I Love Thrifting!

Mr. Goodwill Hunting dubbed Saturday July 9th "I Love Thrifting Day" and of course I had to be there! We all met at Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which was HUGE... I will definitely be back.

Images of the Restore via Amanda (my Blogfest partner in crime!)

It was at Goodwill that I found some great stuff! Yes, my bag was almost as big as I am.



Check out my loot...



I saw a woman (not in our I Love Thrifting party) pick up the magazine rack and put it back. I went and grabbed it.. I love the preppy trim and bamboo frame.

I also love anything cobalt so the cobalt stemware glasses went into my cart. (Yes I had a cart)

The little clock won my heart because it reminds me of a little port hole.

Isn't this shell dish beautiful? I love the detail.. you can see the ridges on the shell and everything. It'd be perfect for holding jewelry.



This brass box stood out to me.. I LOVE the small quatrefoil cut-outs (when I thrift, it's usually the details that makes or breaks it). Anything with quatrefoil - I'm sold.



Since my Colorado trip, I've been missing my bffs and baby Claire, so I had to go check out the baby section to see if there was anything she had to have. These adorable outfits were less than $2!! Whenever I have kids, I will definitely be shopping Goodwill for their clothes.



And because she's adorable, I'll use this opportunity to post another picture of her:


We call this move "Lounging At The Beach". I think she'll look pretty darn cute in her new thrifted digs.

All the above I got for around $21!! I call that a successful day.

Little Guys

I stopped by the thrift store on Wednesday hoping to find another amazing score. There wasn't any furniture that wowed me, but I picked up these four little guys:



They are all less than five inches and they will each make me smile scattered around the house.

I love the pretty brass swans (?) especially the one with her head raised high. And who wouldn't love a glass pineapple?

I just had to get the little mallard because it reminds me of my grandma. My grandparents used to always have mallards scattered all over their house in upstate NY. As a kid they sort of fascinated me.. I had to pick up this little guy because it made me smile.

Happy Friday! This weekend will be spent CLEANING the house. It's gotten to be sort of a mess. And we don't even have kids! I never understand how that happens....

Weekend Acquisitions

On Saturday my husband and I got up early and headed down to South Carolina for some treasure hunting. We went to our very first auction to find a dresser for our master bedroom. It was SO FUN.

I had never been to an auction before but I have always wanted to. I did the bidding and it sure is a bit intimidating! Especially when you get in a bidding war, which happened with our dresser. But luckily I walked away with this beautiful antique for only $280:



I am going to have it professionally painted. It may be a sin to paint an antique, but it can always be refinished and stained later down the road.

I also won this awesome art deco secretary. Look at that inlay and glass front detail!!! I had to have it. I just need to give her some TLC and she will be good as new.



It would look so cool if the inside of the glass front was painted or wallpapered...

[ lonny ]


[ cottage living ]

I will admit, I originally bought the secretary for the booth but I am thinking of keeping it for our living room. Right now there are exactly three pieces of furniture (the two black chairs and the black painted dresser at the entry). I think this piece would fit in nicely. Still undecided...



After the auction, I headed to the Habitat for Humanity Re-store. Mr. Goodwill Hunting posted on twitter some amazing copper pendants for $60. I gasped and knew I had to go and pick some up.



Funny story about these... right when I got to the store I picked them up and brought them to the counter to hold while I shop. I always do this at thrift stores because you just never know! Well good thing I did, while I continued to browse I saw a young man peeling the stickers off. I thought - maybe he's lowering the price! So I asked him and he actually was RAISING the price! From $60 to $100. I told him I already brought mine up to the front at the $60 price and they honored it. That was close! (another funny tidbit - they were taken from a local Longhorn Steakhouse restaurant.)

I haven't decided where to put them yet. Either in our upstairs hallway or maybe our kitchen. Probably the hallway though, because we need more overall light in the kitchen.

It was a super successful weekend!!! Tomorrow I'll post my plan with the dresser and some other details in another chapter of The Master Diaries :)

ps - thank you thank you thank you for all the kind words on yesterdays post. I really means a lot to me! I heart you guys :)

A Christmas Miracle

Yesterday I was running around town and decided to stop by Goodwill. And there I saw it - a brand new white Christmas tree, pre-strung, for only $9.99. I've been wanting one for years... now THAT is a Christmas miracle!!

I brought it home and set it up (yes, only 3 days until Christmas) and was admiring it all night. I'm so glad we have a tree we can open presents next to on Christmas day next to a warm fire! (Our other tree is in the furniture-less living room).





My mom, dad and brothers are coming in for Christmas so it will be a packed house. I can't wait!

I hope everyone has a very HAPPY and SAFE Christmas and a big THANK YOU for reading my blog!!

Best find.... ever

I have to share with you the best find ever. Check out this beauty...



