Thrifting in Florida

 

This just confirms why I never blog any more. Yup, a reality check. ::sniff, sniff:: A little over a month ago I had this pipe dream that I was going to set aside time as my birthday present to myself, to pump out a few posts...but that never happened! I started a few and well, just got too busy. So here's a little catching up from the holidays. I'm trying to finish what I started but don't expect too much more anytime soon.

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This was our second year spending a few weeks in Florida around the holidays. Last year I braved a few antique shops with kids in tow and lived to tell about it. This year I never made it back to those antique shops like I wanted to but I did manage to do a little thrifting. The first word that comes to mind to describe the thrift shops near our townhouse down there is GROSS. But I was desperate for a little treasure hunting action so I just hoped that if the rough was that rough, the diamonds I'd find would shine that much brighter. Here's what I ended up with:

First, one of my favorite finds is this vintage chandelier that I'm going to hang in my girls' room.

The "crystals" are a light amber color.

I took these pictures before cleaning it at all. It was very dusty and dingy so it'll sparkle and shine even more when its actually clean. I'm planning to repaint and set up this {curb alert} canopy bed for my oldest daughter and I think I might hang the chandelier over/inside the top so she gets her own private fancy lighting. (I don't plan on putting up a canopy over the top of the bed, just hanging panels around the sides.)

The light fixture is unique because it has a super long chain cord that can just plug into a wall outlet - that means I don't have to mess with anything electrical to hang it and it can be easily moved if we re-arrange furniture or swap kids around (3 kids, 2 bedrooms) down the road.

I took my oldest daughter with me the first stay of thrifting and she's actually the one that found this large, slightly rusty, cast iron key for me. I should have added something to the photo to show scale, but it about 8 inches long.

I'm so proud of my girl for noticing this on her own, recognizing its potential, and bringing it to me! Apple doesn't fall far from the tree... :)

I found this huge canvas to hang in the downstairs bathroom of our FL townhouse. The bathroom walls were bare and you know how I feel about that.

For the hall bathroom upstairs, I picked up this:

Its not anything I would have set out to buy new, but I was trying to personalize our vaca house on a budget and thought it was quirky and cute. Its a long board covered/painted with sand so it feels textured. The sand and birds both sum up a lot of our FL experience this year. The blue/green color in the birds is not an exact match to the bathroom wall color but close enough to look good against it. I never even got around to hanging it before we left. (But I can when we go back in June cuz hubby snagged a Jet Blue deal where the total airfare for 4 of us ROUND TRIP is $159. That's not a typo!) Sorry, just a little giddy about that.

I think this next item is actually a boys belt but I can just barely make it fit me.   If its on the last notch. And I don't eat anything. :) (I often want to cry because I'm a 34 year old woman with the body of a 12 year old boy, but I suppose it has a few perks.) The belt is very preppy, which I'm generally not, but I like it.

I like the brass buckle, and the color of the leather and the colors but mostly I like how the belt reminds me of our FL experience this year. We took one day to meet up with my BFF's mom in Clearwater and the beach was covered in horseshoe crabs. Another day, we found ourselves back on the west coast to see the manatees that come close to shore and there were thousands of little crabs making their way back to the water:

My parents and one of my brothers are big Norman Rockwell fans. They've been to his museum several times. They have framed prints around the house. I even found some interesting pieces for my brother at a yard sale this summer. (No pics of those - it was during my blogging sabbatical. Lots of goods to be found during that period, just no posts!) Anyhoo, I came across this deck of cards at one of the really gross thrift shops in FL. Each card has the print of a Saturday Evening Post cover on the front and information/facts about it on the back.

The cardboard case was a little beat up but the cards were pristine - most of them were almost stuck together around the edge like the deck had never really been torn apart and looked at.

Come to find out they are collectibles but not worth a lot (more than I paid, but not a lot).  I ended up giving them to my dad for his birthday, figuring he might like to look and read through them.

