Collections: Salem North Star

Almost four years ago, I picked up my first two Salem North Star pattern small berry bowls at a San Leandro, CA garage sale (once a year, in May, the entire city does a yard sale- really fun!) for 50 cents.  Of course I was immediately hooked by the cool atomic-inpsired starburst pattern (in aqua, no less!) and have been on the hunt for more ever since.  Just recently I picked up an ice bucket at my favorite local thrift store, Thrift Town, but I've mostly had to grow my collection with the help of eBay.  This acutally is my everyday china, as much as it pains me to put it in danger of being broken.  What's the use of collecting something as functional as dinnerware if you're not going to use it? 

I love the teapot and the fact that some pieces are solid aqua and some have the starburst pattern.

One of my favorites- the free-form gravy boat. 

I occasionally make unnecessary gravy just so I can use it.

The salt and pepper shakers are cool, too. 

And you can never have to many serving bowls.

I think 12 might be enough of these mugs...

They look great in the cubboards

My most recent find- the ice bucket.  Now I need some tumblers.

Estate Sale Scores- Weekend of January 16th

This has been a bit of a slow new year for sales.  I think I only found four this weekend, and one of them was actually a garage sale mascarading on Craigslist as an estate sale (grrr...).  However, I did get some cool stuff, so I thought I'd share.  The best find of the weekend was definitely at the first sale of Saturday morning.  8 am in "the boonies" (as Marc insisted) of Castro Valley, CA, it was me, Marc, and the now-familar cadre of local dealers.  We've taken to nicknaming them (more creatively than W's "Slim" or "Super-Slim"), but unfortunately "Elvis" was not in the building that morning.  Anyway, the family was doing this sale and they looked totally bewildered at all of us nut-jobs outside 15 minutes before opening time, and when they let us in it was a mad scramble to grab the good stuff.  Unfortunatley I missed a flame orange Le Creuset pot (it sold for TEN DOLLARS!!!), but I did manage to score a crafter's dream:  a treasure trove of vintage buttons.  My mom had a fun collection of them when I was young, and I loved going through and picking out my favorites (of course the gawdy rhinestones were top of my list then).  The buttons were in two boxes and I think in total I came away with 10 assorted-sized jars of them (all sorted by color, no less!).  I also picked up a cool sewing box (to store the buttons in, of course!), some miscellaneous thread and scissors, an aqua Fiestaware creamer, and a cool vintage starburst juice glass (sadly, there was only one- I looked!).  Grand total: $10.  Who needs that orange pot, anyway?

Nifty box...

but it's what's inside that counts, right?

I loved the fact they were sorted by color

The fourth from the left is full of gawdy rhinestone buttons!

Sets of buttons are tied up with string, like the pretty red rosette buttons.

You can never have too many colors of thread- it's great for when you have to repair something and you want to match colors, say, when you want to sew on a button?

There's my color again...and a glass with starbursts, no less!

My Atomic Color Palette, Color 1: Aqua

Walk into my living room and something will become readily apparent- this girl likes blue! But not just any blue- aqua blue, THE iconic mid century/Atomic Era color. One of my first aqua finds is probably my coolest, and in fact it plays a large role in my blog banner: my little aqua microscope. I picked it up a few years ago in the Salvation Army in San Leandro, CA (RIP), and it even came in it's own cool wooden box with some microscope slides and vials of questionable cleanliness. Now it has a place of honor as a bookend on my nifty room divider in the living room (a $30 estate sale score), and has served to inspire the room's color palette: aqua with pops of orange. More on orange in later posts!

Room Divider with open shelving, creates a bit of a foyer when you walk in the front door

Little aqua microscope finds a home

Perhaps our only "new" purchase from a furniture store- Our couch from Sphere Designs Furniture in San Francisco. The cool lamp came from a local consignment store.

Lane Acclaim side table in perfect shape- thank you estate sales! Check out that dove-tailed action on top...I'll devote a post to this line later- this is only the tip of the iceberg...

More Lane Acclaim- this time a side cabinet, and an estate steal at $5!!!

More cool dovetails...it's a signature of this line.

Knock-off RAR Eames Rocker with a cool eyeball chrome lamp. Check out those groovy I Dream of Jeannie lamps on the mantle

My husband's crowning acheivement- built-ins and a great mantle! I helped design it and do the finishing work, but he did all the heavy lifting.

Next project: Replace the beige marble fireplace surround with more mid century-esque white stacked stone.