China Dreams...

So, Justin and I (for a long and embarrassing story) didn't do a wedding registry when we got married. Which is totally fine, but I've always wanted "china." You know, the whole everyday china and fine china thing. So I've been looking at vintage china patterns for the four years that we've been married trying to find one I want to make "ours." There have been some close calls. But nothing that was totally perfect. I recently found 8 of these Blue Heaven glasses and then 2 of the plates, at two different thrift stores, so I thought maybe I'd go with that. I mean, I love aqua, and they have a neat modern design. Here's the dinner plate:
I also like it because as you can see from the Replacements listing, it comes in SO MUCH STUFF. There's even a line of Fire King Blue Heaven stuff. The crazy hoarder in me dreams of having everything in Blue Heaven. Right down to these darling Fire King custard cups.
BUT, I realized that even though I love this set, it's just to kitschy. It's not elegant enough. It's not grown up enough. So I kept looking (and now I'm thinking of listing those 8 glasses in my etsy shop...) and started learning more about different mid-century kitchenware manufacturers. Then I decided I should search for my wedding colors, aqua and red. That magical combination led me to this bowl on etsy (that I bought today, yay!). I am smitten with this design. And the bowl (with shipping) cost me under $9, which I would consider a lot, but will help me remember how much I love this pattern! It's the start of my "fine china" collection. :)
The only draw back is that I can't seem to find a pattern name. I know it's by Homer Laughlin, and I know it's from the Rhythm Line, but the pattern seems to be known by a number and letter combination: JJ167 They have some of it here at Replacements, Inc., but not as much as I'd love to see... I wish I could see what the rest of the pieces look like. But I'm just in love with it. I love the aqua color, and the way the leaves are so detailed. Lovely!

When I was on ebay looking for more of it, I found another Rhythm pattern that I want for my "every day" china. And the two patterns really look lovely together. The other set is slightly similar to Homer Laughlin's FiestaWare, but it's solid gray. And since it's from the Rhythm line, the shapes should be the same as the JJ167. I just love the color gray, and the simplicity of the china. I think it's timeless, even though it dates from the mid-1950's. Look at this sugar bowl! How adorable is that? And I think the gray matches the gray in the JJ167 very nicely (not that that is necessary, but if it was all in a sweet mid-century modern hutch, it would look pretty sitting near each other. Just saying.). The best part of both sets? Even Justin likes them. He is surprisingly picky about such things, but he thinks they are both very nice looking. He just doesn't share my enthusiasm for random bits of pottery... This set is also on Replacements, and seems to be slightly more complete. And there's quite a bit of it on ebay. Once funds are restored, I want to get a few pieces to start out!
My plan is to just buy a piece here and there and slowly build a collection. In the mean time, I have a collection of various brands of vintage plates that mostly feature floral designs. So if I'm able to collect some pieces here and there, they will blend right in with the mismatched sets. But some day, I hope I will have that hutch full of these pretty things!

And for the record, all of this silliness was brought on by an inspirational Apartment Therapy article about how you should buy things as you can afford them and not worry about getting the whole set at once. Of course, now that article seems to have disappeared, but I promise, it was oddly motivating for me. It's particularly nice to pick vintage china to collect, since you don't have to worry much about it being discontinued, and pieces only become available sporadically.

Last note... The neighbor who backs us is playing music REALLY loud. First, it was a Phil Collins song and now he's rocking "Piano Man." Yeah. Can I call the cops to complain about that? Is there a special section in the criminal code about blasting your neighbors with Billy Joel?

Ooops...

In spite of two different e-mails from two different production people telling us our Curb Appeal: The Block episode would air next Saturday, it actually aired last night. We are hoping to watch it today at my Mom's house (thank goodness for DVR...) but they are supposed to send us a DVD of the episode sometime soon. Fingers crossed... If you want to watch it, and you have a TV, there is an episode guide here, listing when each show will air again. Ours is the one titled "A Boring Brick Ranch Style Home Gets a Modern Makeover."

