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.

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.

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.

A Peek

Ever wonder what's in that Brasilia gentleman's cabinet sitting in the dining room corner?

Finally joining the typosphere

While this blog primarily focuses on the furniture and smalls that find their way into my home, I do have several other sub-collections within the overarching Mid-Century Modern theme which I've never really discussed in great detail.  One of those would be my growing roster of 1940's to 1970's typewriters.  If I include both my "workhorse" and "play" machines, the count now stands at 9, so it's a pretty substantial, if not particularly exclusive, collection.  So, I've decided that a few of them needed to make their debut. 

This little guy was adopted the weekend before last.  Care to guess what's inside?

Movin' on up

In order to make up for my extended absence, I've got a special treat for you all.

I don't believe that you and my second story have ever met.  After the disastrous pre-blog roof leak of 2011, the subsequent lack of access for cleaning, and the furniture hoarding (Oh, all the furniture hoarding...), it was looking quite the mess up there.

The room pretty much became a dusty, musty dumping ground for everything that I'd pulled out of alleys/dumpsters or found at estate sales and didn't have a place for.  1940's homes don't have the storage required for modern living, much less the life of a furniture hoarding freak, so there simply wasn't anywhere else to put it except the basement and that was already packed with my non-furniture junk.

This is the way our situation remained until my girlfriend visited last week and finally convinced me to get moving on a project that I'd thought would take years: making the master bedroom a master bedroom.

This required completely reorganizing the basement with new shelving and tidy, labeled containers.  Then came the task of dragging all the pieces that I wished to sell down two narrow, twisted stairways and into the basement, where it would be categorized and out of sight of the living areas.

Phew.

A bit of tidying/arranging and one seriously aggravating set of Home Depot blinds later, everything is looking pretty snazzy.  We've got a real, honest-to-goodness master bedroom now!

Rain, rain, go away!

The summer has taken a decided turn for the dreary, so Mr. Modtomic and I (and our respective ladyfriends) decided to take advantage of a break in the clouds and check out the Wentzville flea market.  We had a great time browsing, but neither left with bags overflowing.  There just wasn't a whole lot of Mid-Century Modern going on.

Still feeling the urge to splash some cash, I hit up a few thrifts and antique malls along the route back home and snagged a couple smalls, one of which was this pot/jar/thing.  My cooking is limited to a frying pan and a sauce pot, so I really have no idea when it comes to identifying types of cookware.

Another Day, Another Plycraft

Want to see that second big find from last weekend?  It's not quite as exciting as that super-cheap Birds in Flight, but everybody could always use...

What a crock

Good things almost always seem to come in multiples, just like this vintage West Bend ceramic bean crock.

House Tour (redux)

We've gone through a number of adjustments at the homestead, so I thought it'd be a good time to update the house tour.  The place is really starting to come together and look like an actual grown-up residence.   Considering that I bought my first home and began collecting less than a year and a half ago, I'd say we're making good progress.  Don't worry though.  There's still plenty of work to be done and Mid-Mod finds to share! 

So, without further adieu, here's the grand tour.

Mid-Century Midwest House Tour (1/30/13)

Living Room

Mod UK Part 3

Here's collection of pictures from our visit to the Battlesbridge Antique Centre just outside of London.  You all wouldn't believe this place.  It's a collection of independent antique malls nearly the size of a whole village!  Most of the items are your standard Euro antique mall fare, but there's a healthy dose of Mid-Mod mixed in.  The scenery isn't too bad either.

 

Sitting Pretty

With the business and my father's poor health, I haven't had much time for my Mid-Mod hobby lately, but every once in a while, something will come up that I just have to drag myself out and get.

For example, this Eames-style lounge:

Sealed Vintage Goods: To Open or Not to Open?

How was your holiday season, everyone?  Things just flew by, didn't they?

I arrived home last evening (or 2:15 AM in the morning in UK time) and still can't believe that my vacation has already run out.  Nor can my body believe that I'm staying up until what feels like 6 AM and rising at 11:30 in the morning.  Oh, jet-lag...

