Secondhand Surplus

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

M.I.A.

It's been just about 5 weeks since my last post, and I'm just not sure where the days have gone. I now have a kindergartner living with me which seems pretty crazy. Everyone says it, but man do they grow up fast. I was lucky enough to be able to stay home with my oldest and spend just about every second with him, but it amazes me that you only get the first 5 years with them at home, and then school starts and we won't ever get that much time together again.
On the up side, I do have a little more time to myself, while the baby naps during the day. I had high hopes for this time. I imagined DIY's all over the house. I imagined keeping up with the blog more. I imagined my Etsy shop filled to the brim. I pictured afternoons scouring the thrifts. And now for some reason with my new found time I can hardly keep up with laundry.
In the last 5 weeks of being MIA , We did hit a few mile stones. One being that my baby turned 1. Like I said before they do grow quickly. My husband and I celebrated our 6 years of being married. and that will take us to our first photo, since I'm sure that's what you came here to see, and not necessarily hear my excuses for being a bad blogger.
I had the pleasure of meeting a local online shop owner through Craigslist. Robin owns redlinevintage.com, Its a shop beautifully curated with vintage, industrial and mid century items. After meeting Robin I immediately started ogling everything in her shop, and spotted a large "H" channel letter, and knew it would be an excellent anniversary gift for my husband. He loves these letters and is always on the lookout, usually finding the perfect ones still attached to buildings.Robin was kind enough to make a trade with me for someone she didn't mind adding to her collection.
I have been able to hit up just a few estate sales recently, and the table above has been my most favorite recent find. We had a morning without the kids and of course hit up a couple of second day sales. This table was found unpriced and caked with years of kitchen grease. For $20 I decided to take on the challenge of cleaning it well enough to be used as a coffee table. When we got the table home and place it in the living room it was apparent that the height was too tall for it to be used in front of our sofa. Luckily my Dad has a good friend that was able to cut all the legs down by 6'', and that made it possible for us to also go ahead and boil the legs to loosen up the years are kitchen grime. We scoured all of the parts with S.O.S. pads and used oven cleaner on the table top surfaces. I'm happy with the outcome, and I think the stainless steel is a nice contrast to all of the other wood surfaces in the room. The bottom shelf will also be a nice place to store blankets or children's games.


My husband recently has taken to thrifting without me, and the two photos above are little purchases he has made. The top photo is of a set of three handmade danish modern candle holders. Most of these that I have seen or had before seem to be more commercially made, whereas this set is not perfectly uniform and on the bottom you can tell a hand tool was used.The second photo is of a large West German vase that he also brought home, I like to pretend that these are little love gifts that he surprises me with, but in his mind I think he's hoping that I will put them in my Etsy shop. Ok, So there. I'm back on the horse, I have lots more to share. I have also made a few furniture purchases recently, That I will be back to show you before the week is through.
I will also be selling at the Green Shag flea market this weekend, so if you were unable to make it last time or you made it, but you are a junkie like me, please come and check it out.

9 comments:

  1. Looks like your husband is becoming quite the thrifter. Those are great finds! I'll be out at the Green Shag this weekend, so I'll see you there.

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    1. My husband is deffinately getting good at thrifting! Are you going to be selling at the flea?

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    2. Just buying for now. We cleared out most of our stuff over the last couple months and haven't really had any time to get to the thrifts.

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  2. It looks perfect! So glad we could arrange that trade. :)
    And I'm going to come out to the Green Shag this weekend and check it out! See you then!

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    1. I'm glad to hear your coming to the flea, see you this weekend!

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  3. Love the letter "H". And it does seem that the more time we think we have, the less on our list of things we want to do get done. It happens to me every. single. day.

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    1. Thanks! I know! I do better with less time, because then I know I have to get it done right now.

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  4. Great finds! The coffee table looks fantastic. Love that W. German vase too - your dh did good!

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    1. Thanks! I love the coffee table also, and I think it goes to show you that you don't have to have a lot of money to decorate your home with great unique pieces!

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