Gifts From My Ebay Watch List to Yours

I guess if I were a "professional" blogger I would have written this post three months ago, but as it stands I'm lucky to blog anything at all. I miss you guys.

Well. Ahem. Verklempt. Anyway, I spend a lot of time on the 'bay (we're close like that) shopping for clients and maybe probably definitely OCD shopping for myself. I learn a lot about what's interesting or desirable or unique by looking at ebay. It's a completely uncurated onslaught of mostly junk, but also some seriously amazing finds you won't see or be able to afford elsewhere. As a result of my compulsive shopping, I've amassed a watch list that must be pruned like a delicate bonsai on an almost daily basis. Part of that pruning process involves you, my friends. Vintage is my thing, but there are some fresh picks in here too. Everything is either dirt cheap or extremely well priced for what it is. I hope you enjoy.

Can we talk about how striking that art is? It's a vintage serigraph (screenprint) by Carmen Herrera and I so wish Pantone had gone with something more in that vein for the Pantone color of the year.

Gorgeous vintage French copper mirrored sconces/ Carmen Herrera Rojo y Negro art/ Vintage modernist necklace/ Vintage Stark 8x10 carpet/ Donghia fabric.

This is all about chillaxing with neutrals grounded in solid graphics. Nothing too crazy here, but you might wonder how you ever lived without these anchor pieces.

Vintage modernist painting/ Large brass Stilnovo style sputnik chandelier/ Kelly Wearstler Barcelo pillow ($12!!!!!!!)/ 8x10 Tibetan hand knotted rug/ Sascha Brastoff surf ballet teapot.

Animal print. If you follow me on instagram then you know I really do have a problem. But I loves it all the same.

Kelly Wearstler Barcelo pillow in alabaster/ Tibetan tiger rug/ Psychedelic Roy Ahlgren serigraph (that means some person hand printed this)/ Large cheap lucite ribbon chandelier (why am I not buying this again?!)/ Pierre Frey panther fabric.

Hi, I love the 80s. And the 40s. Basically I love statement pieces that pull your hair out and demand attention.

Vintage French sconces/ 40s Italian miniature volcano paintings (bigger is not always better)/ Op art screenprint by Leviant/ Contemporary Tibetan hand knotted rug.

So there you have the tippy top of the iceberg that is my watch list. Ebay and craigslist posts are not good blog fodder. They are terrible for SEO because there is no one to link to. It's dirty, thankless work. Nobody gives you a high five for pimping their page/blog/stuff. The links expire.

So hold this moment like a snowflake in your hands, precious friends. Buy the cheap stuff asap, for tomorrow surely it will be gone...

Merry Christmas.

I really and truly love and miss you all!

2nd Dibs

First of all, thank you for tuning in for the One Room Challenge series and sorry about the technical snafus brought on by extra traffic... I'm working on some hosting ch-ch-changes. Anyway, after spending six straight weeks cranking out decorating-as-spectator-sport posts, I'm still feeling a little frenzy whipped. The pace was INSANE. But the whole experience was super fun and I learned a lot and I also bought a lot of stuff along the way. When I say a lot, I mean I can't park my car in the garage anymore and my husband is pissed offus maximus. Let's review just a few fruits of my recent shopping labors, shall we?

If you follow me on instagram, then you already know I scored these vintage Italian arc lamps at Round Top a while back. My buying inhibitions were precipitously low on the day we hit the market so I have a smidge of buyer's remorse over a few things, but not these. I do need to call around and get some plating estimates, though. Anyone have experience with brass replating?

Whilst at Round Top I also bought this 80s painting by a Dallas artist that dealers kept going nuts for, but I can't remember his name and the vaguely legible signature is not helping me track down any info.

I do know that basking in the glow of that mustache might give me sunburn. I can tell this is a really good painting... wish I could figure out who done it. I also wish a new frame would jump up on that because birch wood is not doing the dude any favors.

Not content to buy just one (million) paintings, I also nabbed this Jenny Andrews Anderson jellyfish inspired masterpiece. Can't wait to get it in my house and figure out where "Abyss" wants to live. I keep selling all my good stuff to clients when they bat their cute little eyelashes, but this one is mine.

