Crystal Madrilejos

I’m not sure if this is vintage or not. I got it at an antique store, but it could easily pass for something a kindergartener might make for Mother’s Day. Either way, I like it a lot. I couldn’t get a good picture of me wearing it that didn’t look weirdly staged.

I just really love the colors and the size and shape of the beads. It’s pretty chunky and awkward, but charming nonetheless.

I’m starting to realize that a pretty good gauge of my tastes is whether or not something looks like it could be candy. That’s what I think of when I see this necklace. Little candy cubes. With bubble gum in the center.

-c.

How awesome is this vintage Martex tea towel?

Weirdest name for a line of towels: Dry-me-Dry. “Dry” as a verb, followed by “Dry” as an adjective. Or am I reading into that all wrong? Anyway, I found it at a local antique shop called This N That for a few dollars. Usually this place is hit or miss and last time we were there the air was heavy with scented candles. So much so that it gave me a headache and made me feel like the inside of my nose and mouth was coated with candle wax.

I did a quick google search of vintage Martex tea towels and there are a few people selling this exact one on etsy in a variety of colors (and prices… $45.99 yikes!)

-c.

I’ve missed you guys! Things have started heating up around here (literally) but it’s still raining. Work has been getting busy busy and  I haven’t been able to take photos of things I’ve been wanting to share. This weekend I was able to sneak in a mini-photo shoot while Q was napping of these cool porcelain glove molds (I got two!) that I found at the thrift store where we got our china cabinet/hutch thing-y.

They seem to be a hot thing on the second hand market these days. A little while back I found one at an antique store for $50 ding-dang bucks! I got both of these ones for a little over $20. I like me some vintage things, but only if the price is right.

I’ve been looking for a way to store my ever growing collection of necklaces and these seem to fit the bill. They sort of look like Homer Simpson hands but I like them!

-c.

Everyone knows that the Midwest is where awesome vintage goods are just hiding out waiting to be discovered by some big city folks looking for a diamond in the proverbial rough. Well, the Medina Antique Mall is one such place. Also known as AntiqueLandUSA, it’s so chock full of old shit it will make your head spin. Most of the inventory is stuff that I don’t have too much interest in, like ratty porcelain dolls with scary eyes, old baseball cards, and Victorian furniture. I mean, some of the stuff is really beautiful, just not my style.

However, we took a little trip there a couple weekends ago and found some real gems. There was one dude who had a booth full of mid-century Danish modern goods, hell yeah! As well as a few other choice pieces scattered here and there.

One draw back of this place (other than the fact that it’s super huge and overwhelming) is the fact that it’s mostly out of my price range. At this point in my life, I just can’t afford to spend $600 on a single side chair. No matter how awesomely designer-y cool it is. But it doesn’t cost anything to browse!

I didn’t bring my camera to the Antique Mall so I will resort to found images on the interweb. Here are just a sampling of the cool things I found:

1. Bertoia Side Chair by Harry Bertoia
2. Wassily Chair by Marcel Breur
3. Dansk Kobenstyle Cookware
4. Sprite Stacking Chair by Ross Lovegrove
5. Crayonne for Habitat Ice Bucket
6. Lucite Folding Chair
7. World Time Mantle Clock by Howard Miller
8. Herman Miller Eames Shell Chair
9. Italian Guzzini Arco Style Floor Lamp

Not all these items would be at home in our house, but I still enjoy them nonetheless, though Andrew wasn’t too keen on some of the things I pointed out. A couple times Andrew referred to the furniture as “looking like it belonged in Akeem’s Apartment”. For those of you who forgot the movie “Coming to America” let me jog your memory:

God, I wish that image was bigger. But don’t worry, our house looks NOTHING like that.

-c.

This weekend we finally completed the next step in Project Clean-Up-This-Old-China-Cabinet. In the first phase, we cleaned all the grime only to realize that the top would need to be stripped because the grime had pretty much damaged the finish. Phase 2 consisted of Citri-Strip, which looked like this while it worked its magic:

Followed by removal of the loosened old varnish with plastic scraper and lots of this nastiness:

Disgusting! So after that, we let it hang out for a bit, then the next day we gave it a cleaning with Mineral Spirits, a little sanding with extra fine sandpaper, another wipe, then a couple coats of Teak Oil. Voila! A long ways away from this mess.

Andrew decided that it needs a coat of shellac because as beautiful as the teak finish is, it isn’t as shiny as the rest of the piece so it doesn’t quite match. I trust his judgement. So! One to Phase 3! Hopefully, Phase 4 will be the phase where I fill it with all my junk!

-c.

You may remember my post about my early Mother’s Day mid-century modern china cabinet present? That was a really confusing sentence. But come on people, it was just last week. Anyway.

This thing is beautiful but very dirty. I’m sure it’s just an accumlation of years of dust that has congealed into a nasty black grime. But part of me thinks it could be that someone never learned to wash their hands after handling crude oil OR Andrew’s hypothesis: A smoker with a china cabinet next to their stove where they fried fish all day. Whichever way you swing it, this thing has some serious build up issues.

Murphy’s Oil Soap to the rescue! Thanks to Morgan’s post on Refreshing Vintage Wood, we had an idea of how to start dealing with this mess. As you can see from the before and after pictures, we got a lot of the nastiness off but next step is the strip the top of the old finish. Everywhere else on the piece is fine, but the top could use a sand and a finish with some Danish Oil.

I can’t wait to just GET IT DONE so I can start filling it with all my junk!

-c.

Paintings by Milton Glaser (LOOK Magazine, 6.14.1966 Issue)

–c.

Another thrift store find, this contact paper is from 1965 and it can be used to label anything from “poison” to “pork”.

–c.

I want to give a big thank you to two people, Wanwisa of Modern Vintage for posting about our wedding, and to Laura Budde for recommending us and for making my beautiful dress. You can check out Modern Vintage Designs for the feature or click here to go directly to the post.

Thanks again!
–c.

I’ve mentioned before all the cool things you can find in the thrift stores of Ohio. I’ve been on a lookout lately for old magazines. Here are some that I found, old issues of Boys’ Life from the 60’s.

–c.