More Chairs

Well, I was downsizing wasn’t I?

Then not long after selling my old kitchen chairs…

I dragged home these cuties. I just can’t leave a good chair when I find one!

Luckily I could lend them to a friend who has a little shop where she uses them to serve tea to customers while they are on display for sale at the same time. For Dutch readers who may be interested find details here.

My Hallway

My hallway is a pretty useless space as it measures only one by two meters. Too narrow to even hang up a coat rack as you would rub against the coats all the time while passing.

So it took ages before I did anything about it. This photo that I took when I wrote about my transportation helper is from 2007, two years after the renovation of my flat. 

Then finally in 2010 I found a brand new leftover piece of carpet to replace the old soiled one. So I started looking for paint and found I still had this yellow. I never used it because it’s too strong a colour for my lounge and kitchen, but now decided it was perfect to brighten up my dull entrance. And even though trashed years before and stored outside in my yard it was still in great condition.

Then recently, the just narrow enough chest of drawers, now storing my shoes, was waiting for me late at night at the dump across the street. And done! Only still a bit barren, but the room is too dark for plants and anything placed on top of the chest might be knocked off as well. Usually just piles of junk mail end up on top of it.

So now to finish up this post I thought let's see what we can do and dug up these old finds and voila. The old vase can break and the plastic flowers won’t  wither. Some day the chest may get a paint job to cover the white stains.

My Fancy Hat Design

I love large bows. I love knitting them. I love crocheting flat top hats. Combined this design is the result.

To make this model I used the black and the grey yarn from this old 80-ies sweater I showed a long time ago in this post.

More Unravelling

This ugly children’s dress came from left for trash goods at this year’s Queens Day flea market. Now which mother dresses her little girl in grey? No wonder it didn’t sell.

So it ended up in a pile of these. Knit in a double strand they worked up quickly and I love the bulky cables. Now hopefully the colour will appeal to my adult public.

To be ordered on line here.

My Kitchen Chairs

More furniture I once picked up for myself, but finally sold to make space in my tiny apartment. I used them at my computer desk and my sewing table, but then found something more comfortable for the first and a simple stool for the second that can be shoved under the table leaving more space in that little room.

I still liked those chairs so moved them to my kitchen, but they were hardly ever used and only took place. So out they went to a happy young girl.

Now for the once in a while I sit at my kitchen table I keep this cute vintage tripod, also to be easily shoved underneath when I need it out of the way!

One of these days, when my downsizing project is complete I may show some overall indoor pictures of my room and kitchen - with that pretty table - but we’re not there yet…

The Mirror

I always appreciate it when people tell me a bit about the purpose of their buy. This mirror went to a young lady who had just opened a hair salon in vintage style. She came all the way from Tilburg to pick it up in Amsterdam!

It made me happy to hear that because I picked the mirror up for myself 15 years ago and only due to my current downsizing project it had to go. As you can see I had to take it outside to make the photo because I had no room indoors. Now it’s being used again instead of gathering dust in a corner of my house.

Cutlery

Having drawers full of curb found stainless flatware this lot was to be sold immediately. I had a ¾ complete set of vintage Gero Zilmeta including 3 serving spoons; 6 vintage decorated desert spoons; 6 IKEA desert spoons and 6 IKEA teaspoons.

Listed separately the pretty desert spoons went within a week. The rest combined as a set wasn’t a success. Then the IKEA desert spoons went at our first flea market of the year. 

So I changed my listing for the rest to the Gero Zilmeta only with a nicer photo not showing each single piece and to my surprise that sold a week later.

The fun is the whole lot came in the suitcase of the new set the previous owners had apparently bought. Which now serves me as a carrier and display for my craft.

My Enamel Cooking Pot

I picked this huge cooking pot up years ago with the idea to use it for dying textiles. But it turned out to be too big and clumsy for me to handle and it ended up in the backyard. As it was just standing in the way I decided it had to go.

After putting up my free ad I had a first reaction within hours, but he asked me to ship it by mail and I don’t even have a box that big. The next morning there were two more and I had to put the listing on hold. First to come won and I sold my pot within 24 hours after listing it.

Perhaps I should have asked more money, but the main thing is the item has found new use!

Flowerpots

These two huge pots sold quickly and for a good price on the internet. I never thought they would go!