Built-ins

As the work finishes on getting the basement back to the glorious state it was in pre-flooding (haha), Justin and I are really getting excited about turning it into living space. In my scattered brain, I've been trying desperately to try and figure out priorities down there. Like, what needs to be done first in order to get us down there? I have a list now, so look out! I decided that a great start would be something that would help clear a lot of the stuff in storage down there. Our goal is to have only the basement closets filled with boxes, and only boxes that are things that absolutely don't need to be out, like baby stuff. Or holiday stuff. Since I've been hating the living room closet since we moved in and took the stupid bi-fold doors off of it, I decided to go ahead with our "somdeday" plan of turning it into a book nook. A couple/few Saturdays ago, I took measurements of the closet and looked closely at the one existing shelf so that I could mimic the construction. After dinner (and a beer or two for Justin) I convinced Justin to take me to Home Depot shortly before they close so we could buy the materials. Win for me! Roxanne had a great time "helping," and it was altogether kind of a newbie Home Depot lumber shopping experience, but it came out OK in the end. More or less. In any case, I measured, screwed, puttied and sanded supports into the closet to make more shelves. I did them fairly large so that we could display our (my) antique books as well as our novels, etc. Five million coats of white trim paint and four melamine white boards later, they are pretty OK. I still need to fill them with my books and some choice clutter, as well as figure out some kind of center support, but for now, I'm proud. I did them by myself. Justin helped a lot by keeping Roxanne busy for me to work. She kept trying to "help," which is heart breakingly sweet, but not necessarily productive.


Here they are all done, but not quite. :) I can't wait to load them up... If you want to read book titles, I think when you click and expand, you can see them. If you see anything you like, let me know. I might let you borrow something.
I took the rug out of here and put it in Roxanne's room. We took the side off her crib, and I was terrified of her hitting the floor when she rolls out of bed. I think Justin and I agree that it looks much bigger in the living room with no rug. I just took that little wood shelf out of here and put it in Roxanne's room, too. It holds her books beautifully.
Just to show you how we "watch TV" in our living room. That's Yo Gabba Gabba playing for me and Roxanne. Katie is sniffing some spot on the floor hoping for something edible. I can't wait to get some soft chairs in the living room. Justin and I agreed that we would love to find a pair of leather club chairs. Vintage ones. Cheap vintage ones. A girl can dream, right?

Photos of thrifted stuff

You guys, I feel like an idiot. All this time, and I just now realized that I can stick the memory card directly from my camera into the laptop to upload photos. I NEED NO MIDDLE MAN. That's so awesome.

In any case, here are some photos to link up with my previous post.
Justin says these are gross, but I think they are charming. It's just a piece of wood with these two little owls on it. Someone even attached a hook to the back for easier hanging. I found this at a thrift store in Chamblee. I wanted to put it in the bedroom, but had to lie and say it's going up for sale ASAP.
This was under a quarter at the estate sale. It's got some heavy staining, but I can't refuse a peacock. And staining is different from chipping... I hate chipping.
Little teensy bottles. My favorite is that purple one in the back right. It's a "ball and claw bitters" bottle. I have Roxanne to thank for finding these...
I don't know what song this is, but it sounds pretty. I think this would be a cute wallet.
Cigarette case closed. Did I just pun? Sorry.
Open view of the musical cigarette case. Isn't it cute?
Man, this image is so weird. And awesome. My favorite thing about this game was opening it up to see that the family had really played it. There were names written on the score cards..
This is a really cool set. There are TONS of shapes and sizes inside. Not mint condition, but still really fun.
This game is my favorite in terms of artwork. The game board itself is really cool.
The game board is much cooler than the box, but still... What a box!
This is the back of the "Noddy's Taxi Game" board. It's so adorable. This was the board only; no box, no game pieces, but the board itself was just soooo cute.
The front of the Noddy's Taxi Game board. Click on it to make it big so you can see all the fun stuff going on here. So cute.
Later in the day, I found these curtain panels at a thrift store in Chamblee. The little flowers are flocked. As soon as I saw them, I thought they would make a lovely pairing with the Noddy board. Maybe some day we'll have another baby and I'll use this a spring board for a nursery... Or I'll just try to sell them as a set. Sigh.
I bought a few of these Kohner games. Great boxes, but the games inside don't make any sense. Just some geometric shapes and no directions. Oh well. The boxes were worth the fifty cent price.
I have a TON of these. I still think they look like a Georges Briard design. But either way, they are too cute to use. What is wrong with me??? I'm turning into a hoarder!

