Treasures- Summer & Fall 2012

Around these parts we like our treasures.  Coming from a thrifty family, an outing with the majority of my family would include visits to any Sally Ann, Value Village or Re-store's we happen upon strategically plan to "accidently" pass on our way... is pretty common.  Our finds on these trips we call "treasures"- where it came from I do not know, but Treasures they are.   Given the interest shown on my wee survey (which is still open if you havn't done it yet! hint hint), I thought I'd share some of our recent thrifty finds aka Treasures, with the rest of you.

 

Early in the summer I scored this catherineholm 'Lotus' enamelware saucepan in my favourite aqua/teal colour, lov-ing it (yes, there was finger snapping involved!)!

 

I scooped it up at my favourite Value Village for a whopping $5.99 (stealthy covetous glances and internal happy dances may have occurred!).  Considering the same pot in (I think) less pretty colours are currently selling for $44-$128 on eBay, I think it was a pretty safe investment!  H gets all antsy when I use it, 'cuz he likes it as well is afraid I'll wreck it, but I figure why just leave it on a shelf? With some care and attention it should have another 50ish years of use still in it.

Next up was this amazing 14' opal cased globe pendant light snagged for just $7.50 from our local Re-Store.  This MCM classic design was last seen parked in our hallway here- Arg, note to self, gotta get this thing hung before it gets damaged!

 

 

I'm planning to put this in our kitchen, and have been scouting out a 2nd one.... Dang it but I got a good deal on this bad boy!  I've found the exact same on on Amazon for $119 or a 16" one from Rejuvenation for $240.   I wonder if the lighting gods will smile on me again, or if I'm going to have to suck it up and pay retail. 

 

This one was H's find, a $1 globe snapped up at the "sketchy" Sally (think dodgy part of town, with piles of stuff you literally have to dig through).  He's joined by my baby globe that I've had for years and years atop our best find...

 

Our $50 sideboard and hutch via Mr. Craig's List. It's solid wood made, I think, in the 50's/60's, and is the perfect size for our south wall.  The plan was just to use the sideboard as storage and TV stand.  But H liked the hutch part so much that we are going back to the drawing board for the TV placement.  Getting the thing into our Matrix was a feat of contortionist geometry- I'm still not quite sure how we managed it!  Somehow we managed to get it home without anything flying out on the highway!  Still gotta sort out the cable situation, so pretend you didn't see those!

 

And our latest find on Mr. Craig's List- like it was picked up yesterday by my dear brother kinda latest- is a new to us light fixture for our main bathroom.  Buh buh runway light, hello white and chrome deco-ish gem.  As we are planning a reno to that bathroom we are doing a few cosmetic enhancements to make it less ugly more us.  This $5 future should be a nice face lift that we can happily donate on if it doesn't work with the new look, a win win in our books!

 

Have you found any treasures recently?   Where are your go to places for treasure hunting?

In-sensed

Why is it that the ideas that are so simple in my head are so hard to execute in reality?

When we bought the house over a year ago, we inherited some atrocious exterior lighting.  The lighting situations at our front and back door were baaaaad, and neither served their purpose.  While the front light was replaced a few months ago, we've been limping along with the back light.

Our weenie little carriage sensor light (insert gag sounds here!) was barely sensing motion anymore, and if/when it did sense movement it would then stay on for hours!

The crooked, brassy-ness wasn't much of a big selling feature either!

 

Recently our sweet next door neighbour, mentioned in passing that our light was on all night the night before.... was everything ok..........  H and I got her hint, it was time for an upgrade.

We sat down and made our "must have" list:

1. Motion activated
2. Retro, Modern, or Contemporary styling (simple, clean lines)
3. Silver (chrome, nickle, aluminum...) or white preferably

After scouring our local DIY stores and online resources for an affordable option, we came up empty handed, why is it that they thing we all want either Carriage lights, Asian fusion, industrial (like factory industrial? Not cool industrial)??  I mean seriously, they are "same same but different".

And why the heck are all the cool ones I found online from the UK?!  And why does the UK have to have different voltage than N America, making them not usable (and not shipping here! And not sure if they would work here?!) Arg!!

 

sources:  pic 1, pic 2

The best N.American solutions I can find for us and our house's style are these

source

source

source

None of which are not really what we are looking for.....  Or these contraptions to convert a light to motion sensing?!  Seems a bit sketchy to me!


source

Because of the neighbour proximity and energy usage, we really don't want to have to go for a night sky (on from dusk till dawn) option -- which Murphy's law do come in some nicer designs! We are willing to up the budget for the right light (vs. an okay "for now" light), but are darned if we can find them.  So, having exhausted the web and our local stores do any of you know of any retro/contemporary/modern sensor light sources that may fit the bill?   If yes, please, please share!

Deck Defeat

So I mentioned last week that before putting the suite on the market we did a little exterior beautification.  While the bark mulching of the flower beds was a big win, our attempt at tackling the back deck was a unfortunately a loss.

But first, let's backtrack a bit. When we bought the house, we inherited a perfectly good back deck. 

Having lived in the house for a year we realized that we almost never used that deck, preferring the deck on the front (sunnier south side) of the house, which leads straight off our living room.

Also realizing that the tenants bathroom and living room back right up to that other deck, meant we were even less likely to use the space moving forward (insert potty/peeping tom joke here!).

While structurally sound, the deck was not looking it's best.   The red itself was not my first choice of colours, but I could have lived with it.  But, the red finish was peeling off in spots and it left the deck looking pretty sad, dingy and dirty looking.

 

While strolling through Rona one Friday night (yup, we're that cool that we cruise the DIY stores Friday nights!), I spied an "Oops" can of dark grey/black opaque deck stain for $10 (please tell me I am not the only person who checks out that area every.time I am in the store, hoping for a jackpot colour?!), and thought bingo- good buy sad red deck!!

