Howell Dinette Set (Too Bad I Like My Chromcraft set too Much)

I stopped in a goodwill while out browsing around for a new apartment and my girlfriend and I stumbled upon this little beauty! It is a wonderfully comfortable Howell Dinette Set w/ table and 4 chairs. The chairs were superbly comfy and I really enjoyed sitting in them. I really liked the funkiness of them and the whole set was only $80. Although I could probably resell it for more, there just simply is no room for it right now. I also really love my Chromcraft set far too much to trade it out for this one. I really liked those roller wheels on the bottom of the chairs. Those sphere rollers work amazingly on carpet and never scratch the floors. Click "Read More" for more pics!

Merry-Go-Round Bar (A Jigger in a Jiffy)

First of all, I would like for everyone to know that I am back! No I didn't go anywhere but I needed to take a break from blogging for a week since it has been really stressful lately and super busy. It is exam week this week and since things have slowed down significantly, I am once again able to continue my posts and will strive to continue my One Post Per Day goal that I set earlier. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf since I am a pretty lazy person and I hate being lazy because it causes so much stress at the last minute (Especially in college).

Anyways, Back to the post. I stopped in a local thrift store that I have been in numerous times and found this little gem tucked in the corner dusty and unloved. I never noticed it before but I knew it looked really cool and I needed to have it. It's a 1950's Merry-Go-Round liquor bar. It is made by a company called "Park Industries, Inc." But I've never heard of them before. It is amazingly complete and has the original box that came with it. I think this thing is really cool looking and would look great in a Mid-Century inspired room. I wish I could keep it even though I don't drink alcohol but I will probably be selling it to make a bit of extra money for college. Here is the same exact one on eBay for $115 buy it now and I don't even thing that one has the original tag or box to go with it. I will let you know on Monday what the status of this thing is. I will probably start by putting it on craigslist. Anyways, Hit the jump for more pictures!

1960's Vintage Club Aluminum Pots (Loving the 60's Brown Brownishness)

First off, Sorry for not posting anything in a few days, but unfortunately this is literally the last week of classes and I've been diligently working on late assignments and trying to pack up my room and move stuff. It's been quite a hectic week lately but I'll just leave this post here.

I stopped in the local salvation army to snoop around and see if there were any wonderful items in there and wouldn't you know it! I stumbled upon some neat-o vintage Club Aluminum Pots and pan! I really really liked them and at $2 each, it was hard to pass these little gems up! I notified the girlfriend of the find before i spent more money on stuff and we agreed that they would be pretty sweet to have so I picked them up. I love the shiny-ness of the pots, but they didn't come like that at first. They were a bit dirty and blackened when I got them but thanks to the handy dandy internet I was able to determine the best way to clean them up. I boiled some water with high amounts of lemon juice in them to help alleviate the stains on the aluminum and remove any blackened areas and then I gave them a nice hot bath in the sink with more scalding hot water and lots-o-lemon juice. After letting them soak for a while I took out some steel wool and gently scrubbed any remaining troublesome spots. Whallah! they came out nice and shiny!

These pots are in surprisingly good condition considering how old they are and it is unfortunate that they are missing the lids but you know what? I sure don't care! I'm going to use the heck out of these Pots and Pan! I seasoned up the frying pan and it worked wonderfully the other day when i cooked me up an over easy egg. I really like the brown-ness and the cool looking design on the bottom. I wish I could have cleaned the frying pan up a bit more but it was obviously the most used and abused of the bunch but it has a very long life ahead of it in my hands. :) Hit the jump for more pictures!

Retro Board Games ( Operation & Monopoly)

I stopped at a local resale shop today and found these two little gems. They are both in nearly Mint Condition and I thought they would be really cool to have. They both were only $3 each so I thought why not? Before I bought them I opened them up and saw that most of the pieces were there and without actually counting them all I decided to take a chance on them so I bought them and when I got home I checked to see if all the pieces were indeed in there and they were! Its pretty cool finding old complete board games in such wonderful condition like this. The Operation Game was made in 1965 and the Monopoly game was made in 1961. Hit the Jump for more Pictures.

