Oh My!

Last friday when I came home from work I had a HUGE surprise!

Dan, who was on stayccation, did a bit of redecorating in the living room....

Living room before....

Living room after!!!

The wallpaper is like a faux bamboo weave, with floating shelves and little milkglass tumblers that

we use as votive holders.

I really like the way our atomic lamps look. I still need to rewire them!

But that is for a rainy weekend after noon!

I was speechless for a good 5 minutes! I had no idea this was going down!

Imagine all the hiding, the little white lying, the running around so I wouldn't find out!

That was one of the most thoughtful gift I've ever had.

Thank you Dan, you're the BESTEST! I love it and every time I go in that room I'm blown away!

Well that's it for now folks, I have tons of housework to do.

Later alligators :)  

Snow and thrifty goodness

This has been the year of the non-winter. The temperature has been mild and we've had more rain than snow. That is tragic for Québec!
 We've had yesterday our first serious snow fall since I don't know when.....

It all fell very fast and in the space of 90 minutes we had 6 inches on the ground!

Thank god for the train.....

This morning we had a surprise thrifting stop....

I love those, don't you?

Here's some pics of things of interest and others....well you'll decide for yourself!

Are those adorable or what? I think they're salt cellars because of their size. Any ideas?

A cool 70's coffee set.

An imitation of our dining room chairs; cheap imitation mind you but I found it cool that it was a model popular enough to copy.

The wood floor lamp is how shall i put it hilarious! If I ever get a cabin in the woods it will probably be decorated in that oh so tacky style!

There was even a table lamp, YUM!

On the far left was a lamp that I really liked and Dan too, but just how many lamps do we need! We're running out of outlets!

Now let's be serious for a minute and see what we bought, not a lot.....

Some bamboo Florida souvenir coasters still in the original wrapper, 2 unused silicone spatulas (they were there last time I went and I regretted not getting them) and 2 glass furniture coasters; one is Hazel Atlas and the other one Diamond glass from Canada. We've tried the new ones in plastic and they leave dents in our floor but the glass ones don't.

I got the bamboo coasters because they're vintage, tacky, funny and we will use them

in the living room for the coffee table, it's wood and marks easily...  

Well that's it for today; I'm off to the living room for some good old fashion couch potatoing!

I LOVE WEEKENDS!

WTF? Tuesday

Hi folks! The weekend was FABULOUS! But that is for another post!

Today I'm hooking up with Sir Thrift-a-lot for WTF? Tuesday!

I saw this and did a double take. It was minding its own business in a flea in Gananoque, Ont.

Yes it is a floor lamp with a HUGE straw hat for a lampshade.

Definitely not my cup of tea. I'm sure somebody will squeal of joy and buy it. But not me!

I can just picture it full of dust!

And I bet it smells of cigerette smoke. Eeeeewwww!

Who designed that? What were they thinking?

Have a great week, I'll be on the look out for scary things in thrifts.

Atomic Treasures

We were making our way north from Hampton Beach NH to Old Orchard Maine on rte 1.....and we were specifically heading to the Bo-Mar flea (opened year round). Next door there's this really big old house filled with antiques but it's messy and you can't really walk around because there's so much stuff.

We had decided not to go this time and concentrate on the flea. We got out of the car and like being pulled with a giant magnet we ended up on their lawn where a big sign said VINTAGE STUFF. First thing we knew we were in the house hunting.....

Holy bubbly vintage atomic goodness!

And in turquoise too!

Can you guess what these are?

Let me tell you that when I spotted these I screamed and jumped! Look,look,look,look! Don't you see?

ARE YOU BLIND?

Here they are when I first saw them in the store....

Aren't these totally fabulous? But really! I was a bit sad because I found them too expensive. I was resigned to leave them there. Then Dan asked me how much I'd be willing to pay for them, I answered and firts thing i knew there was bargaining action downstairs.

OMG I'm not a bargainner by nature so I was totally petrified to witness Dan reeling in the seller like a big fish. We ended up buying the lamps at nearly 50% off.

Here are the atomic godesses in their new habitat...

I need to re-wire them but otherwise they are perfect!

Good night and sweet thrifting dreams!

The CHIN

First things first! Thank you for all your kind words of congratulations! I wish I could hold a big ass party with all of you there!

