Light metal, and more needlework

Hey guys!  Just wanted to share a few nifty bits I picked up recently.

First, how about some mid-century metal?:

Cool little regency-esque vanity stool

Dontcha love the harlequin-diamond pattern?

Another great pierced-metal-patterned magazine rack

Speaking of racks - this heavy bronzey-brassy rack with soft fuzzy coverings
on the little rungs all along is meant for holding your vinyl at the ready,
possibly on a mod-sexy mid-century console stereo?  

It's a Lyric record holder.  So cool!

The stool and the magazine rack came from the Goodwill near my work.  I'm always shocked by the good stuff I find on my lunch break - and the prices were still reasonable.  The record holder was more than reasonable!  I got it from St Vincent de Paul in North County, where they've started doing a thing where they put things on sale a little more for each week they've been there.  Great deal!

But if all that cold metal isn't your thing, here's some warm and fuzzy for you (as in yarn!):

Pretty crewelwork apple tree with a bluebird on a gold background.

The wording on this one is printed on the fabric,
but the crewelwork and cross-stitching is real.

This has the look of an old Dutch style pattern in pretty colors
that aren't coming through that well on camera - too overcast today.
Well, and I was in an underground parking garage!

I believe two of these came from the Salvation Army on North Lindbergh, and the third from the St Vincent de Paul I mentioned before.  So pretty!

Here are all three, to show the relative size of them.  I really love the apple tree!

Check out these link-ups and see what great things other folks have picked up or fixed up or made up!:

Cap Creations Thrifty Love (big thanks for featuring my awesome dining set find from last week!) and The Thrifty Groove's Thrifty Things Friday

The rest of the Chicago thrifting

Hi guys!  Can you believe this?  Three days in a row I'm posting!  Aren't you proud?  So Wednesday I told you all about this past Saturday's tourist-thrifting in a few nifty neighborhoods around Chicago.  Last night I gave you a cheapskate's review of an adorably decorated but decidedly cheap hotel.  

Now it's time to show off Sunday's haul, for yes, the thrifting did continue!

We started our day from the cheap hotel far, far from the city, and, as breakfast was not included in our thrifty accommodations, we found this fabulous establishment:

That's right, we had Spunky Dunkers Donuts for breakfast!

We took our sugary bounty to go, found the Starbucks at the local train station, and ate at a picnic table in the little park nearby while wondering whether very small aliens created the lawn-circles there, or whether perhaps someone spilled weed killer.

After downing two donuts and an iced chai I was ready for some more exploring.  We had hoped to visit some vintage shops we had scoped out online in the Wicker Park/Bucktown/Humbolt Park neighborhoods, but every place we found was either closed on Sunday or closed this particular Sunday because of the holiday weekend.  Todd and I did press our noses longingly to the glass at An Orange Moon, but nobody materialized from the back to let us in for an exclusive peek and huge discounts like in my daydreams.  Still, so much to covet there!  And a wander around that nifty area was by no means a bust.  There were fabulous old businesses and lovely residential streets to wander:

And lo and behold, the lovely residential street depicted above sported an "estate sale" sign - bonus!  In a converted carriage house, I apparently learned the importance of coasters, for here is what I purchased:

A set of 6 vintage coasters with Parisian street scenes. 

My very own Stonesters!  Sorry about the lousy pic quality - I guess I was excited.

I posted here about a set of cut stone coasters I got my Dad for his birthday at a craft fair this summer.  These are by the same guy - they have the same sticker underneath, and are just as awesomely Andy Goldsworthy-esque as those, but I got these for about 1/5 the price - yay!

After the estate sale we felt the need to appease the youngster in the group who had very patiently wandered neighborhoods and waded through junk with us for so long, so we headed for Michigan Avenue so he could do some coveting of his own at the Apple Store.  As sleek technology is nice but not necessarily covet-worthy to me, I took that time to stop and smell the... well, not roses:

Flower beds on Michigan Ave.

I'm sure this is a famous building.  I just call it cool                                                     

More from the flower beds 

I so want to go to the Tip Top Tap!

After Michigan Avenue we went looking for the Randolph Street Market, but again struck out, either because we were thrown off by the North Coast Music Festival that kept getting in our way, or because it was closed that day, I'm not sure which.  We did, however, find a real live nitty gritty old-tools-and-cheap-sunglasses flea market:

And look - the sky was clearing up!

I didn't find any vintage treasures there, but, as the clouds all blew away and the sun came out full force, I did buy a pair of the above-mentioned cheap sunglasses, and this most excellent concoction:

Mango con chile - sooooo yum!

