weekend estate sale

my mom, a friend & I hit up a great estate sale this weekend right near my house. here are a few of my finds. we also bought a few things for my sister, which I can't share 'cause we want to surprise her the next time she's in town.

{I got 5 of these old chalkboard tablets for $5}

{70s napkins, 6 for $2 - they will be perfect to use out on the deck this summer}

{I found another globe to add to my collection!}

kara's vintage collection: hand mirrors

a word from my sister:

my hand mirror collection was inspired from a photo that I saw in a home décor magazine. a decorator had hung all different styles of vintage hand mirrors on a wall. it looked so neat –like a giant piece of art.  I’m so drawn to the femininity of these hand mirrors.

my newest one has a flower etched on the back with the inscription “ina lee young, february 18, 1951”. It’s really worn & I can tell it was well-loved. 

bathroom renovation

after robert & I got married, I moved into his charming historic 1935 bungalow. while I loved my new home (and especially the person in it!), I wasn't thrilled with the bathroom (the only bathroom, mind you). the mirror was so high that I couldn't see; the pedestal stink allowed for no storage whatsoever; the wooden window in the shower was rotten; the wall tile was cracked; there was only one electric outlet. you get the picture.

so robert took two weeks off from work & got started on the demo. because our walls are plaster, they are a disaster to tear out. but after a few days, he got it all cleared out & put up dry wall & greenboard. he also added more outlets (even one in the drawer where I keep my hairdryer! he's a gem). we hired someone to tile the floor and the shower. robert also hired his friend to make this awesome concrete countertop & backsplash that we are so happy with (we're so not granite people). the rest of the cosmetic stuff, robert did himself. here are a few pics of the before & after:

shower & floor tile: ann sacks

paint: benjamin moore

mirror: scan design

shower curtain: anthropologie

wooden floor mat: crate & barrel

hand towels: pottery barn

art: ashley g

vanity, sink & faucet: home depot

concrete countertop: custom made

kara's vintage collection: watches

a word  from my sister:

my mom & sister always get tickled when they come visit me because I don’t have a single clock in my entire house. kind of ironic, seeing that I own a collection of watches, 95% of which do not even tell accurate time. 

I remember seeing an interview on tv with a model at her flat in new york, and noticing her numerous watches and bangles dangling from her wrist. not too sure why that got me excited, but since then I started picking up cool watches at estate sales, spending no more than $3 - $4, since they usually needed a new battery or just simply had no more to give.  as annoying as it can be to my friends and co-workers, I refuse to wear just one watch—I like to mix it up, adding a large-faced gold menswear watch with a my thin leather-banded coin head watch, paired with my 80’s chunky gold & black watch. the combinations are endless and it excites me every morning to choose the perfect wrist accessory for the day.

happy friday!

Follow my blog with bloglovinI stopped at our local bakery on the way home from work & picked up a loaf of cuban bread for dinner tonight, as well as some chocolate croissants. a good way to start a weekend. happy friday! 

kara's vintage collection: etiquette books

a word from my sister:

emily post is my hero. how come my generation didn’t learn squat from her? i have a true fascination and longing for proper etiquette in society’s daily interaction with one another.

in college, the required public speaking course had your typical mix of lackadaisical college freshmen. the average topic chosen by students for discussion was usually something like, “why marijuana should be legalized”. I wondered why people didn’t pick a topic a little more informational and practical. so I chose to speak about “proper etiquette to prepare for the business world”. in doing research, I became incredibly interested in this subject. granted I wasn’t living in the 1950’s, but I enjoyed sharing my findings with fellow friends and classmates, in hopes that they could use some of these simple etiquette tips for future interviews or in their everyday life.

since then, I scan estate sales & thrift shops for any material by the post or vanderbilt families.  my favorite book is one that my mom found for me is. it’s called “the cosmo girl’s guide to the new etiquette” and was published in 1967. it insists that no woman should leave the house without full makeup (including false eyelashes), because you just never know what gentleman you may meet that day.

and while that is a little extreme by today’s standards, I one day hope to teach a small etiquette class for younger children with the hopes of exposing them to some common, polite and everyday expected social behavior. I think that is just what our generation needs!

card catalog of love

although we aren't huge valentine people (we like to say we celebrate love every day of the year!), I wanted to do something sweet for my adorable husband for valentine's day. I saw this amazing diy project here & copied it, making dewey decimal catalog cards to document memories that we've celebrated each year.

