Thrifty Finds

The other night on my way to vote I passed by a thrift store that has a huge book department, and having just seen a cool Halloween spread in a magazine based on Poe’s The Raven that I’m obsessing over for next year, I decided to make a quick pit stop to see if I could find any old Poe books. No luck there, but for $25 and change, I did snag quite a few home goodies.



WOODEN LAMP with BURLAP SHADE – I was initially drawn to the nice drum shape of the shade, but the lamp itself wasn’t bad either. I really need lighting in my living room, but I don’t think it will work there because I don’t have place for an end table, so it will either go in the master bedroom or the office. For now I’m considering spray painting the brass parts silver and painting the wood dark brown. I may add some trim to the shade too. Please note, I recommend rewiring any secondhand lamps – it is easy and inexpensive to do. This was $3.75.

SILVER TRAY - The oval silvertone tray is a little dinged up, but it is nice and heavy, not too ornate and has a nice patina too it – more pewter-ish than silver. I thought it would look great with pillar candles and Christmas ornaments piled on it either as a centerpiece or in my fireplace, like this example from Southern Living. This was $2.25. I also picked up a round, more ornate tray the next day. This was a splurge at $6, but I've been looking for a nice heavy one and I really liked the piercing on the side. This has found a place on my dresser corraling candlesticks and a clock.

[caption id="attachment_190" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="This arrangement from Southern Living may inspire my use of the silver tray."][/caption]

WOODEN CANDLESTICKS – These are signed on the bottom, I think it says “Graves” as in architect and designer Michael Graves. I loved their shape and smooth modern form. They were $2.25/pair.



GLASS DECANTER – I have another of these in a similar style (that I’ve since seen in other sources identified as “mid-century Danish” and Dansk) and I thought they’d look nice grouped together. It also mirrors the shape of the above-mentioned candlesticks so maybe they’ll all end up together in some sort of tableaux. This was $1.15.

ANGEL IN A JAR – Someone at Hallmark thought it would be funny to imprison this poor angel in a glass jar, although it is unclear what she ever did to them. Together the combo isn’t working for me, so I plan to set her free and use the apothecary jar in some other way, maybe for soaps in the bathroom, or seasonally at Christmas and Halloween. The angel on her own isn’t bad either and may find her way into my Christmas décor. This was a major score at $2.25 – earlier in the day I saw similar apothecary jars at the craft store for $15 (and I think this was their sale price). I picked up the smaller one the next day (funny how you start to find things in multiples like this when you start looking) for .90 cents.



[caption id="attachment_192" align="aligncenter" width="383" caption="I may use the apothecary jar to display soaps in my bathroom like they\'ve done at Pottery Barn."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_193" align="aligncenter" width="263" caption="Martha Stewart creates mad scientist specimen jars for Halloween."][/caption]

SILVERPLATE CHRISTMAS-THEME PHOTO HOLDERS - These little photo holders are great for their intended purpose, but are also great on a buffet with little cards identifying the food choices. They were just $3.00.