Later, without realizing we were doing it, we found our way to another amazing comfort food spot that's apparantly been there for over 70 years, never closes, has been featured on the Food Network, and (this part's just my own personal opinion based on the super nice people who waited on us) appears to be a really great workplace.  The White Palace Grill boasted really, really good food, even if you weren't impressed by all that other stuff.  The soup was amazing (they really like to feed you soup in Chicago, I think).

So after a relative bust in terms of thrifty finds up to that point in the day, we managed to find one of the many Unique Thrift stores in the area, where they were having an awesome sale, and where I found quite a few treasures:

A green vintage lampshade (stitchery bit needs redone, and
I should've turned the seam side around, but oh well!).

A really nice mid-century magazine rack.

An adorable matched pair of crewelwork kite-flying kids.

A cheaply made but awesomely printed vintage bedspread
that doesn't appear to have ever been used.

A small blue and red monogrammed overnight bag.

An old TOMY owl clock-toy.

A beautiful vintage tablecloth in bright autumn tones.

I think I picked up more at this one medium sized strip-mall thrift store than I bought anywhere else all weekend!  We went back to the big amazing warehouse I mentioned in Wednesday's post after that, so Todd could do some wheelie-dealing (he totally scored a Lane Acclaim coffee table for $40!), but what I picked up there I included in what I showed you from there yesterday.  So this concludes the thrift haulage from the weekend, and my energy for continued typing.  I suppose that means I'll spare you my thoughts on Ikea as an analogy for the road to hell.  You don't have to thank me!

If you haven't had enough of thrifted treasures yet, check out these link-ups full of folks who are lucky in thrift:  

Chic on a Shoestring's Flaunt it Friday and The Thrifty Groove's Thrifty Things Friday. 

And what about you?  Thrift anything good lately?

Fuller and fuller!

I have a confession to make...

I have now crammed so much stuff into my booth that I can't even tell when something sells.  Even something big and obvious.  I only today realized that the disco ball:

is gone, and wasn't there last week, either.  At some point prior to last Monday, someone walked out of Kenrick Antique Mall with a disco ball in tow, and that, my friends, gives me warm fuzzies!  How often do you get to see somebody walking around with a disco ball under their arm?  I really hope somebody got to see that, when the buyer left, and it gave them a chuckle.  I can't believe I didn't even notice it was gone!

And yet, I have packed the booth even further still.  Today I added all of my accumulated crewelwork pictures, a great three-piece set of blue vintage luggage, a bunch of mugs, and tons of other bits and bobs.  Wanna see a few?  Here you go!:

This one's 3-D; the fern has fronds that pop off the canvas!
Also, it's signed.  Who wouldn't want to
hang an original Betty Buda on their wall?

I wish this showed off the italian pottery candle-holder on the front right better - it's mid-century fabulous!

3-piece set - priced separately or as a set.  Super cute, and the big one has wheels and a pull-strap.

I am a little obsessed with pale blue.  I added the little kettle to this vignette last week.  This week the S&P set is new!

I've added so much great stuff, but I'm a little afraid I've hit eyeball overload in the booth.  If I've filled it so full that I can't even tell what sells from week to week, is it too full for a customer to take in and enjoy?  Here's the full-booth view.  What do you think?

To make room for all the fabulous crewel work I took down the suitcases - you can see them sticking out from the wire cube on the bottom left there.  The new 3-piece set is basically just in the middle of the floor in front of the leather suitcase that's on the stand back there.  You can still walk around in there, but just barely.  And looking at it now, I'm more impressed than ever with how cool the blue and yellow genie-bottle looking one is.  Sorta funkadellic for arts-and-crafts, isn't it?  Fun!

And FYI, the 20% off clothing and accessories will come down tomorrow, but will be replaced with 20% off EVERYTHING in the whole booth this coming weekend only - special sale for a special event.  Kenrick Antique Mall is hosting a flea market outside, so be sure to stop by, check out the fleas outside (kidding - there will be great stuff! and food! and adoptable pets, too!), and come in out of the heat to check out the awesome bargains inside.  Don't forget, I'm booth 78.  Clear out some of this great stuff, so I can put in a whole bunch more!

And above all, enjoy the gorgeous Spring.  God's artwork is on full display lately; have fun and take it in!

Cruel Summer may be on it's way, but it's a crewel Spring!