Meanwhile this picture is full of stuff I plan to sell. I already sold the needlepoints and you may recall that the cobras and black vase were employed in the service of my dinette reveal. I know someone out there desperately needs a giant brass boot vase... right? And I am dying to do a super chic moody kid room with those silly Master Simpson and Chums prints in them. I hope the child bearing world is listening to my pleas.

And then there's this. At a flea market I spied with my gimlet eye a filthy ice bucket... I'm not sure what turned my head, but I bought it and what do you know? It's a beat up Christofle piece designed by Luc Lanel in the 30s. The pits and dings were really bugging me for a while, but I'm starting to love the patina.

So to summarize, I have way too much stuff. This is not even a teeny tiny molecular fraction of the stuff that's wrapped up in the garage. Apparently I can't stop buying things "for clients," so I'm wondering if I should rent a storage unit? Would that make me a hoarder? Is it too late for that anyway? Should I open an Etsy shop? Would people buy my junque?

I even have one of these lying about. I have EVERYTHING.

Off to catalog and inventory the warehouse. Send in the jaws of life if you don't hear from me in a week.

Thrampage

Saddened by the realization that a super high 100" inch long black leather couch might turn my living room into a funeral home, I have turned to the shopping dark side. Friends, I have gone on a thrifting rampage -- a thrampage if you will. Historically this is what happens when I almost spend a lot of money but am thwarted for some silly reason -- like measurements. Instead of spending all that mentally allotted money in one fell swoop, I fritter it away on $5 Murano candy dishes and brass spiders. Although let's not kid ourselves, a brass spider is something to behold and well worth $5.

A sparkly gold crystal spider. What's not to love?

I thought maybe I'd take you on a mini tour of the fruits of my thrampage. Please do not assume this represents even a fraction of the stuff I have thrifted in the last month. I just dumped two giant boxes full of Italian pottery and mid century sculptures on a client that I was too tired to shoot (the thrift wares, not my adorable client people).

This here is an awkward space, therefore I made it awesome by surrounding my crazy Mark Sabin print with equally awesome stuff that I nabbed at thrift stores and on craigs. I would never advise my clients to attempt this at home, because honestly sometimes you have to drop some major cash (and even buy new furniture... gasp!) to pull a room together. I think I just have the thrift disease. I probably (definitely) should take my own advice and spring for a new couch instead. Or at least a better cabinet.

But this is how I feel when I thrift... like I'm in a magical forest wearing a floral headdress. You didn't think I was waxing metaphorical, did you?

These didn't photograph well but I am obsessed with my new $4 alabaster elephants. I have no idea who made these, but they are gorgeous and HEAVY.

Apparently I need to stop buying white elephants because I have four of them within view. But who could resist this guy?

If you follow me on The Gram (that's what all the kids are calling it these days, right?) then you already know about this vintage Kurdish rug I scooped up on Ebay and put down in our foyer.

I'm loving it with this amazing gouache painting I bought at a consignment store. And let's not overlook my brass candlebludgeons... the baby is not yet tall enough to reach them, but soon I will have to move them lest we reenact a scene from Clue.

Ok, so I didn't thrift this wallpaper but I felt you must see the most mangled ridiculous socket wallpapering job in the history of humankind. It looks like Michael Myers from Halloween (not to be confused with Mike "yeah baby!" Myers). This makes me laugh. I really should have paid my amazing wallpaper dude to do this but I cheaped out. Bad. Idea. Jeans.

To make matters worse I might have found this enormous insane ridiculous brass lamp a home in our living room, even though I swore I would not put another brass lamp in my house.

"Seriously Mom, stop with the brass!"

Have I mentioned that Ike and Luke are a little tired of being dragged to every thrift shop in town? Luke just turned 13 months old but he knows exactly where we are as soon as I pull into the parking lot. You'd think the lure of cheap plastic toys and the promise of air conditioning would be enough to stave off their dissatisfaction. But no.

Did you know that Round Top is coming up... I am getting itchy just thinking about it. Are you making mental wish lists for my house like I am? Does it include a brass chiavari chair? I bought one of those, too. Because it's brass.

It is vexing me sorely with a bad case of flaking lacquer that I can't remove, and also you should never clean brass with steel wool (apparently I slept through chemistry).

Let's talk about how to fix this situation.

Let's also talk about how there is a set of FOUR immaculate chiavari chairs on craigs right now... Someone please buy them and save me from myself. Please.

The thrampage continues!