I found this strange vintage lamp at The Salvation Army for the low low cost of $6. I can’t decide if it is barfing up the lights or slowly devouring them. The petals at the bottom look like some sort of crazy fish mouth or, well, um…a flayed penis.
It was made by Tower Craftsman Incorporated in New Jersey and may be the last decent thing to come out of that state…I’m going to go throw it in a hot tub and see if it breeds.
It’s flaccidly flipping off The Captain! Rude.
Lisa H. emailed asking for some advice on how to clean an oil painting she recently found at a thrift store.
Above is an example of a filthy painting I just pulled out of my garage. Since I buy so many paintings at thrift stores, I use a little trick that gets years of grime off easily and quickly. The secret?
Bread! Doughy white bread to be exact.
Well, we didn’t have any white bread laying around except for this old bagel, which if you hate carbs would count as evil evil bread. What you need is the interior surface of the bread exposed. Either get a precut loaf of bread or cut something in half. Just get to the squishy white part.
Rub the soft side all over the painting. Don’t push hard, just gently run the bread all over the surface. The bread will pick up all the grime and grossness like a sponge.
Once your bread is filthy, toast it up and slap some jam on it. Or throw it away. That’s your call.
Use an extra clean piece of bread to do the final gentle rub down and your grime should be gone.
The grime may be gone but there will be residual bread crumbs all over the place. I use a clean soft bristle paint brush to wipe them all off and get rid of any remaining gunk.
That’s it, you’re done. Feel free to hang it anywhere your little heart desires.
Bam!
BEFORE & AFTER
This weekend I was trolling trusty old Craigslist looking for things for some designy projects…and well, for the master bedroom too…and spotted two well priced items needing a good home. Like I need another chair or coffee table, but sometimes when that bargain siren calls I just can’t resist shooting off a quick email.
Monday evening I took a Craigslist themed road trip out to San Diego (which is only about an hour from the house) to pick up a vintage Danish coffee table and a gray Eames side shell chair. Both need a little bit of oily love, but are otherwise in really beautiful shape. On the way out, I hit up my thrifty route and found a little piece of pottery and a vintage gold lumpy horseshoe ring. Not the most exciting things but still pleasant additions.
After I visited the sweet Craigslist sellers and starting heading back home, I stopped by Ikea to check out some of the new sofas and other recent additions and ended up grabbing a blanket. It’s the Vilmie Rund and at $12.99 a total steal. I love it.
My life is oh so very glamorous. Maybe I can regal you of the tales of eating a hot dog and putting gas in the car. Not that those things happened at the same place or at the same time…
In other news, come visit me on Thursday over at Life of an Architect, where I continue to blather about things I buy. Well, more accurately, things I bought.
