How's the weather in Nigeria this time of year?

"Hello,

Thanks for the response.I am willing to pay your asking price.I will pay by money order as its the only way i can pay you at the moment.I will make arrangement for the pick-up immediately after payment have been  received by you. I don't mind adding an extra thirty dollars so you can keep it in my favor.Please reply with your full names,cell phone number,and address or P.O box, where payment should be sent.Please take the posting off craigslist today and consider it sold to me. Expecting to hear from you soon.

Regards"

Sigh.

If you, like me, enjoy having a little fun with the Nigerian scammers who fill your inbox any time you post an item on Craigslist, check out 419 Eater.  It's a barrel of laughs.

It's begun...

Remember when I said that I wasn't going to start collecting MCM dinnerware for fear of ending up with like 100 different incomplete sets?

Woops!

I'm now the owner of a full set for 8 of Jamaica Bay by Taylor, Smith & Taylor, which includes dinner plates, salad plates, small bowls, saucers, and coffee cups (but no regular-sized bowls!).

Yes, I admit it.  I'm a Mid-Century Modern junkie.

In my defense, I was extraordinarily tired and in the midst of an estate sale frenzy.  I saw that cool atomic pattern alongside the $12.00 price tag and BAM!  In a moment of weakness, I brought home the whole set.  I just couldn't help myself.

And you already know that I'm now going to be combing through the dinnerware section of every St. Louis thrift store trying to piece together a collection of matching bowls and serving utensils like some sort of fiend.  That's the way the sick mind of a Mid-Century Modern addict works.

In a few months time, you'll likely see me on the side of the road selling my body for a butter dish and soup spoons.

Gettin' Stoned

Wow!  What a weekend.

With 3 estate sales, one road trip, 6 thrift stores, some Craigslist selling, and a little road-side picking under my belt, I'm pooped.

I'd planned to get even more done, but, unfortunately, my kidneys had their own ideas...

.... like getting all infected and growing a few stones on me!

Those ****s!

Not looking forward to this experience AT ALL.

If you feel like joining in the festivities, here's a gallery of all the little lovelies that could potentially be making their way through my urinary tract.

Here's to hoping that they don't turn out to be like these caltrop-looking MF'ers.

Source: Herring Lab

Thank you, internet, for making me think that I'm going to die.

I've got my eye on you

'Scuse the messy bed in the pictures below.  I got a little too excited about my latest find and couldn't wait to get a few snaps.

This "eyeball lamp" comes by way of St. Louis Craigslist and was somewhat of an impulse purchase.  "That's kinda cool," I thought, "looks sorta like a Sonneman Orbiter."  In the trunk it went.  Yes, they did look similar, but it was missing the trademark handle and they've pumped out knockoffs of Sonneman's by the thousands, so I thought nothing of it.

Then I get home and, in the process of giving it a once-over, noticed this tiny green sticker.

Yep, it's confirmed.  This is a "Kovacs", not a Sonneman.  Oh well.

Or is it...

I hadn't heard of the Kovacs name before, so I performed a little Google magic and guess what.

It's a gen-u-ine Sonneman!

From what I can gather, Robert Sonneman designed a series of lamps for Robert Kovacs' light fixture company.  This included the orbiter series, but also a number of other lamps that didn't include the adjustable Orbiter handle.

The details all match up (the hinge, the wire, the stand material, etc.), so unlike a lot of other ID attempts, I'm fairly certain about this one (though feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken).

So now this little guy is gonna direct his cyclopic gaze over my study.  No more Walmart junk-lamp here!

A little lonely

It's starting to feel a little lonely around the Nickarmadillo homestead.

The girlfriend returned home to England last Saturday and our little foster puppy, Henry, went to his new family.  He's a great dog (potty and crate trained at 6 weeks old!) and I'm sure that they'll get along famously.  He even gets to live with one of his litter-mates, which is a big plus!  Puppies always do better with a companion.

Despite the positive news, it's always hard to see them go.  You get really attached, even after just a few weeks or days.

So, here I am, all alone in this old house.  I do have a lot of new retro goodies to keep me company though.

We'll get to those in a bit.  First, lets tie up a few loose ends. 

When I posted about the estate sale where I found the West German Pottery and the brass candelabra, I totally forgot two of the coolest things that I found at the sale.

This fiberglass lampshade really spruced up that lamp (a retro Quartite lamp found at the local Goodwill) in the living room.  As you might remember, I'd paired it with a tacky, ribbed 1980's shade that certainly wasn't  doing it any favors.  Now it's retro-stylin' thanks to Mr. Modtomic's ladyfriend, who set it aside for me after the estate sale employees decided to make me move my car as they opened the doors (Thanks again!).