A USSR Rocking Horse

This cute rocking horse was probably trashed because it had fallen apart completely. I put the parts together just for the photo. Too bad the beautiful folkloristic floral decoration was too damaged to be restored in it’s original state, at least not by an amateur. I couldn’t get a good price for it.

So finally today sold it for 5 Euros as a DIY makeover project to a young lady. Don’t know if the USSR origins of the toy meant anything to her, but so be it, at least one kid will play with it again. 

One Castaway Old Cotton Sweater

One castaway old cotton sweater...

And a selection of the countless items I made from it:

And this is not all. Please note all these were sold and the photo's are very old.

A Brand New T-shirt

Ages ago I said I was going to show more of my curb found clothing, but never got around to do so. Maybe because at the time my pictures weren’t great.

Anyway here’s one t-shirt that wasn’t my colour and style but came just too new to cut up for t-yarn.  I then tried to sell it but it never went.

So in the end I gave it to my friend who, after having been back home in the US for nine years, returned to Holland. This one must be a favourite for her!

Henna

For the first time in my life I dyed my hair with henna instead of the chemical stuff since I still had these two packs that I dug up in the trash years ago. Just never did it before because I thought it would be too much of a hassle, but that’s not so bad after all.

So I don’t know how old the packs were but the powder doesn’t decay even though the brown was a leftover in an opened sachet (and the auburn was untouched). Tried that brown/chatain first but it turned out too light for my taste. So I had but no choice than to go for flaming red auburn… a colour I’ve never worn before. Scary, but it turned out great and all my friends say so too!

Apart from that natural dye is better for me and the earth anyway, it strengthens my hair and a pack is good for at least three treatments (for my short hair). Way cheaper, so next time I’ll have to buy I’ll go for henna.

Roy Liechtenstein

Knowing I sell trash, a couple of weeks ago my neighbour Freek came by to bring me these three Roy Liechtenstein poster prints stuck on heavy boards that he had just picked up minutes before. Thought they’d be perfect to try to sell on Marktplaats, my local auction site. It took a little while, then I had two reactions on one day! Closed the deal with the bidder who could come quickest and seemed the most excited about the pictures. She needed them as a present the very next day.

It’s funny you never know who will show up at your door, but at least you’d expect that they come prepared for transporting their purchase. Not this young girl. She had to carry the heavy things in her arms and travel by bus and train with them! As she was a sweet thing I felt a bit guilty after seeing her walking off struggling so I emailed her later on to ask if she had come home safe. Which she did luckily, and I guess she didn’t expect to hear from me, but she did appreciate that very much.

Got the idea because a few weeks before that I sold this one meter high poster frame to an absolute darling of a young lady who came on an old bicycle with a damaged pedal! I was really worried how she was going to pull off riding while holding the thing in one hand, but she assured me she’d be all right. Though the trip wasn’t too long I was very glad half an hour later she texted me all was well. How sweet! She needed to frame a large piece of art from her best friend and was overjoyed to have found something at a fair price.

I love selling trash. It’s more than making a bit of money or even rescuing goods. I make people happy!

An Old Little Basket

Five years ago I wrote about Miene the stray cat. Despite the complaints she remained in my neighbour Harry’s backyard. Maybe they cleaned up a bit and built better shelters. In any case things seemed to be okay and Miene happy. Until earlier this year Freek (her feeder) called me and told me Harry wanted to get rid of Miene. So could he move her to my yard? I said okay provided my cat Cézar accepts her. But I had good hopes for that since though he kicks out every other cat, he has always liked Miene.

The move went well and she got quickly used to her new place. What’s more I think she has it better than ever before. I feed her extra bits in the morning and afternoon and come out to cuddle her as often as I can and she loves it. She purrs a lot, talks to me sometimes and I can even lift her up a bit which is all quite amazing for a wild born.

Also she has now started to follow me around a bit in the garden and to the path in the back. Freek still feeds her at night but for me she belongs to me now. Cézar isn’t bothered and watches over her from the roof of the shed.

But what a long story to come to my curb find. And it’s just a simple cheap basket that I’ve had for years. At first it was good as new and I used it as a decorative container until I found one cat curled up in it. That’s what it had been used for until the ones that fit in lost interest or weren’t with us anymore. For the past two years or so it served as my outdoor wash peg basket.

Just until two days ago by accident I left it on top of Miene’s shelter…

and of course… First she was sitting on top of the clothes pegs, well I had to go look for another container fast!