Saturday Bust!

Hello!

Well, I guess the weather matched the finds today. It was gloomy, kinda chilly and bit cold. The fog didn't roll away till 1:30 or so. Today's garage sales didn't yield anything for the picnic. Actually, it didn't yield much at all. I ran into one of the vendors I know from the Sunday flea market KBD and I attend and she wasn't having any luck either.

My trusty jotter with today's garage sales

Well, tomorrow is flea market day and maybe the flea market gods will smile upon us with sunny weather and a pouf or two (or a Victrola).

-HWC

An Estate in Danville

Hello!

We hit up another estate sale today. Though there was a lot of stuff we liked at reasonable prices, we didn't really need too much of it. However, we did pick up a couple of silver plated servers and a cut crystal candy dish which we'll use for a condiment keeper.

We're now on the hunt for very specific things for the picnic which hopefully the Craigslist gods will grant, but you never know what the next garage or estate sale will hold.

-HWC

It's Hattie Time!

The vintage millinery flowers & berries for my hattie arrived in the post today!  I was over the moon that they were even more exquisite in person than they were online & am super stoked to finally start working on my hat!

The flowers came carefully wrapped in jade green tissue paper.  I took this as a sign that I was designing in the right direction, as jade green is going to be the color of my day dress.  Apparently my cat, Boudicca, also approved of the tissue paper...

I selected bright orange as my accent color, because it would be vibrant against the green and I already had some vintage-inspired shoes that I scored the last time I was NYC.

Originally I had planned to just use the orange flower & berries, but I'm enjoying the contrast between the yellow daisies and the rest of the lot... 

Excited to see what makes the final cut!

xo

- K B-D

And We All Shine On - Part 1

Hello!

Below you'll find a picture of our soon to be light fixture in our tent. We happen to chance upon this little gem at an estate sale about two weeks ago. Oddly enough, I saw it when we went to the sale on the opening day and I didn't think twice about it. When KBD, Thom my partner, and I returned the next day, when everything was half off by the way, KBD picked it up and thought it was perfect for the light fixture were looking for! I didn't see it right away till she flipped it upside down (face palm).

Before

When I first saw it sitting on the floor, I thought it was neat but it obviously was a top or finial to something else so I just walked away. KBD was creative enough to see the potential. Good thing too cause now the price was much cheaper.

Anyhoo, on the car ride home, we debated about it's finish. My partner, Thom, and KBD both thought it could do with a good polish. I was a bit hesitant only because it had a nice patina and I was worried that shining it up would make it look cheap (it's solid brass). But Thom is a bit OCD about certain things and he went ahead and took polish to toothbrush and started his work.

After

Two hours and some elbow grease later, voila! You know what, I do like it a lot more polished. I think it will add a lot of ambiance to the ceiling of our tent. However, we're not done yet. To truly make it the spectacular Moroccan inspired light fixture we intended, we'll need to jazz it up a bit. More on that later.

-HWC

Have Liquor Cabinet, Will Travel - Part 1

Hello!

So, I use to work for a large housewares company here in the California bay area (I don't know why I'm being so secretive). One of the most glorious things about working at said company was the quarterly sample sales. There, employees got to battle it out for samples, inspiration pieces, and vendor freebies that the design arm of each brand didn't or doesn't want anymore. Since I worked as a designer in one of the brands at this company, I was well versed in what was a sample worth having and what was not. One such item was the mystery box below.

I saw this item on the floor and was curious to know what it was. So, I opened it and...

Lo and behold, une armoire liqueur voyage! There were slots for stemware, a place for liquor bottles and drawers for all the accoutrements one would need to create the perfect drink whilst away from home base. I picked up this item for it's uniqueness. It's not everyday you encounter a person with a traveling liquor cabinet. The bottle and glassware you see in the photo were not present when I purchased the box; these pieces I picked up later on at the sample sale.

Once I got this item home, I decided it needed to have it's hardware changed. It was fine as is, but the handles were weak (made of a soft metal) and would not be able to hold a decanter full liquor and crystal stemware. I had the misfortune of dropping it once while in line at the sale due to handle failure, hey it IS a sample after all. My guess is that this item came from one of our Indonesian vendors from a sister brand. The bones were right on this piece and it had a lot of potential.

In part two, I'll show you some of the improvements I've done so far!

-HWC

Evolving Inspiration

My partner and I were running errands today when we decided to pop into the import shop behind the fabric store we frequent. Inside we found many items to inspire us.

 Colorful tiered umbrellas with gold

Just as colorful umbrellas

In the corners of the shop we found many colorful patio umbrellas from India. Since we're going to need two poles on either end of our tent for the "extensions", we thought maybe we should replace the plain poles with fanciful umbrellas. They are a bit pricey and not "found" per-se, but it's just a thought.

Pillow cases with gold in assorted colors

Color blocked pillow case

In the sale section of the shop they had many ornate pillowcases. The gold one's up top were available in many vivid colors which would add some wonderful color the tent. My personal favorite is the red and white color blocked pillow with the medallion in the center. Unfortunately there was only one left. :(

Anyhoo, maybe we'll need to start searching Craigslist for ethnic patio umbrellas???

-HWC

Today's Find

It is the weekend & that of course means - yard sales!  Sadly, we scored no major goodies today, but we did find these bottles at 6 for $5. That is over $20 in savings as we had originally planned to pick them up at the Ikea for $3.99/bottle.   After a good clean, they will be the perfect bottles to tote our mixers and non-alcoholic beverages in.  These bottles were also recommended on the Art Deco Society's website which is filled with a ton of useful pointers for newbies like ourselves.

At the next yard sale, we found 6 pewter mugs.  Of course wrong era, but I thought it was funny that there were exactly 6 of them as well.  I almost picked them up for the Renaissance Faire, as we are always in need of spares, but told myself to stay focused.

Fingers crossed for more finds at tomorrow's Flea...