So
last night I had high hopes of finally procuring the elusive Tall Skinny Shelf for a price even better than cheap. It's Spring Cleaning time here in the 'Lou, and Big Trash Day (week) to boot, and I thought I had spotted the shelf in a garage that was getting cleaned out for what I assumed was the bulk trash pickup, but when I went back by there last night, it was only the dumpster stuffed to the gills. Possibly with great stuff, but most certainly not with a Tall Skinny Shelf, so I moved on, and can I just say that I drove around for about an hour up and down various alleys in my fair city, and WOW are St. Louisans cleaning house. I saw at least a dozen couches, chairs, ottomans (ottomen?), patio furniture, TVs, computer monitors, a Little Tykes playhouse and picnic table, doors, windows, various bits of lumber, a really lovely small buffet that I tried in vain to stuff in the back of Chester, and all sorts of short fat shelves, entertainment centers, etc. Here's what ended up coming home with me:
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A mysteriously home made not-quite-ladder, the chair I mentioned yesterday,
a long skinny shelf since I couldn't find a tall skinny one, and a child-sized chair, plus... |
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| Don't forget the disco ball! |
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| This child-sized chair is missing a spindle in the seat back, and the paint is chipping all over. |
Can't you just imagine a backyard tea party, all scabby knee'd kids in grass-stained dressups with half-broken chairs and chippy tea cups and a patchworked tablecloth and probably a sheet-fort built under a big old tree. Man childhood was cool, wasn't it?
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| Detail on the weird not-ladder. |
Can you see how the 2x4 crosspieces were sort of carved into notches and stuck into matching holes on the side pieces? And the whole thing is oddly painted silver. I have no idea why I picked it up, but I am determined to figure out some way that it's totally useful in the booth eventually.
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| And another shot of the disco ball because, let's face it - that's just cool. |
The long skinny white shelf in the first picture that is sadly not a Tall Skinny Shelf is coming with me to the booth tomorrow, along with lots of little tchotchkes to display upon it.
Can you believe I picked up all that for a whopping zero dollars?