As I was rummaging through some jewelry at the register, waiting for the shop to ring up the cards, this caught my eye.

Just an old watch face (pictured next to a nickel for scale). Not even any glass to cover it. I love the gold, the patina - everything. I asked them to add that in - I think they charged me a quarter? I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing with that yet but maybe incorporate into a piece of jewelry? Or display somewhere I'll see it often as a reminder to manage my time well. We'll see. But that's about as steampunk as I get.

Speaking of jewelry, I did find a few packages of shank buttons in one of the shops.  I scooped them up for making my button bracelets. (I need to do a post on those some day!)

I brought my oldest daughter along my first day of thrifting and she found a china doll she just begged for. We need more dolls like a hole in the head so I wasn't buying it for her, but she had money her great gram had given her for Christmas and instructed her to buy whatever she wanted in Florida. She wanted it enough to spend her own money on it so this is what she got:

Her name is Mirabelle. Anyone else who is subjected to reading lots of Fancy Nancy books will understand. I'm not sure which thrift shop doll has creepier eyes - Mirabelle or Creepy Alice.

 

I actually got a few articles of clothing during my FL thrifting excursion, despite the general GROSS factor in the shops. I buckled on a cheesy outfit my daughter begged for. It's so cheesy I can't even show you. But these little like-new sneaks for my youngest are cute enough to share.

The clothing in most of these shops were so nasty I didn't even want to touch them but one shop seemed a little classier and had fun stuff like fur coats and vintage hats.

I picked up this yellow tank top thinking it would compliment the tan I delusionally thought I would get on this trip. (Ignore the wrinkles - I pulled it out of a pile for a picture.)

I also thought this tank top would go well with the aforementioned crab belt but what I liked most about it were the details on the fabric buttons.

I did wear this, once, with the crab belt, but it was too big and looked frumpy on me.  Apparently the buttons are destined for one of my bracelets after all.

Besides the tank, I also bought a couple of dresses for a few bucks each. They were both made of stretch cotton with a flattering cross over in front.

I liked the patterned satin details on this one:

This one could be worn as a dress, beach cover up, or like a tunic with leggings.

So that brings me to the end of the Florida loot low-down. The only other thing I had to share was this wicked cool couch they had for sale at one of the shops. I don't know why but I just loved it. Probably because it had an Anthro vibe.  Some might call it "old lady," I'll call it vintage. The color green, the velvet, the tucks along the back - all so awesome.

It doesn't really go with anything else I already own but I loved it so much that if it was closer to home, for $75, I think I would have caved. Our soon-to-be-ours home will have a homeschool/playroom and I think I would have designed that room around this couch just to make it work! BBUUTT its not closer to home so never mind. 

 

 

 

Shifting Shadows

This week around the breakfast table the girls and I have been discovering what the Bible has to say about the fact that God does not change. In 1 Samuel 15:29 we find that God does not lie or change his mind (but people do!).

James 1:17 says that our Father in heaven does not change like shifting shadows. So I did a little experiment with the girls to show them how shadows shift throughout the day as the earth moves around the sun.

9:00 AM

 

12:30 PM

3:30 PM - I had to change the angle of the shot because we could only see the shadows of their heads cast on the garage doors.

"Mom! Hurry up its COLD out here!"

Last week we read Hosea 6:3-4 and talked about how God is as faithful as the sun rising every day (or actually as the earth rotating once every day).  It was interesting to contrast that with the shifting shadows that the daily rotation process creates.

What in your life seems to be changing as quickly as the day's shadows shift?

Have you recently felt the ripple effect of someone else's lies?

Place your hope and faith in the one true God who is as faithful as the daily sunrise and remains steadfast and unchangeable through all eternity.

A Mid Thirties Rambling

As I begin to write this it is the morning of my 34th birthday. Officially mid thirties. Yuck!  I've been developing plenty of wrinkles to prove it! I definitely feel like I've been looking older lately. Strange how having kids can make you feel like you're staying young but really kick-starts the old hag look.