Officially today was the first day of Spring, I know, but Spring sprung on us already awhile ago here in the 'Lou, and I took full advantage of it Monday on my day off.  I'd been invited to dinner at friends Alaina and Steve's house in O'Fallon, IL for Monday evening, and I hadn't planned much of anything else for the day beyond getting some more new items in my booth, so I took advantage of the rest of the day to explore a few of the many, many great thrift stores in and around Belleville, IL.  I had heard there were quite a few, but when I started googling, I was surprised at the sheer numbers in what I'd always considered to be (compared to St Louis) a small town.  Have you guys ever used The Thrift Shopper?  I just came across it while doing the aforementioned googling, and what a handy resource!  I'm excited to put it to use again soon.

I didn't get to every shop listed on my nifty new resource, but I'll give you what impressions I can of the ones I did visit:

Goodwill, Fairview Heights:

I stopped by this one mostly because it's right off the highway and easy enough to stop at sort-of-on-the-way to the others.  It's a huge Goodwill in a nifty building, but I wasn't expecting all that much, since it's right by the highway and surrounded by suburban sprawl-mall complexes.  I assumed it would be high on prices and low on vintage, but I was pleasantly surprised!  

Nice vintage desk and old utility chair.
I believe the desk was marked $30.

Old covered wagon lamp
with Carebear wagon-cover!

Cool laminate-topped end table with inverted arch designs.

I walked around for about 15 seconds before heading back outside to grab a cart to contain a great vintage Samsonite suitcase much like this one that sold on Etsy last fall:

Obviously I haven't yet gotten a pic of the one I bought!

Picked up a couple of other, smaller items as well, then headed South to Belleville proper.  

Next stop was the Shelter Shop on North Belt in Belleville, whose proceeds go to violence prevention, I'm told.  Prices here were very reasonable, but I didn't spot much that I couldn't live without this trip.  I will definitely give it another try next time I'm in that neck of the woods though - the people were nice, even if they wouldn't sell me the super cool vintage chrome and vinyl chair I coveted.  Apparently their customers sometimes need to sit down, and they didn't mean at my house.  Oh well!  I did pick up a couple of old embroidery hoops and a 70s kitchen gadget, for a grand total of $0.89.  Not bad.

Then it was the Salvation Army, where I wouldn't have been surprised to hear an actual angel chorus sing when you open the door.  Seriously, I found some fantastic things!  First, what I left for the rest of you:

This half-buried loveseat had great lines, the upholstery
that wasn't piled with stuff looked great, and I believe it
was a sleeper.  Beef up those seat cushions a touch
and it would be good as new!

Can you see that? Yes, this awesome "Dad chair"
is marked down to $8.99!  Go get it before somebody
who won't appreciate it's classic lines and Ward
Cleaver appeal takes it home and spills Red Bull on it!

Heavy brass and wood bookends - pretty in person.

And a creepy one for you.  Please tell me you can see that
this is definitely Carol Anne from Poltergeist sitting
there with her over-realistic Raggedy Ann doll.  Yikes!

I picked up a handful of gems here, but the coolest, by far, was this:

Wide lapels and wild pleating

 The jacket itself brings the funk with all the wild details, but the real reason this is an out-and-out treasure in my book is what you find inside:

Yes, that definitely says "Original Fashions by Sammy Davis Jr.,
and his signature is part of the lining fabric print!

I tried to walk away from this jacket.  I mean, it's not exactly a practical purchase, but... Sammy Davis Jr.!  I mean... come on.  Sammy. Davis. Jr.!  I was powerless to resist.  And interestingly, Google seems to have very little to say about the great Mr Bojangles' fashion line.  I found a garment bag with the logo someone's trying to sell, and one three piece pinstriped suit.  

The prettier finds I made were vintage Springtime perfection.  I picked up four gorgeous crewelwork pictures (there were at least 2 more that I left behind, if you love this stuff like I do!):

As they're leaning against the tire of my car, you can kind of get the idea of the scale of these two.  Bright, beautiful, detailed and well-done.  I adore the blue genie-bottle type vase in the one on the right.

As you can see, these two are much bigger still than the first pair.  I love the bold colors in the vertical one, but the horizontal looks awesomely just like a field of wildflowers, complete with a bumblebee in the upper-right there.  So Pretty!

I already have a few other cool crewelwork pieces (including the Van Gogh Sunflowers I've shown before), so I really need to free up some wall space in my booth and show these off like they deserve.  If anyone's looking for some fun, funky, beautifully crafted artwork, let me know, or I'll let you know when I get them up in the booth!

I visited a couple more thrift stores yesterday, but it just hit midnight here in the 'Lou, and I'm about to turn into a late-for-work in the morning pumpkin, so I'll wrap it up for the night.  Hope you're enjoying the Spring as much as I have been!