Treasure Box Wednesday: 40s Finds and Push-Button Magic

While shopping malls bustle with holiday-goers looking to return that itchy Christmas sweater for something they're really going to use, I usually end up hitting the long and winding road of Route 30 for a thrifting extravaganza.

Not only do I manage to avoid the hustle and bustle, but quite often I find the fortune of vintage goodies.

At the L&L Fleatique in Adamsburg-- one of my favorite haunts-- I came across this small and nifty McCoy vase from the 40s...
I particularly like McCoy from this era, as many of the vases have an organic, art nouveau art pottery feel, with fruit, nuts, berries and leaves incorporated into the designs.

At the same indoor flea market, I uncovered this Depression era ceiling fixture, which is very similar in color and general style to my downstairs chandeliers...

I'd like to use it at the end of my entryway hall, before my bookcase, where it gets a bit dark. It should showcase the ol' leatherbound classics nicely. And at just $5, how could I go wrong? It cost more than that during the Depression!

At the Red, White and Blue thrift store on Route 51, I snagged this pink fringed lampshade...
Amusingly, an elderly male customer there stopped me to tell me he highly approved. It's true, folks, that when you see decent fringed shades second-hand like this, it's not a bad idea to pick them up. They don't come cheaply if you have to special-order them. In fact, they can cost far more than your lamp!

And then there's another Fleatique find... This large, satin 1940s Valentine, still in its original box...
Yep, you know a Valentine has to have been a big deal when it comes in a decorative box and not an envelope. And as we look in the inside, as well as out, we see there's a lot of "Darling"-ing going on here...
We just don't do it like that anymore, do we?

Lastly, I'd wanted to just share a little home improvement success with you all-- and maybe spread the empowerment your way. For a long time, I'd had a very bent, almost unusable dimmer switch in my livingroom. First the dimmer knob broke, and a bad incident with the replacement caused the switch itself to bend.

I'd noticed that VanDyke Restorers had reproduction push-button switches with dimmers built into them. So since I have some of these original switches, I thought I'd order one of the repros and have it installed.

But-- with a hands-on tutorial from my dad over Christmas (because who doesn't do electrical work on the holidays, right? :) ) I was able to actually install the thing myself...
I need to fill in some paint where the old switchplate was now, but the whole thing works like a charm. So for my female readers who weren't sure whether they could do this sort of thing, I can tell you, it is possible. (Make sure you turn off the power to the switch first, so it's perfectly safe, and the rest is pretty darned easy!)

Three cheers for girl power!

Anyway, that's it for the Treasure Box this week. I hope you all had an excellent Christmas, if you celebrate, and to everybody, I wish you a fan-tab-u-lous New Year! Be safe, and I'll see you in 2010!

See You for Treasure Box Wednesday!

Greetings, folks! Just wanted to let you know that the holiday schedule has pushed the next post back to Treasure Box Wednesday. (Turns out, even eager thrifters need a day off for the holiday season.) And boy, do I have some fun things to show you then!

I hope all is well with all of you. And thank you for all your great Christmas greetings!

I'll see you Wednesday!

Treasure Box Wednesday: Pre-Christmas Thrifting

In spite of the hustle and the bustle of the holidays, the lure of the Red, White and Blue thrift store ended up being a little too strong. So I popped in to see what might await.

The first thing I spied was this set of pretty vintage prints, which I believe will go in my blue sitting room...

If you look at the Queen Anne furniture in the photos, they're almost identical to what I have in that room. In fact, the blue tapestry chair in the print on the right looks like a reverse of my pink arm chair there. I think they'll be a nice addition to the room.

I also came across two Shabby Chic pillows, in great condition and-- HALF OFF!

This made them, oh, $1.50 each. And anyone who's bought Shabby Chic anything knows that even the Target Rachel Ashwell line doesn't end up reduced that much.

And lastly, maybe my brain was thinking ahead-- way ahead-- to summer. But I couldn't resist this awesome vintage strawberry covered tablecloth.

How cute would that be on a table filled with green Depression glass?

The last two things I wanted to show you were not thrifted, they came from an antique store. But I'm really excited about them. While my first floor has some pretty ornate bare bulb art deco/nouveau cast iron chandeliers, my second floor lighting has never wowed me. I have modern, brassy, pseudo-Victorian fixtures in the blue room, my master bedroom and in the hall.