I did have a little surprise waiting for me though.  My mother was clearing out the kitchen and found this vintage 1970's GE M24WH hand mixer.  Since I'd just bought her a new model for Christmas, she thought I might like to take it in.

Green Shag

While I'm completely preoccupied with the non-vintage (though still very, very crazy) aspects of my life right now, I did sneak in a few minutes at the Green Shag Market parking lot sale this weekend.  There's no way that I was going to miss out on that one!

I must say, there was fewer mid-mod items than the last sale, but that doesn't mean there wasn't plenty of treasures to be found.

Those Lane Acclaim tables were unmarked and it took all of my willpower to not ask the vendor about pricing.  I've already got quite the hoard of Acclaim awaiting refinishing upstairs (though none of the rarer double or scissor tables), and there just isn't any room.  No way.  No how.

I got to see the other St. Louis bloggers as well.  Living Analog, Secondhand Hannah, and Mr. Modtomic all had booths and a few others popped by as well.  Each had tons cool stuff for sale.

Unfortunately, I wasn't in much of a buying mood, though I did take home two vintage prints from Hannah's.  She's always got such a wonderful, eclectic assortment of items and I'm in need of pictures to cover up my crappy plaster walls.

So there it is folks.  I'll see you at the next Green Shag sale!

Mea Culpa

Hey strangers.  It's been far too long since our last update.

Yeah, I've been a bad blogger as of late.  No/short posts and a Negative Nancy (or, in this case, Nick) attitude make for a crappy read, and I apologize.  Mea culpa.

I'm trying to be a bit more positive and get back into the swing of things.  The first step: mid-mod retail therapy.

Though the thrifts didn't yield any treasures, making my normal rounds brightened my spirits.  Getting back to your regular routine is kinda comforting when everything else in your life is rapidly changing.  My weekend trip to Vandeventer Vintage was also much more fruitful.

I got me a Milo Baughman recliner....

... or at least I think it's a Baughman recliner.  There's no tags, but the look is very similar to the others I've come across.  

The only discernible difference is that most of the Baughmans I've seen had much thicker cushions and solid, nubby upholstery.  However, I do believe that this piece was recovered and the padding removed at some point.  No biggie.  The herringbone pattern, which looks much darker in person, goes well with the sofa and the color scheme I'm trying to develop in the living room.

Alex at Vandeventer Vintage was running a sale of sorts.  He mentioned something about an auction buyer backing out  (a big no-no) and having to clear out the extra inventory, so I was pleasantly surprised by the pricing.  He had a great collection of stuff there, though I assume that it moved out of there real quick-like.  I only wish that I'd been able to snag a couple of the upholstered Eames shells he had available, but the lounge immediately caught my eye and another buyer swooped in while I was distracted.  Oh well, I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

I even get to rearrange my living room again!  Yes, I get some sort of strange satisfaction out of moving furniture around.  I'm weird like that.

Fan Crush

Beauty hath a name, and that name is Emerson Silver Swan.

Source: vintagefans.com

Who knew a fan could make one so HOT?!

Separated at Birth

I knew something cool awaited me when Mr. Mod texted, "Have you seen the desk," after I mentioned that I was stopping by the Green Shag.  However, I wasn't quite prepared for this:

 

Could it be?  Could my previously unidentified credenza have found its long lost partner?

 

  

The family resemblance certainly is strong.  I'm not sure who runs this booth, but I did buy the desk off a Mid-Mod collector.  Perhaps this is her setup and the desk in question is the other half of the very same set!

For sure, it's an exciting mystery, but the price and scale of the piece means that these two will likely continue on their separate paths.  Maybe one day the stars will align and they'll chance upon each other again.

 However, one mystery is solved.  The desk, unlike my credenza, sported a label.  It's from the Castilian line by the Alma Desk Company.

The more you know...

House Tour: Bedroom #1