Another Brimfield Fair

I know I said I'd be posting all these updates from the summer...you'll get them eventually. Instead, here are some photos from the Brimfield Antique Show, which I went to this past weekend. I didn't get quite as much good stuff as last year--a small wood crate for the top of the fridge (something to stash all those loose chip bags in), an off-brand Evergleam Christmas tree (now we just need to find a color wheel), a vintage Copco baking dish, and some wood type. I guess not a bad haul, really. Maybe I just felt more exhausted this time.

Vintage matchbooks from Dallas

While in Dallas I happened upon a basket of vintage matchbooks in an antique store. I've never collected them before, but after glancing at a few of them, I ended up scouring the basket for at least five minutes, a pile of matchbooks stacking up on the floor next to me.

I was able to narrow it down to these twelve.

Some of them I loved for the illustrations, some for the subject matter, some for both. I guess Smokey the Bear is the mascot of the Parks Service, not Yellowstone National Park, but I still had to laugh at the bear on the matchbook cover. Maybe it's okay to play with matches sometimes?

I thought Oberg was a city in Sweden but it seems to be a common surname. I haven't yet figured out what the special offer for high school drop-outs is but it seems noteworthy that it was the only one whose matches had all been used.

I've always loved generic hotel postcards--same goes for matchbooks, I guess.

The one on the left is for a private investigator, which is so awesome. Love the fingerprint with the hat. Also note the illustrations on the back of the Yellowstone matchbook.

I also found another use for the letterpress tray: displaying these. I just wish more of the slots were wide enough to fit them.

Bedroom updates

I've been wanting to upgrade our comforter for awhile, and finally decided to go with a plain white one, topped with the rug, now being used as a blanket. (Which probably makes more sense anyway.) I really like how it looks, and the new comforter is pretty...comfortable. (It's been particularly hard to get out of bed since purchasing it.)

We also bought a slatted bench from 30 West (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Olivia the french bulldog before, but she is seriously one of the cutest, friendliest dogs I've had the pleasure of meeting, and she hangs out in a pretty great store). We'd been wanting one for a little while now, and while this one is a little beat up, I think we'll be able to clean it up and refinish it (just waiting until the weather gets a little warmer so we can open up all the windows while we work on it). I really like how it looks at the foot of the bed. It's also adjustable, which is pretty cool.

So now I just need a new rug to replace the old one. And a pair of new dressers to replace the ones that are kind of falling apart. And, now that I look at that photo, to clean all the junk out of the corner.

The happiest girl in the world

Dave really outdid himself this year in the gift-giving department. While I was buying him all the staples (pajamas, sweaters, heavy wool socks, Stumptown coffee, etc) he was hard at work tracking down some of the cool stuff I've been trying to find lately.

First of all, I finally got this beautiful book of Margaret Kilgallen's work. Not that it was so hard to find (you can buy the reprint editions at Curiosity Shoppe). I just never got around to purchasing it. And now I don't have to!

I'm also excited about my new calendar from my favorite printers, Yeehaw. (I do still want to get a refill for last year's but this one is much bigger. So I don't feel like it'll be overkill.)

And I'm not sure how Dave knew that I'd been eying these vintage elephant banks, but he did. Now the laundry quarter supply will be looking extra stylish.

I know Dave was aware that I'd been looking for one of these Finel enamel bowls for quite some time, but it's still a testament to his thoughtfulness and eBay skills. He even managed to find one without any unsightly chips!

I was pretty sure that bowl was going to be the pièce de résistance--until I opened up the Gocco printer. These things are out of production, though all the supplies (ink, screens, bulbs, etc) seem to be easy enough to find online so I'm not too worried about running out.

Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with it, though I do have a few ideas up my sleeve. More to come on that one.

Customized hairpin leg ottoman

Dave had been talking about how he wanted a nice footstool so he can prop his feet up when he sits in his reading chair in the corner. I had first been thinking that I could make something from scratch fairly simply--get a square piece of wood and some padding, staple some fabric over it, then buy four hairpin legs and screw them in. Instant ottoman. Except the hairpin legs are kind of expensive, it seems.

So I set up an eBay saved search and within a few weeks found and purchased this one for the price of one hairpin leg. I wasn't too crazy about the fabric but that was an easy fix. I even had some left over from when I recovered the chair next to it so I was able to do it the next day instead of putting it off for weeks and weeks until I found what I wanted.

I turned the stool over and removed all the staples. (You can do this with a regular staple remover.) There was another piece of fabric on the bottom but I didn't take any photos of it.

Once all the staples were removed I simply peeled off the old fabric. The padding underneath was in good condition, thankfully, so I didn't feel any need to replace it.

I placed it on top of the new fabric like so, and began stapling each side, folding the raw edges under.

A close up of the staples. Pretty straightforward. I went around the legs though I suppose I could have cut out a notch.

Then I folded over the corners and stapled those, attached the bottom piece, and I was done within the hour.

It's just a tad too tall to fit underneath the chair when not in use, but looks just fine right next to it.

The Kansas City haul

Before I move on to other things, I thought I'd share some of the great stuff that I brought back from Kansas City. In addition to about a dozen vintage paperbacks (not shown below), I picked up some beautiful objects around town.

One of my first stops in town was at Hammerpress, where I bought this postcard, printed on a nice, thick stock (more on the books it's resting on tomorrow).