Well, my birthday gift to myself is to indulge in a few blog posts. I'm still generally too busy to keep up at it. It's still not high enough up on my ladder of daily or long-term priorities.  But I've had such a terrible creative itch lately. And since this is one of my creative outlets I figured I'd stop in for a little while again. I've got a few thoughts and treasures to share.

Usually, when I get that creative itch, I can just scratch it with a little redecorating for a quick fix. But I'm in a long period of decorating limbo right now. Since the end of October we've been living at my in-laws' house. The plan is to officially buy it from them this spring but they won't move out until they build themselves a new place. They hope to break ground in April and then take several months to finish. So during this interim period, I'm at home, almost, but still a guest. But I have the world's best in-laws' so I can't imagine this transition period being any easier.

Most of my stuff is in storage though and sometimes I miss it. Every day I'm getting inspired for how I want to put my personal stamp on this space when I can - and I'm forced to be patient! In many ways its nice not to be distracted by my stuff and to not be jump into any changes right away but have a long time to mull them over.

There are a few spaces that I am free to fully settle us into right away - the girls' bedrooms and bathroom. So I'm hoping to redo the older girls' room before long. Most likely there will be some posts over the next few months that show before and after pics or how I've incorporated my treasures into those rooms.

Another way I like to scratch my creative itch with crafty projects - especially turning trash into treasure. It's my favorite therapeutic escape when kids are sleeping! I've got a laundry list of projects to get to - mainly painting furniture. But with everything we own taking over the basement and the room above the garage, and with the cold weather outside, I don't really have a work space at the moment.  Plus I'm still busy digging out of the post-Christmas/post-vacation/post-stomach bug mountain at home. We haven't even been home a week yet.

• I'm finally caught up on emails but not the to-do list that they created.
• I'm caught up on washing dirty clothes but still have 3 huge space saver bags full of clean clothes from vacation that need to be sorted into warm and cold weather piles and put away.
• I still have our Jesse Tree up. My oldest asked to keep it up for a while so I told her we'd review all the symbols on the ornaments once (actually I'll quiz them), then it comes down.
• I must confess the suitcase full of Christmas gifts from vaca still hasn't made it out of the back of the van and into the house yet!
• I think I've collected most other random Christmas stuff from around the house and into one box (we didn't take out much knowing we'd be gone), but that stuff needs putting away.

I'm giving myself through the end of this month to get caught up - THEN I'm working on a fresh start and diving into some projects. In the meantime, I reserve the right to schedule a few girls creative nights in or out. I'm dying to get back to making button bracelets and we're LONG overdue for a visit to Claytime. (Who's in?)

And that concludes my ramble. No point to that post, I guess I just felt the urge to ramble after being away from all my peeps for about a month. The other posts I have lined up will have a point, be more interesting, and/or have some pictures. :)

{Curb Alert!} Salvaged Barn Boards

First, allow me to backtrack to last summer, when I picked up the book Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren at a yard sale and I shared how both Pippi and I are “Thing Finders.”

Now let me backtrack to a couple weeks ago, when I finally read this (first of 3 books) out loud with the kids. We were a couple of chapters in, a few paragraphs after the quotes that I shared in my original post about the book, when I discovered some more “Pippi wisdom” that I can identify with:

...“We shall see what we shall see,” said Pippi.  “One always finds something. But we’ve got to hurry up and get going so that other Thing-finders don’t pick up all the lumps of gold around here before we get them.”

All three Thing-finders now set out. They decided that it would be best to begin hunting around the houses in the neighborhood, because Pippi said that although it could perfectly well happen that one might find a little screw deep in the woods, still the very best things were usually found where people were living.

