Update

Hello all.  You probably noticed that updates to this place dwindled and then stopped rather suddenly a while back.  Sorry for leaving you hanging, but my father suffered a rather severe stroke and my workplace has been dealing with, essentially, one continuous series of disasters for the last couple years.  It has been a trying time, but I hope that we will pull through. 

Thank you for the kind comments and support.  I hope that you all can forgive my lack of responsiveness to comments and posts.  I wish that I had more time to direct toward my hobbies and this blog, but I've got quite a full plate.

Though I don't have nearly as much free time as I once did, I'm still making progress on the home.  I'll try to get an updated house tour posted once I paint in the Spring, but here's a quick shot of what I've done in the office.

Fiber Art

Fiber art: some hate it, some can't get enough

If you fall in with the latter crowd, but can't find any fiber goodness in your area, you might want to check out your local Target.

Yep, Target, the prolific purveyor of cheap "dsigner-inspired" home goods, has taken another formerly-niche decor item and brought it to the masses.  I saw this display while out shopping for moving pads and thought that it was just too good not to share.

Vacation Part 2

I'm back with more thrift photos from my UK Christmas vacation.  There's quite a few blurry shots in this set, as I accidentally left my camera in HDR more while indoors, but I thought that I'd include them in anyway.  Look at all that lovely Scandinavian teak!

Vacation Time

It's the beginning of January, and you know what that means, right?

I'm back from my annual UK visit.  This is always a somewhat bittersweet time, as I'm glad to be home where I can see my friends, get back into my routine, and sleep in my own bed, but leaving my girlfriend behind gets me kind of down.  It's especially hard now that all of the buildup and excitement of the holidays is over and I'm back to dealing with the craziness at work and my dad's poor health, but that's enough about that.

I always make sure to hit up a few thrifts and antique spots while I'm over, just to give myself a good tease.  I can't really get much back in my suitcase, but it's always enjoyable to just have a look around and see something different.

Here's a few of the treasures that I found at the Herts and Essex Antique Center.

Going Mobile

Ugh, these shots are awful, but I'm posting from work without the DSLR, tripod, or decent lighting.

I figured that I'd begin sharing a few of the pieces that had made their way to the office.  That's right.  The furniture hoarding has now reached the point where the entire basement is filled and it has  spilled over into the plant.

Recovery

As you've likely heard, our fair city of St. Louis experienced a couple rough nights this week.  My heart goes out to everyone caught in the middle, including our friends over at Rocket Century who were right in the thick of it on South Grand.  Thankfully, they escaped unscathed, but many others were not so fortunate.

I hope that our community can make a speedy recovery and that those responsible for the unnecessary violence and destruction are swiftly brought to justice.

Getting back on topic, I thought that I'd follow up on my last post and link you all to the new MCM-inspired collection released by Ikea.  While many MCM enthusiasts may not hold them in particularly high regard, I actually really like a few of the pieces.  Check it all out here.  Apologies for the lack of English translation.

Chicago Trip

While most of my Chicago vacation was taken up with Halloween parties and Mexican food, I did make a few shopping trips.  You didn't think I'd come all that way and miss favorite Swedish homegoods store, did you?

It seems like every time that I pay Ikea a visit, they've got a few more MCM-inspired pieces on display.  Some might scoff at such things, but I'm actually a big fan.  These pieces look great and would suit anyone who is in the market for new rather than used.  Can't wait for the new location to open in St. Louis.

Aren't these armchairs cool? The one on the left is a reproduction of an actual model that they introduced back in the 1960's.

This surprisingly solid credenza is stained to look like teak and has all the wiring cutouts,  drawers, and shelves that you'd need for a modern media center.  My 1960's credenza required some jerry-rigging and cutting in order to fit everything inside, so that might be a big plus for some.

Retail Therapy

As usual, my days have been pretty packed lately, but I found myself with a few minutes to kill during my dad's physical therapy session and decided to head on down to the Humane Society and the Green Shag Market.

You might recognize the booths pictured below as those of fellow bloggers Mr. Modtomic and Hannah (of Secondhand).

Mr. Mod's is well-stocked and arranged as usual.  I'm especially enamored with the Selig chair and the Brazilian fiber art wall hanging.

 

You could walk in here and come out with a whole living room set up ready to go.

Hannah's got tons of cool stuff available, including this giant Witco Polynesian dancer. 

I don't usually leave the antique malls with anything in-hand, but Hannah had a sale going on and I couldn't resist bringing a little something home.  Stay tuned to see what I snagged.

