Have you Seen Craiglook?

09/13/2010

Everyone who collects mid-century antiques knows about craigslist. Heck, anyone who buys and sells secondhand anything knows about craigslist! But have you heard about Craiglook? Our friend Sean tipped us off to it a few months ago. It’s an RSS Browser for craigslist that can save searches, broaden your results up to 250 miles from your zip code and best of all: search results have photos and you can quickly look at details without having to leave the search results page. Brilliant!

Thank you, whoever created craiglook, for making the great local classifieds database more user-friendly! (And thanks Sean!)

1 Comment | Art, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Cobalt Creamer & Sugar Bowl Set

08/12/2010

A repost from East Nashville Atomic

Originally posted March 4, 2009

When I saw this at an estate sale, it immediately caught my eye. I was looking for items to resell which is a new venture for me. I know that I have to get a great price on something legitimately valuable. Although this set is beautiful and unique, it doesn’t have a designer/maker listed on the bottom which concerned me. It also was priced a little high. I thought about it a while but decided to pass.

Two days later we went back to the estate sale (It was a 3 day sale) to see what was left. I was surprised to find that it was still there. Not only was everything reduced to 50%, one of the sale workers who we had spent some time talking to at our earlier visit kept giving us even better deals. We ended up getting this set for only $3. After Jason carefully washed our purchases and I photographed each piece, I decided that even if I sold this set for $20 I’d still be sad to part with it. Jason encouraged me to just keep it. After all, it was only $3 and I LOVE it!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Our biggest, heaviest MCM find yet!

08/11/2010

A repost from East Nashville Atomic

Originally posted on March 3, 2009


Two weeks ago Jason and I found this beast at an estate sale. We fell in love with the design and color. It’s big. It’s long. It’s a sleeper sofa. A mid-century sleeper sofa. Therefore, it is HEAVY! We’re guessing it’s at least 300 lbs. No joke. And in case you’ve never thought of it before—I hadn’t—the people who work at estate sales won’t help you load or move your purchases. Can you imagine Jason and I (who weigh less than 300 lbs. combined) dragging this sofa across a carpeted living room, shoving it through the front door and putting all the energy we had left into lifting it, carrying and heaving it onto a friend’s borrowed truck? I still can’t believe I was capable of that! The next 2 days my arms, legs and back were all sore. I’m so thankful that neither of us got hurt! The sofa is vinyl and needed a little repair but Jason did an awesome job! I helped to mix the colors—one of my specialties—from the vinyl repair kit. By the way, this beautiful specimen cost only $25!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

More Pictures of our Weekend Treasures

08/10/2010

A repost from East Nashville Atomic

Originally posted September 21, 2008

The new tables, in their new home:

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Posted by mahlbrandt

“Lord, Give me an eye for treasures.”

08/09/2010

A repost from East Nashville Atomic

Originally posted September 20, 2008

That’s the simple prayer I said as we started our thrift store search this evening. About an hour later we walked out of Southern Thrift with this matching set of two end tables and a coffee table, each for only $4.99! We bought them because of their mid-century modern look and decent condition.(Our house begs us to replace our IKEA goods with real atomic jewels.) A gentle sanding and some lemon oil will go a long way. Once at home, Jason started cleaning them up while I googled the maker (stamped inside the drawers): American by Martinsville. Turns out each piece is worth anywhere from $100 to $500. Talk about an answer to prayer! Thank you Lord!! As tempting as it is to resell them, I think we just might keep them.

Tomorrow, once they’re all cleaned up and sitting in their new positions in the living room, I’ll take more pictures.

1 Comment | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Faith | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Our First Mid-Century Collectible

08/05/2010

A repost from East Nashville Atomic

Originally posted May 3, 2008

About six months ago Jason and I were browsing around at Southern Thrift. The left side wall is lined with junky vases, mugs, plates, picture frames etc. We picked up a platter with a starburst design. Amidst all the kitschy forgettables it didn’t look like much. It had some wax or something crusted on the front and a chip out of the underside. It was only $2 but we debated back and forth for a while, not wanting to pay even $2 for something if it was just going to clutter our house. (We’re pretty minimalist. And cheap.) Eventually we decided it was cool enough to bring home.

