Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Still here!

I've been missing this little blog of mine, and it's no wonder. I've been away for two whole months! The truth is I haven't had much to share lately, what with our big move and not having a work space while we've been in this tiny apartment. So while I haven't been doing much crafting or sewing or refinishing, I have been able to do some thrifting. Wanna see?

Did you know that Target gives their unsold clearance items to Goodwill? I'm always looking for brand new Target stuff when I go there, and last time I found this lovely silver lamp. Still needs a shade, though.

This scale is cool, but it looks too new. I'm looking forward to giving it some kind of treatment to make it look more aged and used. It was only $1 at the Salvation Army store. The old wooden shoe form was found at my new favorite place to browse. There's a store downtown that's stuffed to the roof with antiques and vintage items, but unfortunately the prices there aren't what I'd consider fantastic, so I picked out this one little thing that I really loved, and just enjoyed looking at everything else.

The chippy yellow paint and the warm, worn wood is what makes me really love it.

Isn't that little hole punch adorable? The mug is from Anthropologie but only cost me 99¢ at the thrift store. And you know I have a thing for birds, so this tiny gray handblown glass one just had to come home with me.


At the checkout of one of the thrift stores here I noticed bags of random stuff on a rack behind me. I spotted one that was full of vintage children's books and grabbed it. I was thrilled with the selection when I got home and inspected them.

I have two other vintage Pooh books, so this was a real treat to find in there. I just had to rip off the old plastic library dust jacket.







This one is a translation of a Grimm brothers folk tale. It definitely has their signature "darkness" to the story, but the illustrations are all lovely.



I also scored this wool blanket for a few bucks. It had a tattered satin binding around the edges so I just tore that off.

My daughter thought it was pretty cool that it was made in Australia.

The fiber is really soft and warm, but it does have these two quarter-sized holes in it. But I have a fun idea for repairing them and adding some fun details to the blanket at the same time. I just have to wait until my craft stuff is out of storage!

This chair was the first thing I bought when we got here. The dining set in our apartment only has 4 chairs, and being a family of 5 it was a fun and practical purchase.

Cute, right? Just not the seat. But again, since all my stuff is in storage, I looked for a temporary solution.

This skirted seat cushion was about $10 at Ikea and was just the thing to hide that ugly torn fabric.



But here's the project I'm most excited about working on. I bought this cool old writing desk off Craigslist for $15 and I still feel like a thief.

See that "AC" on the side in that top photo? It's burned into the wood. I wonder what it means? The top is my favorite part, but unfortunately it's warped so it has to go.
It has 4 drawers with keyholes and has such an interesting shape. It used to be covered in veneer, but now there are only a few patches that are left. Just wait 'til you see what I do to it. I have BIG plans! Hopefully I'll be back soon to show you the transformation.