Apron Thrift Girl

to the city

I guess you could say I am somewhat addicted to Craigslist. I confess that I can sometimes be found checking it nearly every hour, sometimes every 10 minute if I'm doing something that takes time to load and I'm impatient. I'll quickly pop over, check out a few of my favorite searches and then back to what I was doing. It's kind of like gambling I suppose. You never know what's going to show up, for how much and how quickly you can reply to be first on the list. Some of my favorite searches include: books, teak, mid century modern, retro, playmobile, vintage, 1960's and so on. The other day I decided to do a search for Ben Seibel. Anyone who is a regular reader of Apron Thrift Girl is aware of my love for this man's designs. Since he was featured in Modernism magazine I'm sure his fan count has grown. I did a rare search for him on Craigslist and opened up the search to include all of San Francisco instead of just the North Bay.

A listing popped up for one of my most adored patterns, Granada.....a large collection of dishes for $100.00. As I've said probably every time I bring up Ben's name, I only buy when the collection is usually large enough and the price is cheap enough. Especially since nearly everything I have from him is from eBay. Shipping can really run prices up so I'm just not going to buy a plate for $9.99 and add $12.00 shipping on top of that. Sure I love his dishes, but only on a thrift girl frugal budget.

I emailed the seller and asked if I could pick up the dishes on Sunday. She agreed and gave me her address in San Francisco. I'm trying to get used to city life compared to island life. It still makes me a little nervous even driving on a simple freeway.

Rather than drive all the way to the city just for some dishes, we added a trip to the Museum of Natural History.

I think in all there were around 50 pieces making the average cost per item $2.00.

The coffee pot, gravy boat & lone little salt shaker on the right aren't Ben's design or at least not officially. Sometimes Mikasa borrowed some of Ben's style of an item without signing his name to the piece. It's still Mikasa and overall sort of matches the set.

So I was definitely a little apprehensive about this purchase. I was heading into a city, into a neighborhood that I was unfamiliar with and buying these from someone I didn't know. It really isn't much different from a Seattle CL purchase but if felt bigger and more intimidating. And it went incredibly smoothly. The seller was so kind and was happy to see the dishes go to someone who had actually heard of Ben. She wrapped each piece for me and even gave me boxes & packing peanuts.

I'm still going to try to avoid temptation from wandering the pages and pages of items on Craigslist outside of the North Bay community. It's just to much of a tease. What is the longest distance Craigslist purchase that you have made?

a new living room

Arriving at our rental house, I was taken back at how large it was. It's a 1960's ranch house that seems to spread out over the property graciously and generously. The children's rooms and bath room are almost in a separate wing from the rest of the house. I love the space and I love not having to climb the stairs up or down to get to other parts of the house. I finally measured the living room only to discover that it is 31 feet long. And there sat my poor little mid century couch smack dab in the center looking lonely as all get out. I almost felt panicked that the room felt so bare. I was sent into a thrifting frenzy knowing that I had to create a room out of this enormous space, even if we are renting it for such a short time.

From an empty space of one couch, a tv table and a few other bits I created this:

The couch to the left was from St Vinnie's at a 40% off sale (plus they don't charge tax). I paid $150 for it. The shag under the coffee table was $22 at an estate sale. It's pure wool.

When I sat in the couch at the thrift store I immediately sunk down into it. I quickly unzipped one of the cushions and discovered that it was down. I've never owned a down stuffed couch before...I've only drooled at them in magazines. The brand is Henredron and I quickly did a google search on my iphone. I found a forum discussion where someone was asking whether they should spend $4,000 on an Ethan Allen couch or $10,000 on a Henredron couch. That quickly told me that I was sitting on a very high quality couch, albeit it was 30 years old or so.

It was in near mint condition and I figure it came from a time capsule house. (a phrase I learned from Retro Renovation) I was still unsure about it so I called Dave. He said that he trusted me to buy it. I did and we picked up the following day. I don't know....maybe a bit too much orange in the room but this might be my only opportunity to have two couches in my living room. Who knows how small our next house will be. I'm going to savor the space while I can.

A small corner in the back of the room for the children. The two Bertoia children's chairs that I actually bought from a yard sale two blocks from our rental. I found them on our short vacation to CA before we moved.

A small tv table but it was made from possibly a redwood burl. Paid $3.50 for it. Bamboo lamp $2.00 and candle holder $1.00.

