in a small country town. I loaded up on rustic stuff and country kitsch. And surprisingly, most of that is still for sale!

But the modern stuff really sells, and for that I am glad. I feel like I know that market pretty well, and can spot those pieces more easily than most. And there aren't many local dealers that sell it, so until they catch on I can have the buyers to myself.

I've been looking for that stuff when I thrift, and here's what I found today:

I bought this MCM vase. It is marked "PC (copyright) USA". I have no idea what "PC" stands for (anyone?), but I do know that I like the form and the contrast between the matte body and the glazed ovals. It's also hard to see in my photo, but the ovals are overlapping light and dark all the way around. 

I bought this bamboo planter for me- I collect yellow and green mid century planters, and this fits that bill.

These are pieces of Homer Laughlin Riviera Ware, a cousin to Fiesta Ware. I love Riviera, and if it were more plentiful would try harder to collect it. The colors are similar to Fiesta, but the scalloped shape is distinctive and so 1930s. These were 50 cents each; clearly the thrift did not know what they had!

This last is a bit of a dilemma. I saw this last time I was at this store and didn't buy it. I didn't love it. I still don't. But it really has a mid century vibe going on. It's an unsigned oil painting with a lot of heavy texture, and it's a landscape, which I haven't seen much in mid century art. Landscapes always sell, plus it has a kind of bleak minimalist look. 

It does have green tones that match my green bench, plus I like the size of it. 

I don't know, what do you guys think- keep it or resell it?

I'm still alive!

It's been crazy busy around here. I've been doing a lot of trumpet playing and running around with the kids. We put in a pond at our house too (more about that later!) And MaryDeluxe came for a visit and we are hatching a plan to take over the world...(shhh- you didn't hear that...) I've totally neglected the blog and I hope there are still some folks following me!

I did find some good stuff lately. It's been way too hot for yard sales but the local flea market was going strong last time I was there and I found something I've been looking for for a while.

A spaghetti lamp! I've actually wanted one of these to hang like a swag lamp, but this is a floor lamp with two globes. I may separate one into a hanging lamp (should be easy) but then again I may keep it as-is. The pole part is in rough shape; it would have to be painted to use it. I know these sometimes go for crazy prices online, so I'm tempted to resell it since it was only $10! What do you all think? 

As my kids are getting old enough to understand geography, I'd been wanting to get a vintage globe to show them other places around the world. When I sell something overseas in my Etsy store it is neat to be able to show them where the package is going. I've seen some globes here and there, but nothing really old or interesting. The holy grail as always a light-up one, and.....

... ta da! I found one! 

Thanks to my friend who is cleaning out her mother's house (same one as in the Giant Lamp) I got to go over and get a sneak peak at some of the furniture they're going to get rid of. Hopefully those will pan out in the future, but I got to take this globe home with me today. I think it's from about 1949/50, because Alaska and Hawaii are both states, but Korea is still one country. I love love love this and even my husband agrees that it's a keeper- which is a rare thing indeed!

Thrifted Thursday: What am I buying now?

I've had a decent week at the thrifts. I haven't strayed too far from home these days because we are having some car issues- not completely unexpected when your newest vehicle is 12 years old, and the others are 15 and 21. (Like all teenagers, they seem to be having reliability issues!)

But I have bought a few things and I have noticed my purchases following a trend of late.

First, I always buy 1940s/50s clothes and housewares. They are harder to find, of course, but still out there if you have the time to search.

This is a really cute 1950s cropped wool jacket. I know this must have originally come with a skirt, so I made sure to search the rest of the store for it, but no luck. It's tiny, so will be listed in the store soon.

Since the older stuff is getting harder to find, I've been lucky to find some neat 60s pieces. With the return of Mad Men, I know these things will be hot. 

This is actually a lounger, or very fancy housecoat. It is really long and fully lined. I just love the print and I know it will make someone smile to have it in their closet.

And -eeeek!- I have been buying 80s clothes lately. I remember that decade well, and feel a little bit nostalgic for it. Lately, I've even found myself searching for a particular pair of Espirit pants I used to have. And if I am doing that, I imagine a lot of other folks will be doing the same thing. (And doesn't this whole colored denim trend remind you of those days?)

If you are a reseller, start buying 80s stuff now. It is cheap and will be hot again sooner rather than later, I'm thinking. Remember all those brands we used to love, like Espirit, Benetton, Guess and Swatch? Buy them now when you find them!

I fell in love with this preppy whale wrap skirt and had to buy it. Same with the Gitano high waisted pants below. I don't think I would wear them, but I will list them in my shop and see how they sell. I have some 80s denim to list too, like Jordache. I've done well with some of these things in the past.

Aren't these pants so 80s? :) They have never been worn, and were 99 cents. 

And lastly, for myself, I've been on a bit of a mod kick decorating-wise. I sent all my rustic stuff up to the cabin and am going to do a lot more 50s-60s MCM and 60s-70s mod in my living room. I'll do a post on that soon, but I picked up this planter today which will be perfect!

Trash-picked Tuesday: Mid-Century Furniture Bonanza!

It's a happy coincidence of sorts, when you have a close relative moving into a new place (with no furniture) and some elderly neighbors getting ready to downsize. It's even better when that relative is your brother who has a fondness for 1960s and 70s mod and those neighbors are German emigres with spectacular taste.

And what could make the happenstance of circumstance even nicer is that my mom has no qualms at all about trash-picking the good stuff! (I told you that the trash-picking gene is inherited!)

So it came to pass that my brother found himself with a killer mid-century chair and incredible modern floor lamp over the weekend. Apologies for the backdrop in the photos; the items are in my parents' garage where my brother keeps his 1952 Army jeep.

The chair is upholstered in a salmon-colored curly wool. It's a very unusual fabric; I can't say I've ever seen anything like it except in a Persian lamb coat. A good cleaning should have it in good shape. The man who put it out by the curb said that his brother in Germany had made the chair by hand, and while he was kind of sorry to see it go, he was glad it was going to someone he knew.

 

This lamp is just wild. I don't know what to call it, but it has a 70's glam meets medical office feel.

Closeup of the hardware that adjusts the arms.. Everything is chrome and it is very heavy. I looked and couldn't find any maker's stamp on it- anyone who knows what it might be let me know!