And I couldn't resist grabbing some vintage Missouri advertising pencils. I especially like how the pink one, while primarily for a business that deals with saws, also reminds you to go to church.

The bulk of the purchases were made at the River Market Antique Mall, which consists of four floors filled with an incredible assortment of wares. I found a couple of Cathrineholm lotus bowls, in green

and orange. (They also had blue and yellow but I cut myself off.)

One of my favorite things I bought might be this antique carbolic acid bottle. I love the skulls on the label. I might have to add antique poison bottles to my list of flea market objects to look out for.

I feel like silhouettes are getting a bit played out, but for 5 bucks I decided to grab this one (labeled on the back "November 1962").

Grabbing based on bargain price seemed to be a common occurrence: for $2.95, a striped mug from Japan. Why not?

It was especially helpful that I found this locker basket (of slightly different design from the ones I got at Brimfield), which I used to hold all of the objects I picked up along the way. It's kind of a miracle that we managed to pack it all. We didn't even have to check any of our luggage!

The saga of my reupholstered couch

When we moved into our apartment in October I bought this midcentury sofa on Craigslist. Mostly I just wanted the frame, figuring I could make new cushions in the fabric of my choosing. This proved to be more expensive than I had initially imagined. The cushions were so worn down that sitting on the couch you could feel the wood frame underneath. So not only did I need new fabric, but new foam as well, which is not cheap.

I also had a hard time finding affordable fabric that I liked. I had something really specific in my head--a charcoal gray wool--and the only thing I could find that remotely resembled this cost something like $40 a yard. Then I came across this post about upholstering a chair in gray wool felt, which set off a lightbulb in my head. I found a site selling wool felt for $10 a yard and ordered a huge roll of it. And then I procrastinated about three months.

After sewing one cushion a week, give or take, I finally finished on Sunday. From afar it looks pretty good but if you look at it up close you'll see that the felt is seriously pilling. In short, if you want a new couch that looks good, buy one at CB2 or something.

Okay, okay, I am kind of proud of my endeavor. Other than the pilling I think the end result is pretty good.

The finds

The locker baskets were definitely my most useful Brimfield find, but I did come home with quite a few more great things.

I finally got some letterpress blocks that actually fit inside the tray I bought awhile back. I didn't want to spell anything, instead selecting a random assortment of letters and numbers based on shape, color, and overall aesthetic value. Like the baskets, I wish I'd bought more. But there's always next time!

Vintage milk bottles are a ubiquitous flea market item I'd always passed up until now. Maybe because they're so ubiquitous, and yet always seem overpriced to me. This one was only $5 (the seller assured me I wouldn't find a cheaper one that day), a decent size, and I really like the orange lettering. It'll make a nice carafe for water. I just wish it didn't say Massachusetts on it (the seller asked me where I was from and when I said "The Bronx" his only reply was "I'm not much of a city person").

The man who sold me this camera claims that it takes 35 mm film and that if I get it professionally cleaned it will work just fine. I'm kind of curious, but mostly I just like the way it looks on my shelf, and for $10 I thought, why not.

And here's my big spend of the day: a Russell Woodard sculptura armchair. I hemmed and hawed over it for a little while but ultimately reasoned that it was priced at less than half of what I've seen them sell for, and thus worth another trip to the ATM. Also, it's really comfortable. And I like it. And it looks good in my living room (I guess I couldn't really determine that until I got home, but I had an inkling).

Flea markets can make your life better

So maybe the statement in the title of this post is a bit far-fetched, but after buying this pair of vintage locker baskets at Brimfield the other day, that's kind of how I'm feeling. I'd been pretty confident that I'd stumble upon some, particularly because they've become a bit trendy lately (or at least I've been seeing a lot of them on design blogs), and I was sure they'd be perfect to put in my kitchen closet, which was in desperate need of organization. The gods did smile on me, as I found a guy selling them for $12 a piece (pretty good compared to what I've seen them priced at elsewhere). I only wish I'd bought more!

Which brings me to my kitchen closet. I'm almost too embarrassed to show the before photo (which is appropriately blurry). I used one basket to corral all the little half-used bags of lentils and rice and so on, and the other for boxes of ziploc bags and vacuum bags and such.

The results are pretty incredible. It's amazing what a couple of baskets can do. I hope it stays looking like this!

At Brimfield it's Christmas in July

Saturday we went to the Brimfield Antique Show for the first time. It's the craziest flea market I've ever been to—about a mile long and several hundred yards wide. We arrived around 10am and didn't leave until 5pm. After awhile everything started to blur together into one massive pile of rusty tools, vintage fabric, and mahogany furniture. Not to say that I didn't enjoy myself and come home with some pretty good finds (more on those to come). But first, here's a bit of what we encountered.

Dave took this one. I wish it really were Christmas! (Then it wouldn't be 95 degrees out.)

This seller had nothing but old wind-up Victrolas and their accoutrements. I love these little dogs.

If you like Fiestaware, this is the place to go.

Not sure what these are—sculptures? lawn ornaments?—but they look pretty cool.

A pile of pitch forks.

Not really my style...

I like the church sign (the missing letters only add to it) next to the cartoony room divider.

Piles of letters on the ground (another Dave photo, obviously).

This little vignette is kind of surreal. Where else would you see this juxtaposition of objects? It looks like a weird still life painting.