It's going to be a big change for sure. I've been at home nearly 3 years now (ok I went to the postal counter of unjoy for 4 months). I really enjoyed my time off, but it was time I get back to work. I was starting to feel like I was living on the fringe, like I was invisible, like I didn't matter....The mind does play tricks.

There are some people who can't grasp the not working thing and every time they see you they ask you if you've found some work....2 of them work @ Shopper's Drug Mart (home of the wretched post mistress). I guess they think they are caring but they come off as just a BIG OL' PAIN IN THE BUTT! 

I'm a spazzer by nature, so I need to take thing as they come, not fret over them days in advance. We are losing the maid (me) and the cats are losing their companion (me again). I will miss those critters so much. I enjoyed just watching them and their routine and their fuzzy faces.
 Bob and Boubou have taken to sleep on me like strawberries on cheesecake. That is so cute!

Being hired is really good for my ego. I was beginning to feel unwanted and  booger like....and that takes a LOT of energy to fight.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the new awful face of Suzanne Somers...Well while in Maine this caught my eye @ the cash register of the local Hannaford....I never buy these papers except when on vacation, I don't know why I can't help myself.....

I was wondering when this was going to be acknowledged  in the U.S.

I can't believe she was so pretty before. She must be totally freaking out.

Funny this is that she keeps coming to Canada and talking about her new book, she was on George just around Valentines to talk about love and sex.

Suzanne I hope you find somebody who can fix this and just let go of plastic surgery forever.

On another topic: you remember the cute lamp I bought last week, well as much as I love vintage lamps, I hate vintage cords so I rewired it today. It's a keeper!

Retro Tuesday: Pickle Sickles and Mid-Century Joy

First off a quick reminder for those who haven't entered my super Spring GIVEAWAY! Click HERE to enter. You could win this....

And other goodies....

Now for Retro Tuesday!

Last Thrusday I stopped @ the Sally Ann and

I found this....

When I saw this lamp I definitely had a OMG, START THE CAR moment and a DON'T EVEN LOOK AT MY LAMP LADY!

 

I also brought home this beautiful piece of fabric. It's linen and it's never been used and it's all crisp. It is finished as a tablecloth.....Still on the fence about keeping it or listing it....

And this....

I simply can't resist those cookbooks! But I never make their recipes....I just look at the pics and laugh! 

Like this one...it's an informal teen record party. The sandwiches are tamale heroes....the tamales are from a can ( ? ) and you can serve them with pickle sickles (I bet Snooki would LOVE those).

And a full page on the Perfection Salad! A big mess of gelatin and canned sauerkraut!

 Save me some!

I picked up 3 of those posters for .99 cents. They're from 1961. I couldn't scan the entire thing so I cut the little girl and I kept the dad fixing the lawn chair...Much more interesting.

Check out the see-through house! You can bet I won't be watching tv in my pj's. And yes you can see the shape of my hands in the background. That poster had been rolled up for sooo long that I couldn't get it to stay put on the scanner! Maybe I'll frame one to go in my living room after it's painted!

Have a happy Retro Tuesday everyone! Keep on thrifting :)

Drop by for a visit @ Crazy Suburban Mom for more Retro Tuesday fun. 

VTT: Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV lamps

A delicious VTT to you dear readers! Pull up a chair, pour yourself a nice cup of joe and relax reading all the wonderful posts you can find over at Susan's place Colorado Lady !

Yesterday was a crapfest of a day! My Dad told me he couldn't come on vacation with us, it was really flying (the shit) at the postal counter and I might have Glaucoma. Oh Joy, oh bliss!

What I'd like to share today are 2 little lamps that I will be listing in my Etsy shop.

 Aren't they adorable?

   They were the dirtiest lamps EVER! Ok, I'm sure there are dirtier lamps...but these had dead bugs inside...eeewww! Since I wanted to learn more about them I took Louis XIV from his base to see if there was a stamp, BIG MISTAKE! It took me 90 minutes to screw him back on....!"/$%?&*()!

But what I learned is that those 2 cuties are Occupied Japan. They are very fine porcelain.

Now what I need to do is rewire them both because the wire was so brittle it was falling off! Then I'll put them in the store. They even come with their original shades! Too bad Marie-Antoinette was a bad girl and lost her hand somewhere....