Fabulous Fiesta-Mania!

So this weekend has been really very busy. My dad and I continued to clean out the Back barn at my grandmas and I packed up loads of stuff and moved some of my apartment stuff over to my girlfriends house for the time being to free up some space. Sorry for the missed posts the last couple of days but It's been super busy for me lately. Also, My Birthday was yesterday :)

Anyways, while we were cleaning out the barn, my dad and grandma said that there was a bunch of Fiesta-ware in boxes toward the back. after much and much cleaning we stumbled upon the glorious boxes of Fiesta-ware that had been sitting in the boxes since 1988! This Fiesta-ware is the real deal! All of the stuff in the boxes was the pre-1986 Fiesta-ware. My grandma only collected the originals. There was so much in the boxes  that i was just in shock. It was amazing to go through all of the boxes and unwrap the pieces from the old newspaper. The boxes were just trashed from the years of being down there and surprisingly, none of the Fiesta-ware was broken! I didn't count how many pieces were actually in there but I would guess around 350 pieces just out of the boxes. If you are familiar with Fiesta-ware, you would know that it is quite expensive stuff and I can see why! If I'm lucky, My grandma may let me have most of it! My favorite colors out of the whole lot would be the Turquoise, Light Green, Light Blue, and The famous Radioactive Orange. NONE of this is for sale. Hit the Jump for more info and pics!

Royal Crown Cola Barbecue Grill (Found in a Box of my Dad's Cleaning out my Grandma's Barn)

My dad, Grandma, and I spent all weekend cleaning out the back barn at her house to get rid of junk and sort through things while also making room for cars and furniture since my dad is moving shortly due to his new Job. I found a bunch of things that I liked while we were cleaning it out this weekend but the highlight is most definitely this RC Cola Barbecue Grill! The story goes that my dad bought this a number of years ago at a flea market or yardsale (he can't remember for sure) for about $5. What a deal that was because I think this is the second coolest grill I have ever seen! My favorite still remains the ol' Ball-B-Cue that Mr. Modtomic kindly pointed out to me. I really do love this little grill though. My dad says he may give it to me someday but I have my fingers crossed that he will let me bring it down to my apartment when I get one soon. This will be perfect for a few hot dogs or burgers for me and my girlfriend! I'm pretty excited to use it! It was a bit dirty when we pulled it out of the box it was in but I cleaned it up as best as I could and it looks super cool. I have never seen one anywhere else before so I have no Idea what it  is worth. Hit the Jump for more pics!

More Melmac + Ekco Flatware (Thrift Store Finds)

So my girlfriend and I went down to Carbondale Il yesterday to look at apartments and the college down there and we decided to stop at the local Goodwill in Marion on the way down there. We were casually strolling through the kitchenware isle and out of the corner of my eye I saw a stack of Orang-y Orangness! I reached over mediately to see what it was. Sure enough, It was more of the "Color Flyte" line by Branchell! I knew I needed to get it and at 50¢ I couldn't pass it up. There was a pretty big stack of dishes there and I noticed some saucers in there so naturally I looked for the mugs that went with them and they were sitting with all of the other glass mugs that were in there. I went and grabbed a cart while my girlfriend watched over our find. We loaded up the cart with everything and then we looked around some more and I found some Mid century Flatware that I instantly fell in love with! I needed them too and at 25¢ I couldn't leave them! As we were about to leave some strange lady came over and asked me if I was buying all of that to donate somewhere. We found that very odd but we said that we were buying them for our apartment and she just said "oh ok." We think that she was wanting to buy the stuff we were getting but we got there first! Hit the jump for more pictures!

