Collect Junk You Love!

Some of the things in our home that we love, and are authentic to us:

Los Angeles Pottery Co, "Cookies All Over" cookie jar. It's not beautiful, and it's not modern, but it was my grandmother's. It is the cookie jar that I used to steal those little rectangle-shaped waffle cookies with the cream filling from when I was four. And now it's a great spot to store dog treats!

Nescafe Vintage World Mugs. They are not hand-me-downs, but they are vintage. And they are the same as the ones my grandma {my Mamo} used to make chocolate pudding in when my cousin and I were young. I found two sets of four mugs at a vintage sale two years ago. I immediately called my Dad {before leaving the store} to make sure my six-year-old memories were remembering the same mugs. Before I even finished describing the "mugs Mamo used to make pudding in," he responded with "those Nescafe mugs with the World on them!"  I bought both sets, and gave one to my cousin. We use them as espresso cups in our house, and one day, I will serve chocolate pudding in them to our children.

Our styles are a mix of more traditional and rustic (Chad), and more vintage and modern (Me). Our compromises are many, in that we choose most things in our home together. And they are few, in that when we find the perfect piece, neither of us usually feels like we've compromised our own style. Our curtains are an awesome example. We looked for months for the right curtains for the dining room of our previous house. And found nothing. So, I convinced Chad to let me make some, if we could find the perfect fabric. He was apprehensive {admittedly, he'd never seen me sew anything at this point....}, but agreed. And then I went out on a limb and suggested {one of hundreds of suggestions} a fabric I thought he'd hate. He LOVED it! And now, this fabric is the basis of our living and dining room decor:

Oh yeah, we were SO ahead of the trend on the suzani pattern fabric. {and we're humble, too} See that pop of aqua in the fabric? We've pulled out a brighter version of that for our TV stand, and our soon-to-be kitchen island stools. This is our kitchen inspiration {apologies, don't know source, it's from Pinterest}:

The kitchen is a work in progress, but someday we'll get some photos up, so you can see how we're progressing against our inspiration piece, vs. what we've changed to be more authentically "us."

As far as other things we LOVE: white leather couches. Have I mentioned we have three dogs? Oh yeah, we have. And we STILL LOVE white leather couches.  We had these ones in our old house {you get a little peek at our old home before and after}:

And when we moved, the two separate, matching sofas wouldn't fit into the configuration of our new house. Boo!! We loved the setup the previous owners' had, which included a sectional in the corner of the living room. So we got this:

But it just wasn't "us."  It was one of those compromises where we both felt we compromised. And so we sold it, and bought this {whoops, only have photos of it that include the dogs sitting on it. proof that it's durable!! .....and proof that our house is sometimes messy well-lived-in}:

Ahhhh.....so much better. Oh yeah, and we painted the walls gray to make the white trim "pop." And yeah, we have a photo canvas on the wall of our three dogs sitting on the {old} white leather couch. Because we love them. And that photo. And that couch. And they are a huge part of our lives! 

So that's the rundown of just a few of the things that we collect and love around our house. We have moved twice in the last few years, which has provided us a great opportunity to de-clutter and remove the things we don't truly LOVE. Which has led to a house full of things we DO love, and a lot of things that tell our story.

What's your favorite, most-authentically-you, loved item in your home?

May Sale, 2013

Whoop! Our May sale is just one day away! {and we have so much yet to do, but that's another story...}

Address:  300 Broadway Street, Carver, MN 55315

Here are some fun photos of what you'll find at the store this month. And much, much, more....consider this a little visual teaser. Stop in, say hi, and check out all the fun new {old} junk!

A Mid-Century Mess made Modern! Chairs get a Re-do.

I found four of these mid-century chairs when we were out shopping a few weeks ago. SCORE!  Ok, my first thought was, "no WAY these are going anywhere near the house." The fabric was absolutely disgusting. As in, I should have worn rubber gloves to take them apart.

We hauled them home on the trailer, and put them in the garage. Then immediately scrubbed our hands.

 I disassembled them and, yes, cut right through that nasty old fabric.

The backrest of the chairs was a different style than I've upholstered before, but luckily wasn't too tricky once I looked at the way it was done previously.

Basically, you just staple right into the bottom side of the backrest, wrap the fabric around, fold it over so you get a nice finished edge, and staple right back along the bottom. Then, staple the sides, leaving room for the hardware holes to secure it back to the chair frame.

Here is the chair with just the seat cushion completed. I'm loving this fun fabric. It lends even more "modern" to the Mid-Century Modern style of the chairs. And after what they've been through in their lifetimes, they deserve a little love and excitement.

Excuse the crummy iPhone photos - I'll stage a better shot in the house, and upload when I have time. One down, three to go - I can just picture these around a white pedestal-base table, or tulip-style table. Or, for something even more dramatic, a round black table. 

Where would you put them?  Have you done any chair makeovers? What's the hardest thing you've reupholstered?


Linking up to: Savvy Southern Style, Lady Behind the Curtain, Polka Dots on Parade,

The Junkiest Blogs on the Internets, Part 1

Howdy-Ho. Was surfing through some of the best junk-related, repurposing, refinishing, staging, crafting blogs this morning, and thought to myself "I really oughta share the wealth." For those of you who've been living the junking life for years now, you probably already know about all of these fabulous sites. For the newbies (myself included), these can't be topped for inspiration and that part-of-the-junk-community feeling.

In no particular order:

Funky Junk Sisters. No-brainer. These sisters live and love vintage, and run flea markets called Junk Salvation! Check out this post about how to use vintage sewing patterns:

Junk Fest. A great blog for befores and afters, inspiration, ingenuity, and down-to-earth-edness. Somewhere on her site, she has a before and after of a railroad cart. See if you can find it! Here's a great post about some perfectly finished, un-finished chairs she saved from "dumpster heaven":

Junk Garden Girl. Pretty, girly, diverse and junky. It's like a "best of Pinterest" for the junkers-at-heart crowd. It's not industrial, barn-type junk, but more of a "random assortment of very clear categories of stuff" kind of junk. Check it out, you'll understand. Here's a post on How to Organize your Stuff (Junk?):

Come back tomorrow for Part 2!

Share your favorite junking blog in the comments section below!