Secondhand Surplus

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

These things find me...




What can I say, these things find me.
Yesterday I was on my way to pick up one of my son's friends from a camp in Webster, a area in town that I don't spend a whole lot of time in. Mapquest had giving me really poor directions, and I was a little afraid with the detour I had to take I was going to be late. As we cruised down the street out of the corner of my eye I thought i spotted what could be a cool lamp in a trash heap. I had no time to investigate and we were on a busy street that had no shoulder. After we made it to pick up our friend, I decided to go and take a closer look. I had to actually pull into the driveway to get off the street and I jumped out, picked up the pieces and just threw them into the back of the car, all while trying not to embarrass my son. He is used to me grabbing things out of the trash, but I didn't want him to have to explain to his friend it's a regular occurrence.
When we got home I was very excited to pull all of the pieces out of the car and see that not only had I just found one amazing lamp, there were TWO lamps that needed to be reassembled. I wiped them down with Goo Gone and Magic Erase, There were a couple of bulbs broken in the sockets, so I carefully removed those and replaced with 4 small nightlight bulbs for each lamp. Both lamps still work without having to get into doing any repairs, one lamp as a crack in the shade, which I used Mighty Putty to fill the crack so it won't get any larger. I think they will go on either side of my sofa, but I will need to do a little rearranging first.
So there we go, these things find me. I sold 15 lamps over the weekend to lighten the load at the house, and quickly these lovely lighting beauties knew even though they weren't perfect, they could find a loving home with me.

8 comments:

  1. Amazing trash pick! They're gorgeous.

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  2. The stuff people throw away. Glad you were able to rescue them - they are fantastic!

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    1. I know! Its amazing what people throw out, I try not to think of all the awesome stuff that isn't found in time.

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  3. Love the lamps! I, too, have a "thing" for lamps and have way too many at my house. What to do, what to do! At least you did sell some so you have room for more.

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    1. Thanks! At least lamps are easier to store than chairs!

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  4. Those are so excellent. They look as if they are fresh off Roger Sterling's tulip desk in Mad Men. Awesome find!

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