Here are all of the Color Flyte dishes that we bought. In total there are 6 side dishes 3 full size plates and 7 saucers for the 7 mugs. I love the colors! Now I need to find some of the lime green ones! Everything was only 50¢ except for the full size plates which were $1 each but I wasn't leaving those there. I think we got a killer deal and we have decided that these kinds of dishes are perfect for apartment living! as long as we don't put them in the microwave. :P

The Wright Treasure (Fantastic Store!)

Welcome to The Wright Treasure! It is owned and run by Lisa Hughes. I went to this amazing store yesterday that I had never been to before! This place was so cool! I've driven past it so many times and yet I never knew it was there. My girlfriend pointed it out to me last week so I decided to stop and see what it was all about. Man was I in for a surprise! I walked in there and saw so many awesome things in there that I wanted to buy! I may go back and get a few things when my girlfriend has her next weekend off. This place was so cool and the lady in there was super nice! We talked for over an hour about all sorts of Mid Century items that she had in there and that she used to work near my old home town in Virginia. She was pretty ecstatic that someone from my generation has found a love with all of this Mid Century Goodness! She even gave me her card and told me she would call me If she found any really cool Mid Century Items at any auctions she goes too! I forgot to take a picture of the front of the building but Hit the jump for more pictures!

Take a look at this awesome chair and foot rest! I'm loving them both! Lisa told me that a lot of people have been eyeing that chair and that a bunch of people in her family wanted it but she couldn't give it to them all so she decided to just put it in her shop. I really wanted to but that chair but I'm afraid my dad would kill me if I brought home another chair. I was contemplating getting that foot rest too but I need to save my pennies for college! The chair was $30 and the Foot Rest was $15. Pretty good deals!

Unbelievable finds today! (Only 2 but well worth it!)

So today was a pretty interesting day. I woke up at 6:30am due to my dad telling me there was a rummage sale at my local college. I stumbled out of bed and made my way to the shower still half asleep and almost fell like 3 times. When I finished up my shower and was about to leave my dad said it was about to rain, and sure enough it did! It was a heavy downpour. It brings a whole new meaning to "Raining Cats and Dogs." I literally felt like I was driving through a category 5 hurricane. There was lots of wind and I couldn't see 300ft in front of me due to the insane amounts of rain. Anyways, I made it there and I found something amazing! I've never seen one before and I cant find one on the internet anywhere! I knew I had to get it when I saw it. Hit the Jump for more pictures and the second half of the story!

This is the item I purchased at the rummage sale. It is what appears to me a Salem North Star display dish or Salesman Sample! This thing is really small. I also love how it says "Now Only 9¢" on it. I can't believe I found this little gem. I have taken its picture next to a regular North star side plate to demonstrate how small this thing is. It measures 3.5" across and the Side plate is 7.25" across. I think its funny how this is one of the first few North Star dishes that I have bought and it appears to be pretty rare! If you have any more info on this please leave it in the comments! I bought this small dish with 4 other random dishes for 50¢ and I didn't want the other dishes so I went to drop them off at the local Salvation army!

Thrift Store Friday! (4/8/11)

I went and hit up the local thrift stores today during my lunch hour but I din't see much. I saw a few notable things but I didn't get anything today. I bought a lamp and some more Melmac Dishes earlier on in the week that I'm posting here today. Other than that there just wasn't much this week. Hit the jump for more pictures!

Here we have a pretty cool looking retro end table with the "Hairpin Legs" maybe I should have bought it? But I decided not to since I don't really have to room anywhere and I want a better pair of end tables for my Love Sofa! Also sitting next to it was this cheap brass colored umbrella rack which I also quite liked but I decided to pass on since I didn't need it. The table was $5 and the Rack was $4.

Late Monday News on Tuesday!

