backpack, cats, fox, lamps, mid century, mid century modern, mugs, side table, thrift, thrift store, what i didn't buy at the thrift store, what i left behind, wishbone

What I didn’t buy at the thrift store

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1. A Fox

I found this Illustrated fox/ cardboard cutout at Savers a few weeks back. The fox is very handsome and would be a fun piece in any room really, especially a kids room, but I didn’t really have a need for it and lately have been trying to not bring in unnecessary things. Hopefully this got a home on some adorable child’s wall.
2. Brass and Marble side table 
I really liked this side table, but wanna know what I have a lot of? side tables. I’m not even kidding I have five in one room. This was cute but I need closed storage more than side tables, so I passed.

3. lil Wishbone

I used to have a dog named Wishbone (before the TV show started thank you very much) and she was the sweetest dog. I also was a fan of the PBS show and even went to meet wishbone once at the Mall with my best friend and her mom, but the line was so long we got fed up and left. Anyway I spotted this mini Wishy at an estate sale and had instant nostalgia, but stuffed animals I need not.
4. Rich n’ Creamy Nestle Cup
I loved the typography on this mug and the cool 70’s vibes. I was going to get it if I ended up finding anything else, but I didn’t find anything else that day and forgot about the mug. 

5. Mid Century Modern Library cart

I’ve seen these before on craigslist and such but have honestly never really got them. I’m sure there is someone somewhere who styles these bad boys amazingly and would make me regret not buying it. But, I’d rather have cleaner looking closed storage or storage with non-slanted shelves. I thought about this for a while (it was super cheap) but I decided to pass and let it go to someone who’d be really excited for it.

6. Gold Lamp with potential

Something about the clean lines of this gold lamp drew me to it. With the right lampshade and/or a coat of spraypaint it could be really cool. But for the most part unless it’s an amazing Mid Century lamp that I just cannot live without I generally pass on lamps, like side table I already have too many. 

7. Men’s symbol Mug

This was another piece I told myself I’d go back for if I found anything else, but I didn’t. It’s very Austin Powers and I love that about it. The only thing with vintage mugs is they are often pretty small. That is obviously coming from the land of huge portions and giant mugs but I’ve become so accustomed to bigger mugs I find it hard buy cute smaller ones at the thrift store. I feel like I’d opt for the bigger ones and they’d be used mostly for decoration, which is kind of silly.

8. Backpack

I was given an old real leather coach mini backpack a few weeks before I saw this one. When I first spotted it I was hopping it was a bucket bag, so when I found out it was a backpack I was a little bummed. It’s super cute but I don’t really need two small backpacks, so I left it.

8. TACO CATS IN SPACE!!!!!

I saw this shirt hanging on a dressing room and loved it. But I wasn’t really in the mood to check the tag or try it on.  I love it though, had I been in a different mood ( and it been in my size) I may have bought it. 
9. Small Mid Century Lamp

I carried this around with me a bit, it was only three dollars but in the end I decided it really wasn’t cool enough for me to bring home. Plus I don’t really have a place for it.

10. Big Box Light

I liked the look of this lamp. Obviously it’s very big and bulky but something about it was appealing, I still passed though.

11.  Mixed Media lamp

 This lamp had a cool look i’d never seen before. But didn’t need it.

12.  Sand Dollar Lamps

There were two of these lamps and I actually think they’re really cool. I love the texture on them and think they have a really interesting shape. But I really have no place to put them, so I passed.

chair, lamps, lawn chair, mid century, mid century modern, thrift, thrift store, vintage, what i didn't buy at the thrift store, what i left behind

What I didn’t Buy at the Thrift Store

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Hey guys! So try as I might I just couldn’t bring myself to buy anything yesterday at the Memorial Day thrift sales. I went to five stores and came away with nothing! There were just too many people and I was really just not in the mood. I mean one savers was giving out numbers for the dressing room, nope no sorry not gonna happen. So instead of a thrift haul I’d thought I’d do another addition of things I didn’t buy at the thrift store.

