Do you have...

A favorite find? I have a number, but this one's way at the top.

I found it at a junk store in Mesquite, a small town outside of/attached to Dallas. Back then, I had a number of customers in Mesquite, whom I visited quite often, and this junk store was right on the way. I think she visited garage sales on the weekend, marked them up and put them in her shop. This was $3.98. It wasn't in this shape though; I wasn't even sure at first what it was. It looked like a bookend with a thing-a-ma-doodie on top of her head. I'm not sure how long it took to dawn on me that it was the base for a lamp! (Okay, that's admitting I'm stoopid. So now you know.)

There was a store just outside of downtown Dallas called...um...Uncommon something or other. Not sure if it's still there but it was a super cool place. They were just a small house full of neat stuff, but they had a warehouse full across the back alley, and they'd let you go in and rummage. The top floor was all lighting parts and pieces. That's where I found the connections that made her into a lamp. The shade, I know, is not really right, but I've never found the really right one. This one came from eBay a number of years ago. I'd love to find something white and thin and tall--

yunno, kinda like me? Not!

So that's mine. Show me yours!

Out with the old

Today will be a quick post. We started, as we generally do on Thursday, by going to the grocery store. Then I cleared out what was left of my fall decorations, which wasn't much, and this afternoon I'll take a trip to the storage facility to get the Christmas stuff. That I'll store in my studio until I go through it. I know I won't use all of it but I'd like to get it separated into what I will use and what I want to save and what I can get rid of.

In the meantime, for a little interest, I'll post some old pics of my vases. These weren't taken with a tripod, but they're not too fuzzy. This first is the collection on a shelf in the mudroom.

I picked this one up at a flea market in McKinney Tx.

I got two of these online, eBayin'.

This one I found in Evant, a little town on Hwy 281, between Lampasas and Hamilton. I absolutely had to have it, even though it was higher than I generally pay ($35).

I can't remember where I got this one. It probably was a gift from my high school BFF, Margie.

And that's all folks! Tom's waiting to take me to the storage unit. Ta!

My vase obsession

My bff from high school, Margie, got me obsessed with vases. Shame, Margie! And thanks. I thought I'd show some of them in this post.

This first one she gave me as a gift, my birthday I think. Isn't it gorgeous! It's one of my faves.


The next I found on eBay, couldn't pass it up. Love it too. Both are displayed in my LR. (Actually all I've shown today are. They were the easiest to get to.)

The next I picked up in a thrift store in Dallas, back in the early '90s, I think. They were still inexpensive back then.

This was a recent find, still inexpensive, from the library thrift store in Marble Falls. It's handthrown, judging from the mark on the bottom as shown below. See the heart etched in. That's all I can make out.

That's all the vases for today. I'll try to do more later. See y'all another time.

Thrift Store Art redux

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but Daisy's comment on my last post made me get back to it. (She made me do it, Mama!) I've learned a lot about taking pics in these last weeks, but, since it's almost 7 in the evening, I think I'll just upload the ones I took while I was still ignorant. :)

This first one I found at a thrift store up by Buchanan Lake. My high school BFF Margie was here, and we were hitting everything that even looked as if it might have a bargain. This store is more junk than a thrift, but I found this for a buck. The frame was cheap too: five bucks at Walmart. Stencilled rather than painted, it hangs in my office. I like the primitiveness of it.


This next one is also in my office, but it's not thrift store art nor was it cheap. This is the painting from the cover of my first romance novel. Tom bought it from the artist as a surprise. It's not my usual type of art but I definitely have a fondness for it.

And then we come to the first piece of art Tom and I ever bought. It came from a home and garden show in Pittsburgh in the late '60s--look at her hair; can't you just see the sixties?--and it now hangs in our bedroom. We paid a hundred dollars for it, and that was a fortune for us back then. This pic is not really good; the beige of the walls and the mat look yellow, but it's the only one I have, and I did the best I could with PhotoShop.

This next one I got at Trash Town in Ft. Worth. (Thrift Town on Jacksboro Hwy.) One of two hanging over the nightstands in the master, it's an original watercolor for which I paid $15 apiece maybe five or six years ago. (For the sisters, it was the year we spent sister's weekend at the lake near Bridgeport.)

Here's the other one:

This next wasn't thrift store either. I got it an antique store in Richardson. It makes me think of England; I can imagine living in a little cottage like that. (It wasn't cheap either. I think I paid almost $200 for it, but I put in layaway and paid it off over a four month period so it didn't feel so expensive.) It's now hanging in my entry.

This last one wasn't thrift store either. It's a giclee of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Very good copy, IMO (never having seen the original). Someday I intend to get a giclee of Starry Night for my bathroom, but I'm in no hurry.

And that's the last of the art in my house, thrift store and otherwise. Hope you enjoyed it.

Thrift Store Art

I thought I'd show some of my thrift store finds. This first painting came from an Oak Cliff (part of Dallas) Sally Ann about fifteen years ago. The canvas cost less than five dollars but since it was an odd size, I had to search quite a while for the frame. I eventually found one in a consignment store in Plano, which I paid $40 for. Still, it was a good price for a piece of art I've used ever since.

This next piece I bought at a Thrift Town on Jacksboro Hwy. in Ft. Worth. (My sister calls it TrashTown.) This is a quality print of a Van Gogh--House at Arlens, I believe--and I bought it for the frame, not the art. (Not this frame--I mucked up the one that was on it with several different paint treatments and gave it someone who really would strip it!)

This painting Tom and I found at a garage sale a couple of summers ago. This photograph is not as clear as I'd have liked, but it's a nice primitive piece. I think we paid $10 for it, frame and all.

This next one I bought at a flea market in the mid '80s. It has an impressionistic style to it, which I tend to like, and I paid $25 for it, also frame and all. (Can't you tell? The frame is so-o-o-o '80s.)

The last one in today's post is one of my faves. I got it at an east Dallas Sally Ann about 10 years ago for $5. It was frameless, and I finally had to shell out fifty bucks to buy a frame to fit it, but it looks terrifical over my guest room bed.

That brings me to the end of my first installment of thrift store art. More to come so keep watching!