Sorry for the late news post but I had a huge pile of homework to do yesterday so I had trouble squeezing it in. Anyways, this weekend was a pretty awesome weekend! I got some cool new furniture for some really great prices and my Girlfriend and I hung out the whole weekend. I would say it was the most fun I've had on a weekend in quite some time! It was truely a blast this weekend except for all of the homework I had to do yesterday. I still can't believe we got that Love Sofa in my car on Saturday. It was a fun weekend. I also cleaned up that Chromcraft chair that I got on Saturday too. It cleaned up pretty nicely. I polished it up and took the back off of it to clean in between the seat and the back and it was really dirty back there but it is good as new now. I also took the crummy wheels off of the bottom so I will need to order some more. I'm thinking about getting some of the wheels that are on my Brown Saarinen style chair for it. I really like those wheels and they work great on carpet. I also haven't been able to go check on those Knoll Chairs I saw last weekend yet. I haven't had time to drive over there and see if they are still there. The store has weird hours that they are open so I'll just have to go on Saturday again. Hit the jump for more!

Thrift Store Friday (Bought a sweet Clock!)

Hello my dear readers. Today i went to the local thrifts around my town and I didn't see much in them today. I did hit up some other thrifts throught the week and saw a few cool things but I didn't get anything. The only thing that did manage to snag at the thrift stores this week was this really sweet 60s era General Electric wall clock! Hit the jump for some more pictures of the things I saw!

This general Electric Clock is pretty awesome! I only paid $5 for it and I think that was a stellar deal! It works marvelously and it doesn't have that "hum" that a lot of old electric wall clocks have. The face of this clock is in excellent condition and there are hardly any scratches on the front. On the back there are quite a few scratches that were created from constantly trying to hang this thing up over the years and there are also a few cracks in the plastic on the back but they aren't too serious and you can't see them from the front at all.

Buffet Update (Still There)

No Café Press design today. I havn't had time to make a new design today. Too much schoolwork and regular work I had to do today. Anyways, continuing on.

So I stopped by the place a few days ago where I say that marvelous Mid Century Buffet that I posted about about a week or two ago and it was still there! Thanks to Mr. Modtomic for telling me what these things are called. The price is still at a firm $150 but I can't imagine why someone hasn't taken this thing home yet! It still looks fantastic if you ask me and I took a much closer look at it this time. This buffet is in phenomenal shape and I would really like to have this in my living room for my TV. I think that would be the perfect use for it. Then I could hide the cable box and other what not elsewhere. This thing is really cool looking and screams "Bring Me Home Brian!" every time I look at it. I wish I had a lot of money to buy awesome things like this. Here are some more pictures of it. Hit the jump to see them all!

The Ginger Shop (A new Antique Shop w/ Some Mid Century Stuff!)

Welcom to The Ginger Shop. It is located over in O'fallon Illinois and it's a pretty cool place! My girlfriend and I stumbled upon this little place on accident and boy was it a great place to just stumble upon! There were a lot of cool things in the place that I liked! unfortunately, I'm still a poor college student, so I couldn't afford to buy anything in there. The prices were pretty decent though. Nothing was too far out of reach for me and I definitely recommended visiting this place! You might find something awesome that I may have over looked! Hit the jump for more pictures!

$1 Box of Stuff

So I went to one of my local thrift stores yesterday afternoon and found this little box of goodies! It said one dollar on the box and so I decided to get it. What's one dollar right? Buried under what looked like years of caked on dirt that had plagued this box of melamine dinner-ware was a small stash of vintage Melmac and Mallo-Ware goodness! This stuff its really good quality and what I have read is that these were made around the 60's. This is some really sturdy stuff! I love it but unfortunately I may have to part with these wonderful items. In all there were 52 pieces in this box. The box included 2 plates and a Salem Biscayne pattern Saucer in the bottom. I threw the 2 plates away because they were really dirty and I couldn't get them clean. They only cost me 2¢ each so it wasn't any big loss. Anyways, here it what came in the box! Hit the jump for more pictures.

