Open Season On Junk and Vintage Treasures

Ah, the thrill of the hunt.


Lately I've been into this big time, looking for the odd and the beautiful,
in the nooks and crannies of New Jersey and beyond.
This week, my searches brought me to wild and woolly Pennsylvania on Friday, all over God's good earth (aka New Jersey) on Saturday, and today?  It's into the untamed wilderness of Bergen County.

Sometimes I bring home the oddest strays.

Welcome to a Sunday Favorites post at That Old House.

This one was first published in August of 2010.

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(August 31, 2010)
We stopped at my brother's on Saturday night, on our way home from the beach house.  He and his wife have sold their Long Island home and are packing the camels and heading their caravan off across the desert, aiming for North Carolina.

Their new house is smaller than the house they are leaving, and that's why every once in awhile
I get a call from him:  "Hey, Cassy, you want the . . . .?" and I nearly always say, "Yes."

The latest thing -- an old oak office arm chair that our Mom painted
about 40 years ago, for the original Southold beach cottage.

She painted it glossy yellow.

Really yellow.

School Bus-Yield Sign-Crime Scene Tape-Screaming Yellow Zonkers Yellow.

This is the woman who, back in the early 1960s, painted the walls in our tiny summer bungalow kitchen in a tasteful pale creamy yellow, thereby lulling my father into a false sense of security.  She then painted the 1910-era table and chairs in brilliant watermelon pink and deep green, and slathered pink paint on the old  refrigerator too, just for good measure.

Mama was not shy about color.
I am still scarred by memories of her raspberry bathroom.

This chair's paint is showing its age.

There's a big chip on the back and scads of little bitty chips elsewhere.

My brother Lindy thinks I will strip this chair and restore it to its oak-y dignity.  He is delusional.

I think it needs a new and gnarly paint job, don't you?  Color ideas?

It's going to live at our desk, where I blog if I'm not using the laptop.

The chair is perfect -- comfy, and it makes me smile.

(Update from Nov. '11 -- the chair is still in its original yellow paint, and I'm sitting in it right now.
Right at this desk.  With a bright orange coffee mug on the left.)

Odd things do make me smile.
Like the next two thrifting finds . . . a pair of -- ummm -- lamps.

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When we were out at the beach house back in May, we went to a flea market at the

Museum Houses in Cutchogue.  I snagged two table lamps.

I say "snagged," as if I had competition for them.  I did not.

I think even the seller was surprised that I took them.

They are . . . interesting.

These babes are tall.  36-inches to the tops of the harps.

There are two lamps, but I only photographed one of them.  They are identical, and both are in perfect shape.

Loaded with painted, gilded, and molded detail.

Help me out here, folks.  What the heck are these?  They are not new, that's for sure.

Former oil lamps?  Buffet lamps?  Rococo?  What would you call them?

I haven't decided the fates of these old gals.

They may end up on either side of the high 4-post bed in the pink guest room,

where they are tall enough to shed light on a book being read in bed.

Or, they'll get listed on eBay and I'll leave them to their fates.

(Nov. '11 update -- I need to learn how to rewire lamps; these are still in storage.)

They do have a certain quirky charm.  Well, I think so, anyway.

The rest of my family is of another mind.

Annie and I sniffed out yard sales while we were at the beach house this past weekend.

At one house sale I bought this:

A 20-year old Fitz and Floyd bowl.

It's about 8 inches wide, about 3 inches deep.  Nice size.

I think it has a neat, woodsy, log-cabin-in-the-Adirondacks sort of look to it.

At another house sale, I found 5 old lamps, all porcelain, of odd and old
designs and shapes and colors and I was sorely tempted to buy them,
but my daughter Anne wisely shot me with an elephant tranquilizer gun
and dragged me away.  A narrow escape indeed.

 . . . sigh . . . . 

You always mourn the ones that got away.

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Thanks to Chari of Happy To Design for hosting the lazy lady blogger's favorite party --

Sunday Favorites.  Go visit, and see what other bloggers have dredged up from their past lives

to feature on this sunny Sunday.  Click here to visit!

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Well, at least it is sunny here in New Jersey.

And after Howard comes back to earth after his flying lesson today, we are picking up another

Craigslist find.  We had good luck on yesterday's hunting trip, including an unexpected treasure.  

There is a method to my madness.  Really, there is.  Enjoy the day! -- Cass