What do you call a weekend where you spend eight hours thrifting in the valley on one day, and five hours at the flea market the next with one of your best friends that is equally obsessed with shopping? The best weekend of my life — although Scott says that I say that every time we go thrifting, which is every weekend. Without giving my secret spots away (threaten to rip out my fingernails, I won’t tell you), our tactic is to plug “thrift store” into my GPS and see where the dots come up. Every weekend we find new places, and this weekend we scored. No major pieces of furniture, but instead some good treats that I already styled in my house.
For instance, these vintage arrows with bright feather parts. I’m pretty sure that is their technical name: “feather parts.” Scott and I split them, but I have absolute intentions of stealing his because after putting them in my vessel I simply need more. Clearly.
Then for a client (a dude and chick that are friends of mine) I thought this brass film reel (solid, not painted gold) could be a good accessory since they both work in show business. It’s slightly “proppy” but it’s also really graphic, simple, and topical for them.
This little painting below. It’s an original and it’s in a kinda bad frame, but the colors are great and the price ($29) was not bad for such a colorful piece. It’s going to mix oh-so-perfectly with all the rest of my art that I’ve been collecting. (Stay tuned, I’m getting them all framed now with Dana at Hotel De Ville and I’ll be revealing soon-ish.)
I have so many large pieces of art that I actually need smaller pieces more right now. And by “need, ” I certainly don’t mean need.
But perhaps the art find of the day was after the flea market — today at goodwill, for $5:
It’s an original photograph of a dude sailing with the most incredible pink striped sail. As I was discarding the disgusting frame, I found this in the back:
It was a real trip with real people, even though it previously seemed like it could be a stock photo because it was so good. Instead it was from Jerome to someone who clearly didn’t really have as much “le fun” because they donated it to Goodwill.
At the Rose Bowl, Scott and I found a box of studio art (practice art, basically by an artist that they don’t sell individually but normally the estate sells them when they pass). They ranged from $15 – $45. These two were large (18×24) and were $30. Once framed they are going to look so sophisticated and pretty.
Up next, this brass and glass tray that is kinda perfect. I needed a new tray and for $15, this was a massive score. It’s heavy, has the perfect patina, and that squared off brass takes the granny out of brass real fast.
Authentic Southwestern basket anyone? Yes, please. I think it was $12 and worth every penny. The colors are just so happy and the shape just adorable.
Such a great weekend with so many new toys to play with. Brian is just ECSTATIC. I mean, when he saw that basket he hugged me and wept with happiness over the super on-trend, inexpensive find that is now unnecessarily “engaging” a corner, holding nothing. He said, “Thank you, THANK YOU, Emily, for your amazing thrift store finds that make our house consistently interesting if not totally over-styled.” It’s nice that he appreciates my thrifting talents (opposite). 🙂