Retro Plastic Weave Cups (a.k.a. Burlap Pattern) + Holder

Today I brought out a set of eight retro yellow weave cups that my dad bought a while back at a yard sale for only $3. What a deal! These things are in great condition too. You just don't find cool things like this very often. These would be a great showpiece for a vintage kitchen and we used to have them sitting on the counter top until we ran out of room and had to stow them away. I pulled them out today because I thought it would be an interesting item to show you guys. I've only actually used these once for some milkshakes after my dad bought them but they have been residing in the cabinet for quite some time now. I needed to bring them out into the sunlight once again because they look so cool! The rack really makes them look even better! It's pretty awesome how sometimes you can find a complete set like this at a yard-sale for cheap! Hit the jump for the rest of the picture!

Café Press - Atomic

So for today's new Café Press design I went for a simple design. And what better simple design than an Atomic Symbol? I made this design bebcause I always liked the way the atom looks. This is an iconic symbol that has been duplicated and remade countless times throughout the years and now it has ended up in my hands. I put this thing on a wide assortment of things that you can find over here at my Café Press. Hit the jump to look at a couple other things I have to offer.

Here is an atomic mug that you can use for some delicious Atomic Coffee!

Around The Interwebs! (3/22/11)

Welcome to "Around the Interwebs!" Every Tuesday I will bring to you: one modern blog or website, one eBay ad and one Craigslist ad from all corners of the Internet. These are all things that I may find interesting or a good deal or just fun to look at but I hope you enjoy them too. First we will start with a blog of the day. Hit the jump for the eBay and Craigslist ads.


Blog of the Day


Welsome to Desire to Inspire. This blog is amazing! My sister (who currently lives over in Germany) pointed me to this fantastic blog. There is so much awesomeness bundled up in this blog! This blog has everything in it from modern day designs to all the retro era designs! I get all sorts of great ideas when  look at the things on this blog! I wish I could afford the wonderful things on this blog but all I can do is just look. I know you guys will love to look through this blog and they post new things every day! It's wonderful!!

Craigslist Ad of the Day


Here is a sweet Mid Century Floor lamp that I think looks pretty sweet. It's $80 and the guy says it's from the 60's. I would like to find one of these kinds of lamps some day I think they are pretty cool but even though $80 probably isn't too bad of a price, I can't afford it on my poor college student budget.

eBay Ad of the Day


Here is a pretty wild looking George Nelson Omni Cabinet. This thing is definitely sweet looking if you ask me. The only thing I don't like about it is those legs. If they were shorter and made out of wood, I would like it a lot better.  Other than that, I like the way it looks and would definitely like to have this sitting in my house. It's not too expensive considering the fact that newer furniture costs at least the same amount in some cases. This is a pretty sweet looking cabinet and I wish I could find one of these around here for really cheap!

Monday News Update! (Green Chair for Sale)

   So the weekend was pretty good but I ended up not getting anything over the past few days. Hopefully I will find something awesome at the local thrift stores this week! wouldn't it be awesome to find another awesome Mid Century lounge chair like that Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin Lounger i bought last week! I can only hope right?

   There weren't hardly any yard sales on Saturday which was a bit depressing. I saw one sign but I couldn't find the place. Oh well, hopefully there will be more next weekend and then I can buy some awesome vintage Items for cheap! This wasn't the best weekend for me but I did manage to visit some pretty cool places like that Thrifty Treasures place over in O'Fallon. That was probably the highlight of my weekend. The Belleville flea market wasn't the best on Saturday, but I did see some sweet stuff in the thrift stores surrounding Belleville so that day wasn't ruined. All in all, I just hope this next week will be better and I can find some more sweet deals!

  Hit the Jump for more info on the chair!

Welcome to Thrifty Treasures!

Welcome to Thrifty Treasures. They are located here in O'fallon Illinois. This place Is awesome! there was so much cool stuff in here that I thought would be neat to have and it was all decently priced stuff! I didn't get anything in there this time, I was mostly just snooping around to see what they had since I had never been in there before. This place was loaded with some really cool vintage-y items. The people there seemed pretty nice too. I highly recommend this place. You will find all sorts of wonderful things in there and I will definitely be stopping back by again!