 

Later that weekend, we prepped the deck (sanded off any loose bit of old finish and debris) and cracked open the can of stain.  Unfortunately, about 10 minutes into the application process, H and I realized the error of my plan... 

 

 

The stain was absorbing and "working" on the raw wood, but not fully covering the red, resulting in a darker black tinted red deck.... Boo!  Two coats later it looks.... better (and our prospective tenants didn't seem to be bothered by it), but not what I had in mind.  I guess painting deck (with deck paint not stain!) is another thing to add to the To Do list for next spring!

 

 

So, I guess it's not really a defeat, but actually the loss of Round 1... here's hoping I can deliver the K.O. punch during Round 2 next year!

Alberta Roadtrip: Part 3- Facing the Beast

This is the last post I promise about our trip, but for all the Belgian family visitors (and posterity), I feel the need to round out the rest of our trip, because the wedding was not the only thing we did in Waterton.  So warning, this sucker is photo heavy!

H and I arrived in town the day before the rest of the wedding crew, it started out a wet, so we took advantage of the alone time for a cruise around town (all 4 quaint blocks of it!), picked up some supplies.

On our trip back into the park from "the city", we saw some spectacular scenery, I just loved the way rain clouds hugged the Rockies.

We timed our outing perfectly,and as we pulled up at our hotel, the sine came out, so we put on our hiking boots and went out to see some of the park itself.

Our hike up to Bertha falls gave us a great outlook onto Waterton Lake.  We were lucky that we ran into only two other couples during the hike, because we had waaaay to much fun taking wacky pictures of ourselves the lower falls, thanks to the steep angle of the rocks....

 

Yeah, like I said, we had way to much fun!  I guess one could say that the expression about little things and little minds might apply here?!  Meh, we thought it was hilarious at the time :)

 

The day after the wedding, while I .... took it easy in the morning *cough cough*.... H went out on his own to explore some perfect male entertainment... a vintage/hotrod car show!

 

 

 

With my "easy morning", doing the trick, we met us with friends (and their two little ones) to explore the Prince Wales Hotel (one of early railway hotels), which is perched on a hill over looking the lake

 

 

 

Which housed the largest chandelier I think I have ever seen!

 

 

followed by a walk in the red rock canyon, the perfect easy walk for little legs and tired heads.  We were able to explore nature

 

and spend some quality time with close friends,

before heading back down to Waterton lake for some serious rock skipping

 

And... fishing...

 

 

And the whole day wrapped up with a trip back up to the ranch, for an open house where we had time to catch up with new and old friends, and the groom's uncle regaled us with stories from his time in Russia working with orphaned and wild grizzly bears.

 

 

The groom's uncle Charlie, is such an inspiring man, after having the opportunity to hear him speak and later watch the amazing documentary on his work there, it's made both H and I look at ourselves and grizzlies in a whole new light. 

 

The next morning was our whirlwind trip home (14 hr drive), but not before we stopped by the bison paddock, just outside the park.  As a chef, H gets to work with all kinds of ingredients, and one of the newer ones to him was Bison, so the opportunity to see "the source", was too good of an opportunity to pass up.  It seemed that our timing was perfect, as we got there just as they were waking up.  It also so happened that they were near the road so we could see then in action....

 

But then all of a sudden they were a little too up close and personal....

In front

And behind our car...

 

It seems it was time for a drink and their route took them right over the road we were driving on!  It was a bit more "action" than we had anticipated, but it was amazing to see them so up close. 

Alberta Roadtrip Recap: Part 2- The Main Event

So, I mentioned in my original post about our summer road trip that we were going to be celebrating.    The celebration was because some very close friends of ours were getting hitched.  I've known the bride for years.... like since Girl Guides kinda years!



that's me on the left and the bride on the right

So, when they told us that they were doing a destination wedding, we were like heck yeah!  The location  of the ceremony up on a hill at the groom's family's ranch just outside the National park.  With this as the view from the ranch house

I mean hello! The prairies and the Rockies, with a gorg bride and groom, and the sun shining, it doesn't get much better!

 

Before and after the ceremony we had time to kick back and enjoy the ranch - that's H with the Best Man sitting on the front porch, ain't he the cutest!!

 

The main house of the ranch Hawk's Nest hasn't changed much since it was built in 1923, and looks just like you think a traditional ranch house should look woody and manly.

After the ceremony we all headed back to town and boarded a boat to take a cruise around Waterton Lake.  And boy was it the perfect weather for a boat ride.

  The bride and groom made sure we all got the party started.

 

 

It was a great time to hang out with the bride and the rest of the girls (and the boys too!).  The captains' hats were from the stagette, and were a huge hit!

The final leg of the wedding was the reception at the former school in Waterton, a very appropriate venue as the bride is a teacher!

 

Now I dropped the ball when it comes to pictures of the reception as our friends asked me to be one of the MC's for the evening (yeah, so sweet!), and I forgot to give H strict photo documenting instructions in my absence, whoops... lesson learned!

But,  I did manage to snap some pictures ahead of time of some of the sweet details before things got underway.



I loved the wood votive holders made by the groom's family with wood from the ranch (and may have snuck a few home with me)...

 

And their favours of pickled beans, such a perfect choice for this couple as they are "famous" for their homemade pickles (my non-pickle eating husband devours them they are so good!) - we even broke the rules and snuck home with 2 jars ;)

 

I managed not to trip and fall or let loose with any too embarrassing stories, the drinks flowed and the dancing went late,  a good time was had by all.  We are so happy to have been able to share in their big day, so thanks guys!