Recently, when a part of the one in my bedroom came off in my hand as I was changing a bulb, well, I knew I needed to make some changes.

So how about these painted, porcelain bare-bulb babies?....
They remind me of the early movie houses and dramatic theaters... so elaborately encrused with detail...
Anyway, I think this will be a big improvement.

And that is where we stand this Treasure Box Wednesday!

To all of you celebrating this holiday season, I hope you have a happy, healthy, merry one!

Christmas Comes to Scoobie's Ranch

Regular readers may remember my friend Scoobie, who had been renting from me, and recently bought a house of her own. And today, thanks to her kindness (and also the fact I had my camera with me and she couldn't stop me), I'm able to bring to you some photos of her new home in all its Christmassy glory.

Years ago, when she'd spoken about her home of the future, she'd jokingly envisioned it looking like "Old West Bordello Chic"-- a balance of lavish Victoriana, the Western rustic and a modicum of hunky cowboys. And now that she's got a place of her own, she's been enacting on that vision (well, the cowboys may be a tallish order in her neighborhood). You can see the beginnings of the look here in her entryway, with this gorgeous red Eastlake parlor furniture...
Velvety and rich, she was very lucky to pick up this matching set with already redone upholstery!

Here she gets jiggy with some pine bough garland and red ribbons. If ever a staircase was made for garland, it was this one...
Here you can see her marvelous stained glass window. I believe she said the house dates from around 1900...
Oh, this red fringed lamp was one I'd put together for her as a birthday present one year. It was the first lamp I ever refinished!...
Now, Scoobie had rented the blue room in my house. Amusingly enough, new new house came with a bedroom already blue to taste!...
And dig this gorgeous fireplace!...
She'd had a little blue bedecked tree she used before she'd moved, and it looks perfectly at home here in her new abode...
She's been having fun playing around with tablescapes, like on this dresser top...
Down in her livingroom, a very large painting courtesy of the Goodwill hangs, looking like proud expensive art...
The cowboy statuary on either side there came recently from Big Lots. They may not be Remingtons, but they look good and were incredibly affordable.

She indicates she's still working out the way she'll want to do the tree. It's a big one-- I'd say seven feet tall and burly! But as she understands better what color schemes she wants to use, she figures that should work itself out.
As it stands, she wants to remove the wallpaper from this room (it's a bit twee, really) and possibly paint the walls a warm copper or muted coral. She's going to change the curtains to some brown velvet.

And here we have this year's birthday gift-- I'd gotten this fellow at the L&L Fleatique...
He's a wonderful copper-bronze shade on a wooden base. As soon as I'd spied him, I knew he needed to gallop on over to her house!

And me, well, I need to gallop offline myself. I hope you all have a terrific week ahead of you. And perhaps I'll see you Wednesday for the last Treasure Box post before the Christmas holiday.

Take care and yeeeeeehaw!

Treasure Box Wednesday: Ya Gotta Start Somewhere

Given the only item I thrifted this last week, and why, I figured you all might enjoy seeing the Before, and then getting a glimpse of the Future. Cryptic, I know. But it'll all make sense shortly, trust me!

Here's the little hall table I found at St. Vincent de Paul thrift store...

I'd seen it two days before I bought it, and hadn't been thinking outside the box enough to realize that it would be perfect as a printer stand.

So I went back to the store with hope in my heart. Would it still be there, waiting?

But when I roamed around the furniture section of the store, I thought my fears were justified. My little table was nowhere to be seen. And then...

Over by the clothing, as a part of an elaborate Christmas display, there it was. And it still had a price tag!

I told the nice lady at the cash register I was interested in buying it, and that's when she said the words that thrill the bargain-hunter's heart:

"You know, this table's been here for a week now. Let's see if we can get you some money off of it."

A week didn't seem like a long time to me. But in thrifting terms it must translate into Dog Years. Anyway, the table came home with me. And after some hefting efforts that left bruises on my bruises, it, my desk chair and my computer desk all moved to the unfinished third floor of my house.

The area has only been used for storage these last years-- by me and by all the people who previously owned my house. There are two dirty but usable rooms, with aged wallpaper, ancient painted pine floors, and blinds that seem to have seen the Great Depression.

I'm going to work in the one room, while I finish the first one. Eventually, I'll have book storage...

The stained and yellowed wallpaper will go and be replaced by something subtle and off-white, to help brighten the rooms. The nifty old light switches, however, will stay...