What would a home be without little bits and bobs. My collection of studio pottery is growing at an alarmingly dangerous rate but this little birds keeps everything in perspective.

Slowly it's coming together. And even if our little house that we eventually buy is too small for all of these things, I'll just sell them at my next yard sale. That is a side benefit of thrifting. I'm now so content in our new home that I feel very at peace here. The nesting is nearly completed and my thrifting has tapered off to a small trickle.

another day, another table

Thrifting lets you change your mind over and over again without doing too much damage to your wallet. You might remember that it was not even four months ago when I bought this table. I fell in love with it, bought it quickly and couldn't wait to get rid of the dingy, sad thing we had been using for the last four years. And yet it only took me a month to realize that it wasn't going to be our heirloom table. It was too light, damaged to easily (which included Keiran just looking at it the wrong way) and the saddest reason is that with my 5'1" body, I could barely touch the ground with my toes when I was sitting down. When it was time for our moving sale, I stuck a price on it to see if it might sell. Someone else fell in love with it and paid us $200.00.

My red dinette table on the other hand never sold so we brought it with us and had been eating our meals on it since we arrived in California. And when the internet was reconnected I went into a mad search to find another table. I looked at yard sales, Craigslist ads, newspaper ads and at thrift stores. I found a mess of one at a thrift store but they wanted way too much for it. It needed to be refinished, the chairs needed recovering and it would have cost me $400. Knowing that I didn't need a project like that, I moved on and continued my search.

A week ago I went to a Friday estate sale (this area has them every single week which I am just in awe about) and found this beautiful table.

I paid $250 for it which, in a way is a lot for me to pay and yet I've compared it with all the other prices that I had seen in the last 3 weeks and nothing else quite compares to it. When we picked it up on Saturday, the Estate Sale seller told me that she could have sold it many times over. She looked disappointed that she hadn't charged me more.

It was exactly what I was looking for. It is solid, fits into my Mid Century Waldorf style I want for the house and was affordable. And if you want to do some thrifty math, I paid $100 for the first table, sold it for $200, bought this for $250 so in all reality it was really only $150.

Does anyone know much about these tables? It was made in Denmark but I can't find much more information about this style of table. I did a google image search and I only could find a couple other tables with the tile in the center. If you have any info please share with us in your comments.

finding a place in the world

Tomorrow we will have been in Sonoma County for one month. For the most part things are even better than we expected. The Waldorf school is incredible and has exceeded our every wish for our children's school. The children have settled so quickly. I've worked hard on nesting as I explained in an earlier post. Nearly a month in, the house feels like a home and there is a peacefulness that lets me relax here. In my nesting days I would end up walking around in circles trying to figure out why the energy of the house didn't feel right. 

When we left Bainbridge, our friends and our community it was honestly hard to visualize what life would be like without them all. I've lived in so many areas of the world where I was on my own. Even when Dave entered my life I still spent hours alone. It wasn't really until I became a parent that I began to connect with people. Parenting in an alternative style kind of bonds you with people. We are a minority and we have to fight harder for our parenting beliefs. I still remember my days in Virginia with Families for Natural Living (now Families for Conscious Living) where I met mamas that were like me. We breastfed, co-slept, fed our children organic food and tried to fill our houses with natural toys made from wool, silk and wood. Even when we moved to Bainbridge Island we were in pre-school with other parents that were new to schooling like us. I could go to the park and other moms were so hungry for conversation that having a baby was like a friend magnet. I met one of my best friends through a parenting group (that's you H). I joined the group after meeting one of the members in Safeway. But with a 9 & 7 year old, people don't exactly come up to you and start chatting at the local grocery store.

I knew I was going to miss my friends on Bainbridge but it wasn't until we were settled in our house when the "moving honeymoon" excitement was over and an empty feeling settled into my chest. I had no idea I would miss them so much. And sometimes it is when I am surrounded by my new school community and they are all chatting to one another that I feel the vacancy of my old life. The one that comforted me by just seeing familiar faces. Now every face is new and names are a swirled mess in my head as I try to remember mother, father and child. I have a poor memory to begin with and I swear I am only retaining a small percentage of names. I went to a class meeting last night and you could witness the fact that most of these parents have been together for years. Conversation and banter came easy for them. My shyness reared it's very ugly and unwanted head and I felt like fading into the wall with my silence. There is a part of me that simply hates this side of my personality. Why can't I be like Dave who finds starting a conversation easy. Sure he says the same sayings over and over again in his typical British humor, but he makes people smile and laugh. I want that. I want to be easy going and funny. Instead I feel frozen inside as I watch everyone around me. It won't always be like this. Eventually I'll warm up but the waiting is frustrating if not lonely.

