Quick Project

 As usual on my Saturday shift break, I decided to go-a-thrifting. I normally don't go looking for anything in particular. Rather, I just try to look at everything and bide by time. Holy-Moley! I got lucky and came away with a big haul. I found a 1950's Zenith tabletop radio, a set of gold bar glasses and THIS beauty. As you can tell, it doesn't look pretty. I imagined that some grandmother tried to "refashinon" it to make it cool for their grandchild, and it ended up in the thrift store :(  The top cushion was covered with blue knitting and the rest was unlovingly doused in baby blue spray paint.

First things first, I cut off the web of yarn, and found a white pleather/vinyl material. It's not in the best condition. It's stained by age and/or smoke that left a yellow tinge behind. Around the buttons, it has begun to tear. All I ended up doing is scrubbing it with bleach.

Now to the nitty gritty: CHEMICALS! The Man and I went to the local hardware store and picked up an aerosol chemical paint stripper. I generally like chemical strippers because it does a lot of the elbow work for you. My only beef with this one is the way it sprayed. The nozzle only has one setting and it sprays in a stream, making it slightly more difficult to be precise. I also felt like a lot of product was wasted because of that. That being said, it helped removing the paint with minimal effort on my part. I scraped it off with a plastic noodle measurer (sorry, honey :/ ) but I would recommend an actual tool,  or an old credit/debit/I.D. card. Then attacked it all with 000 (very fine) steel wool. What didn't come off then, got a second coating of the stripper.

Under the baby blue spray paint, the legs had a thick ugly varnish. Although that would have been the original finish, I prefer to see wood grain. I think it's pretty. The brass tips needed very little TLC, I just stripped the paint and polished with the steel wool. I stained the wood legs with 2 coats of Minwax Polyshade in Olde Maple Satin.

 

I should say that I tore this thing apart. Any piece that could be unscrewed or just plain ol' pulled off like an animal was. After the brass binding was separated, I treated it just like the tips-just a polishing with steel wool. Then, I spray painted the top with one of my favorite colors: Krylon Indoor Outdoor in Satin Pistachio. I, personally, think that it compliments the brass fittings and the natural wood quite well. With the Rust-Oleum American Accents Bright Metallics in Gold, I painted the mounting plates and the "handles." They were rather tarnished.

Overall, I'm rather happy with the results. I may, eventually, do something with the cushion, but for under $25, I can't complain.

Footstool/Bench: $5.00

Paint Stripper: $9.00

Pistachio Paint: $3.75

Steel Wool: In Inventory

Gold Paint: In Inventory

Stain: In Inventory

It's Beginning to Come Together

Please ignore the ugly A/C unit and the gnarly wires

I love thrifting and I love Craigslist! And yesterday it paid off in full! We had spied this table and chair set months ago, but couldn't justify the price. To be honest, they were asking a very fair price from the beginning, yet we just didn't have it in the budget.

I couldn't let it go. I constantly checked to see if it had sold, and after a couple of weeks they had lowered the price.....but not enough. *whimper* We tried to justify it. We couldn't. I had to accept that it wouldn't be ours.

swoon

Yet, persistence paid off. Yesterday, I noticed that the price had been reduced yet again....and within our budget!! I begged the Man to get on the phone, as I have a phobia of talking on the phone. In a half an hour we were there packing it up into Goldie (the loving name giving to his gold convertible). The old Italian (?) man got a kick out of that, and waved us off with a cigarette in hand.

There are no marks or tags, and I am hesitant to say exactly what era it's from. It works for us, though. We are so happy that it's black and white, which means it can go with any color that we paint the kitchen. All we need now is a chrome napkin dispenser, or a table top jukebox!

I Jinxed It

Well....everyone can rest easy and know that I am, in fact, the one to blame for the heatwave. I wrote a couple of days early, exclaiming that it's been a mild summer and now the weather gods have punished us all.....sorry.

Now, I know that according to this map, it looks as though Wisconsin is only in the 90's (hahaha...only). HOWEVER, when we add humidity to the equation, the whole thing is turned on it's head! Today's "feels like" forecast was 103! ANNDDD humid!!!

Sooo....with all that said, we were rather sluggish. We cruised around in the convertible, attempting to beat the heat, stopped at St. Vincent de Paul's where the Man had a successful shopping trip and then headed to Tenuta's to grab some paninis and tomato salad. Hot, humid weather calls for no-muss, no-fuss outfits.

I swear, one of these days I'll get pictures that are in focus....I'm cursed.

 The top is a mens' small work shirt that has be worn in to perfection. It's nice and airy and light and oh-so-cozy. The bottoms are stretchy leggings from ages ago that I don't know how I feel about walking around in public. They are VERY form fitting, but the Man likes 'em, so I'm learning to like them. The shoes, of course, have to be the unpractical element. Wooden wedges that make me feel like a fancy housewife who has nothing better to do than smoke cigarettes while reading Cosmo.

Hair and make up-wise, I pulled my hair back into a sloppy french twist and then rolled my fringe. Up and off my face, nice and easy. No eyeliner, no bronzer, just a little blush, mascara and bright pink lipstick to distract and pull the whole thing together.

Top: Men's Wedgefield, thrifted

Capris: Label long gone, Forever 21

Sandals: Nine West, thrifted

Lemme See

Well, I didn't intend on doing 2 posts in one day (especially after not posting for a couple of days), but, I ended up dying my hair. Really, I just bleached my roots-they really needed it! I ended up doing a dry curling set and wanted to post the rather successful results.

With my hair still wet from dying it, I sprayed it down with gel and let it air dry as much as possible. For me, that means about 50% until I go crazy and have to blow dry it on low.  Once it looks like I stuck my finger in a socket, I roughly sectioned out my hair and added a small amount of wax/pomade. I curled my hair in foam rollers and then had every intention to let it set overnight.

I didn't.

I let it sit for about 3 hours or so until I finally had enough. I didn't think it was going to turn out very well.

No make up....yikes!

After some brushing and coaxing, it actually turned out quite well. It's a little shorter than I'd like it to be, but with beaching it comes damage. And I had to cut that damage off, as much as it killed me to do so. 

BUUTTT...in the middle of my Glamour Shots, along came this guy!

Bernard: Always the attention hog.

I like my fringe and how well it got height and flipped out. And curling it makes it not look so damaged!

Back to being serious.

Non Events

It's been a lazy summer...and I don't know how I feel about that. It's what summers are for, right? To lay back and put your feet up. Yet, I can't help feeling like I should be more productive. We do have many projects on our plate, of which I'll get to another day.

In the meantime, here's a pitiful OOTD:

Last minute, the Man and I decided to go out for drinks and enjoy the warm night. It being so last minute, I decided I didn't want to do my hair, and just pinned up my fringe. I did get a compliment on my hair....though not the kind I was looking for. I was told it was very "beachy," but, I'll take it.

Top: Light Blue Seersucker Blouse, made by me ('40's repro pattern)

Pants: Gap Jean Capris purchased years ago

Shoes: Mia wedges purchased at Goodwill

Purse: Vintage, from Mom. Tag reads "Made in Hong Kong"

Two Steps Forward

This summer has been so odd with it's weather. This time last year we had already reached (and surpassed) 100 degrees! This year, I think we've had only a handful of days that touched the 90's. Now, I'm not complaining. Low temperatures usually mean low humidity, and we have been lucky this year with humidity (so far....I am literally knocking on my wood desk right now).

Over the past couple of days, the Man and I haven't been tooooo busy.  The weather has made for some lazy days. Mornings have started out groggy and gray, waking up to the low rumble of storms on the horizon. Throughout the day, flash down pours have kept us indoors. The rain comes out of nowhere, and down hard. (My poor little Dilly cat gets so anxious and hides under the couch at the first sign of a storm.) It's hard to determine the time on days like these. You wake up thinking it should be evening, and in the afternoon you swear it should be 8 or 9 in the evening. There is no sun to guide you.