The dirty, holey roller-blinds will be replaced with fresh curtains... maybe sheers...

And the pine floors and molding, which were painted a dark brown, will get a few coats of something light and bright, too. Maybe a cream floor and a pale colored (aqua or green?) trim.

You can see what I'm up against here, though. A patterned layer of wallpaper shines through from under the yellowed, more plain paper...

And here's part of the room that's already been relieved of its wallpaper. The walls need to be washed down again and then the cracks, plastered.
I was taking a look at potential wallpaper patterns and having small heart attacks over the cost per roll. $40? Seriously?! I need to do some more digging, because ya shouldn't have to mortgage the house in order to paper it!

Yep-- ya gotta start somewhere. And so, post-Christmas, the new project begins! I'll keep you folks up-to-date on any improvements.

• If you missed Sunday's post on the last of the Christmas decorating, click here.

Otherwise, I'll see you perhaps this coming Sunday for some new fun.

In the (Saint) Nick of Time

I feel I'm really pushing the Christmas deadlines here, trying to get things done. But then I looked back at my blog posts last year at this time and I was saying the same thing. So at least I'm consistent-- if also perpetually disorganized this time of year.

Forgive me, folks, that this isn't a terribly long post. I'll explain why in a moment. But first I wanted to show you how the guest room has been shaping up for the holidays.

The pink McCoy pot my friend Josette gave me last year has become part of a display for this one!...

I decided to use a tree decorated all in vintage jewelry, scarves and a hat in the room this time. Only technical difficulties ensued...
Oh, sure, everything looks okay on the surface, but the bedecked lady seems to have developed a bum leg...
In fact, there was a tremendous cracking sound just moments after I took this picture and... TIM-BERRRR! I caught it just in time.

I do believe this is one job that even duct tape cannot cure. So, I'm going to be moving on to Plan B. And no, I don't know what Plan B is yet. But it sounds positive and enterprising, at least.

What I'd mainly been working on today was moving my desk, computer and everything else to one of the unused rooms on my third floor. My desk used to face this McCoy-filled closet... Now it's just for display.
In the coming months, I hope to share with you how the third floor gets transformed from a dark two-room attic which hasn't seen inhabitants since the Victorian era, to usable, bright and airy office and storage space!

Well, there's much to do... and less time to do it in. So I'm off to do some wrapping and I hope to see you for the next post, on Wednesday.

Have a terrific start to your week!

Treasure Box Wednesday: People Who Live in Cardboard Houses

Ah, two more rooms down, one-and-a-half to go! Christmas cheer has exploded here at Waterhouse.

Well, not quite. I mean, it starts out as Christmas grumbling because, honestly, who really wants to climb on ladders and unpack boxes after a nine- or ten-hour work day?... But then that gives way to Christmas Accomplishment. And then Accomplishment works its way into the Christmas Cheer.

It's a three-step-to-Cheer process.

So last night I got the chance to add my cardboard vintage-style village to the entryway. It's pretty much the same every year, but I love the tone it sets when you step in the door...

Warmth... nostalgia... welcome...

I exchanged the three transferware vases that regularly sit up on this ledge shelf for three more little cardboard houses, chosen to match the aquas and pinks in my entry...
We'll get back to this room shortly, but first... Remember the purple and silver dining room theme I've been working on for this year? This is the accompanying tree...
It looked pretty lame the first night I was working on it-- kind of like a sad, soggy pipecleaner collection with some sparkles on it. I had considered just taking it down and putting the lamp back that normally lives there.

But, then it seemed the more ornaments I slathered on, the better it started to look. I think that tree actually perked up!...
And now, it's preening in the mirror...
Okay, now back to the entryway... Long-time readers have probably seen this tree before-- the one that's traditionally filled with faux candy and as many ShinyBrites as it can handle...

Underneath, it gets a base of faux poinsettias, to add a little extra color...
This one, too, is reflected by a hallway mirror. I think it adds just a little extra sparkle...
ShinyBrites never cease to amaze me. They always remind me of something Dr. Seuss would have come up with...
And little elves look on, nestled in their ornament homes...
As he waves goodbye for today, so do I! If you missed Sunday's Christmas decorating post, you can catch that by clicking here.

And this Sunday, I should have the last of the decorating to show you-- unless I'm being overly ambitious in saying that. Ya never know.