WonderBra?

Mike and I hit up a couple of auctions on Saturday, and while there weren't any real treasures, we did buy this, for just $5.


The jury's still out on what exactly we'll do with it (tool storage? craft/sewing station?), but we better decide soon because it's taking up a whole lot of space in our kitchen!

Did anyone else do some shopping this weekend?

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Confessions of a Former Zoology Student

If you've read my About page, then you know I graduated from university with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology. A pretty silly major, considering I don't really use that knowledge at all, but I don't regret my choice. I can't imagine having studied anything else. Animals are just so. cool. So cool, in fact, that I don't have a favourite one. Can't pick.

But on to the confession portion of this post.

A few months after we had moved into the house, I was wandering the yard as I still often tend to do. The dog was running around like a crazy thing, as she still often tends to do. But then she stopped and started smelling a small little lump.

That small little lump was a dead animal.

A star-nosed mole, to be exact.

Now, some people think star-nosed moles are disgusting. I happen to think that they are FREAKING AWESOME!

Are you ready for this?


Star-nosed Mole via National Geographic
The thing adaptation dreams are made of.

I had learned a little bit about these guys during my studies, but had never seen anything other than a picture. You have no idea how excited I was to being seeing one in the flesh (never mind that it was dead).

And then a lightbulb went off - how cool would it be for future students to actually be able to see one of these little semi-aquatic mammals in person?

So I grabbed some gloves, scooped him up, plopped him in a bag, and promptly stuck him in the freezer, with the intention of sending him to my alma mater for them to turn into a stuffed star-nosed mole. I even contacted the head lab instructor to see if they wanted it - and they were interested.

But...I never got around to sending the mole-sicle.

So yeah, there's still a frozen star-nosed mole in our freezer. Maybe if I come into some money I can pay to have him taxidermied (that's a verb, right?) myself. I'm only half kidding...

Do you have a favourite animal?

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Weekend Recap

Although my weekend isn't quite over (heck yes, the province of Ontario is off today), I figured I do a little recap of the goings ons.

On Friday, after getting sent home early, I hoofed it over to the Barrie Antiques Center. While stopped at a red light, I snagged a picture of this old brick Victorian turned headstone store/gallery.




Thankfully it wasn't very busy, so I was able to take some pictures of a few of my favourite (and way out of my price range) things.

This GE fan is AMAZING.


Close by was an antique grate that had been painted.


Vintage glassware heaven right here.


I shared this model Victorian house on Instagram:


International Harvester stuff isn't as common up here as say, John Deere, so this big porcelain thermometer was pretty cool.


Now, can someone please explain to me why anyone would ever remove this from a house? Because I seriously don't get it.



I was going to take a picture of a GIGANTIC display cabinet (it was honestly like 10 feet tall), but as I took out my phone and pointed it at it, I noticed a security camera staring directly at me and I panicked and pretended I actually just had a text and tried to nonchalantly wander away. It was kind of awkward. There are no signs saying that you can't take pictures, but I felt weird.

I bought a few things - I'll share them sometime later.

On Friday night, Tassy got sprayed by a skunk literally five minutes before a friend was picking us up to go out to karaoke (for anyone wondering, I sing happily from my table - Mike actually goes up and sings!). I only had time to scrub a bit where she was directly sprayed, and then I set up her crate so that she didn't rub on stuff. Just so you know, giving your dog a bath outside at 2:30 in the morning after a drink or several isn't really fun. Most of the smell is gone now (thanks to Nature's Miracle), but there's still a bit lingering. Just keep that in mind if you decide come visit in the near future.

Saturday was spent deskunkifying, and then we headed to a friend's place for a barbecue before he heads back up north for work. There may have been some more singing. And Mike has gained a new nickname, courtesy of his top song choice (Piano Man).

On Sunday we headed down to Barrie's waterfront for Kempenfest. It was my first time going, and it was a lot better than I expected. There were a lot of vintage/antique booths. Unfortunately my phone was dead at this point so I don't have any pictures of the neat stuff.

Topping off the day was a $5 country concert with Canadian artists Chad Brownlee and Jason Blaine.

So far today has been full of sleeping in and Olympics, despite my nagging that I'd really like to finish tiling the bathroom. Pretty sure that's not going to happen.

What did you guys get up to this weekend?

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Not Quite 50 Shades of Grey

On Monday, I asked people to guess what I was up to with a couple of things. Not very many of you were in a guessing mood, apparently. I can't say I blame you. It was Monday, after all, and all I want to do on Mondays is slump in my office chair and try and not look like I'm falling asleep. So I assume that's what everyone else was doing too.

I took one of these $5 chairs from this...


To this...


To this!



But wait for it...



It's not perfect by any means, but I hope I'll get better at upholstering as I do the other three chairs.

On one hand, I kind of feel like I wrecked this chair. The wood is red oak, but I could not for the life of me get the previous finish off everywhere in order to re-stain. On the other hand, I don't really care because the chair only cost me a buck twenty five.

And I adore the fabric on the back times a gazillion (Ragg Tagg from Tonic Living). The plain grey fabric? So. Soft. (Brussels Washer in Charcoal from Tonic Living).

The trim came from Fabricland, and is actually stretchy elastic stuff that I just stretched out to be flat. You can't tell in the picture, but it striped grey. When I bought it initially I didn't really know how it was going to go (I was picturing ruffles!), but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

When I couldn't get the finish off, I let this chair sit and sit and sit. But when Tanya from Dans le Townshouse showed her chair makeover in flat black, I knew that was what I wanted to do. And do it I did. The brand of spray paint I used is Home Hardware's Beauti-Tone. I didn't prime prior to spraying, and ended up using the whole can. It was pretty windy outside, which may have something to do with that?

As an aside, don't mind the shower curtain in the background. It's just hanging out in the doorway into the living room until we finish tiling the shower. And you can also see what rough shape some of our woodwork is in. Sigh. Mile long to-do list...

So what do you think, is the after better?

Psssst! I linked this post up to...


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Delphite Blues

Some of you might know that I collect vintage Pyrex. I can't get enough of the bright colours and patterns, and I definitely have my fair share of the stuff. My absolute favourite, though, is what's known as delphite.

It's an opaque light blue glass, a lot of which was produced in Canada. Delphite Pyrex is considered to be pretty rare, and I have to admit that I tend to agree with this. The only pieces I've ever seen were in antique stores and usually with a pretty hefty price tag. When I see something with a decent price, I snap it up!

And although this weekend was positioned firmly at the not-very-productive end of the life scale, Saturday afternoon was spent at the Roadshow's 400 Antique Mall in Innisfil. While there, I came across a 12" delphite plate. There was a saucer as well, but it had a large chip and wasn't worth buying.

I bought the delphite plate, as well as a really cool old milk glass plate with a "lace" edge.





I already had the sugar bowl, which is unfortunately missing it's friend the creamer. I also have a delphite "fridgie with the corresponding delphite lid.

Does anyone else collect something? Mike collects all things Mr. Peanut/Planters.

Psssst! I've linked this post up to...


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$5 Auction Chairs - The Road to Recovery

Last week, in a fit of insanity, I proclaimed to the world that I was going to complete a gigantic list of tasks, one of which involves the rehabbing of four chairs that I bought at an auction for $5 (total, not each!).

The fabric was stained and ripped when I bought them, but it's even worse now since they spent a couple of weeks outside in the weather before Mike relocated them to the shed for me. After yanking them out of the shed this weekend, they're definitely looking a little frumpy.

Using this handy dandy reference guide, I knew I probably needed 2 yards of fabric per chair, but since I'm hopeless when it comes to measuring things, I decided to be on the safe side and get more than I probably needed.

But before I went and actually bought some fabric, I figured I needed to look around on the good ol' Internet for some inspiration.

Awhile back I found this...

Suzani Side Arm Chair from Shades of Light

I find this example particularily hilarious since it boasts a price tag of $1,199.00. Yeah. Right.

This one caught my eye, too.

Chair upholstered with Oborne & Little fabric, photo courtesy of Kelly Interiors (but pulled from La La Linen)

But, although I like to look at white furniture with bright fabrics, I don't think it's really "me" (or Mike, for that matter). I need something that hides dirt, because the cat tends to nap on the kitchen chairs. The white parts of the fabric I used to cover the previous chairs ended up turning a little dingy. So, what to do?

