Saturday, March 20, 2010

IT'S SPRING AND WE’RE IN LOVE

My husband and I are in love.

Well, yes, with each other, but we’re coming up on our 38th anniversary in May, so that’s kind of an old story. No, this is a new object of our passion. We found our first addition to our furniture for the midcentury modern house we’ll be retiring to eventually.

We love her. Teak, with what I believe is birch behind the sliding doors on the base,
and this nifty felt-lined sliding tray for flatware. (Please excuse the unlovely background!)
What really makes us swoon is the beveled front edge on the shelves in the upper hutch.
She’s from Denmark, I'm guessing early to mid Sixties. Anyone recognize this logo?
I tried googling “Danish Furniture Company” and as you can imagine got several million hits.

She was an incredible deal. We had to rent a van to get her home, and even with that she cost about fifty bucks. Yeah, the van cost quite a bit more than we paid for the furniture!

We haven’t had a chance to put her two pieces together yet. This beauty is definitely not going to hang out in the garage until we move someday. We’re going to shift some furniture in the house and move her inside in a few days. I think she’s going in my home office. I'll have to move one or two white Ikea bookcases somewhere else, but I can live with that. As soon as I get her fixed up in her new spot I'll take more pics.

It's love, I tell you.

We found her at a sale on Friday, a fundraiser to support a young woman who volunteers as a psychotherapist at an orphanage in Zambabwe. She comes home to the US every once in a while to visit family and friends, and to raise funds so she can go back again.

Hers was the second sale we hit on Friday. The first was an estate sale that advertised in Craigslist that they had midcentury furniture, so I was hot to get over there at starting time. Didn’t see anything I would call midcentury, but it's a useful phrase these days to get people to your sale. My husband found this little white teapot that we like for its unusual lid catcher.
I was a bit bemused by their writing the item name on the price tag.

Maybe label switching does go on at estate sales, but I've never seen it. Most of their prices seemed silly to me. They had looked up every item on eBay and had printouts of auctions that had the highest prices they could find. Can't help wondering how much they actually sold.

Stopped at lots of sales on Saturday as well, but only bought at one of them. Definitely one of those “you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince” days. But it was fun, starting with some of the Craigslist ads. One promised “lots of toys, designer clothing, hooker/pole dancer shoes…” Kind of makes you wonder what sort of toys they were talking about. Their ad went on to tell you to look for their signs, which would be really good. “Airplanes know when I have a sale” they boasted.

I used to proofread books for a friend who is a publisher. You can imagine my shudder at this ad: “Were at the end of the cold de sack.” Hey, I live at the end of a cold de sack too. My favorite ad though was posted a few days ago, on March 16—advertising a sale on March 13…and ending sternly with “No Early Birds.”

Reminds me of a limerick I heard in my youth:
There was a young lady named Bright
Whose speed was much faster than light.
She set out one day
In a relative way
And arrived the previous night.

Encountered a much loved Poodle today who was taking it easy and didn’t bother to get up.
These Pekes are brothers, Joey and Zack. I keep wanting to call them Zoey and Jack.
Their owner had just purchased a little stuffed Santa toy for them, which Zack was eagerly anticipating. He had no intention of sharing with his brother!

Didn’t find out this friendly kitty’s name.
He was almost impossible to get a picture of, he kept writhing on the sunny sidewalk, purring madly.
Not counting the cost of renting the van to pick up our sideboard, I spent $24 this weekend. (Told you it was an amazing deal!) At the same sale as the sideboard I found this nice black wool jacket, with velveteen lining the front facings and hood.
It was probably designed as a swing coat for someone smaller than me, but hey, it fits and that’s all I care about. Hmmm, maybe I have a swing butt. I didn’t care much for its boring black buttons, so I changed them out for these vintage ones in gray.
Found more DVDs to replace old VHS tapes.
At the same sale I picked up this embroidered rayon shawl or wide scarf.

And that’s it. Just enough to keep it interesting—though the sideboard alone was enough to make my weekend.

I will probably be absent from the blog next week. I'll be in Portland at the Public Library Association’s national convention. They’re a reckless bunch—they’re actually letting me speak. So instead of garaging next Saturday morning I'll be with some colleagues imparting what we like to think is wisdom.

