A Dinosaur Christmas

I don’t have much time to write a long post now, but just decorated my first* Christmas tree and wanted to share. (*I am Jewish – on occasion we would decorate the ficus, but it was never the real deal…)

 

 

Happy Dinosaur-Holidays!

Love,

Rachel

Procrastination

I have a three or four assignments due next week. Big ones. Naturally, that means I need to update my blog. Because – you know- I cannot work knowing that my blog is behind. Or when there are dirty dishes. Or when there are nine recipes on Pinterest that I haven’t tried yet. Makes perfect sense, right?

Isn’t she a beaut? About 22 inches across and maybe 36 tall. It was love at first pineapple! (ignore the blue painter’s tape).

So I promise this will be a quick one. More of a promise to myself than a promise to you. You may or may not have a 20 page paper due on Thursday that you only started a day or two ago. If not, lucky you!

A few weeks ago, boyfriend was out driving around and spotted what appeared to be an awesome yard sale. He kindly called me out from my studying cavern and said we should go. (Thanks, baby! I know you think I like weird old garbage and have way too many pieces of furniture/decor with animal motifs and probably too much gold, but you told me about the sale anyway. 🙂 ) This yard sale was awesome! Some dude collected other people’s vintage junk and was selling really nice pieces for next to nothing. I basically wanted to buy pretty much everything he had, but I recently downsized from a three bedroom apartment where I lived alone, to a two bedroom apartment where I have a roommate. Basically, I already have way too much furniture.

Don’t you just want to eat that little hand-carved pineapple?

BUT – a girl can never have enough mirrors. Especially if the mirror is awesome and has darling little birds. Even more true if the mirror appears to be hand carved, made of real wood and has actual gold leaf on parts of it (not just gold paint). And you can never get enough mirrors like this when the price is only $10!!! Are you joking me?!? Of course I will give you $10 for that mirror, sir! I would have paid much more (like up to $20… I am a student after all).

So we forked over the cash (and also scored some awesome ornate picture frames for $1 each!) and headed on our merry way. The top woodwork needed a little repairing, but it was nothing that a little wood glue and a staple gun couldn’t fix. That is why there is blue tape in the photo. I put tape on for support until the wood glue dried.

Oh, hello lovely little birds flying around with branches in your beaks! Would you like to come home with me and stay with me forever?

Can anyone help me identify the genre? I am thinking it’s art nouveau, but it’s a little more structured than art nouveau, maybe? And when I try to google pineapple feet, I get all sorts of weird stuff. If you have any ideas, let me know!

And for dessert we have another adorable pineapple foot to drool over!

Anyway, I should probably get back to work. Or back to cleaning so I can get back to working. Or back to baking cookies, and then cleaning up after myself so then I can get back to work. Or back to finding the perfect cookie cutter on amazon.com so I can get back to baking, and then cleaning up, so that I can get back to work. Or… the possibilities of things I could be doing other than studying are endless…

With love,

Rachel

Amazing Find! Antique Dresser

So this post took me a while to get to. I actually scored this awesome piece back in May, but it was in the midst of moving to a new apartment so photographing it was hard. You may be asking yourself, what kind of idiot buys a new piece of furniture in the midst of moving from one large apartment to another smaller apartment. This idiot does. Me.

That hardware is darling. I think it might be called “batwing.”

But can you blame me? Look at it! Only $30 and truly a glorious bonafide antique with more charm in one little drawer pull than in all of Restoration Hardware.

Charming little dresser found on craigslist for only $30!

I actually loved it so much that I picked it up in the morning before a final. Stopped studying and everything just to go get this baby. It came from the attic of a man’s childhood home. He had recently moved his mother into a nursing home and was cleaning out the house. He had used this dresser as a boy, and said it had been in the family for longer than that most likely.

That is all natural antiquing – I didn’t do a thing.

Before this was painted the outermost cream color, it was a rose pink. So where the paint is chipping (and it’s quite chippy) both the original wood and the rose paint peak through.

See the rose color under the white?

This dresser is wide and deep and holds tons of stuff. It was a steal. And it is now at the top of my list of favorite furniture that I actually own. Squeeeeal!

Swoon. (One piece of hardware is upside down, I need to fix that.)

Just wanted to share my super awesome find. Have you found anything super awesome on craigslist or yard-sailing recently?

With love,

Rachel