I scoured my fabric board on Pinterest, which is full of great designs from Tonic Living. My top picks for these chairs are...

Ragg Tagg from Tonic Living	Sweet William, Teal from Tonic Living
Dapple Dot from Tonic Living	Brussels Washer Charcoal from Tonic Living

Clearly, a few of them still have a potential for dingey-ness. Although, I'm admittedly getting better about regularily vaccuuming these days...

That all being said, I decided to see what I could find at FabricLand.

I found nothing.

So back to the interwebs I went, and rather than ordering swatches like a normal person, I decided to just dive in and buy something. Well, two somethings.

Now you'll just have to wait and see!

Update: See a finished chair here!

Farm Auction Finds

This weekend was incredibly non-productive, despite my ginormous list of things to do that I posted on Thursday. But, that doesn't mean that it was a total wash!

On Friday, Mike and I went to our first auction of the year. This particular one happened to be mostly farm equipment, with the majority of it being old and rusty. There was almost 500 people there, and I actually bumped into a friend from university (Hi, Chelsey!). We didn't stay until the end - stuff was going for far more than we had to spend (one cast iron tractor seat went for nearly $500). But we didn't leave empty handed.

We snagged this Plain Jane tractor seat for $40.

Eventually I want four to refinish and turn into bar stools.

This rust covered cream can was ours for a whopping $7.50.

I'm not sure what my plans for this guy is yet. With a little bit (maybe a lot) of elbow grease, eventually we'll have these looking half decent. Whenever we get around to it you know I'll share the process with you!

Saturday involved puttering around to a whole whack of different stores with Mike's mom. I would tell you everywhere we went, but I'm fairly certain that you don't care, especially since neither one of us bought anything. The best "store" though, was some guy selling antiques and things out of the back of a transport truck trailer. It wasn't sketchy, I promise. His prices were so good, but we were without a truck. I have every intention of going back (and hoping he's open when I do - he doesn't keep set hours).

Sunday evening we had dinner at Mike's parents place. All of my family lives in British Columbia so we don't split our time between two families on holidays...

In between visiting and gallivanting, we did manage to finish tiling the bathroom floor. I think I might torture you and not show you anymore progress pictures until I'm ready to "reveal" the room. Ha!

The weather was great, so we managed to enjoy quite a bit of outside time with the crazy dog. Really, she's bonkers.

Happy Monday!

Sounds like a case of the Mondays.

I had a fantastic weekend. No house-mountains were moved, but it was productive and relaxing all at once. I wanted one more day! But what can you do - Monday has arrived.

Saturday was spent doing chores (hello, laundry) while Mike was at a curling tournament. For my American readers, that's curling the sport.

via Wikipedia.

Sunday was spent trying to knock off one of the items on my January to-do list.

January 2012 To Do's

• Catch up on laundry. It's amazing what builds up when you're gone for 2 weeks.
  • should be able to check this off by tonight
• Pack up holiday decorations and put them back into storage in the basement. Don't do it all willy nilly!
  • this will hopefully happen this weekend <---- HA!
• Junk out and organize the junk drawer
  • maybe tonight?
• Junk out and organize underneath the kitchen sink
• Donate cookbooks and other kitchen things I've never used
• Find 4 (antique/vintage) wood chairs for the kitchen table
• more on why we need new chairs later

I've already done everything else except, embarassingly enough, put away the Christmas decorations. I'm not the only one in my neighborhood, at least...

But back to Sunday.

We drove out to the Roadshow's Hwy 400 Antique Mall to see if we could find some chairs for the kitchen table. I love this antique mall - it's huge, not so jam packed that you can't even move around, and the prices on a lot of stuff is fairly decent.

Unfortunately, there were no chairs to be had (any that we spotted seemed to come with a table and they wanted $1000 + for the whole shabang. No thanks). I did manage to thoroughly embarass Mike about 10 minutes into the treasure hunt.

Here's why:

Do you see what it is!? A mechanical doorbell with a pull chain! I exclaimed/squealed and apparently got a few stares that I was oblivious to. No matter.

I checked the price tag cautiously, and was pleasantly surprised. It was $40 and labeled as an "old school bell".

