Apron Thrift Girl

dining & design

Four years ago we moved in our our 1927 home and I dove head first into the world of shabby chic. I bought anything I could find that was worn, dingy, scrappy, rusty and of course shabby. I remember looking at our fancy mahogany 1940's dining set and realizing that it would look awful in our new home. I sold it on Craigslist for $1200 and turned around and bought this table at a yard sale.

 

The children could spill to their hearts delight with this stained and blemished table without worry. If guest were coming I could throw a tablecloth on it and hid away the ugliness of it. The chairs were purchased 2nd hand and together it pretty much fit into my shabby chic style.

Then I found my teak & orange leather sofa and it changed my entire home style. I slowly pulled most of the shabby chic decor and packed it away in boxes for my next yard sale. Since we found the sofa I had been looking for a better dining room table. Usually the best ones were in Seattle and I wasn't able to get a ferry across or the dining tables were too expensive. Tuesday evening, I did a search for "Teak" and our general area I came across this Danish table.

The photo on CL made it hard to see the table clearly. I emailed the seller asking questions about the age, whether it was stained and where it was purchased. She wrote back quickly and gave me the details. It is from 1993, was purchased in Hawaii from a Scandinavian type furniture store and it had a few water stains. I asked to look at it on Wednesday and we arranged a time to meet.

It took me mere seconds to realize how beautifully handcrafted this table was. It did have a few water stains but that didn't worry me since I knew how to remove them. I fell in love with the softness of the wood, the design of the chairs and the fact that it expands to a very long table. I didn't like the upholstery at all but the seller told me that she had already changed it a few times and that it was quite simple to do.

Anyone want to guess the price that I paid for the table? The closest in price (no facebook friend guesses since I mentioned the price there :-) will get a little something in the mail from me.

As my taste are evolving into Mid Century Modern, I also realize that this look is very fitting into the architecture and style of Waldorf. I picked up this book recently at a used book store and discovered a few artist that use techniques very similar to Waldorf. Arthur Espenet Carpenter led me to Wharton Esherick whose style I was immediately drawn to. The photos on his site do not do him justice. I adore these kitchen cabinets and now want to replicate this in my next home. And I adore this bookshelf. Because his work reminded me so much of Waldorf I did a google search for his name and Rudolf Steiner and there is actually a connection on his wiki page. 

My arms were covered in goosebumps at this point. This style just hits my soul with so much emotion. I don't know what it is or why, but it has that "coming home" feel to it. I felt something similar when I discovered Waldorf education for the first time.

My goal in our next home is to create a sort of Mid Century Waldorf style. They seem to go hand in hand. I'm picturing Lazured walls, lots of mid century modern furniture, waldorf watercolor paintings mixed in with 60's art, lots of natural fibers such as wool & silk and of course a general feeling of warmth. This style represents my heart and soul and I want to display this in our home. While my scanner personality immediately wanted me to become a woodworker and buy a band saw and all the woodworking tools, my realistic side said to start small. Yesterday I bought a few already existing wood items that I hope to mid century waldorf them.

Here is a link to some buildings Steiner designed and built. I'm really looking forward to our next home even if we just have a very small one. We wish to buy land that we can grow our own food on and raise chickens. This is our priority and next will be the home. My ideal home is something from the 70's with arched ceilings made of wood. I think this MCW style will fit perfectly into a house like this. But even if we find a home the size of a large shed, we'll still make it beautiful and create a loving home.

4 days of thrifting

Dave's father turned 80 last Friday so he surprised his dad by flying to England for his birthday. Which left me with the kids with an empty three day weekend. Thankfully the sun was out so we turned our long weekend into a thrifting adventure. Here are some of our finds.

As many of you thrifters know, some weekends turn into theme weekends. This one for me was the weekend of many lamps. I found this lamp for $2.00 but it had an ugly shade. I bought an uglier lamp for another $2.00 with this vintage burlap shade and switched them around. I also picked up the Paint by Numbers painting from the Value Village half off sale on Monday for $2.50.

Okay so you either love these lamps or hate them. I'm calling the one on the right the masterpiece as it is so hideously cool. The shade is made from cork. The pottery base is signed but I've yet to make out the name. I paid $2.00 for it. The lamp on the left I actually paid $20 for but I also picked up some vintage Halloween decorations for nearly nothing so I'm mentally thinking I paid $10 for the lamp. Don't you love the magic of the thrifter's math equations?

Saturday morning took Cerys & I to Kingston where they were having a community wide sale. This included maps of the town with the listed yard sales. Funny enough, there were only 6 yard sales on the map when I was sort of expecting something like 20 or so. I was still able to find some great items though that made the drive worth it.

Here is a very good condition Dansk enamel pot with matching lid designed by Jens H Quistgaard. Bowls in the background are from Italy and remind me of a bit of Bitossi.

My first piece of mid century modern gravel art. It's missing a piece of gravel in the sun but it was only .50 cents. I've been admiring gravel art for some time but the pieces I've found locally have either been too damaged or too unappealing. This piece is small and will fit well into my living room decor. I found this sweet site recently when doing a search for gravel art.

This is probably my find of the weekend. Well, times 2 since I found two of them. These are chairs produced by Knoll. I had heard of Knoll before but I didn't realize they were so collectible. There are many more creative chairs than this simple one designed by William Stevens. They were $2.00 for the pair at a yard sale that had been running for three days. I found a similar pair at an auction house estimating their value between $200-$400.

Vintage Halloween supplies.

and a few more.

So Cerys and I were driving home from our day out of hitting the yard sales when I spotted a bunch of stuff by the side of the road. Now where we live this is extremely uncommon. People just don't leave a lot of stuff by the road for free. There was a chair, a little oven I think and this tv. As soon as I spotted this orange globe, I pulled over and told Cerys to go get the TV. She was very apprehensive about it all telling me I shouldn't take these things. I told her they wouldn't be here if they weren't free. She gave me a look of annoyance and gingerly walked back to where these things were lying in the grass. She looked around, worried that she'll be caught and hurried back to the car with the tv and little stand. She once again told me that she wasn't sure about taking them since she didn't see a free sign. Of course her worry made me start to doubt myself. And here I am a few days later still hoping they were Free. They were left at a street corner without any houses nearby though which to me sounds like they were meant for anyone brave enough to stop and pick them up.

This tv is a JVC Videosphere. You can read a bit about these here and here. Mine has a chain and can be carried in the hand or hung from a ceiling. This one actually works although the reception was quite poor. It needs cleaning but overall is a great find.

The weekend buzzed by quite quickly and before I knew it, Dave was flying back to us. I felt like this was the first weekend that I could really thrift and enjoy myself. I was still quite selective since the house is on the market and the fact that we are moving this summer. As always, it's the search for vintage and mid century items that really motivates me to get out there.  I did get a few other items this week that were perfect for my etsy store. One already sold but three other new items are there still available. I'm trying to get back into the normal swing of life rather than sit here focused on the house not selling. Work seems to be the easiest way to do that for now.

a video to sing with

I just stumbled upon this song from blog from Retro Renovation. I think it is fantastic and I can imagine myself humming it in the weeks to come. Brilliant.

thrifting late at eight

Saturday evening I found myself exhausted from a day in the garden. It was a good kind of exhaustion because I was in the warm sunshine which meant I wasn't stuck in the house cleaning. Around 7:45pm we came back into the house and I popped into Craigslist and noticed a listing for free plants a mile or so from my house. I somehow found some energy, told the family I was heading out for a few minutes and jumped into the car in search of free plants.

The plants were nowhere in sight so I imagine they were taken quite quickly. And yet driving back a garage sale sign caught my eye. I looked at the sign, looked at my clock, shrugged my shoulders and went in search of the sale. I stopped outside their driveway and noticed tables filled with dishes, vases, boxes of books and furniture. I didn't see anyone hosting the sale but then again, I've never tried going thrifting at 8pm in the evening. Most sales end around noon on the island.

