Archive for the ‘thrifty’ Category

Thrifty!

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

The holidays tend to put a bit of a damper on the old thrifting route – meaning, not as much is getting donated and the stores are filled to the brim with terrible holiday schlock. Ugh. I know its a terribly unpopular thing to say, but I can’t wait till the holiday season is over. I dread this time of year.

The rounds have produced little in the way of big finds, but I continue to grab small bits and pieces here and there. Small additions mean its time to vignette the crap the house and this weekend I focused on the pipe shelves, which frankly, have been needing a bit of a once over.

My favorite small find recently has been this tiny hand carved elephant. He’s super light and beat up, but I love the chunky ham fisted carving.

This couple of blue and brown ceramic vessels hail all the way from vintage Japan. They moved across both time and space to be discarded at two different thrift stores. Good thing they ran into my greedy claws and could be reunited. The big one has a great cork lid and the little bud vase is simple and swooshy.

It’s hard to tell, but the left is a hand turned walnut bowl that is super thick and gorgeous on the inside. Of course I included the blandest, least informative photo possible…because I’m a failure. What? Its a wood bowl. Its not that exciting. Otherwise, the bowl on the right elicited a pretty sardonic response from The Boy, “It’s ceramic and wicker? Great.”

Doggy mail holder and giant wooden paperclip to hold all my important office bizzness. The cashier at Salvation Army asked me what that dog is and I said it was a vintage pacifier and they don’t make them like they used to.

Full of lead.

Ba-dum-cha (thats a drum sound).

In other random thoughts, I’ve been considering selling off the shelving unit. I know! Madness! I just have these all these other nagging ideas I’d love to try out and I’ve been less and less enthused with the design. I know, I’m the wackness. Imagine living with me. Its wicker and ceramics and moving things around 24/7.

Thrifty!

Friday, November 19th, 2010

I’ve been out and about at thrift stores and a few estate sales over the past couple weeks. Here’s a selection of some of the small things I’ve picked up along the way – all the bigger stuff is jammed in the garage. I did find a bunch of vintage Navajo rugs for cheap at this madhouse estate sale and had to battle a lady dealer tooth and nail for them. I also picked up some Acoma pottery as well as other random bits and pieces, including this kooky hand carved walrus. The Boy forbade me from buying more art, but I fell in love with this nutty leaf painting that seemed like a very fussy Alex Katz and broke the ban. I also grabbed a pair of what I think will be universally despised once I post about them. Let me install one and live with it for a few days and see if it works…

I’ve had that photo on the right sitting on my desktop for ages now. I took it inside Kings Highway (because I am totally obsessed with that crazy huge pencil cactus) and just thought one day I would use it to show to someone at a nursery. I spotted it while cleaning off all the crap that lands on my desktop and thought it juxtaposed well with all my thrifty loot. Ugh. Juxtapose. Damn you art school!

Estate!

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Maybe you caught me on twitter (twittering? uggggh) talking in 140 characters or less about a local Hemet estate sale I visited. Oh yeah, and if you want to hear about lame stuff like what I find in thrift stores or the puppy or other crap no one could be interested in you can follow along via @The_Brick_House. I warned you. It’s drivel.

While at the estate sale on Friday I saw a few interesting things, but the pricing was a little wacky. The coffee table above was $85 (plus a bunch of free spiderwebs for your trouble) while this sofa below was $50 (and unfortunately already sold).

Needless to say I left on Friday empty handed. But…

Saturday was 1/2 off day. Since the sale was only about a mile from my house I went back about a half hour before they closed up to check out what was left.

Well, obviously the coffee table was left and marked down 50%, but I wanted it cheaper. CHEAPER! Want to know my big secretly lazy trick for thrifty estate deals? I already said it. GO AT THE END. At that point they really are just giving that crap away. You risk missing out, but you gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold them, know when to walk away and know when to run.

Yeah, that just happened.

So, I offered $20. SOLD.

I know you get the idea of what the table looks like, but this is the only picture I could get of the two dogs even remotely together. Poor Iggy is still TERRIFIED of the new puppy and will run away when approached.

I also grabbed a gigantor white ceramic lamp while I was there.

The hulk sized lamp is living in the living room for now. I’m not sure what to do with it, that thing is MASSIVE.

BTW, I know the coffee table switching thing is out of control. I have four in the garage right now and this is a problem I need to address. Obviously, I am addicted to deals! At least its not crack.