One Saturday morning maybe two months ago, we were watching Good Eats on the food network. I don’t remember what food he had made but Alton Brown carefully placed it right onto a plate like our thrift-store find. We both looked at each other, thinking the same thing. I flipped over the plate and inspected the seal on the bottom.

“FRANCISCAN” “Made in California U.S.A” “Gladding, McBean & Co.” I googled away. Much to our surprise and delight, our $2 thrift-store treasure was a famous design from Gladding, McBean & Co. The Starburst design was released in 1954, [one year after] our house was built. We’re pretty sure our find is the “oval serving platter” worth about $50 today, in good condition. Of course, we’re not interested in selling it. It’s our first Mid-Century Collectible!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

More Gold Cortez and Corning Ware

07/29/2010

At a recent estate sale we found some more Gold Cortez dishes. I don’t even really like this pattern that much but it’s just funny that we keep seeing 1 or 2 pieces everywhere we go so we keep collecting it.

We also found this Corning Ware casserole dish. It’s a good size and has a lid. I took this photo before Jason cleaned 50 years of burned grease off of it. This is definitely one of my favorite Corning Ware patterns with the yellow and blue flowers. Not sure of the name.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Pressed flowers, mushrooms and an owl

07/26/2010

At a recent estate sale Jason and I hit the jackpot of small* framed mid-century art. I found the one of the pressed botanical collages on blue linen and the owl carving on gold burlap in one room while Jason found the other flower collage and mushroom paintings in another room—two white on black paper and one color on wood block.

*the blue pressed flower collages are around 6″ square.


As we were walking toward the checkout together I told said to him, “I’m so glad we like the same things.”

Maybe a little kitschy and I have no idea where we’re going to put them but for $4 total we couldn’t resist.

(Bad photos … sorry. There are more details in these than you can see here.)

This owl carving is both of our favorite. Someday it will probably live next to the owls we got in May.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Pretty Coasters

07/21/2010

While we were in Miami Beach we decided to check out a thrift store that had some good reviews, called SoBe Thrift. I’m thankful we didn’t find anything big because we were a mile from our vehicle. We picked up these two coasters with a funky mid-century pattern on them. We have one at home that we found at a Nashville thrift store. I haven’t investigated to find out the brand of these yet but they remind me a bit of our Franciscan Pottery/Gladding, McBean & Co starburst platter.

I love a cup of tea, especially if it’s in a pretty tea cup. The saucers look great with these blue tea cups.


Sorry for my lack of posting earlier this week. I don’t have any exciting excuse, I just got busy and decided sleeping was more important that blog posting. 🙂

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Family 4 Quart {Estate Sale Finds}

06/30/2010

Last week I saw a listing for an estate sale with all kinds of great things pictured. I made a list of everything I wanted including an Underwood typewriter, retro striped drinking glasses, a vintage tinker toys set and a small cabinet with cone legs and sliding doors. Sadly, we didn’t get there until near the end of the second day so everything I saw online was gone. The benefit of going at the end, though, is that everything is marked down. We did find some great things.

A Family 4 Quart drink cooler. Perfect for our upcoming beach trip

Five old lady style plastic round bead necklaces (all for $1.50!)

2 vintage kids books: Through the Gate (seems like a knock off of Dick and Jane) and Told Under the Blue Umbrella: New Stories for New Children





A colorful xylophone that doesn’t quite work but looks pretty. I guess it needs some new felt under the metal keys

A small retro glass pitcher (I want to actually USE this but it’s kind of an odd size. Any suggestions? It would only hold enough for 2 glasses of iced tea.)

And two glass vases from another estate sale we passed on our way home

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Posted by mahlbrandt

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