I pulled back onto the road and turned around but not before noticing another car pulling up to look. I quickly turned around again and asked him if he was going to the sale. My shyness still stops me from charging into their late night sale. He said that he knew the people and would ask them if they were still open. I followed him sheepishly and waited patiently as he walked into the garage and called to them.

Two people came out and said that I could look around. I didn't buy too much but I was still surprised at what I found. I bought two orange vintage lawn chairs since I mistakenly gave all of mine away or sold them at my own yard sale, a 1960's copy of M. Sasek book This is London and these:

I find it intriguing that I can go to a yard sale hours after it has opened and still walk away with some sterling silver. These cost me $5.00. Their markings were small, in fact I could barely make out the word sterling until I was home and looked at them through my jewelers loupe. There is a part of me that has a hard time resisting inexpensive gold or sterling. Last weekend I came home with a child's 10K gold ring for .50 cents and two small 10K gold pins for .25 cents each. A song that's been on my mind from Pandora is this song by The Mollys. Maybe if I sing it often enough I'll stumble upon a bar of dusty gold in a junk box in someone's basement. Seriously I have gold dreams about once a week. Silly.....I know.

I was surprised to see this style of silverware sell on eBay. Here are 6 butter knives that sold for $31. And here's another site which is selling this style of silverware.

One of the most common questions I receive through this blog is how do I find valuable items? Some people tell me that I have luck. I'm not sure it's about luck at all. I'd say that it is about persistence and being just plum stubborn. I'm usually out the door by 7:30 in the spring and maybe 7am in the summer waiting to be the first person to walk into a sale. Or I'm the strange one who is loitering around at 8pm in search of something of value. I don't know why these were not picked up earlier in the day. Maybe the price was too high earlier or maybe no one noticed the world sterling on them. It made my evening though and was fun to bring home and share with the family.

Our area has just a handful of sales so I try to go to every one of them even if it is later in the day. I rarely walk away without something interesting.  That is the allure of thrifting, you truly never know what to expect or what you might find.

mother's day

Our mother's day celebrations were not very conventional. It could have been more adequately called work-on-house-until-we-dropped day but it doesn't quite have the same romantic sound to it. We have thrown in the ringer and have given in to selling our house ourselves. It hurts, it feels a bit like failing but I know our goal is more important than my pride in selling our house. I think I could have sold it FSBO, but time is not on our side with this one.

I have yet to share this on my blog but back in January Dave & I started to become a bit nervous about this move to Los Angeles. The initial excitement of moving to a very large city dissipated with time. How were we the country mice, going to cope in a massive city. Not to mention the idea of never seeing Dave again as he makes a very long commute every day. At the moment his commute begins at 6am down the stairs to his basement office and ends at 4pm every day up the stairs. We often have lunch together and visit in the kitchen for short coffee breaks. I also started to worry about the cost of the Pacific Palisades and the size of the shed that we might afford to rent in someone's back yard. I went back to my favorite notebook and scribbled down what I wished for in a home and community. I sighed when I once again realized that it was Sebastopol, CA. The countryside, the ability to buy some land, the fact that there is a Waldorf School that goes through to 12th grade and of course the ideal climate all made it on my list.

Dave and I began to talk about the children and I living in Sebastopol while he commuted by airplane. Financially it would practically be the same as us living there and sending the children to the Santa Monica Waldorf School. Of course we wouldn't see him for part of the week but the children would live in a rural setting which they would be more comfortable with. Or should I add, their loud voices and joyful screaming would not be as ideal in a city.

Still worried about everything, I actually called a phone in program on Hay House Radio to ask for advice. I somehow got through and was the first caller to speak to the presenter. She told me immediately that she felt that I would not be going to LA. She just had a feeling that I would be going to Sebastopol, where I told her I wanted to be. She said that I had to change my focus from fear of wanting to be in LA to focusing on our family being in Sebastopol. She said if I put all of  my energy and thought towards what I wanted, there would be a very good chance that my life would go in that direction.  Dave and I discussed this later that night and decided to follow her advice. Two days later, Dave receives a call from his boss who told him the the Los Angeles move was canceled. We were gobsmacked yet in another way it is what we expected.