I lost my camera cord, so this is way less interesting with no photos... Sorry.

I went to my first estate sale on Friday last week. It was SO good. It was a 1950's split level that was in pretty much time capsule condition. I would have taken photos, but I had my daughter, so I was mainly focused on making sure she didn't do anything embarrassing. I felt really weird about dragging her in there with me, mainly because the sale was being handled by some fussy people who I'm pretty sure threw up in their mouths when they saw me approaching with my blond tornado child. But whatever. Some lady brought her dog in there. Like a big dog. Not a yappy yorkie in a hand bag. And I'm extremely conscientious about Roxanne in places like that. I hardly let her get down and walk, even though my back was killing me from hauling her 26 pounds around. Regardless, I could have gone absolutely nuts in there. There were CLOSETS full of vintage clothes and dozens of boxes of shoes and scarves and jewelry. This woman had great taste, and was a meticulous packer. But it was just too weird for me. It's one thing to buy that stuff from the thrift store, but another to buy things out of the deceased lady's closet while standing in front of the deceased lady's bed... The upstairs was so insanely full of kitchen stuff, books, knick-knacks, etc. etc., I could have easily spent hours in there, but a 2 year old really shortens your shopping time. I had a friend with me, but even between the two of us, there's only so much you can do to make looking at old china patterns interesting to a toddler.

The basement was basically like heaven to me. It's where the cheap stuff was. :) I bought lots of vintage board games, a musical cigarette case (no mom, I don't smoke), five teensy multi-colored bitters bottles that Roxanne found, a huge mess of plastic (disposable type plastic) cups with a design that looks like a Georges Briard, and 3 aluminum stacking lawn chairs with green webbing. I spent just under $20. I think the chairs were the best deal, at $4.50 for the 3. Everything was 25% off when we were there, but I wish I could have gone back on Saturday for the real discounts. I'm sure it would have been a freak show, but the house had some goodies that were just too expensive for me, but that I might have shelled out for after a deep discount. One of my favorites was a guest bedroom that featured two twin beds, a tall dresser, a low dresser, a desk, and a night stand all in that 1970's French Provincial style. It's not so much that I'm a huge fan of that style as I have Roxanne's dresser in it, and painted in off-white with pink details, it's perfect for a little girl's room. I would love to have the desk and nightstand at least. But the desk was marked $140. Too much. They also had a cute MCM room divider/hutch that was very small and would have been great in my house. But it was marked $148 and the laminate was ugly. Had it been super cheap, I would have bought it and painted it. I usually don't paint wood furniture, but an ugly laminate? Yes, please.

So the point of all this rambling and listing (don't pretend you don't sort of love hearing about the junk left in a deceased lady's house) is that I realized how much I would like to have my own booth in a local antique shop. If I had a business credit card and a place to sell some of these larger pieces, I would have been at that sale at the opening bell on Saturday morning. As it is, I bought the vintage games and cigarette case for my etsy shop, but I know they will sit there forever. Who does an etsy search for "vintage board game?" But if they were sitting in a booth and someone could pick them up and imagine them used on a wall in a pretty frame...? Definitely. I don't know. I'm probably being unrealistic... I know that having a booth would not equal instant success. I wouldn't quit my day job or anything. But I just really want to try it out for a month or so. I wish I could find a place where I could just consign some pieces but not rent out a full booth. There is a super cute antique shop near us that specializes in mid-century, although they've got all kinds of goodies. I called and asked about booth rental, and it starts at $450 a month. Ah!!!! I just can't do that. I guess I'm just going to keep looking at different options (maybe eBay would be better??) but I'm just not sure what to do. Any advice/suggestions would be much appreciated. Seriously.