1.  Wagon Wheel Chairs 

 I’m Mildly obsessed with wagon wheel furniture.  If I had a house with a finished basement I would be tempted to decorate the whole thing in mid century wagon wheel furniture, it’s just so kitschy and cool. These chairs are pretty awesome but I don’t have a finished basement awaiting a sweet wagon wheel collection and if i’m going to go through the hassle of buying thrift store furniture It has to be something I know I can use.  So I left these for a better home.

2. Barber Chair

This chair is pretty cool but it was also pretty beat up. One of the arm rests fell completely off and  I also have no immediate use for it. So it stayed at the thrifts.

3. Mosaic-y Lamps

These are cool and I kind of regret not getting them but I have enough lamps and don’t really need anymore unless they’re something I can’t live without. These I could live without so I  left them.

9. Dirty Wavy Lamp

I liked the pattern on this lamp and thought if cleaned it would have a lot of potential. But again I don’t really need anymore lamps.

10. Mid Century Sliding Door Bookcase

Ok I kind of regret not getting this. It was only around $10/11.00 and I’ve wanted one of these for awhile. The catch? I want one with glass doors and these are solid wood. In hindsight I should have gotten it anyway but I guess I’ll wait for the next one I see.


11-12. Cat Statue and “Marble” top side table

I really liked the egyptian cat statue but it was like $14.00 and that seemed a bit pricey for a decorative cat. The side table was really cute too but one thing I really don’t need is another side table.

13. Emily Anne cross stitch

I have an old friend named Emily Anne who is exactly one day and eight years younger than whoever this cross stitch was made for. I kind of wanted to get it but I decided to just take a picture and maybe send it to her later.

14. Dress Form

I like the idea of a decorative dress form to hang clothes and stuff on, so when I see them at the thrifts I’m always a little interested. This one was a whopping $50.00 so I kept on walking.

15.  Pitcher

I liked the design on this pitcher but didn’t need one.

16. Mid Century Lawn Chairs

These lawn chairs were pretty cool but they were also in need of refinishing and were a bit pricey at about $70.00 for the pair. They’re very cool but were a bit expensive and not really practical for me right now, so I passed.

17. Mikasa Cups

I thought liked these but they were kind of small and into larger mugs at the moment.

18. Mid Century Small Dresser/ Nightstand 

These dressers ( there’s a twin behind it) were nice and would be good storage. I think they’d be cute with different pulls. But  A.) They didn’t have a tag and B.) I realized I liked them 99% because of the mid century style legs, which you can buy anywhere.  I decided to leave them since I really wasn’t in love.

19. Jelly Bean White House

This is a thing. My grandpa loves Jelly beans so I was slightly tempted to get it but … I don’t think anyone really needs a jelly bean white house. Except maybe for Jelly Bean Barack Obama, Obama bean?

lamps, thrift, thrifts of horror

Thrifts of Horror

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Wow it’s been awhile since I’ve done  a Thrifts of Horror post. Since the holidays are over my work has calmed down and I’ve had a little more time on my hands. So I’ve been doing more thrifting and whilst thrifting I came upon this beauty. I think the most offensive thing is they wanted $30.00 for this… lovely lamp. Well I guess it would be a good conversation piece. Anyway enjoy the first Thrifts of Horror for 2013.

fondue, forest fancies pyrex., lamps, mid century modern, milk glass, owls, pyrex, red hostess oven and table set, side table, sideboard, what i didn't buy at the thrift store, what i left behind

What I left behind

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     A couple of the blogs I read do a “what I left behind” feature and I’ve fallen in love with them, so I’ve decided to add it to my blog as a feature as well. I’m trying to get over my feeling-odd-taking-pictures-in -places-no-one-else-is and just do it.  And I have to say I’m happy I did, it’s more like I took you all thrifting with me. Plus you can finally see the good stuff I passed up. These pictures are from a few weeks ago and now you can finally see the sideboard I left behind, and I promise this will be the last post in which I talk about it. Anyway here are the things I left behind:

1. These Milk glass-esque containers.
      I like milk glass but I don’t really need more glassware in my house. 

2. These (there were one or two inside) Forest Fancies Pyrex Cinderella bowls. 
        Honestly I’m just not a big fan of this pattern, though it’s growing on me. I see it everywhere but it’s never been cheap enough that it was worth buying, at least in my opinion.