Our main draw to Sebastopol is this school. The biggest thing in our lives, besides our family is Waldorf education. I have been dreaming about this school for probably 8 years since I discovered it while living in Virginia. But at the time we couldn't afford to move to CA and instead moved to Bainbridge Island to attend a small starter Waldorf School. Now we are ready for a bigger school that would take them through to High School. The children have been accepted and the last piece of the puzzle is selling our house.

I still feel like I have slightly failed by not selling it ourselves. We worked hard for 40 days with lots of interest and even a complicated, low ball offer. But it's nearly the middle of May and we want to move this summer as a family. So I have handed over our house to a real estate agent. I must admit, I'm still resisting this idea. What I loved about selling the house ourselves was talking face to face with people. I find in real estate there is lots of buyer vs seller attitude rather than even using first names. It doesn't help that our last realtor transition was awful and included lawsuits with no help from the real estate agency. When we bought our current house it was done privately and it was the smoothest house purchase we had ever experienced. We sat down with the couple selling the house and had honest conversations. I even helped them with their yard sale which I'm sure doesn't surprise you.

Yet our goal is to sell and being on the MLS with a realtor will achieve our goal. We have 20 agents coming through this morning from our realtor's office and 100 realtors coming through on Thursday. I hope it sells quickly because this constant cleaning thing has become quite old.

Here's our annual Mother's Day photos taken across the table from our brunch at Real Foods.
 

The Girls.....

The Boys.....

And the after meal run around....

Despite all the hard work on Sunday and the weariness we feel towards the house, the day was still beautiful because I received so many extra cuddles from the children and lots of I love you's were whispered in my ear. It's amazing how much we give our lives to our children. And how much they innocently give back to us.

patience

One of the best skills a shopper can have is patience. Yet I imagine, if more of us had patience our economy would not be in the pickle that it is today. Overall we are a buy it now society or maybe I should change that to want it now. 1 in 7 Americans carries 10 or more credit cards. It feels easier to spend money when it goes on a bit of plastic. It's not like they take a chunk out of your credit card so that you can see when your credit limit is nearing the end or when your debt is over $10,000. We just whip them out, the cashier slides them through the machine and we get to go home with our new item without always thinking about the money we just spent.

Thrifter's are not immune to this need to buy either. One of our greatest weaknesses is knowing that we might never find the exact item again. At least at Macy's you might have good odds that a Martha Stewart decorating kit will be available for a few more weeks. Or a set of dishes is available for a year if not longer. But when you set your eyes on something at a yard sale, you might have to move quick to buy it before someone beats you to it. This makes patience a needed skill.

Do you remember when I found this bed on Craigslist? We didn't have a frame for it or a headboard so we stuck it on the carpet and reminisced back to our college days where having a mattress on the floor was cool. The bed was still comfortable so it worked for the time being. Since January though I had been looking for a bed frame and headboard. I looked at yard sales, thrift stores and on Craigslist. I could easily have gone out to a retail shop, used my credit card and be sleeping in my new bed by now. But I didn't want a new bed. I wanted a perfect bed and most likely that would be thrifted.

Last week I found a bed on Craigslist. I emailed back and forth with the seller and Sunday, I went to pick it up for $65.

It's an Ikea Malm bed, very simple but has nice clean lines. It sells for $200 plus tax and once was on sale for $99. I still felt the value was good at $65 because it moved our mattress off the floor and it was 2nd hand. 

I'm not always patient and sometimes I do buy compulsively but I tend to always pay for it in guilt later. At least when you thrift there is a small chance that you can sell it for a similar price if you decide that you later dislike it passionately. Retail wise some shops take returns but others are making it more challenging. I'd prefer to buy something I aim to keep.

When you are out and about shopping this week whether it is retail or thrifted, take a second and ask yourself if you are shopping patiently. I feel that the 5 months that I have waited for the bed made it even more satisfying when I put the bed together. And I adore waking up each morning in a fully thrifted bed.