I will add that everyone that I have met here is very welcoming and friendly. Again, more than I expected. And slowly my unease of watching what I say, how I dress and how I act will fade away and my true quirky and hopefully witty self will emerge.

I can imagine that a year from now I'll look back at this moment and probably laugh at myself. This moment of "community withdraw" will be just a flicker in my memory. I luckily have so many online friendships with my blog readers, my Facebook world, my bookselling friends and the handful of friends that I can actually muster up the courage and call on the phone. I'll be okay. Hey at least the sun is shining.

70 years

Sunday was my mother's 70th birthday. We were so honored and blessed that they wanted to spend her birthday with our family. They drove down last week (with a U-Haul truck to bring the rest of our stuff that didn't fit in the first truck-including our cold press coffee maker which was left behind!) and are flying home tomorrow. My parents always want to help their children. Even though we are all adults. They used to come over to England, get to our house from the airport, push their sleeves up and start painting. They also drove a U-haul of stuff from Washington (where I lived before I married Dave) to Virginia. They just do that kind of thing.

We tried to give back to them by surprising my parents with a lunch in Sausalito at a seafood restaurant called Scoma's. We also invited mom's childhood best friend Helen and her husband Mickey to lunch. My mom is so hard to surprise. She catches on to anything. Somehow though she didn't see this coming. They are still talking about the surprise two days later.

Cerys with Scoma's behind her.

For those on a gluten free diet, Scoma's in incredibly accommodating. They've all heard of gluten free which is one of the most challenging things when talking to the waitstaff. Also all the chefs are very happy to alter a dish but not compromise on flavor. I had a steak at the top of the space needle once that was tasteless and topped off with burnt garlic. It was one of the worst meals that I have ever had while dining gluten free.

Gluten free Crab Louis Salad. Absolutely delectable.

My parents and their friends just gabbed and gabbed and gabbed. Which was lovely and fun to hear and very amusing to watch. When the children were finished with their meal and a bit restless we walked out in front of the restaurant to catch the view. You can just see San Francisco in the distance.

I'm sad to have moved away from our family who we left up in Washington but I must admit, I enjoy their visits even more down here. We get to act like tourist rather than just hanging out at our old house. Yesterday we went to Sonoma to explore and we took the children to their first California Mission. My parents' next visit will be Thanksgiving and we will count the days until that celebration. Happy Birthday Mother. I'm so blessed to have you in my life.

new school, first day

Dave, Cerys, Keiran and myself were nervous wrecks the last week before school started. After spending six years on Bainbridge Island and immersing ourselves in the Waldorf community and the greater community we felt so alone down here. Our close friends in the area, Amy and family, moved to Ghana to work in a school for 1-2 years. They were the reason we actually discovered Sonoma County 5 years ago when we did our first house exchange. Luckily we have another family in the area that actually moved from Bainbridge as well but overall we are starting completely over. When I popped into Michaels the other day to check out the latest Martha Halloween crafts, the thought popped into my head that we had no one to invite to our annual Halloween party. My heart sunk deeper into my chest when that realization hit me. I started to wonder if I made a mistake moving our family 800 miles to attend a new school in a new community.

That was until Tuesday when school started. I drove the children to school and we gingerly got out of the van and began walking to the classrooms. We were all a little frozen up with nerves. Cerys had a tummy aches and neither child slept well.

I went with Cerys first to her classroom to put her tiffin in her cubby. Luckily some of the girls who we met at a school work party were also there and before I knew it, Cerys was hugging me goodbye and heading to an massive, magical oak tree to climb up it with some other girls.

Keiran had a beautiful, sweet ceremony where every child handed their new teacher a flower, shook her hand and crossed into the threshold of first grade. I don't think there was a dry eye in sight.

I went a bit rogue this year and bought nearly all of their school clothing new. I even shocked myself with this idea. I think part of it was my nerves about the children starting a new school. While I would love to disagree with this statement....first impressions are important. Going in with stained and dirty clothes which is usually from the children playing in trees, building forts and covering themselves up with dirt, would not be a great way to start the year. So I hit my favorite store in the world Naartjie and spend more money than I have in the last three years of thrifted clothes.

