antiques roadshow

my mom & I got tickets to the antiques roadshow when it came through town yesterday. she took an old book that she'd had since childhood & I took my great grandpa ace's pocket watch. it was a lot of waiting around in long lines, but we finally got to talk to the appraisers. the book was only worth about $30. we were told the pocket watch was french & made around 1850 & was very rare, due to it's thinness. it's 18k gold, but because my great grandpa used it every day (he rode the bus for all of his errands & was always checking the time), the face was quite worn & therefore not worth as much as it potentially could have been. he appraised it around $2,000.  guess I can't quit my day job. 

 {the moment of truth...}

{one of the twins! we also got to see mark walberg... that's walberg, not wahlberg, unfortunately}

 {inside of the pocket watch, which I had never seen before. anybody know french??}

renningers antiques- second visit

you may remember we took a mini road trip to renningers last year & found some great treasures. they held it again in january, so we made another trip to see if our good luck would continue. my mom went us this time, and in the car on the way there, asked us what we were hoping to find. I said, "a big vintage disco ball" and robert said, "a 60s bullet planter". pretty specific (not sure what my obsession with having a disco ball has been, but I've been wanting one for years. go figure). 

we walked around the entire day without really finding anything too exciting (minus the food booths!). and then towards the end of the day, I spotted it from a mile away - a big ol' disco ball, glistening in the sun (cue the hallelujah chorus). the booth owner was all, "well I know how much I have into this and I can't let it go for any less than that." so of course I walked away. right as I was out of her booth, she changed her tune. robert came & helped me negotiate the rest. we ended up getting it for a pretty decent price (I suppose... I have no clue what the going rate for vintage disco ball is these days). 

for the rest of the day, robert was the most poplar dude at renningers carrying this "party on a chain," as I like to call it. seriously- people's reactions were downright hysterical. people would come up to him & just start dancing. some took photos with him, some people shouted out things like, "hey man, I like your ball" & "I've got disco duck on vinyl- let me play it for you!" my mom & I were cracking up. it was such a fun day. oh, and on the way out, robert spotted his vintage bullet planter too! 

{giant disco ball = instant popularity}

  {I fell in love with these vintage travel books}

  {this jade collection totally reminded me of martha stewart}

  {printer's cabinet}

  {we're in love with this heywood hutch}

 {a successful trip}

renningers antiques

our friend brian has been going to the annual renningers antique sale for years & always comes back with the coolest things. we were finally able to tag along this year & we had the best time. there are countless booths (you could be there for days & not see everything) & everything is pretty reasonably priced. here are some of our finds. 

 {the boys found matching vintage western shirts. $10 each!}

 {brian scored these amazing knoll bertoia chairs for his porch!}

{I really wanted these 1950s dairy queen glasses, but restrained myself}

{it was tough for me to resist these as well}

ok, so quick story on this dresser below. six years ago when robert & I first got married, all we wanted for the guest bedroom was a paul mccobb dresser (actually, robert had been wanting one years before he even met me, if that says anything). if you haven't noticed, we have quite a love for mid-century furniture & have slowly been collecting pieces along the way. but in all these years, we never purchased a paul mccobb dresser. not only are they crazy-expensive, but they are also terribly hard to find. we saw one on ebay once & seriously contemplated driving through six states to pick it up. 

our friend brian is a mid-century modern expert & has never seen any mccobb in all his years visiting renningers. so our hopes of finding anything cool were low. after a full day of meandering through the endless rows of booths, we had given up our search, when out of the corner of my eye, I spot it. there, at the end of the row! my heart started beating as I calmly made my way up to the booth. trying to play it cool, I began chatting it up with the owner. "paul who? never heard of him. it's a pretty good-looking piece and all, but I don't know if we really need it. how much you want for it? well, that's more than I want to pay for a dresser. how low can you go? it is the end of the day and all..." yup. and that was it. the all-but-orphaned dresser became ours (and for an amazing price, thanks to my mad negotiating skills!). we were so giddy on the way home that we all stopped for dinner & drinks at red lobster (I'm not kidding. I haven't been there since the early 90s, but let me tell you, that place has spiffied itself up. "extra cheesy biscuits, please!"). victory on all fronts.

{don't worry- I only dropped my poker face after sealing the deal}

{oh, and the red lobster meal came after all of this delicious fair food}

{a corn dog with powdered sugar, you say?}

{nope, it's a fried snickers bar. sounds gross, but trust me on this one...}

{real frenchies were making the nutella banana crepes, so you know they're gonna be good}

{and this is my new favorite. it's called an arepa. basically it's a sweet corn pancake grilled & filled with mozzarella}

the brooklyn flea

can you believe this crazy frankenstorm that put the upper east coast under water? so terrible! praying for all of those who were affected by the storm. I took some photos of the fabulous brooklyn flea when I was there a few weekends ago, before the destruction. hope all these vendors will be able to get their tents back up soon. here are some fun things my friend kristin & I spotted at the flea: