back home to the best

i'm back from a few weeks in nc, it was rushed as usual with lots of coordinating to be sure i saw everyone, and i still didn't see everyone. i try to keep christmas really low key and don't exchange or get many gifts, but was thrilled to come home to al and a really lovely gift from him. he found some swedish (whisky?) glasses at an estate sale while i was gone. they are housed in a burgundy leather box, and each glass can rest upon it's own coaster of a different golden crown—we're rich! happy new year, we're probably in for just chilling at home with some of that fine wine we got up at the rr and trying out these new glasses.

cut it out

i'm always on the lookout for art at estate sales, but given that art is such a personal preference we rarely find any we like (or can agree on). al found this piece over the weekend as we were walking out of one sale. it was in a crappy plastic box frame that has yellowed with time and was scratched and cracked. i took it out of it's frame today and was shocked at how vibrant and gorgeous this piece is. i was also surprised to find out it's actually a black paper cut-out placed on top of a background painted in teal, aqua, orange and a gorgeous salmon color. there's even a little rub down "o" for the light on front of the cable car. it measures just 5 1/4" x 7 1/4" and will be lovely framed.

greening

we had a great weekend at the cabin and a lot of green things passed through our fingers. money, herbs, plants, pots, wine bottles..... we found some estate sales and ended up with a few odds and ends. we even lot a lamp (a very tiny one) for $4. we need more light in the kitchen, specifically under the cabinets, so this little lamps works fine for that. albert really wants to get a ceiling fixture and shade from schoolhouse electric to replace the fluorescent box light that we can't stand. i just hate overhead lighting in general, so my goal is lamps lamps and more lamps. we still haven't gotten to the tiling job. we need to lay out the tiles to decide on the pattern and borrow a tile saw. we got home late last night and i was up way past my normal bed time. i dreamt of someone stealing out water from the cabin hose (our first water bill for the cabin was very high) and woke up feeling fuzzy. then i sat down at my computer to read my cell phone bill was $440.43! i got that straightened out and my blood pressure is back to normal now. my day is off from waking up an hour later than usual. i just finished 2nd breakfast.

we need lamps

on the morning of our departures to the cabin, i begin stacking up things on the kitchen table so i don't forget them. so far today i've got two avocados, one orange and one yellow pyrex bowl, my cabin key set, and this blue bird. i went to an estate sale this morning hoping to find a lamp, we are desperate for lamps. there was so much stuff from multiple families, but i only walked out with these two bowls and the blue bird. i'm very happy with these purchases, but we need lamps. i'm still sad about the loss of this one to some other lucky craigslister.

wp fluorescent

fluorescent orange seems to be grabbing my attention everywhere these days, i guess that's what that color is all about. we stumbled upon a great estate sale up in forestville this weekend on our second cabin trip. the woman who owned the house was a bit of a shop-aholic, but the goods weren't what really got me, it was her choice of wallpaper. we walked into the laundry room to find the most perfect paper ever.


the living room and dining room had some pretty good metallics, but my phone didn't capture them very well.


nothing prepared me for the kitchen paper, i was in awe. the estate sale guardian couldn't believe how excited i was and that i wanted a photo of these chickens and roosters. they are now wallpapered on my phone.



i did end up with a $6 food processor (a sunbeam oskar!) , some old sunset magazine cookbooks, and a gorgeous vera scarf which kept my greasy locks covered for the duration. to get the goods for $5 along a viewing of this papered home was heaven. i wanted to go back on sunday but we had too much to do.

closed

pine paneling here we come! we are heading up to the cabin today around noon (maybe after scoping out a great looking estate sale). my car is jam packed with stuff, and it doesn't even have any of the furniture we want to take up. we've got to borrow david's truck in a few weeks for that load. boy do i wish our kitchen looked like this, alas it's mostly white cabinets and a light counter top, but we've got some plans for improvement. i'll document all the updates and changes as they happen, our goal is to get a lot of color into the now very beige space. this kitchen belongs to the lucky marusica, and i do love her style. the only similarity we have is the electric stove, which is not going to be an easy transition after cooking on the wedgewood. we need to add propane to the house and get a gas stove in asap. it looks like rain up there, but i've got plenty to do inside. al plans on diving, but we'll see if that happens.

naps

i've found some great vintage napkins at estate sales, these birds are my favorite. i thought i might try to use cloth napkins at my upcoming party, but i don't have enough. i tried cutting some vintage fabric with pinking shears, but the fabric still came apart. then i remembered i had these bird and shell napkins. i didn't think those two packages would be quite enough so i found a few more on etsy. i tried to coordinate the colors, but it was hard, and i couldn't pass up these cable car napkins.
in other news, the upgrade to leopard went terribly wrong and resulted in me freaking out for about 7 hours, lots of tears and major stress. thanks to aimee it's all fixed. the cabin isn't closing today like we thought so we have to spend the night in this dumb ole house. so today i decided to treat myself to arizmendi and we might go play bingo at st. paul's tonight, it just depends on the roast's schedule, al is cooking.

lucky

we went to a couple of estate sales this weekend and i ended up with a few new small items, all of them black. without me seeing al purchased some japanese opera glasses. i've been wanting some for a few years and these were in good condition and cheap. i found a cute old stationery set, and this gorgeous johannes itten book called the elements of color. it's really clean and looks like it was rarely opened. it reminds me of the color theory we did back in college, huge color charts painstakingly painted 1 square inch at a time. everyone sweated those, usually for several all niters. i'll read this one up at the cabin.
i'm procrastinating but now i guess i'll upgrade to leopard. i'm trying to thwart unexpected disasters which i'm expecting.

