I’ve been thrifting over the last few weeks and randomly picking up a few odds and ends here and there. On Monday I went with my friend to Palm Springs to pick over the thrift stores and drool at a few Mid Century antique shops…if only I had oodles of money – Palm Springs would be my dream place to have a spending spree.

Hemet Hospice, $4 for the McCoy teapot, and $3 for the planter.

Salvation Army, $3.55 – this thing is huge and ribbed for your pleasure.

Angel View – $3 – big ‘ol ashtray. For when you and 20 of your closet friends need to smoke.

Angel View, Palm Springs – $9, I paid more than I normally would have at a thrift store for a bowl – but I paid for the name. This is my first Bauer bowl, #18 mixing bowl in fact. I love the pink.

Angel View, Palm Springs – $5 – I LOVE this yellow faux bamboo ceramic lamp. I cannibalized another lamp I had sitting around for the shade and the little black do-hickey that turns the bulb on and off. Totally worth it.

Angel View, Palm Springs – $20 & $3. When I bought the nude painting the sales lady asked if that was me in the painting. WOW – I guess I look like a naked cave woman…anyways who goes around buying nude paintings of themselves at thrift stores?

Goodwill – $4.99. I love this little poodle painting. She looks like someone misplaced a David Humphrey’s painting. I put her in the kitchen, safely guarded by the twin ceramic German Shepard’s with flaming red devil eyes.

Garage sale – $7, an old slat bench. I’m not sure what to do with it….

Salvation Army, $10 – on sale from $30! This is a really nice Lane side table. No real damage – which is weird for a thrift store piece, and it has the cutest little black painted feet.

111 Antiques, Palm Springs – OK this was a splurge item – my limit for buying vintage furniture is always $100.
I’ve ALWAYS wanted one of these fiberglass pool loungers. I see them rarely and they are always priced out of my $100 range. This one has some damage and was on sale for $125, so I bargained it down to $100 and took it home. I love it and can’t wait to set up the lounge area in the side yard…maybe one day we will install a small pool…a girl can dream.

So…I have some exciting news – well its exciting for me – if you live in the Los Angeles area and like mid century stuff please come by the Long Beach Outdoor Market, Sunday August 17th. The Brick House is getting full of stuff (especially the guest bedroom & garage) that I’ve been collecting over the years and now under an ultimatum from the Boy to clear some shizzz out I am vending at my first ever flea market. This will be my first time so please be gentle.

I’ll post my booth location and maybe a few samples of the wares. Please feel free to come by and haggle with me – but not too much – I need a few hundred bucks to buy an entry set for the front door.

I found a few new thrift stores and have been waiting to check them out since they have pretty limited hours. I also stopped by the old standards…

Woman’s Guild, $10 total. Love these ashtrays. The lids come off for handy cigarette storage.

Salvation Army/Angelview Thrift. $??? – I totally forget how much I paid for these. Like a few bucks each. Must add them to my vintage ceramic owl collection, which is a bit out of control.

Salvation Army, $3.55 – but it was 25% off day! Pink and gold vase.

Woman’s Guild, $5. BIG ashtray. I need to smoke more.

Woman’s Guild, $1 for both. Jonathan Adler-esqe stoneware. Love the scary happy snail with horns, and the big bottomed lion.

Salvation Army, $2 – plus 25% sale. Little art deco mirror. I’m hoping it will inspire the art deco makeover in the bathroom…

Random garage sale, $3. Awesome cork and teak lamp with a horribly stained lamp shade…I negotiated switching the shade with another beautiful and PERFECT white nubby drum shade that was on a random ugly lamp. They did it! And then at the last minute (while I’m paying) they remembered that they couldn’t switch them since some lady bought the ugly lamp already, so they took the shade back and knocked $2 off the price. Oh well…but who leaves stuff they bought at a garage sale? It was a lamp not a dresser or something heavy. WEIRD.

Salvation Army, $20 – 50% furniture sale. I’m angry looking at these.

There were 2 sets – the 2 chairs above and a small table and then another set of 4 matching chairs (without arms) and a big table (that should have been mine) for only $30. I asked for pricing, negotiated, and agreed to buy all the chairs – 6 total and the big table for $50.

Then a thrift store nightmare of disorganization happened. Some stupid horrible family said that they were buying the 4 chairs and the big table even though I had worked it all out with the manager. Then I threw a total hissy fit – like a 4 year old – and the stupid store gave the big set to the family because they have kids or whatever and gave me the two chairs because I’m just one person and I was being “selfish”. Stupid breeders.

**That awful family also bought an old purple and gray Laz-e-Boy, a southwestern style forest green couch, and a chipped MDF bookshelf. Obviously they don’t care about style – so that beautiful set of faux bamboo swiveling patio chairs will be destroyed by their little devil spawn. Bastards.

Stopped by a few thrift stores, but the heat got the best of me. I gave up early and quick.

Hospice Thrift, $1. A little white ceramic vase with a small teak base. Simple, cute, classy – so pretty much nothing like me…

Harvard St. Merchant. $30. It needs some love. I like that its armless and super comfy. I was thinking of having new cushions made and painting the wood a shiny black.

Hospice Thrift – $3 and $3. Bad art, and worse needlepoint. I’m a sucker for it.

Harvard St. Merchant, $15. A little white vintage table. I don’t really know why I bought this – there’s no real place for it in the house in particular. I think I’m trying to mix up the mid century stuff.