Drumroll please...

I'm not even going to apologize for the photo quality. I'm not a photographer, and even though I keep letting Roxanne take pictures with our camera in the hopes that she will break it and necessitate us selling one or two kidneys to get a new one, I'm stuck with it. Just see past the poor image quality to the majesty of the shell chairs. They are lovely. Justin sat in one at dinner (I only had time to finish one before we ate) and the first thing he said was that it fit his butt nicely. I reminded him that we don't use the "b" word in front of our toddler/parrot, but oh well. I'm glad that he likes the chairs.
Speaking of the parrot, we are thinking about not keeping her chair with the booster seat in it for now... She seems to be able to reach the table fine with the shell chair. That being said, any excuse to strap down a two year old at meal times is probably a good one. So we'll maybe do a short trial run. She's still prone to sliding in and out of her seat for various reasons (dance breaks, finding a toy to get all gummed up with her meal, yelling at the dog to stop taking her food even though the dog is fifteen feet away, etc.). So yeah. Maybe keep the booster for now...
I know it's a little cafeteria looking, but I mean, it is cafeteria stuff, right? And that's fine. The color is so bright and happy, and this table is perfect for the space and perfect for messy kids. You just can't hurt it.
At Justin's insistence, I took down the print that was in this spot on the pre-hallway and put this lovely lady up. He's not crazy about this either, but whatever. Once we win the lottery he can go pick out something fancy. In the mean time, I love this poster. I got it at Value Village, too, and it's a print of a summary of a Shakespeare character from a British newspaper. Somehow, this helps me feel justified in going back to graduate school in August. Like, I'm studying English, and I have Shakespeare-related art on my walls. Profound, right?
Here she is, a little closer. Doesn't she look perfect? I'm pretty sure these were done in the seventies. I love it.

Are you proud?

So, I just finished the second coat of Penetrol on my Eames chairs. They look AMAZING. And the Penetrol, while making me feel a little funny (kind of like breathing in sharpie for an hour or so), it's waaaay easier than I thought it would be. I feel a little silly for putting this off for so long! Justin thinks the chairs look amazing, and he says he can't wait to put them in the dining room. I think he was actually a little grumpy when I told him that I thought the chairs might need a third coat of Penetrol. He is serious about getting them in place. I can't blame him. I'm convinced that the extra pop of color will go a long way up here...

One thing I was worried about with the chairs was whether or not they would really "clean up" during the sanding process. It's hard to tell when they are faded out and kind of dry looking, but the Penetrol really brings the color back. They are a surprisingly dark orange now. Almost tomato red even. I'll post photos when I get them in place, but for now, you can just use your imaginations. They still have some rough patches, and there is a definite pattern on them, in terms of the fiberglass pieces being almost black on most of the chairs, and I had it in my head that the chairs would look uniform in color. In all honesty, I really love the texture of the aged fiberglass, and as long as the Penetrol keeps them shiny and not itching me and my family during meal times, they are perfect. One of the chairs has some areas where some of the fiberglass threads have turned totally white. It almost looks like paint, but I don't think it is because it would have come off during the sanding process. Either way, they have great character. Some day, I want to put the wooden dowel bases on them. The H-bases are fine for now, but they aren't in immaculate condition, and some of the screws seem reluctant to go in all the way. I might take a few to Home Depot or Ace and see if I can buy some new ones.

Oh, and here are some photos of the new room set up. It's still not perfect, but definitely feeling more cozy. Oh, and the lighting is awful, I know. It was stormy out and I was forced to use a flash. Ew.