Treasure Hunting

Two weekends ago, my friend Nicole came down from Pasadena for a weekend visit. Our favorite thing to do together? Shop! Thrifting, to be exact :) We managed to mix in a few other non-thrift stores too, of course.

This time, I pretty much shopped vicariously through Nicole. Most of my thrift store finds need a little love and turn into projects. Unfortunately, my vision can sometime be greater than my drive and I take my sweet time getting around to actually completing a project. So, I'm trying to finish up the projects I already have going at home before I bring home new ones.

Anyway... Nicole was on a hunt for some items for her new apartment. Most specifically, 3 mismatched chairs for her dining room. The plan was to paint them all white, to go with her green table, giving the room an eclectic, yet still pulled-together feel.

So, we started the day off at Kobey's swap meet. Despite the fact that I've lived in San Diego for YEARS, I've never been there!

At first, it didn't look too promising. We were hoping for some vintage thrifty furniture finds, but seemed to be walking by endless booths of cell phone covers and knock off purses. But, we rounded a corner and found gold! Holy moly, I have no idea how I resisted all the great finds.

There was one item I just couldn't resist though. I've been wanting a vintage soda crate for who knows how long and looky what I found! For $5!

At the same vendor, we found these colorful books for Nicole's apartment. Love it!

 

Chair #1 found! A little white paint and a recovered cushion and it will be perfect!

I love the lines and detail of the dresser. It was unfininshed and so ready for a coat of fun, bright paint.

Boxes of vintage stamps. I've seen brides use these for wedding invitations and they look amazing.

 I loved these two books. I really should have bought them. I have no idea what they were about (besides the obvious- Spain), but I loved the covers and that there was one in English and one in Spanish

Vintage game of Clue. I wonder if it had all the pieces?

I loved all of these suitcases. I saw a photo recently of  vintage suitcases stacked in a guest room as a nightstand. If we had a guestroom, I SO would have snatched a few of these up

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Chair #2. Found!

Needing som re-fueling, we headed to The Living Room in Point Loma for a quick latte and bite to eat. 

I think by that time I had camera fatugue, because the pictures are lacking, but we managed to make it to Amvets, Big Lots, Goodwill, The Rock Thrift Store, Salvation Army (where chair #3 was found!), Pier One, World Market, Ross & Marshalls. Whew! That was one long day, resulting in one VERY full car...

 

And since it took me a whole week and a half to get around to this post, Nicole actually was able to refinish her chairs! Doesn't it look great?

I need some of that motivation she has. If I had purchased these, it would have taken me AT LEAST a month to get around to buying the paint, and who knows when I would have completed the project. Oh, well.