This past Sunday, I met a client up at the Rose Bowl Flea Market to find some furniture and accessories for her home. At first, things were going a bit slow and we weren't finding anything... but then bam! One amazing thing after another. The best find of the day was this amazing piece. Let me tell you about it. It's completely metal, but also painted silver. It has four teenie tiny little wheels, and that just right amount of "I'm really old" scuff. It even has history - it used to be used in an old hospital.

I'm probably being a bad design/blogger because I'm not showing it to you styled and in the pretty finished room. But I just had to share now!

Also, client's husband isn't loving it, so please leave a comment if you love this as much as client and I do, so we can persuade him :)

thrift success!

Just Tuesday I posted about how I was in a fashion rut. Well today work surprised us with a half day so I headed over to Buffalo Exchange to hopefully find some stuff. Boy did I ever!



I tried to go outside of my comfort zone and focus on skirts and bright colors. For summer outfits, my goal is to pair a bright piece with the neutrals I currently have in my closet. Another goal is to bring out my femininity and start wearing more skirts/dresses and less jeans.... and lipstick!

Hopefully my thrifty threads pics will be back up and running soon :)

Etsy Shop - Officially OPEN!

I officially opened my Etsy shop and am now featuring 5 vintage items!


Vintage Brass Roadrunner Bird Figure


Vintage Smokey Glass Goblets


Vintage Wire Silver Basket


Vintage Milkglass Bud Vase


Vintage Ironstone Liberty Ceramic Vase

So please, check out my Etsy shop! I do it all for you :)
(Click on my Etsy header to redirect to my Etsy shop)

Two Things...

I've been a bad little blogger lately, so sorry. But I did want to share two things with you....

1) I found some really great vintage stuff today during lunch.

What were they for? I'm glad you asked.

2.) I decided to launch an Etsy store!



The reason for my little Etsy store.... the Salvation Army I go to locally is in a neighborhood that some people refer to as "leisure world"; there is a large population of elderly folks here. So what does that mean? Amazing vintage stuff can be found at the local thrift stores. I thought it'd be a great opportunity to share these knick-knacks with stylish and chic people who don't necessarily have access to high quality thrifting. I'm also going to try hard to keep the items in my store <$25, because everyone knows I love a bargain.

milkglass + platters

Yesterday during lunch I stopped by the post office, and since Salvation Army was on the way back to work, of course I had to swing by. Boy, am I glad I did because I found some Finds with a capital F.

Let me back track. In our kitchen, we had a Pottery Barn wine glass holder* installed above our kitchen table. Sure, it was a nice use of space.... but the wine glasses would collect dust and literally never be used (we would always use the wine glasses that were in our cabinets instead, on the rare occasion we opened a bottle).

You can see it here.....

[this is an old picture. I'm so glad I got rid of the gold]

Since I'm not a fan of unused clutter, we took it down when I re-painted the kitchen.

After seeing this picture from Eddie Ross's NY apartment, I decided I wanted to put up a cascading row of platters in the space instead.



And much to my delight, I found these at Salvation Army yesterday!



They ranged from $4.00 to $2.75 each; each of them were found in Salvation Army Clearance section. If that's not a deal, I don't know what is!

I'm not going to restore them... I kind of like them all beat up and tarnished. It tells a story of where they have been.

Next to the silver section, was the milkglass section... another love of mine. I found these vases and had to purchase the collection.


My favorites are the faceted ones. Each of these ranged from $1.75 - $2.75.

I also picked up a couple spring colored belts and three short sleeve shirts.

I LOVE Salvation Army!

* I plan on selling my PB wine shelves on Craigslist. I have both shelves; they are exactly like these but in black. If anyone reading is interested, shoot me an email!

Rose Bowl Pics

Eddie Ross posted his re-cap (short and sweet) as well as some awesome pictures of the Rose Bowl Flea Market day!

Here are some pictures I thought I'd share with you.


Me and the give-away prize!


Do you see me on the right listening closely to Eddie?


See my AWESOME fabric? I need to buy a bolster pillow so I can make that case already.

I can't wait to go back April 12th!

Thanks, again Eddie :)

The Rose Bowl Giveaway

Here it is! My favorite purchase of my day with Eddie. It's a vintage jewelry box. It's made of a beautiful alabaster with a tiny tinge of mint green. When I saw it I just knew it was the perfect gift for one of my awesome readers!

You can really do anything with this... put your rings in it, use it as a catch all for change or keys, or just put it on a shelf or dresser and let it sit pretty.

To enter to win this beauty, just comment to this post. I dedicate this giveaway to the amazing woman who made Sunday happen for me, and to Eddie and Jaithan, too! I'll draw a name randomly on Saturday.

Rose Bowl Flea Market: My Items

As promised... here are the great finds I found at the Rose Bowl Flea Market with Eddie!


First we passed a huge pile of fabric scraps and this striped yellow fabric "spoke" to me - I am going to attempt a bolster pillow out of it! It was my first purchase, and only $5.


