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 big find of the weekend

Saturday night I showed you guys some of the stuff I picked up that day, but not all.  I didn't show you the haul from the St Anthony of Padua church rummage sale in Dutchtown, for example:

They were having a bag sale, so I grabbed a lot of things I otherwise might not have.  No point not filling up the bag!

Some of the highlights include a pair of small souvenir trays (very small, like for change):

London scene, melamine, made in Italy

Colorado, kind of heavy, copper-plated?

Cute ceramic owl

Kitschy scoop and mug

Tiny pretty bud vase

  

The little bud vase is very sweet - sort of semi-hobnail, so that it looks somewhat sea-urchin-esque, the scoop is a great shade of green, and I just love the owl.  The trays were more just because the bag wasn't full, as was much of the rest of the contents of the table, except for these:

Very cool looking old icon.

3-D lenticular Madonna & Child

I have a big soft spot for kitschy religious iconography, and I don't know if I've seen much more kitschy than the plastic lenticular Madonna & Child above.  It's scratched up, and made of cheap plastic, but I don't care.  LOVE IT!  On the left is something much less cheap.  I'm not exactly sure who this is meant to be (to be honest, I only really know Mary, St Christopher because I've seen the medals, St Anthony and my favorite, St Francis).  I've decided to believe that thing he's holding is a stylized bird, and say this is St Francis.  He's on this padded blue velvet stand that's really quite pretty and I love him even if I have no clue what he's for.  

The best from the church, though, I already hung up in the booth:

Gorgeous chinoiserie needlepoint

This needlepoint is gorgeous.  I love how the scenery is all in tan and gray and creme neutrals and then there's the woman in rich bright blues and yellows.  The price sticker from the rummage sale pulled off a patch of the gold on the frame, unfortunately, but it's fun to know that under the gold that bamboo frame is for some reason bright red.

Another bit of needlework, this one obviously done free-hand, without a pattern.

 I love, love, love this!  I haven't read through it all, and I doubt I would understand all of what's in there, but just thinking about how much work went into it is overwhelming.  It has phrases like "vatican council II" and "sacrements", but there's also something about a purple sweatshirt, and the St Louis Cardinals, and various dates.  It starts with "An instrument of peace", which is what caught my eye first, and it ends with "Happy Birthday my friend Luv Tup.  What an amazing friendship this must represent, you know?  How many hours went into hand-stitching all of these memories?  It makes me sad that it ended up in a rummage sale, but I hope someone else will be as enchanted by the idea of the great love this represents as I am.  Here's a close-up on the center:

           
And yet that stuff was still not my big find.  The big find was this:

Sexy brown upholstered mid-century modern chair.  

This chair is gorgeous you guys!  I love it so, so much.  And it's comfy, too!  And if my new friend Mary Poppins didn't shed her body weight in fur per week all over my furniture and claw everything when I'm not home, I'd keep it for myself.  But I've put it in the booth because, essentially, it's too good for my house.  It's not perfect, though.  The upholstery is in great shape except for the points of the arm rests and one little slit in the cushion on front, but... you know, you can't really have the points of the armrests showing stuffing, can you?  Also (and this is an easy fix, but since I didn't realize it until I was moving it into the booth I haven't fixed it yet) one of the little brass foot-caps on the tapered legs is loose, so that if you grab it when you're trying to move it, it will slip off.  A little glue up in there will take care of it, so I just have to remember to bring some with next time I get to the booth.  Anyway, all of that is no big deal because the chair is just so hot!  It's not marked, although I did see a spot where there was a bit of paper stuck under one of the staples at the bottom, so it used to be.  A Google image search makes me think it's probably by Selig of Monroe.  Check out this one offered on Live Auctioneers:

This one has a taller back, but the same arms and tapered legs and it's even got the same V pattern of the buttons on the back, and I don't see any indication that this chair style was so iconic as to be copied by other companies, so I'm guessing mine is also Selig of Monroe.  And as much as I'd love to keep it for myself, it's available in booth 78 at Kenrick Antique Mall right now, along with the two framed needle-art pieces, and tons of other great stuff!

Want to see more treasures?  Check out the link-ups!:

Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday and Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday

Too late shmart, but right on time for Presidents' Day thrift sales!

I know, three posts in one day.  I'm sure the internet thinks I'm making a nuisance of myself, but it's way too polite to tell me so.

I can't help it though.  Presidents' Day at Value Village meant 50% off!  So obviously after visiting my booth this morning, I toddled along next door for a visit.  And then hit 2 other of their stores up on North St Louis County.  And now I get to show off the spoils, which is almost as fun as hunting them down to begin with!

The cute 70's child's table everything is on, and the
Van Gogh-inspired needlework are not from today's
excursion, but I hadn't showed them off before.

More mushroom-y goodness, and a real, famous, walnut bowl!

Walnut Bowls are a thing.  When I was a kid, all over rural Missouri, on the way to either of my Grandparents' places, or anywhere else, you would see billboards (and faded old painted barns) advertising two things:  Meramec Caverns, and Walnut Bowls.  Apparently Missouri is the home of most of the walnut trees in the country, and some enterprising rural Missourian at some point decided to capitalize on this fact by making a lot of bowls and advertising it.  A Lot.  I don't know why they didn't make walnut anything else, but the phrase "walnut bowls" has been indelibly imprinted on my mind, because apparently that's all they did make.  And now I have one.  A real Missouri Ozark one even!

A pair of cute "Love is" mugs.  Both have a Japan stamp
on the bottom, so I believe they are original.

A cute lemon juice jar and an amber glass hanging pot.

Fun shaped little pitcher.  Bottom has the initials
LS, and 61, which I assume is the year it was made.

Check out the off-colored Mondrian style little afghan throw!

Needlepoint "Peace Prayer"

I've always heard this called just the Prayer of St Anthony before.  I'm not Catholic, but I've always been fascinated with St Anthony.  From what I understand of him, he seems nuts in the best possible way.  My Mom has (I believe it's still there) a plaque with this prayer up in her kitchen, and I memorized it years ago.  In case you can't read it in the picture, here is the text:

Lord make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sew love,

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

Oh Divine Master, 

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console.

To be understood, as to understand.

To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

I especially love that this shows him preaching to the birds; that's one of my favorite stories about him.  By the way, this beautiful thing, which I've already decided I'm keeping for myself, was marked at $1.81, which means I paid less than a dollar for it.  Hooray for the 50% off sale!

Speckledy cornucopia vase/planter and a mysterious jar
with a very heavy metal rocket-looking thing on top.

I have no idea what the rocket-jar is, but it's old, and it looks like a rocket, and the mechanism (whatever it once did) appears to be broken.  I do not care.  It is nifty; it doesn't have to do anything.

Pair of kid-sized moccasins.  Insoles say Taos.  NM, I assume.

Another bit of needlework, from a different Value Village.
Amish, I guess?  Or Amish-inspired.
And too right!  I'm always too late shmart...

Linking up with Apron Thrift Girl again.  Happy hunting everyone!