Secondhand Surplus

Sunday, January 29, 2012

A Tale of Two Chairs














I decided I need to just go ahead a dig right in. Its been a long time since my last post, and my life has changed drastically in the last four months. We went from a family of three to a busy family of four. My pregnancy didn't keep me from thrifting or decorating, but the lack of time has keep me from blogging all of the many changes that constantly go on around here.

With a list of goals for the new year, and one being to spend more time on my blog, I thought I would start with a couple of the newest things (not baby related) to the house.

The first two pictures are of the Vostra chair I found in the alley last year, re webbed. This poor chair had been sitting in the basement, just barely missing the clean sweeps I've been doing since the addition of one more beings things, needed room also.

I went to the army surplus and purchased this black webbing, and finally made it my mission to breathe new life into this old girl.

I think it turned out beautifully, the webbing is nice a tight, giving your tush a firm seat. There are still bumps and bruises visible, and they help remind me of the life it used to have, and none of us here are perfect.

The second new chair is a beautiful Adrian Pearsall brought home from an auction near my in-laws house. My father-in law attends a local auction every Tuesday night, and if we are in town we load up and go with him. There are two auctions that go on at the same time, one in the main heated building, where you can also get your choice of homemade pie. The other goes on in what they call the lower barn, and is heated with a wood burning stove. The lower barn is where you will find flats of random crap sold for just a dollar or two. But if you are the type that likes to dig, like me, and get the best deals, this is where you'd be.

We stood huddled up next to the fire, waiting for the only thing we were interested in to be auctioned off. I had the baby in the Moby carrier, inside my coat, while plenty of the locals wanted to either touch him, or let me know it was too cold to have him out there.

After an hour, they finally grabbed the chair, naming it " this fancy chair" and letting the locals have their way with it. Testing it out, wondering why it sat so low, have how is a 250 lb. man supposed to get out of this thing! there were remarks about how " that there wood must be walnut" and as this goes on I start to wonder what my husband has in mind as too much for this fancy chair. The binding starts at $4, and we were the only bidders. We grabbed our chair, told the auctioneer that the cushion had been laying on the couch behind it. The locals began to comment on the fact the cushion would make it more comfortable, and easier to get out of, but we just headed to the check out, and started to wonder how we were going to get it all the way back to St. Louis with all of our other stuff.

It was a long and uncomfortable ride home with the chair in the back of the land rover and the kids and dogs shoved wherever there was room. But, for $4, it was all worth it. and it has become the most fought over chair in the house( I usually have to kick a cat out of it if I want to sit down).

It feels good to be back, and with the newest member finally napping the way he should, hopefully I can find time to post again more regularly.




Tuesday, July 12, 2011

These things find me...














I had to pull a quick u-turn as soon as I saw this guy sitting next to the curb, on my street. I caught just a glimpse out of the corner of my eye, but sometimes I believe I have a trained eye when it comes to finding treasures in the trash. There are plenty of times when I turn around to find that it really , truly , is only trash. But, I've also had plenty of finds that are trash to one person and a treasure to me.

In this case, I grabbed this clock of the curb, and knew It had found a good home. There is one spindle broken, and the hands and face need some love, but with the amount this clock is worth, I am going to get him to the clock doctor asap.






Thursday, July 7, 2011

What my life looks like at 30...








I just celebrated my 30th birthday, and I always felt that by the time you turn thirty you need to have things figured out, and life underway. As I approached my birthday I felt like maybe I wasn't where I needed to be at this milestone. Maybe I should have more of a path cleared.

I turned 30 on the 5th of July, and now that it is here, I am exactly where I need to be at this point of my life. I have a wonderful, supportive husband, a beautiful 4 year old son, and another on the way. There is nothing else I could be doing at this point in my life that would be more rewarding than what I'm doing right now.




Wednesday, February 23, 2011

New Rocker

My Valentine gave me a new rocker base on the 14th. It was very simple to remove the old base and attach the new one. I know these are seen everywhere, but its been a wish for a long time to own one. This shell chair is the one I bought out of someones backyard, for $25, before it slowly rotted away in the elements.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

West German Pottery



I have started a small collection of West German pottery. I prefer the more subdued colors, rather than the bright ones. I have not invested much time or money into this collection. All of the pieces were under $5 a piece, and were not sought out, but stumbled upon. I love the texture of the lava glaze, which are the two light colored pieces on the left.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Morrocan rug












The last two pictures here are of a new rug that I got off of c-list. I actually ended up buying two, after I brought home the first one and loved it so much. One is 13'x7.5' and one is 11'x6'. They are antique and made from goat leather and river reed. They both have such great character to them and great texture. They were listed for quite some time and the price slowly continued to drop. Finally at $40 each I couldn't pass them up. The pictures that were on the listing didn't do the rugs justice, and I have to say i hadn't ever seen this type of rug before to compare them to.
Once I brought the rugs home and got them into place, I started noticing them all over. The first three pictures are from Roman and Williams, but I just noticed this rug in an old Domino, and in a Living Etc.
I will try to post a picture of the other rug in our entry way, it has a different design.


New Flatware




This is our new set of silverware. We always end up missing pieces, ending up with 3 knifes, or 2 spoons.
This weekend we went to a huge indoor garage sale and brought home this set 62 piece set. It goes well with the dishes we use, which are a vintage brown drip glaze.