 3. These funky mid century cups (?)

        I liked these but I didn’t really understand their point. They’re not really deep enough to be good  cups and though I like the pattern it just wasn’t enough to get them. 

  4. These Fondue pots
      I just think fondue pots are fun and someday I want to have a 70’s fondue party. These were cool but I see fondue pots everywhere, I guess i’m waiting to find the one I can’t live without.

5. This Pyrex Red Hostess Oven and Table Set 
Honestly this looks better in the picture than it did in real life. Though cool it was scratched to within and inch of it’s life and had some chips so I passed. I also think it was a bit too pricey for the condition and I decided not to buy Pyrex in bad condition.

6 . The infamous mid century sideboard
OK I do regret not getting this. I don’t really have a need for it but it is super cute. For some reason at the time it’s $25.00 asking price was just a bit too much for me (I was being cheap that day) and I just couldn’t reason buying it. So now it’s the one that got away.

7. This mid century(?) side table
 I thought the side table next to the sideboard looked a little mid century too and was kind of cute.

8. This funky owl lamp
This is another thing I kind of wish I had gotten. It’s just kinda funky and random.

So that’s what I left behind. That was actually a pretty good day thrifting, a lot of times there isn’t that much to leave behind. did you leave anything behind recently? do you regret it?

50's, 60's, coffee, estate sale haul, estate sales, fish, haul, kitsch, lamps, Mad Men, mid century modern, Peggy, pitcher, pyrex, thrift haul, tv lamps

Mid Century Estate Sale Goodness

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          As I mentioned before I haven’t been thrifting as much in the last couple weeks in part because of a sweet mid century estate sale I saw posted on estatesales.net last week. I’m a sucker for mid century anything and once I saw the pictures online I knew I’d have to go. I was mostly interested in a pair of mid century Reglor Lamps that had the original shade. I got up early the first day of the sale to try and get the lamps but by the time I got there they were gone. Everything was reasonably priced but all of the lamps were a tad out of my price range. They had a lot of cool mid century lamps but they were all around $125-150.00, not bad really but I was only really ready to pop on them if they were under $100.00. We  were also planning to go to a big garage sale the next day and I didn’t want to spend so much money on a pair of lamps. The woman running the sale said that sale was just the tip of the iceberg that in two weeks there would be another sale of even more stuff. I guess the owner was frequent estate sale attendee and ebay-er, my kinda guy! But he has so much stuff he decided to sell some of it, awesome. So since there’s so much stuff I may end up getting some cool lamps at the next sale. We did end up with some cool stuff anyway. Most of it is actually my mom’s, she went with me to the sale and I bought her some stuff as presents for Mother’s day and her birthday which are both coming up. Anyway here’s the cool stuff we walked away with.

1. This Snowflake Pyrex casserole with lid and cradle. My Pyrex enthusiasm has waned in the past few weeks. If I find a cool pattern/color for a good price I’ll pop but I find myself passing them up more and more. This was only $5 bucks so I figured I’d get it. Plus it’s a color and pattern I don’t have and haven’t seen in a thrift store.

** Also Peggy and I have the same casserole

image via Tom and Lorenzo

2. This restaurant style coffee pot.

3. This cool Mid Century light was the item I got my mom for mothers/her birthday. It goes with our living room and she really likes it.

yup it lights up

4. Probably the coolest thing we got was this fish TV lamp. They had about 7 or so of these at the sale in various colors. We’ve seen various TV lamps before but never these funky fish, so we had to get it. It’s pretty cool right?