 I also picked up this Paymaster check protector.  Check protector?  Office equipment?  Sounds pretty boring.

Actually, these things are a hot ticket right now.  Collectors have been hoarding them all, so they're somewhat hard to come by.  We still use them at the office, so I make sure to keep an eye out for them at the thrifts.  

 I really like that red "fish scale" pattern.  Very Mid-Century Modern.

I find it odd that they engraved the price on this one.  Isn't that a little permanent?  Wouldn't it have been easier for them just to put a price sticker on the box or to let the retailer price it?  And, my-oh-my, look at that price.  That's equivalent to over $1100 dollars today!  

It needs a little ink, but still works like new.  Thank goodness we aren't still paying retail for them.

That's all for now, folks.  See you in a few.

  

Easter Funday

Hope all of you out there in the blogsphere had a wonderful Easter weekend.

Ours started off, as usual, with a bit of thrifting.  The thrift stores haven't turned up much over the last few weeks, but I did find these Dorothy Thorpe-style glasses on Friday.

They're either humongous shot glasses or cordial glasses without stems.  Regardless, I'm just gonna be filling them with tiny fu-fu drinks.  Mr. Draper would be ashamed, but I likes what I likes.

The girlfriend and I also did some work in the kitchen.  These "chocolate crunch things" turned out well, though I just realized that we forgot to take over the box we packed for the neighbors.  Oops.

Can you believe that she's never dyed Easter Eggs?!  Those British heathens...  

We thought we'd try the tie-dye kit, but our egg-coloring skills were sorely lacking.  Diagrams and a multi-page instruction manual?  For Easter eggs?! What is this world coming to.

Then the weekend culminated with Easter dinner.  It was a glorious feast with virtually all of my culinary favorites: BBQ brisket, deviled eggs, BBQ baked beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, crescent rolls, and green bean casserole.

I think I'll recover in a few weeks, though we did wake up long enough from our food coma to have a Monday evening picnic in Forest Park with Henry.

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty solid weekend.  Now let's dust off that exercise bike.

Meet Henry

Apologies again for the delayed posting, but the girlfriend is still visiting and we've been out on the town for the last few days.  We've also made a small (and temporary) addition to the household.

This is Henry.

He's a rather adorable, and cuddly,  and kinda stinky 6-week old lab puppy.

All of his brothers and sisters have gone to homes, so he's our little foster baby (our 5th so far) until the SLPR can find him a permanent family.

With a face like that, I don't think it'll prove too difficult a task.

Know anyone near the St. Louis area who'd be interested in this little bundle of furry joy or want to learn more about becoming a shelter foster parent?  Hit me up.  You can find my email at the top-right corner of this page.

Estate sale scores

Sorry for the delay there.  The girlfriend just arrived back in town and we've been dealing with a few more house issues. 

So here's all the goodies that I picked up at the estate sale 2 weekends ago with Mr. Modtomic.  They had a decent selection of MCM stuff, but prices were a bit too high for my liking.  The estate sale companies seem to be catching on to the whole retro-modern trend and adjusting their prices accordingly (some more so than others).  There's also pretty stiff competition from dealers.  Mr. Mod, his girlfriend, my friend Jon, and I showed up pretty darn early but our team was 4-7th in line.

I was really lucky to get anything at all, because the organizers made me move my car AS THEY OPENED THE SALE!  Oh c'mon.  I'd been waiting there all morning.  Why make me move it now?  Couldn't it wait 2 minutes?

I guess the real competition was over the American of Martinsville dining set, because I was like 25th into the place and all of these smalls were still sitting with their tags in the corner.  Sweet!

I'd actually lost out on an Ebay auction for one of these brass candelabras a few months ago.  I was a couple minutes from winning for a few dollars and the seller took it down to "correct the international shipping rates" and then relisted it with a $50 reserve price.  Well, who needs him/her!  Now I've snagged my very own for a small fraction of that reserve.

I'd also been looking all over for some West German pottery.  This green and orange piece, with its texture and bright colors, is my personal favorite.  It almost looks like a Brutalist sculpture.

These mugs were kinda an impulse purchase, but at 50 cents, who really cares?  Now I can sip in style.

Overall, things turned out better than expected after the car fiasco.  I've spent most of my time/money going after large pieces of furniture and haven't really focused on smalls, so this will really help to fill the place out.

See you all in another couple days.  Good luck and good thrifting!