Earlier that same week, as I was driving around the houses in my neighborhood, my eyes spied what, in some circles, is the equivalent of lumps of gold. There’s a cool old barn down the street that’s always been somewhat of a mystery. A sign on the side advertises a handmade furnishings and cabinetry business but the only times I’ve seen the door open, it looks more like a workshop for old cars. I did a double take as I was driving by and realized they were tearing down all the old boards off one side of the barn and putting up new ones.

Ummm…did I just drive by a pile of old barn boards? Be still my beating heart! 

Of course my first thought was to turn around and ask if I could take some but I was on my way to meet a friend for some long overdue thrift shopping (where I ended up getting the chair at the end of this post) so I decided I’d just stop to ask about the boards on the way back - but I forgot.

The following day I was out on the same route with kids in tow and I saw the guy working on the barn again so I decided to pull over and ask about it. At this point, my kids are finally getting used to this routine and they rarely question me anymore. J

I tried not to look too giddy when the man told me I was free to take any of the wood. But I got a little more serious when he mentioned I was the third or fourth person that had stopped to ask about it. He also kindly mentioned that the wood at the top of the barn, which he had not yet started to tear down, was even better than what he’d already taken off, if I wanted to wait. I asked if I could come back later and he told me I could come and take it any time, even if he was not there. So I got back in the car intending to go back later in the day.

Well no sooner had I gotten home and distracted with kids and house that I forgot about it, again. That is... until my daughter and I cozied up on the couch later that afternoon to continue our Pippi Longstocking experience. When we read the paragraphs I quoted above I was caught dead in my tracks. “One always finds something. But we’ve got to hurry up and get going so that other Thing-finders don’t pick up all the lumps of gold around here before we get them.” THE BARNWOOD!!!

Pippi was absolutely right! I had got to hurry up and get back to the barn so that other Thing-finders didn’t pick up all the lumps of gold before I got them! “Hunny, when we finish this chapter we’re going back to get some of that wood!” Her eyes popped out of her head with an excited gleam in them. (She totally gets it.) J

Before we headed out, I made sure to grab my work gloves in case of splinters or rusty nails. I also had to empty my van of that chair I’d gotten at Sally’s the day before. With plenty of room in the van for my “gold,” off we went. They owner was gone, but with permission, I pulled right up beside the pile and started digging through it. I found plenty of beautifully gray and weathered pieces and a handful of rusty old nails to boot. Woo hoo!!

So what the heck am I going to do with this pile of salvage? I’m not exactly sure yet. But I know I’m going to need it some day. J   I’m forever inspired by this barn board backdrop that Sweet Pickins always stages her furniture makeovers in front of. 

And here are a few other creative DIY ideas found online (Pics link to sources.):

Rustic Headboard



Birdhouses



Sign Art



Flower Planters (top pic)

Well, fast forward another week or so as the barn continued to be refaced. This time I drove by, beside a new pile of wood, there were a few windows sitting out by the road that caught my eye. Hmmm...old barn windows?! Sprinkles on the sundae! Can't not stop and check these out too! By this point, the guy recognized me and we ended up chatting about wood crafts, townies, who we both know, etc. And I'm promised he'll not only save the windows for me, but he'll even remove them from the casings and set them aside away from the road with the best of the wood in his newest pile. SWEET. When it ever stops raining long enough for my goods to dry out, I'll pick those up too. I may or may not share. I'm on blog sabbatical, remember?

Either way, when I get the 2nd round of old barn goodies, they'll just to go into storage, for now. I'm not sure who's gonna kill me first. My hubby or my in-laws...

Chair Love

It's been quite a while that I've been on the hunt for a vintage wooden swivel office chair. When Pottery Barn first started selling these, I'd drool a little.

But the $399.00 price tag is pure insanity. And they look too new and polished for my liking - I've been wanting an authentic antique one, with character and patina.

Today I was at my in-laws' most of the day for their yard sale. I've been so good about weeding things out over the past several months that the only thing I had to contribute was our dining room table, originally their hand-me-down anyways. (Oh yeah, and a vintage crock/beaters I got $5 for. Woop-de-doo.)