The last few days have been filled in with little projects here and there, with nothing coming to actual completion. A little more work on the record player. Trying to finish a skirt (I HATE zippers and hems). Weeding the garden.

BUTTTT on a fun note! I got new glasses and hair cut!!

As is typical with my luck (or lack there of) , today is gorgeous! Sunny, high 70's, low humidity....and I have a weekend of work ahead of me :(

IT'S ALIIIIIIVE!!

Since the man and I are all about vintage electronics, it would only be fitting for us to have a working record player. Well, easier said than done.  We lived on a limited budget which makes our search even more difficult. Of course we can just buy a fully working, refurnished/refurbished vintage record player.......for upwards of our life savings!! But, we are thrifters and every where we go we keep our eyes peeled for a record player. On one of our most recent trips to Racine, we picked up this beauty.

(I wish I had the forethought to take "before" pictures *d'oh*)

It was sitting, lonely and dusty, in the 'Clearance Corner.' There was some other objects sitting on top of it, but I was sure it was a record player! We opened the top and lo and behold, a radio and record player with a little homemade label marked "1967." We quickly moved it toward an outlet, crossing our fingers. At this point we attracted some attention from other customers, who were more than happy to share their thoughts on the subject of record players. It's funny how people are so eager to share their stories about "the good old days," and how "you young kids probably don't even know what this is!" We get a good laugh out of this. We are 34 and 29, respectively, and dress like we walked out of the 50's, with a working knowledge of record players, hehe. But, we indulge them. Annnnnyyy way....I digress. It was marked $60 originally, reduced to $20. We plugged it in and it lit up, the table turned begrudgingly, and we knew it was ours.

Here's where I really wish I took before pics.  The top was full of water stains, some of the varnish and stain had worn off. The legs were wobbly, we didn't know if the radio or speakers worked, much less the actual record player. We debated about whether to keep it wood toned (which I am almost always a proponent of) or to paint it a funky color and whether to keep it a record player/radio or gut it and turn it into storage.

Here it sat in our "second living room" with all of the other projects.

 Well, our questions were answered when we plugged it in at home. The radio worked, along with the speakers. The turn-table still turned slowwww, but it moves, so we're taking that as a good thing.  No gutting. I assumed the piece was mostly solid wood. I assumed wrong. I got to sanding the troubled spots only to find that it is in fact a veneer. Nevertheless, we are still going to sand and stain it.

The Man in action!

The legs and the front speaker cover, mid-process.

 I never thought sanding off old varnish would take soooo much work :/ Lots of literal sweat is going into this project since we are working on this in the humid Wisconsin summer.

Here Goes Nothing

Well, here it is: the corny, obvious "FIRST POST."

I've been interested in blogging for a while now, but full of doubt. Who wants to read about my 'mundane' life? Who cares what I wore and what I did (or lack there of)? I must really credit my fiance for giving me the final push and putting things into perspective. Day in and day out, he has observed my voracious consumption of blogs (sadly, to the point where I talk about these people like they are my friends, haha :/ ) and finally had asked me, "why don't you do a blog?" Slumped in our recliner, I turned, "because who would care?" The inner, insecure voice getting the better of me. "Well," he started, standing rather confidently in our living room, "I think you're interesting. All these blogs that you follow, you do all those things. You sew and craft, garden and cook. You make your own clothes, do your own hair and make up" (at this point I should note that we aim for a retro 50's look. Rockabilly, if you will. So, to say I do my own hair and make up, to him, is a skill). But what he said next is what hit home to me, "At the end of the day, do it for yourself. You start a blog and nobody follows? So what? At least you have this place where you have photos and a documentation of your life." And he's right. At least this will be a place to document my life. A place I can go back to to remember the little things I did day-to-day. So that's what I aim to do. This will be a place I record projects and trips, meals and memories. (I did say it was the corny first post.)

One of the only pictures of me not eating....