Maybe I can sneak in a few anecdotes about yard sales.

25 comments:

  1. FABULOUS DEAL! I mean wowowowowowow!!!! I love it and the price even with renting a van....wonderful.

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  2. your danish sideboard is a real treasure find! congrats! i hope she gives you many years of joy and happiness!

    good luck at the librarians' convention. they can be a rowdy bunch (my sister's a school librarian)! :-)

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  3. I love your prince and frog analogy! My friend and fellow bargain hunter and I call them that too!
    Looks like you got some great deals!!

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  4. Great finds - I loved reading about the sales on cold-de-sacs and such - too funny!

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  5. What lovely finds this week. Your sideboard is delicious. Very classy, and looks to be in very good condition. Well found! I can tell how excited you are about it.

    I will miss your post next week but enjoy your convention.

    And by the way we live in a cold de sack as well!

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  6. Great finds! "She" is a beauty. Will miss you next week. I've heard that those librarians can get as wild as a bunch of English teachers at an NCTE convention.

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  7. What a great weekend you had. I love the idea of the teapot lid-catcher.
    I like the buttons you're going to put on the coat.
    Loved 'cold de sack'. xx

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  8. Dear Queen-
    Your posts are so much fun to read! In my opinion, yours is the wittiest and most entertaining blog out there. I love the 'fur baby' interjections and pics speckled throughout! Please, please, please consider publishing a compilation of your Saturday adventures! I'd buy a ton as gifts for friends and family.

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  9. Great deals!
    I have noticed the whole ebay printout tactic around my area, too.... then sell it on ebay, fools. Ha ha.
    Love the coat, cha cha cha.
    ~Amy

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  10. Looks like you got some great deals. The big sideboard looks to be well made , nothing like the compressed sawdust some nordic companies sell these days ;-)

    Loved the limerick!

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  11. What a great cabinet that is. You're right, everyone's loving mid-century modern these days. Don't think I'll be bringing any to my house though it is lovely. Sounds like a great day for you!

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  12. That ad would have driven me nuts too!!

    Love your new furniture...those beveled edges are fab! $3 for a teapot sounds a little pricey, but I like the look of it too! I'm visiting from Rhoda's Thrifty Treasures party. I hope you'll stop by my blog. :)

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  13. That sideboard was a fantastic find! And the scarf is very pretty--perfect for cool mornings when you're out hittinh up the garage sales. :)

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  14. Ack, hitting! Apparently I needed that proofreading comment to remind me to check my comments, lol.

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  15. what beautiful things you found!

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  16. What a great piece of Danish modern furniture. I like your teapot, too.
    Who really DOES proof-read ads? LOL I was a journalism/English major, so I really have a pet peeve w/bad grammar and spelling.
    ~ Sue

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  17. Love that sideboard. Pure beauty. I love your stories about thrifting. So fun.

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  18. Hi there,

    FYI your sideboard is by the Danish company Hundevad, designed by Poul Hundevad. Probably mid-late 1970s construction. Retail value probably around $1200. Nice find!

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  19. Great finds! Congrats on finding the sideboard
    *hugs*deb

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  20. Just looking at the pictures of the sideboard makes me wish I could run my hands over it. It's beautiful!
    As for the price tag- guilty as charged here. I mark everything that way when the sales at my house. Some people are shameless and they will steal right out from under your nose.
    The typo really made me smile. I had one at the office today, in a radiologists report:
    "There is a large amount of matter in a sending colon" Instead of ascending colon. Wow. I wouldnt want that guy to diagnose me.

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  21. Your sideboard is amazing!! I went to and estate sale and they had everything way over priced and people were walking out without buying anything. The lady kept saying every time someone walked out, "I am not giving my stuff away". One lady told her then I guess you will be keeping it all. I never bought anything, but I didn't say anything. I just thanked her and told her she had some nice stuff and went on my way.

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  22. I am so jealous of the cabinet as I have been looking for something exactly like that for ages. Honestly, exactly like that.
    Well, I'll just be happy that one is living in a happy home and I'll keep an eye out for its twin up here in NoCal.

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I really love your comments. Thanks for coming along on my thrifty adventures!

 
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