Projects

Busy weekend. 

Birthday celebrations on Saturday morning. Dropped J at his afternoon class. Decided that doing so was my lucky roadside-thrift charm. Since it's October and October means jacarandas and jacarandas are perfect, I went for a drive around. I live in my favourite part of my city; filled with beautiful worker's cottages and art deco bungalows and sprawling Queenslanders with sweeping verandahs. It's an old part of the city, so the trees are tall and leafy. The hills allow for the most beautiful views, and the jacarandas were at their purple-puff best this year. 

I ignored the heat and the humidity (it felt like the hot, sticky wind was slapping you in the face with eye-watering sunlight, imagine) and walked along one street while I was waiting for J's class to finish. All of the gardens were full of flowers. Most of them had a jade tree somewhere near the gate. I loved that. I found a secret garden, too, with a perfectly placed frangipani flower at the gate. I love my city.

I also love it extra much when the roadside collections are on. This year I've found a solid expandable maple table (!) and now a couple of old wooden chairs. For zero dollars. Because I basically hate free time and relaxing, I dragged the chairs into my car and headed to the nearest hardware store. Tangerine dipped chairs for all. Actually, just for my apartment, sorry. 

Soon these babies will be denuded of their protective Coles plastic bags (because I am a professional) and be sitting next to their fellow roadside-thrift friend, table. It's an easy process, but I'm pretty lazy relaxed about this sort of thing. Basically, the process is sand, undercoat (don't forget to use primer on bare timber), top coat. Wear a mask and eye goggles. Don't take my advice (except for safety things, do those) and read the instructions and do things the proper way.

A new dining setting for free? Okay.

I also finished some art pieces for my Dad's birthday and he loved them which was great and maybe now I can art for serious. I also went swimming for the first time in years and forgot that my ivory skin immediately reverts back to luscious olive the very second it is exposed to sunlight. I actually thought (for a second, okay?) that the chemicals in the pool dyed my skin.

What?

Don't look at me like that.

I liked swimming, though. I even did a backflip!

Home

I can't stop rearranging furniture. Right now, my apartment is divided up into zones. Pretty and neat? Yep, that's the living room and kitchen. Okay? That's the bedroom. Disaster? That's J's office.

Did an Ikea trip and finally found all of those things that I never knew I needed. Special white jars with wooden lids for teabags and everything? Definitely. Approximately sixty dollars on cacti alone? Certainly. Blissful new sheepskin that is ostensibly for decoration but really a replacement for the one that I refused to part with and that remained with me from cot to first apartment? Sure. Whatever, the house is looking excellent.

This new quilt cover changed the entire bedroom. The previous black and grey geometric cover was very dark and really drew the eye. New black and white quilt cover is wonderful. The crystals and that cacti moved out into the living room before long. 

Hello, friends. 

Oh, what? That? That solid maple midcentury extendable table, you mean? Right. That one that I found on the side of the road? Just checking. It weighs a ton, it's in almost perfect original condition (save a few superficial scratches on one edge and a terrible attempt by a previous owner to add a black ombré detail to the edge. Why did you do that?). I was driving past on my way to an op shop when I spotted my new table friend upended on the footpath. My neighbourhood has been doing the footpath collections lately. After screeching to a halt and determining that yes, it is solid wood and yes, it is in almost perfect original condition I waited around for almost twenty minutes to see if anyone was coming back to claim it. Nope. Nothing. It was mine. Thanks to the toolbox in my car, the legs came off and fit in the car. The top didn't. Heartbroken wasn't even the word.

Then the guy in the ute pulled up. After making polite conversation (he was doing a talk at the church building next door) he offered to drive the table top to my house. And he did, as soon as he was done with his talk. Stranger danger? What? I wanted that table. I got that table.  And we all lived happily ever after and only complained about American thrifters always finding incredible things very quietly every few days.

Bliss.

Heartbreaker.

Heartbreaker? What, do I not realise this is a post about furniture?

Of course I realise. Silly.

I'm talking about this guy.

Do you see him there? Sitting there on the left as if he just doesn't care that I love him more than just about any other piece of furniture I've ever owned? He doesn't care. He's a credenza. Obviously.

For the longest time, the television sat on a faux bois-y, melamine-y record cabinet I found in Stanthorpe. Apparently it is important for film students to have decent televisions or something, so I can't pretend we don't have one. Whatever. I really liked the cabinet when I found it, but the television was just too big or something was too something and it kind of had to go.

Record cabinet of old, seen here in it's natural habitat.

I wanted something a bit bigger. A bit more angular. A bit more teak? Maybe also a second job to pay for it? I mean, mid-century modern credenzas aren't exactly wallflowers right now, are they? Unfortunately the world has changed since I got this sideboard for nineteen dollars off eBay.

Yes, that amazing chevron blanket is everywhere in my house. It's magic.

Whatever, furniture. Really. Playing hard-to-get is only going to make me want you more. I'd almost given it up as a bad job. I would look at credenzas in shops. I'd dream, I'd rapturously caress the beautiful finishes. I'd walk away, steely in my resolve not to have to live on bread and water for three months.

... Then last Saturday happened. Saturday? Sunday? What does it matter? In my head it pretty much requires a holiday devoted to it because it was the day I found the perfect credenza. The perfect credenza that wasn't thousands of dollars. It wasn't even one thousand dollars. It was on sale for three hundred and ninety dollars. I know, I know. One of my favourite ladies and I went to an antique centre on the southside and there were about a million credenzas just lolling about, teasing me. Walking past a crowded stall, we spotted this.

Just sitting there under some other, inferior, credenza. Ignore the colour variation, would you? It's difficult to take a decent photo when you are shaking with what can only be described as total glee. Especially when you notice this:

Oh, okay. Sure.

After dithering for about a million years, I left empty handed. But how did it get into your house, you almost misser of opportunities? I hear you say.

I came to my senses late on Tuesday night. A classic sit-up-in-bed-and-frantically-email-the-dealer-twice moment. Of course, it was ten pm and no one cares about frantic credenza crushes at ten pm except me. I called the next day. The very second that the store opened. I called and bought it over the phone like a fancy rich lady (fact: I am not a fancy rich lady). I'm sure the staff deal with frenzied furniture mind-changers every day. I got it delivered on Thursday (thanks to The Van That Can who are The Best) and now it is in my living room, being all cheeky and perfect.

I am very happy and now need to find a plant for the living room that isn't a palm tree. I went to the nursery and grabbed a few cacti, which are great. But I want more. Specifically, I want a plant with big leaves that is kind of stalky still so not bulky and really I want a philodendron or a monstera or maybe even a zanzibar gem and did you think I actually thought to articulate the names to the staff or did I just talk about 'big leaves with stems'. You know I just talked about big leaves and stems.

I want a bowl for the cacti, too. I'm not really a glass bowl kind of lady, though, what with the humidity and the mould all up in this city. Ceramic? Hand glazed? Sleek? Too many things to think about, all thanks to the new credenza.

Credenza.