estate sale finds : nashville vintage photographer

estate sale: the best place to find truly vintage items for non-antique store prices! 

on friday morning, we had a couple spare hours and found ourselves at a nearby estate sale. 

i'm not gonna lie..

going through someone's house is a little creepy. it's almost like walking back through the life of someone you never knew. a bit of a strange custom, but in some ways it gives you a peek into the life of someone with so many years of wisdom and experience behind them. 

these are my finds for the day!

 this sweet old half-gallon is labeled with a hand written sticker "plain dandelion." i love the vintage feel of the jar and the label, and even the cork! i think i paid $0.25 for this one (these were at a hoarder's home, and everything was 75% off the sticker price.

 

this will be such a cute vase! $0.50

this 19 inch Peugeuot pepper mill was $8. on Amazon, it's listed for $140! granted, this one has a little wear and tear, but it's way cool.

i love old books. they're great for decorating, crafting, our television sits on a stack of them. if you've ever been to our house, you already know that. i especially LOVE when they have hand-written tidbits in them! even cooler when it's a text book! $1 each
 

1882. that's old.

wooden spools of thread make a great jar filler. this spool isn't wooden but the thread sure is cool lookin! $0.25

no post is complete without a pic of one of my pups! leo is mending nicely, and LOVES to be in the way.

 word is...every good southern woman needs a cast iron skillet. well, since i'm officially living in the south, and we're not going anywhere soon (unless God has other plans) reason says that i need a skillet. and i found one! even better, it's preseasoned! $6

 now this was the find of the day. (besides the pepper mill) (and, the skillet)

this is a set of drawers from an old card catalog. it was marked $18. i paid $4.50. it has the original "cole steel company" label on it. and it's a little beat up, but so fun! no, i don't have a plan for it yet. BUT it was totally one of those things that you absolutely cannot pass up. because some day...i will have the perfect space for it, and it will be filled with the perfect things! :)

 so cool. right?

now i'm on the hunt for an old card catalog cabinet. like the big ones that they used in libraries. all libraries have gone electronic. but i haven't been able to track one down that's not $300. any suggestions? (besides ebay, amazon, craigslist)

i'm off to finish a framed coffee bean bag. i'll get photos up here soon.

btw. pastor boy went for a run the other night, and came back with a table. now that's what i call an excellent run! :) we'll see what i'm inspired to do with it! can't wait!

why not diy? : wednesday : nightstands

nightstands...

nightstands have been two very hard-to-find pieces of furniture! they're all either too formal, or too blah, or...most importantly...too expensive! we bought a couple of nightstands at ikea as temporary pieces, until we found some we loved. i've been scouring craigslist daily. every trip to the flea market i've been on the lookout. shoot...i've even been watching curbs as i drive by! just in case, of course!

february's flea market brought cold weather, and great finds! we stumbled upon these too nightstands in someone's lot. they were marked for $25 each, but the guy (without any prompting) said "i'll give ya both for $35." sweet! but man, they were nasty! one had a big chunk of duct tape on a side, the veneer on the tops of both was peeling off, and the color was like moldy-bread-green. GROSS! and the handles were metal, but hollow, and had all kinds of nasties up inside.

of course they don't look too terrible in the photo...

so hubby and i chipped off the remaining pieces of veneer, unscrewed the handles, and went after 'em with the sander, and of course some good ol' fashioned elbow grease!
     

   

the sir watched rather dubiously while z & i worked. he couldn't understand why we wouldn't throw his ball for him all day long! plus, z made me a delicious lemon concoction!

 


then, it was time for paint! since the rest of our bedroom furniture is a creamy white, we went with the same on these. but they were a paint to paint! i took sandpaper to the edges, and a worked on "vintage-ing" them up a bit. 

 ta-da! i found some great pulls at hobby lobby the other day, and put them on this morning, one of these days i'll get a photo of them totally complete, and next to our bed!



**btw...i don't know WHAT is going on with my photo alignment...but it's driving me crazy! i'll work on fixing it!

...flea market friday :: nashville vintage

the last weekend every month, nashville has a fabulous flea market at the controversial fairgrounds. i mean like buildings full of stuff! some of it (mostly inside the buildings) is very swap meet-esque...you know the stuff, cheap sunglasses, homemade breads, knock-off designer handbags, etc... but once you get past all that, toward the back of the grounds, there are huge permanent awnings - that is where the good stuff is. from old suitcase, to barn wood planks, from vintage church pews to dirty bottles, from funky old toys to broken cameras....it's all there.

and of course...it happens to be my favorite weekend of every month! in my utopia we would wake up super early on the last friday of the month, make a breakfast stop at starbucks and head over to the fairgrounds where we would spend a good part of our day and find tons of vintage, relatively inexpensive stuff that helps turn our house into our home... but like i said...that is the utopian version. in reality, we usually don't wake up early on friday, partially because it's z's day off & partially because we're usually up late thursday nights. then we tend to putz around the house for a little while. eventually we'll get to starbucks, but not before noonish. when we finally get to flea market...who knows how many awesome finds are already headed home with their new owners! but there is always plenty left to choose from. we usually take a certain amount in cash, which depends on our budget and don't spend anymore than that. cash makes it easy to know exactly how much you have to spend, and can give you a bit of a bargaining tool as well. and often, i will go with a few certain things in mind that i hope to find. sometimes i've even gotten away without spending anything!

February's flea market was a total success, and we got away without even spending the entire amount of allotted cash!  here's what we found...

each bottle was only a couple bucks...i'll show you what i did with them in another post

 these two night stands were very unique, but pretty nasty looking...but we didn't have any, and at 2 for $35 it was totally worth the time for a re-do...again for another post

 this old door was only $25, AND it still had the original hardware! way cool! i gave it a good sanding, and its hanging out against the wall in my dining room for the moment!

 if you haven't figured it out, i'm a sucker for vintage...pretty much anything vintage. this suitcase was in awesome shape, inside and out! it'll be a great prop for a baby shoot...not to mention a perfect addition to my other two suitcases!

i just love old worn-out books. often they'll have cool old photographs tucked between pages...which is a total bonus! @ only $5 for the 3, they were a steal!

that was last month's flea market! i can't wait to show off what i found today! check back next friday!