Despite my excitement, I didn't buy it. It's far too big for what I'm picturing - the bell portion was probably the size of a dessert plate. And, the chain was far too short for our application. I was just so excited to see one in real life and not the fictional internet.

So while we didn't walk away with chairs or a new doorbell, we did find some neat miscellaneous items that will show their faces around the house. All in all, a fun afternoon.

We've been really slacking in the weekend warrior department lately, but hopefully we'll get back in the groove soon.

How was everyone else's weekend?

Thrifty Thursday

I've mentioned before here on the blog that I'm a newbie Pyrex collector. I love the colours, geometric designs, and general nostalgia surrounding the stuff. I hit up the local Goodwill a couple times a month, only because I pass it every day on my way home from work.

I haven't had much luck in the baking dish or mixing bowl department lately, but I made some fun finds of some other pieces!

The pattern on these mugs is called Old Town Blue. They were 99 cents each. They remind me of my Granny - she had the same pattern. I miss her.

This pattern is known as Butterfly Gold. Each piece of this cup and saucer set was 99 cents. For some reason, they weren't displayed together in the store.

My first piece of Pyrex Flameware! This 6 cup coffee percolator was $5.05. Once I have it cleaned up, I might try it for making my coffee in the mornings...

In addition to Pyrex, I'm a big fan of old glass fruit jars. When I see them in antique shops, they usually range from $5 - $10 depending on the size and colour.

I snagged these lovelies for $1.51 each! There was an 8th glass jar, but I left it behind because it didn't have the nice glass lid that these ones all have. My favourite is this turquoise jar.

In addition to being turquoise, it also has bubbles in the glass, the sides are wavy rather than smooth, and although there are seams in the sides, they are no where near as clean as those of the other jars.

I'm not sure how to date these Crown fruit jars. Each of the glass lids has a two digit number embossed in the top, and I'm wondering if that indicates the year. The turquoise jar has a 19, and the remaining jars range from 40 to 82. I love that the zinc rings are all in wonderful shape. I found a broken Crown jar when digging in the dirt from where the shack had stood, and there was almost nothing left of the ring.

Now to clean this all up and display it somewhere...

I'm linking up to Her Library Adventures Pyrex Party!

Monday Musings

Another weekend has come and gone, and we've slashed a few more things off of our never ending to-do list.

We're trying our best to get a lot of exterior work done before it gets too cold to do so. The weather hasn't been cooperating lately, gifting us with bucket loads of rain. However, this past weekend provided some relief and we had gorgeous weather! This brief period of awesomeness gave us the opportunity to...

• finish shingling the mini barn's (a.k.a. the shed) roof
• apply one coat of paint on the mini barn
• get the satellite hooked up
• install an exterior light at the back of the house

To be quite honest, Mike did all of this himself except the painting, which I did. I mostly did traditionally gender appropriate things like grocery shopping and cleaning, and tending to the furry beings that live in our house.

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures, because I totally dropped the ball yesterday and didn't take any.

I do have a picture of these neat little things that I've recently acquired, which I'm assuming to be jelly molds.

The dozen metal ones came from the same auction as my $5 chairs. They were bought with a bunch of other junky houseware things, for $5.

The pastel coloured ones were given to me by Mike's mom. They are colourful and happy and make me think of Easter.

How was your weekend? Did you get anything done on your to-do list?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

This past weekend, I attended an auction that combined a number of estates. I wasn't on the lookout for anything in particular, but I ended up with some stuff that I'm pretty happy about.

Mish-mash of random glassware and other housewares.

It was actually a pretty sad auction. Most people attending were just there with cars, so big items were going for ridiculously low prices. A double pedestal Duncan Phyfe dining table, worth retail around $4,000...sold for a piddly $150.

We also only had a car, otherwise I'd be all over that. Seriously.

My favourite purchase of the day were these chairs.

While they need to be recovered, and there is a small amount of damage, it's nothing that I can't work with.

Wanna know how much I paid?

$5.

Not each.

Total.

That's $1.25 a chair.

So excited! Unfortunately, Mike isn't nearly as excited as I am, so they won't be making an appearance around the kitchen table. They will be split up around the house. One will most definitely be my cloffice chair!

Have you ever found an outrageous deal at an auction?

Update: See a finished chair here!