I just used the card catalog number as the date, the book title as the name of our memory and the publisher as the location of the event. I printed them all out on cream card stock & put them into this box that I picked up an antique booth. I plan on adding new cards to the box every year, so many moons from now, we'll be able to look back and reminisce on our "chapters of love".

february cake: "pink" velvet cake

happy valentine's day! I'll eat an extra piece of the "pink" velvet cake that I made for you today!  xo

{I used the red velvet cake recipe from melissa gray's "all cakes considered" book}

kara's vintage collection: billiard balls

a word my from sister:

to many, a set of billiard balls in a glass bowl isn’t very exciting.  but when my mom showed me her great find at her local catholic thrift store, I freaked out.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen billiard balls that were so old. I haven’t done much research, but I’m pretty sure they are true ivory, which was the primary material up until the mid 20^th century. I love the yellowed coloring and the scratches from the many games they’ve been a part of.  I like imagining a group of gentleman playing pool with their brandy and cigars. 

a dress into goodie bags

I used to really like this heart-printed dress, but it has a big coffee stain on the front that won't come out. so I cut it up & made little draw-string goodie bags for two of my favorite kiddos on valentine's day.

kara's vintage collection: hats

a word from my sister:

not much of a collection yet, but these have a great deal of meaning to me. the riding hat came from an estate sale in atlanta. the owner was a flight attendant, who i think would have been my best friend if I’d had known her.  my mom spotted the hat first and we debated on spending $15 on it, but once we found out they were negotiable, we snatched it up. a few minutes later, we heard 2 different people ask where the hat was.  that made our day. 

the fez came from an antique shop that a friend picked up for me. he and I have had a few intriguing conversations about freemasonry, his grandfather being a member, and I have always been fascinated by the history and secrecy of the organization.  one day, we were out for a drink when we spotted a mason symbol. his face completely lit up & he ran out to his car and brought in the fez that he had picked up for me as a gift that very day.

january cake: root beer float cake

for my birthday, my sister gave me npr melissa gray's book, "all cakes considered". in it, she documents her cake journey of baking a cake & bringing it into work every monday for a whole year! while that's a little extreme, I thought it might be fun to test out some new cake recipes, since I love to bake. when I saw mariah's post about baking a new cake every month, I decided to do the same. so here's to a year of cake.

{I used joy the baker's root beer float cake recipe}

kara's vintage collection: lighters

a word from my sister:

the vintage horseshoe lighter is the first one in my collection. I spotted it at an estate sale near my parent’s house.  I was drawn to the horseshoe symbol initially, then realized that it was actually a lighter. 

my favorite and newest addition is the silver & black one that I received as a gift for christmas.  it belonged to my friend’s grandfather that he was very close to & also named after.  his grandfather held onto it for over 60 years & then it was gifted it to me!  it hadn’t been lit since 1952!

kara's vintage collection: clutches

a word from my sister:

what girl doesn’t love a good clutch?  seeing that i have too many to fill this rather large box is the best answer to that question. I’ve been adding to my clutch collection the longest, purchasing them from various estate sales, thrift stores and church sales.  I always open the clutch to get a peek at the label and then try to judge how old it is, based on the look of the font.

my greatest find was at a goodwill on my daily walk home from work in savannah.  naturally, I would stop in 2-3 times a week hoping to spot a treasure. one day, a black patent leather fold caught my eye; when I opened it, it had a christian dior label!  my favorite part, though, was finding the owner’s old $100 money wrap issued from the bank. no money, sadly, just the wrap, but it made my day!

a new series: kara's vintage collection

my sister, kara, has always had a love for all things vintage. I've been telling her for awhile that we should take the time to photograph all of her collections for posterity. I finally got the chance to do just that the last time I visited. starting tomorrow, I'll be posting two of her vintage collections a week. hope they make you smile.

{kara in her last apartment in savannah}