Art Collector

Hey again.  Things are still slow in the STL, but I thought I'd drop in and update you all with a particularly special find:

A vintage original abstract painting!

Summer Never Ends

Hey guys.  It's me again.  Just thought I'd pop in with an few updates now that we're heading into Fall.

The great St. Louis MCM drought of 2014 continues unabated, but I've still managed to ferret out a couple of goodies this summer.  Strangely, they've all been either Architectural Pottery-style planters or Modeline lamps, both of which were relatively hard to come by in years past.

 

Break Out the Aloe

It's been a while, hasn't it?  As Mr. Modtomic mentioned, St. Louis has seen a severe Mid-Century Modern drought which has become more and more pronounced over the last several months.  I'm not sure whether this can be attributed to the huge influx of new dealers, the heat, the absurd prices, changing trends, or something else, but I'm trolling Craigslist fairly consistently and there just doesn't appear to be much at all out there.  The number of "sweet MCM deals" has fallen precipitously, from several a day to several a month.

While I'm saddened by the dearth of MCM goodness, I've had much more free time to dedicate elsewhere.  The girlfriend and I even managed to take a vacation to Tampa Bay!  While we've not yet recovered from our overindulgence in sun and fried seafood, we had a wonderful time and I hope to visit again soon.  The sunsets alone were worth the trip.

A Visitor

I knew from the get-go that a full load of CISCO Networking classes was a tall order for someone with a full-time job, but this whole ordeal has me stressed to the max.  12 homework assignments, 280 pages of reading and 2 tests to study for over the holiday weekend?  That's bananas!

I did have a certain visitor stop by to keep me company though the first couple weeks though.

EDC

You know what's a great way to free up some time when the pace of your life is beginning to feel absolutely overwhelming?  Start taking a full load of night classes.

Oh, wait.  No, that's the last thing that you should do...

...but I did it anyway.

After a double-major BA and an MBA, you'd think that I'd be done with the books, but it would seem that I'm a glutton for punishment who just can't get enough of being a student.  Throw a breakdown at work, car repairs, and a certain feline houseguest in there and I'm positively swamped.

However, I did manage to finally catalog all of the many components of my Every Day Carry (EDC) kit.  Yeah, this isn't at all MCM-related, but I'm a interesting and multifaceted individual who has many hobbies.  Also, this is my blog, so I kinda do what I want. :p

Here it goes:

Light of My Life

Hey! I'm back with more Mid-Century Modern finds.

This time we've got a really stunning walnut and brass lamp from Modeline, a company well-known for their large, sculptural, Danish-style lighting.  It's one of my favorite recent finds and one that I'd had my eye on for years.

At Least I Don't Have a Garage

At this point, things are looking a little more Grey Gardens than Farnsworth House.  So it is time to do so some clearing out.

Yeah...

Blasphemy

So, I was doing my regular Craigslist crawl a while back and feeling in a total c-list rut.  Things were slow, real slow.  The St. Louis MCM furniture market just isn't what it used to be.  Then I decided to change it up and visit a few of the less-frequented sections and try to ferret out any hidden gems.

I get to the "free" page and, as usual, it's all junk: broken treadmills, used mattresses, tube televisions...

wait, wait....

HOLD.
THE.
EFFING.
PHONE.

Leave of Absense

It's been a crazy busy couple weeks.  The girlfriend is over, we've been preparing for and hosting a house party, I've had a few health-related issues, and there's been a bunch of stuff to do with the family business.  Life just hasn't left me with a whole lot of time for sitting down and cranking out a blog post, so I thought that I'd just let you all know that I'll be back with more posts soonish (next week or so).  No worries.  We aren't going anywhere.

The Nook

With the upstairs almost complete and a whole house repaint indefinitely postponed, my attention has turned to one particular trouble spot in the living room.

 

Trip Loot: Part 2 (Give Me Some Sugar)

You've seen the thrifts, the Brutalist Harlow Town Center, the Mid-Century Modern Christmas presents, and the collection of West German pottery brought home from the last of my semi-annual UK excursions, but there's still one last piece of trip loot to share.

Granted, it isn't anything mind-blowing, but this vintage ceramic sugar pot was my favorite antique mall purchase of the lot.

Trip Loot: Part 1

I've dragged this out far enough.  It's time to get to the rest of the MCM souvenirs brought home from my biannual UK excursion.

This trip turned out to be all about the ceramics, with a healthy addition to my collection of West German pottery and a few other pieces that I'll share later on.