furnished

al and i spent a good part of the weekend talking about cabin furniture, what we could take up now (like an air mattress) and what we need to buy first (a sofa bed). i've been wanting this yellow sideboard from ikea for a while, but i don't know if i can talk al into it. i could deal with the black version of the cabinet if it was my only choice. we did find some things at jen and cristal's garage sale, and a few things at an estate sale, but nothing large as we don't really have room to store it here at this house. al called me this morning to let me know the sellers would like to leave all their furniture in the cabin, except a few frying pans!! everything is extremely "beige" but we can't believe the windfall, we don't have to buy a thing until we're ready and we won't have to take up an air mattress. now i really think that yellow sideboard could spice things up.

cabby

the cabin inspection went off without a hitch and we are moving forward. well, al is. we are taking mom & dad up tomorrow to check it out, and it will be just the second time i've seen it myself. our plan is to get the sofa bed first, take some random pieces of furniture and the air mattress up for now, and slowly buy stuff as we can. hopefully we can score at estate sales, which we need to get back into our schedule. time for some russian river vacations! we can't wait.

cyclo

after i grabbed everyone from the airport yesterday we took a drive out to cheap pete's to pick up the game fish cyclopedia. it's quite massive and there is really only one wall in the entire house it will fit on unless we hang it in the really dark hallway. the bamboo frame looks amazing and it's really impressive on the wall. it's hanging too high now, needs to come down about a foot, but we needed a safe place for it to rest and we had a nail in the wall already. once al got home we took off for some dinner at pot de pho, then headed to north beach for some dessert at stella pastry & cafe. we dropped the family off at their hotel and al and i came home to look at furniture on craigs list and ikea.


i hope to go grab this quartite creative corp lamp after we eat some breakfast, visit the de young, and stroll over to the rose garden in golden gate park. there is a great looking estate sale today, i hope i can talk them into going.

sleepy

aurin, mom & dad arrive today at noon and i couldn't sleep this morning thinking of what i want to get done and what i need to get done before heading to sfo. also, word is the cabin is almost ours so i've been thinking of what we already own vs. what we have to buy and started a spreadsheet to track it all. i've also been looking at different treatments of rooms with wood paneled walls and found some really gorgeous stuff. time to hit the estate sales hard.


our paint by number clipper ship will probably have to move up north.

cabin fever take 2

i tagged along with al to the golden gate park casting pools this week. he practices there using his vintage fenwick fiberglass rod, scored at an estate sale. i usually take a book and sit on a bench while he casts, but this time i got a few photos of the anglers club because the light was nice and everything is in bloom. this club must have some pull because it's one of the nicest city maintained buildings in the park. i find it really charming and wish he would join the club so i can get inside. it was built on feb. 22, 1938 A.D. according to the front door plaque.


it reminds me of the cabin we saw up at russian river saturday. we have high hopes.

wrought

we got the $17 estate sale chandelier up this weekend. it's not working of course, not plugged in, but i still wanted it hanging in the hall. i love the shape of it, but might paint the fake candles black (or whatever color i paint the chandelier if i paint it one day). it adds a little something fun to the hallway, and it needed to get off the floor before the family arrives next week.

estates, take two

saturday evening i regretted not getting a few other things at the estate sale and this has happened to me before. i did some research on the franciscan star burst pattern and decided i should have gotten all the pieces. the set wasn't complete, but there were several dinner plates, bread plates, a split serving bowl, and a pepper shaker. sunday morning while al made tiramisu for our italian themed easter dinner, i headed back to the sale. when i walked i was told all items under $100 were half off. i scooped up the dishes and found the wrought iron chandelier that had haunted me all night. al wasn't that hot on it, but i knew $35 for this was a steal. yesterday i paid half that.

estates

al and i go to estate sales almost every weekend. sometimes they are gross and completely a waste of time, and sometimes i'm ecstatic to find a few cheap & mismatched things. today i found a pink pyrex baking pan ($4) to match the butter yellow one i love so much, a franciscan star burst creamer, and a turquoise sugar bowl that looks like it was born to go with this casserole. i'm always tempted to keep the things i find, but most of them end up in my etsy store because i don't need more stuff. one day soon i hope these finds are going into the cabin.

new old stuff

after visiting my family in north carolina last month, my parents sent me home with their very old & loved cast iron pan. i've been in serious want for one of these for several years, and i don't know why i never bought one. i'm so glad i didn't because i love this pan. every time i use it i think of mom making cornbread back in our house in cary. we've cooked with this at least once a week since it came home and met our wedgewood. i found the orange cast iron grill pan at an estate sale recently, and sold it's mate on etsy.

sale

the estate sales were rather blah today. there was a bounty of them, al and i went to 4 or 5 (i've already forgotten). the only things i found were these two teeny, sweet japanese ceramic pieces. when i say teeny, i mean teeny. they measure about 1 3/8" wide by 2 1/2" long & 2 1/4" tall. when i got home there was a note from katie thanking me for helping her with her new blog, and the colors just all sort of fit together. the boxes are filled with two lovely truffles. oh so nice with my cup of tea.

orange

lately i've been really taken with these two orange trays i found at an estate sale. one is on the kitchen table, protecting it from messes, and the other is on the coffee table. everything looks so sharp and clean against that orange.