Thursday, July 19, 2012

Thrifted Thursday

    I am a lover of all things vintage AKA old, furniture that is seen better days, clothing long out of style,old bits of paper and other ephemera- chances are if no one else wants it I do! So many lovely ladies I know are passionate about the past- perhaps as so many of our relatives suggest we were born in the wrong decade or increasingly in the wrong century!

   My mom started me off on my thrift store path when I was in high school, she pointed out that my allowance would go quite a bit farther shopping the local church basement. Our parents bought us the basics at back to school but any thing else we wanted my sister and I had to pay for ourselves.So I was that girl sporting a giant vintage men's tweed sports jacket (50 cents) with a pair of totally rad harem pants  sewn in Mrs. Edstrom's Advanced sewing 9 class and Doc Martens- for our small town I was ahead of my time fashion wise and may have caused more than a few head turns.  My mom always told me I looked great and my outfits were interesting.

   Fast forward through years of vintage clothing passing through my hands, at one time I once planned to open a vintage clothing store, and to the present day. My love of thrifting obviously has endured the years, Thrift stores, Consignment stores, Antique Market,Hand me Downs, Back Alley, Side of the Road, Free- all these words get me excited! The trill of the hunt and the anticipation of what you may unearth make this an exciting way to beautify our life.

   That brings us to the introduction of Thrifted Thursday's a place where I can share some of the goodies I have rescued from the land fill and given a home. Stories to be told when I know them, other items- well their history will have to start where I found them.

   
   This is the usual situation in our front hall closet, it is getting increasingly worse the bigger the kids get as they are responsible for putting their own shoes on and taking them off- usually they just get stuffed under the desk. So I felt a little re-aranging was the order of the day, the desk found a new home in our bed room.


    This little cabinet was holding DVDs and Games in the living room, it has tonnes of shelves which make it perfect for shoes! The cabinet used to belong to my parents who rescued it from a neighbour who was throwing it away, I think my mom used to store her painting supplies in it, at any rate I needed furniture when I went to University and so my dad painted it this dark navy. During our last move the glass panel that sat in front of the blue lattice broke and so I just lined a piece of foam core with linen.



     My amazing turquoise type writer came from the Hospital Auxiliary Thrift store in Kelowna and cost me a dollar( it makes a great place to display photos), the change bowl my Grandpa turned on the lathe and the vintage globe came from Step Back in Kitsilano.


    The real super star of the front hall is this beautiful vintage window that my lovely cousin Laura scored in a back alley. The window was leaning against a garage in the alley for weeks, lovely cousin Laura decided to put a note with her phone number on it- the owner called and said she could have it! This was our house warming gift- I love it!

9 comments:

  1. I LOVE Stepback. It's a really good thing we don't live down in that part of Kits anymore...too many awesome places to shop!

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    1. Oh I love Stepback! Plus the rumour is that the owner works for Radiohead- just a rumour- unconfirmed by the owner- but he did tell me he is a sound engineer - and travels a lot- so it's possible!

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    2. He used to work for Nettwerk and I think he toured with Dido - there was a really interesting article in the Vancouver Sun a few years ago (I'd go look for it, but I'm supposed to be working...work, such a spoiler!)

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  2. Me too! I was in there a few weeks ago and he's got all these vintage taxidermied animals, perfectly creepy and cool. I love thirfting/back alley scavenging because it also quells my consumer guilt while allowing me to consume!

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    1. Laura you are the queen of the back alley furniture find!

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  3. I LOVE that cabinet! My Aunt-in-law gave us one that reminded me of yours.

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    1. It is a goody- needs a little TLC- but I think all the dings just add to it's charm:)

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  4. Lovely! Thanks for this great writing and beautiful style...

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