Retro Simple Life

It's getting hot around here now. While much of the country is just thawing out and inching toward Spring temperatures, the mercury is rising high here in South Florida. We need ice tea and AC.

Meanwhile, as I lamented the last of the coolish air, the search was on last week for something or other, I don't even remember what now, but this assortment of goodies ended up coming home with me. Most were 10¢ each. The big slotted spoon was 89¢, the tongs and the mold were 39¢. Some of these are for the assembled project for which I'm accumulating all the proper parts.

This handpainted spoon was a huge bargain and is quite pretty.

 It has the name, "Wright" hand painted in gold on the back.

 These were a bargain too and heavy duty.

Last Thursday was trash day and I gave the neighborhood a quick look-see and came home with some planks of wood, three black metal poles with twirly things on top, like springs, but I have no idea what they are, two drop leaves for a wood table and a broken desk chair on casters. You gotta wonder why I felt the need to bring these things home sometimes, don't ya? My kids too. Yeah, and me too even.

The casters and the style of the chair called to me and trumped my better judgement about the amount of work it would be to fix, but I couldn't leave it there in the trash without giving it a try.
 
The chair turned out to be really wonky.

 It was harder to fix than I thought.

Getting the broken pieces to fit back together and then bracing it up took me quite a while, but once underway, there was no turning back. The seat was secured from underneath using 4 flat metal brackets and four corner brackets. Now it just needs new casters because each wheel has a dead spot which makes rolling difficult.

Tomorrow it should get sanded, and finished right up. It was once a cool chair. Hopefully it will be again. It's heavy duty.

These made me think of tiki torches or some sort of fruit picker. Any ideas about what they are for?

This is my junkin' photography style:

 Hold the camera up and click without looking while I drive. I rarely get what I want entirely in the shot. This hutch top was made up of numerous glass panels and was too heavy to get, but the handle was worth stopping for.

It'll make a nice accent or handle for something.

On Saturday morning before I headed over to meet my friends for a birthday celebration, 

this galvanized cooler caught my eye. 

The paint has to come off. It's brittle and practically falls off if you even just look at it.

It's got an insulated insert inside. Quite a gem.

My friends and I celebrated the day by going thrifting at rummage sales, thrift stores and yard sales. This little angel flew home with me for a project...

...where I stripped her of her dress and halo. She is destined for another life now. For the moment, she lies among the hodgepodge of things I discovered while I was out. The Florida teabag holder was a sweet little find. Got it for a song. Old Florida stuff is one of my loves.

House numbers in ceramic, metal and wood, hardware salvaged off curbside finds and tins that will become part of a new creation I hope to make are all part of the latest mess migrating through the house. Numbers are always good to have on hand. You never know when you might need 'em.

We walked into a rummage sale that looked to be a bust, but there was this lone little goodie awaiting me.

With a little bit of polish and some elbow grease, it's looking spiffy again and serving as a magazine rack.

On the way to work Monday morning, the cabinet someone had trashed, which was made of today's worthless laminate and pressed board, did at least have some hardware on it that will be put to use later.
I pulled my screwdriver out of the glove compartment and pried off the decorative stuff and threw the drawers in the car to remove the handles as time allowed. I still made it to work on time. Barely. On the dot.

Time allowed me to pull one of the handles off while sitting at a long traffic light. The rest came off in a jiffy when I got home. Then the drawers went into my own trashcan.


The cabinet door will make a nice little message center.

Finally, this retro cool Ice-O-Matic ice crusher caught my eye and has come to live in my retro kitchen, just in time for warmer weather.

We don't have an ice maker. I TOLD YOU ours was a retro kitchen. Normally I buy bagged ice, but this week we were out and I had no time for the store and no desire to spend a dime on ice anyway, so we broke out the ice cube trays. Haven't done that in years!

But I'm partial to crushed ice, so this bad boy was commissioned for the job. Through the marvels of "modern" mechanics, I got crushed ice and it was so easy, it was Ice-O-Matic!

Back in the day when I was a kid we would have had a heyday cranking out the crushed ice with this little gadget. Of course now people who live in today's modern times just stick their glass in the fridge door and out comes their crushed ice. Bah! Sissy stuff. Nope, not here, not in this house. In this house if it's not store bought, it's gonna be Ice-O-Matic! And you thought living in the past was just a state of mind for me.

In some ways, perhaps, but in a number of ways (sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse), it really is a hands-on, retro-simple life here. Now if they would just bring back FIZZIES, then I'd really be living the dream.

Hope you have a great week and check out these fun parties: