I found it - the dinette I've been looking for - and my love for it is indelible.

More after the jump...

 

Ever since I did my snake coffee table I've been on the lookout for another piece of furniture to make over.

More after the jump...

I had been meaning to to replace my dining room chairs for some time. My filler chairs were in this heinous black and cherry farm style, and uncomfortable to boot. Though I kept an eye out for suitable ones while thrifting, I never found any that blew my skirt up as-is.

I've recently been obsessed with caning on furniture (think: the backs of old-timey wheel chairs, Louis XVI headboards, vacation home furniture) and found an orphan pair of cane-backed chairs at Goodwill. They aren't anything spectacular, but not everything has to be. They have a nice shape and are comfortable, and don't stick out like my old awful farmhouse ones. Besides, the price was right at $6.99.

More after the jump...

Chicagoland is silly with markets and bazaars.

One one hand, you have the city attracting nationally-known shows like Renegade Craft and the International Vintage Poster Fair. On the other, you have the rest of Illinois, where self-reliant folk have amassed generation upon generation of vintage goods and have honed traditional skills (I'll bet a dollar every Illinoisan reading this has gone to Amish Country at least once). This creates a crafty/vintagey apex to feed my constant obsession with "things".

Over the 4th of July weekend I took a trip to the Randolph Street Market in Chicago. 
Considering Chicago is a mere 30 minute drive and my friends live there, I have no excuse for not going more than I do. It was great. I was so focused on finding good stuff that I forgot I was supposed to be taking photos for the first half of the trip.

Here are a few camera phone shots gussied up by Instagram:

Oh, look: jars of things. I love jars of things! I almost bought one with screws in it, but JB talked some sense into me. I sort of still want one.

More after the jump...

Today is the last day of my staycation. I spent a blissful week and a half making things, seeing friends, and sleeping in. I got to crack open beers before noon and play Mike Tyson's Punch-Out on my NES (which, in retrospect, was a preeety racist game - observe Piston Honda's dialogue screen).
Perhaps the most satisfying part of my time off was spending the first few days repainting, moving things around, and generally nesting.

More after the jump...

Scrimshaw Plate Set

Design*Sponge let me know Thomas Paul is debuting a new line of bedding in the fall, which reminds me of the intense love I have for everything Thomas Paul does.

More after the jump...

Sometimes I find things I know I like but have no apparent use for. I found a fancy bottle one day while thrifting and I decided I must have more fancy bottles. After accumulating a number of fancy bottles I realized I had no use for or place to put them so they sat on an end table for a while, getting in the way. Then Autumn struck and I decided I must have bubble bath.

Stella getting in the way of my fancy bubble bath bottles:

Bottles in my very yellow bathroom:

Have any of you ever taken something pointless and made it useful? 

Tell me about it or send me photos and I may just post them.

Your Sister in Craft,

LB

Like I mentioned before, I go thrifting a lot. Much of the time I go without any agenda. A thrift store is not a department store and is never very reliable when you are looking for something specific besides a Halloween costume (how thrift stores are UH-mazing around Halloween, we'll revisit another time). I mostly look around for any number of things I have a vague desire for or can use in a project.


Something I did sort of need a few months ago was a coffee table, but thrift store furniture is tricky. Much of it is cheap-end, mid-century, dented and wobbly junk. The stuff that isn't gets snapped up quickly or passed over. I saw an oval coffee table with cabriole legs that was a decent size and shape, but it was in this horrible scratched up maple...sort of like this but it poor condition:

More after the jump...