Shopping with myself works for me

So today my storage room coughed up a black frame that needed a few touch-ups, an old and crazed oval frame that I spray painted a satiny cream (and you can still see all those fine cracks), and another oval frame with bowed glass and a lovely tinted photograph of a farmhouse and windmill.  AND I was pleased and relieved to discover today that the old cement Easter basket I’ve been gluing back together (yes, I glue cement) this week actually survived a storm last night.  So today I tied a big silk bow around its roughest point, shredded player piano music for filler, and tea-stained some blown out eggs to complete it.  Tomorrow it goes to the shop with the storage room finds.  I think that Easter basket waited in my yard for about a year before I actually decided to fix it.  Sad.  But that’s how I’ve rolled lately.  Like one auctioneer told me, “Lady, you’re always a dollar short.”  He neglected to add “and a day late.” 

And speaking of late, I planned about a month ago to blog about my junking trifecta.  Well there’s no time like the present, so I’ll start now.  First up for your enjoyment is this lovely sideboard I found on Craigslist:

Yeah, it’s huge and chunky and I love it.  But…the really exciting part was meeting the woman who was selling it.  Her home was amazing.  It was built in the 1970s and had a bit of a Spanish architectural flavor for curb appeal.  But when you walked through the front door, you were transported back in time to some wee farmhouse on a river in the middle of nowhere.  Beaded board was everywhere!  Old ceiling tins and even wall paper on the ceiling that looked like tin added to the charm.  I was mesmerized.  And I was too embarrassed to ask if I could take pictures.  But…I did ask for a tour.  Her bedroom was a junker’s fantasy.  She’s a seamstress by trade and had made all her beautiful fluffy beading.  One wall was completely covered in mirrors, with botched silvering and peeling paint.  It was a small room, but she somehow managed to squeeze in three vanities and still have an open feeling.  She had bowls overflowing with silver-plated brushes and with hand-mirrors.  It was to die for.  In one of her living areas, she had a Carol Bolton-designed sofa that she’d bought off C-List for $50.  She had a beautiful chandelier that a friend found for $3 at Goodwill.  She knew how to contain beauty. In a tract house. Unbelievable and highly inspiring.  So if I never sell that chunky sideboard, I’ll always smile when I look at it…and secretly hope she’ll get rid of more goodies in the future!  

Next post (maybe!):  Part II of the Trifecta…my sister’s junk.

Time flies, except when you’re waiting for Warrenton!

Here we are … almost TWO MONTHS down the road from my last post.  Where has the time gone?  Not to blogging, obviously.  Every time I think I’ll start blogging up a storm again, well, I don’t.  And it’s not like I don’t have tons to talk about!  As we creep toward my WARRENTON (!) weekend, I’ve been killing time and saving money for the trip by shopping from my own storage room.  And I must admit, it has been a little like Christmas and very rewarding. 

I’ve had two plastic dress forms for the longest time.  They are covered in some stretchy disintegrating fabric, and I never could decide what to do with them.  I was thinking of stripping off the fabric…too much work for lazy ol’ me.  So…that left me with an option to somehow attach something to them to cover their gnarly state.  I thought about book pages, but they are too fragile to pin.  So…as I was sorting through my storage room, I discovered a huge lot of old photos in a plastic bag.  I couldn’t even recall getting them.  So either they were put in a shopping bag by mistake months ago or I got them dirt cheap.    Anyway, I decided to pin them all over one of the dress forms, and got this as the result:

One dress form down, one to go. 

Other interesting finds in my storage room:  Hanky after hanky…guess I’ve been hoarding for a display.  Now I need to come up with some swank way to display them.  I also discovered a Lladro bunny I’d bought many months ago.  Took him to the shop today with a chunky price tag.  I know people collect that stuff, which is why I bought him to begin with, but he’s just too shiny for me and looks, quite frankly, like something you would see at the dollar store.  If you are a collector, I’m sure you see something special in him that I just can’t begin to imagine.  And I bow down to you, even though we don’t share tastes.  Perhaps my favorite storage room find was a 1920s creamy satin dress covered in old lace.  Beautiful.  I can’t remember where I bought it, but remember buying it because of the lace.  I think it’s too small for my Homestead girl, so it’ll be travelin’ to Llano soon.

And I’ll be travelin’ soon, but not to Llano! Hope to see you in Warrenton!  I’ll be there Saturday and Sunday and then again Saturday, April 3.  If I can convert my storage room finds to cash this pay period, I’ll be a happy little Warrenton shopper.  Here’s to good junk in the days ahead!  And to more blogging…hopefully.