I adore Naartjie from their gnome stocking hats down to their groovy footless tights. Their prices are so much cheaper than other childrens clothing and their styles are so unique and are really designed for children to play in them. Nearly everything they make is cotton and while they usually have their name on the outside of the clothes, it's not usually "in your face branding". And to top it off it is free of commercial characters.

As Keiran walked by me to head to his new classroom he gave me a smile that told me "I'll be okay". After three years of Kindergarten, he's finally in the grades.

I was invited by my 4th grade buddy (mentoring family) to have coffee with some other parents after drop off. I was so relieved that they were down to earth, very funny, knew about pop culture and drank coffee. I still miss my friends on Bainbridge but I'm looking forward to making connections here as we begin to settle in Sonoma County.

Nesting

Two weeks ago we arrived in Sonoma County and started unpacking our belongings in our rental home. It's funny how we work as humans. Cerys and I being the females of the family quickly started nesting. She was working hard in her room making sure every last thing looked good. All her American Girl dolls had a proper place, her clothing had a home both in closet and in the built in drawers and her Elfquest shelf had her dagger, crystals and shells displaying proudly. I on the other hand first wanted the kitchen organized and later the living room. The first week I felt so uncomfortable in this home. It wasn't until the living room had lots of lamps and a bit more furniture that I was able to relax. It truly is amazing how we feel when we our out of our element. I love making a new space into a home, especially when I can fill it with thrifted items. I have so many posts to write and photos to share (finally after such a long hiatus). I'll start by backtracking to August 8th and share with you all that we left behind.

Linens & aprons

Craft Room - everything you see was for sale. and nearly all of it sold.

Was it strange to see most of my worldly goods sold to other people? Not really. It was almost as if this move was a much needed cleansing for me, well for all of us. We are virtually starting from scratch down here in CA. We didn't bring a single dresser and only one bed frame. I only brought our most treasured pieces of furniture like my orange couch and our English rocking horse. In fact, we barely had enough chairs to sit at when we set up our dining room.

The dinette didn't sell so we brought that with us and it is currently our dining room table. What I loved most about this sale was seeing my yard sale friends. Not people who I would invite to dinner or socialize with outside of a garage sale but other thrifters who I would see faithfully every Saturday morning. So many of them told me how sad they were that I was leaving the area. It warmed my heart. (I should amend this that I'm not including yard sale friends who I regularly converse with on FB or by email :-)  I even received an invite from a couple who have a mid century house in Palm Springs. They told me that if I ever make it down there that they would take me on an architectural tour of Palm Springs. I'm already planning a trip for February, hopefully with two girlfriends. I've never taken a road trip without the family before so I hope that it can all work out.

Two of my friends came to help with the sale. I enticed them by suggesting that they bring things to sell. Dave and I made $3,300. And we never even advertised in the paper. I simply listed the sale on Craigslist, on a couple local email lists and used signs to direct people here. When the sale was over, a woman from a church came and collected our leftovers to donate to their next rummage sale. By Monday, the main part of the house was a shell with only a few pieces of furniture that we were taking with us. The basement had most of our moving boxes and loose items that I packed that following week.

My goal now is very different than my goal 4 years ago when I moved into our 1927 farm house. At that time I fell in love with shabby chic and filled the house to the brim with not only funky, paint peeling junk but I started a pile of "projects" in the basement. Projects that I never worked on and had to get rid of this last winter as we prepared our house for sale. This time I am buying some projects, but I am getting to them right away and won't even bring them in the house until they are completed.

I found this Ekornes stressless chair for $5.00 at a rummage sale last Friday.

It looked like this chair had spent time outside on a deck or patio as it had lots of debris in the fold between the seat and back. I even found some leaves and the metal had lots of rust. I looked in my Clean House, Clean Planet book and found a recipe for 2 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar to clean leather. I spent about 40 minutes cleaning the leather and another 20 minutes to clean the rust. The rust recipe was a simple mixture of salt & lemon juice. Both worked extremely well.

My next project is an incredibly worn Scoop Chair by Carter Bros furniture. I found it for $2.00 at an estate sale on Friday. The wood is faded in color and the vinyl has a few cracks. I'm not sure what I'll do with it but for $2.00 I couldn't resist. 

Since we arrived on August 16th, I have thrifted every single day except Sunday when we took the ferry to San Francisco. This area has an incredible 2nd hand market and I look forward to continue sharing tips, advice and my thrifted finds with you all.