I then found this beautiful watercolor/graphite piece. It reminds me so much of Degas. I'm really really hoping that it's a real watercolor... I haven't pulled the backing off to check yet (It may be a print). I can't quite read the artist's name either, but underneath the name it reads Paris '87. Even if it's just a print, it was well worth the $15.

I was thinking of painting the frame a glossy black, but I kind of like the junky bluish/grayish/black that it is now.



I found this beauty ($8) on a table full of antique glass. This used to be used in a barber shop. I wasn't sure what for, but I asked my husband when I got home and he said it was probably for after shave. Smart guy! I put clear soap in it, and it's now sitting pretty by our kitchen sink.

(Hubby was making homemade pasta when I took the picture, I'm such a lucky gal)



This vintage wire basket ($15) was my last find of the day. I LOVE it so much. I didn't really have a purpose for it when I purchased it, which goes against my cardinal rule of shopping, but I know I'll find a use for it. I'm thinking of putting it beside my bed to catch magazines.

I bought one more thing, my favorite purchase of the day, but you're going to have to wait to see :) It's the item I'm giving away here on the blog in honor of selflessness, check back on Wednesday night for more details!

3.8.09: Shopping with Eddie!

Yesterday I had a great time shopping with Eddie. I learned a lot, and it's really fascinating how he can zoom in on something amazing from a mile away. It would take me hours and hours to find the things he just sees was he walks down the aisles. Must be that Martha training!

Today I'm going to share with you the pictures and "Eddie Tips" from the day, and tomorrow I'll share with you my great (very inexpensive) finds! And I also have a beautiful, very Eddie inspired giveaway for you that I found while shopping with him.

It was a beautiful day in Pasadena. We met at the front and got acquainted. Then Eddie took us to the very back.

Eddie tip: Start at the back of flea markets and work your way up. That way you make sure you don't miss anything and get lost in the rows and rows of stuff!


At this vendor, Eddie showed us the tables of "stuff". It had so many great little knick-knacks.


Eddie tip: Find little things (like on this table) to place around your house - it will add character and it's an easy, inexpensive and chic way to fill bookshelves.

We then cruised down to an amazing vendor with the best antique pieces. Just check out this piece:

A vintage dresser with a travertine marble top! AMAZING!

Eddie tip: He would paint this piece color that is in the travertine. Or perhaps a cool gray. He also mentioned he would cover up the gold, but keep the antique hardware.


The amazing detail in the marble top.

This piece was only............. $175!!!

Eddie tip: Cut off the legs of this piece, add some height with some new wooden legs, install a sink and use this piece in a bathroom. The whole project would cost a total of around $350.

Another Eddie shopper suggested using this as a nightstand.



Eddie found this amazing antique and shared it's history with us. He mentioned the year it was made, but I cannot recall it correctly. I want to say it was from the 1700s? He explained to us that it was used for cooking turkeys, and the little row of holes (you can see it a little) were used to get all the juices and make gravy. I could just imagine woman in little bonnets using it hundreds and hundreds of years ago (I'm such a sucker for history! That's why I love old things).

Eddie tip: If you can, invest in an antique like this ($800). You can use it on a very inexpensive hutch with two tall candle sticks next to it, and keep it there year round; not just during the holidays! This is a investment piece, and something you can pass on down generations. (Hello Antique Roadshow!)


Eddie spotted these AMAZING turquoise vintage lamps. One of Eddie's shoppers snatched them up - I'm so glad! I can't wait to see them finished (she promised to send pics to Eddie).

Eddie tip: Clean them off, put a lucite base on them (love that!) and put a huge oversized drum shade.

A little bit of history I loved - many things like these lamps from the 60's and 70's have that dingy black stuff on it - it's from tar and smoke from cigarettes. Can't you just see a chic young married couple smoking some Lucky Strikes by these lamps? Okay, smoking is bad bad bad but I just love imagining the families that had these items.

The same vendor had some amazing stuff:



I love that setee!



Eddie tip: Go ahead and buy the single, lonely candlestick. There are so many great places you can put them! And it looks great to have a bunch of mis-matched candlesticks all together in a bunch.


See that crystal knob in Eddie's hand? They were only $10! They were fantastic, there was a whole box of them!

Next up are some images I took on my own of some things I loved:


I loved this vintage pendant. I didn't ask how much it was, but the white and the wood makes me weak in the knees!


AMAZING mid-century furniture. I didn't dare ask how much.


I really loved this hutch. Check out the hardware! (and for those of you guys who love my thrifty threads, you can see what I wore to go shopping with Eddie)


Eddie, me and Jaithan! We had such a blast!

A HUGE THANK YOU to the amazing woman who allowed for this to happen, and to Eddie and Jaithan, too! I had such an amazing time, and I've now made plans to go to the Rose Bowl Flea Market every month!

Check out Danielle's recap... she was super sweet and got an amazing chair for $5. She also got to meet Ginnifer Goodwin... last night during Big Love I was sooooooo jealous and sad I didn't see her!

As other bloggers post their recaps, I'll be sure and try to link them up. Check back to see my amazing purchases!