We were all getting hungry for lunch so I headed downtown to pick up pizza and subs for us. But I couldn't resist stopping at one neighborhood garage sale on my way. Turned out to be a little jackpot. I got hubby a huge stack of Reformed theology books (his reading passion) for 25 cents each and I found . . .

THE CHAIR!!!

The only thing I "settled" for was the style of the back. I would prefer to get something with a little more to the back, but this is surprisingly comfortable and forces good posture.

It swivels and the back adjusts up and down. The color of the wood, the old casters and aged metal...all exactly what I was hoping to find some day. Just needs cleaning up.

We are actually in the process of moving so for now it went right into my in-laws basement for storage. But I'm thinking it'll eventually go behind my computer and/or teacher desk or a crafting worktable.

AND....this chair - that I recently had to scoop up when I was thrifting at Sally's with a high school friend - will go where the swivel chair does not.

Just not in its present condition. This has great makeover potential - just repaint and reupholster. It was dirt cheap and I totally fell for the design on the back of the chair.

I have a weak spot for chairs. Somebody stop me.

Joys Which I Had Once Feared to Lose

It's been almost two months now since I announced that I've been on blog sabbatical. What started off as being too busy to blog turned into being unable to blog due to extremely limited internet access. My computer had a connectivity issue and I chose not to rush to get it fixed. And since I have a "dumb phone" I am literally disconnected. I haven't really cared about not having daily access to Facebook and email all that much. In fact, its been kind of nice. I've managed to check into those things quickly a couple of nights a week on hubby's laptop - just enough to send and reply to important message.... and maybe comment on a few FB posts. :) Really, its been awesome to be without the internet and not miss it. Even in the midst of major cleanout projects and daily summer adventures, I've managed to go to bed most nights in a neat, fairly clean house - a WONDERFUL new feeling. (I usually blogged at the expense of my kitchen counter!) And I've actually had time to make a decent dent in my quickly growing stack of books waiting to be read - yet again, a wonderful new feeling.

My biggest concern when I was first disconnected was that I would have separation anxiety from my blog. It all happened in the height of early summer yard sale season. I had a draft started about some of my favorite finds from a Friday estate sale (which I will finish and publish hopefully soon). And, I'd been working on more ideas for a blog redesign. But then, by act of God alone, I quickly just stopped caring. He literally eliminated my desire to blog. It wasn't long after that I came across this Augustine quote in the book When I Don't Desire God  by John Piper, "How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose . . . ! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy." Augustine was talking about the experience of conversion, when someone first puts their faith in and commits their life to Christ, but it rang true for me in my current experience as well.

So without the internet or my blog, my time, focus, and attention have been on better things this summer. I'll admit there have been a lot of things I would have blogged about but instead they've just been private joys. And I've still been snapping away with the camera just in case some ideas do end up getting published...some day. When I do get my computer fixed soon (because I will need daily internet once school starts), I know I will not have time to keep up a blogging pace anything close to what I ever have in the past. I knew these days would come so I'm at peace with that!

I'm certainly not closing up shop though. I will always have thoughts swirling about that I'll contemplate sharing; I'll just have to be more selective about the ones that I do. And although I'm in a season of switching gears from collecting to simplifying, I'm sure I'll still stumble upon treasures I deem worthy of show and tell. Posts will be fewer and farther between, and probably shorter and sweeter too. We'll see. All I know is that this creative girl still needs an outlet and I'm just hanging on, seeing where God leads me, my treasures, and this blog.

Sabbatical

AAhh! I'm too busy to blog these days! I've got a bunch of posts in progress but they will just have to wait. Between preparing to put our house on the market and summer vacation...I've got too much work and play that's further up on the priority ladder than this little hobby. I'm not complaining. It's exciting. But I'm putting this on the back burner until...well, I don't know when. I just know posting will be slowing down for some time. Treasure hunting - that never stops. It's just the blog that is pausing. :)