The fish illuminated!!!!
one of the marbles fell off

This week I’m also linking up with Her Library Adventures’ Flea Market Finds and Apron Thrift Girl’s Thrift Share Monday so you can check out what other bloggers found recently. Did you go to any sweet sales last weekend? Find any cool items?

20's, 50's, 60's, atomic lamps, dental cabinet, haul, junk bonanza, lamps, metal cabinet, pin up, thrift haul, vintage

Junk Bonanza

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          So as I mentioned two weeks ago I went to the Junk Bonanza, which we randomly heard about through my mom’s co-worker. There were tons of vendors from all over the upper midwest and was full of cool stuff. Unfortunately I’m a bad blogger and didn’t take any pictures while there, I’ll try and work on that. Basically it had a flea market type set-up with lots of different vendors that, I believe, were all antique dealers. There was a lot of distressed shabby chic-esque furniture, which really isn’t my thing, but there were also a lot of other cool stuff including mid century and art deco items. A lot of the stuff was a bit too pricey for us but we did get a lot of cool ideas for using vintage items in different ways, refurbishing old furniture and checked out some really cool antiques. Aside from what we bought there was a really cool old dental cabinet that looked exactly like this, it had tons of little drawers with cool ceramic organizers. It was $2100.00,  a little out of our price range, but it was really really cool and while drooling over it we thought of a million cool ways to use it. We’re seriously still drooling over it, maybe one day I’ll have the money to get one. Antique dental cabinets, who knew?

        Ultimately we did end up buying some stuff including two really cool atomic 50’s lamps, a 20’s metal cabinet and a pin-up photo. I love 50’s and 60’s era stuff and I’ve sorta started collecting 50’s and 60’s lamps. A couple years ago I stumbled upon two retro 50’s atomic lamps and fell in love. Now I’m sort of obsessed. I’m always on the look out for cool 50’s and 60’s lamps at garage sales, estate sales, thrift stores and any antique stores. So far I’ve only found ones that really appeal to me at antique stores and estate sales, which depending on the pricing at the store/sale can be a good or bad thing. All in all it was a pretty cool experience and we’ll definitely be back next year.

20’s Cabinet:

Cabinet closed with 20’s vignette (picture, bowl and lamp) that my mom styled. 
close up of vignette
cute feet

50’s Lamps:

ceramic deer in vessel. I think they look like they’re at a Drive in movie, but maybe that’s just me.

ceramic cat I bought recently in hopes it would bring me some job luck, jury’s still out on whether it’ll actually help.
close up of lamp trim

lamp base

Pin Up (possibly NSFW):

Black woman pin up

And finally I thought I’d introduce my other cat Diamond. When I was taking the above pictures she was sunbathing on the floor so I snapped a few pictures of her.

60's, cups, estate sales, hat, haul, lamps, thrift haul

A sale-ing we shall go

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          So a couple weeks ago after a disappointing trip to Austin, MN my mom and I drove to Mound, MN to check out an estate sale that we hoped would be more promising. I was swayed by two things: an awesome 60’s floor lamp and these really cool cups in their own caddy. We went to the sale towards the end of the first day and surprisingly the lamp and cups were still there! The only downside to estate sales is that antique dealers often come out early on the first day and scoop up all the really cool items, fortunately that didn’t happen at this sale. After a little back and forth we decided we’d go back the second (and final) day, when everything is 50% off, and try to get the stuff on sale. So we woke up relatively early Sunday morning, we rarely wake up early to go to sales, and went back. Everything was still there so we got the cups, a winter hat and the very cool 60’s lamp as well as 4 or so bowls and a green bracelet. Everything totaled out to a whopping $40.00, a very successful estate sale day if I do say so myself. Anyway here’s some pics of our recent finds:

My estate sale booty ( minus the lamp)  with a scarf I got at the Austin sale.
Awesome 60’s cups are awesome

Seriously I love these cups
My hat it’s very Mary Tyler Moore and I kind of love that about it.
Finally the 60’s lamp that goes really well with the Green/gold motif in our living room.

Last weekend I went to the Junk Bonanza with my mom and will post about some stuff we got there soon as well.