To someone else's dead Grandma's house I go

Um What?!

I went to my first ever estate sale Saturday. What's awkward about barging into a house of the recently-deceased to pillage through their belongings? Oh, nothing. Especially when all three of the aforementioned dead-lady's (elderly) daughters are asking if you need any help or have questions. What is the appropriate response? "I'm sorry for your loss. How much for this mirror?"

I didn't stay long and I didn't buy anything.

I would expect that some of these rich folk in Nashville would have some killer estate sales. I'll keep my eyes peeled. (Catch the pun?)

So that was the start of my Saturday. The rest of the Saturday morning/afternoon was spent at antique stores. I had a great time looking around, getting ideas (mostly for later in life when we have a house). There are a whole bunch of antique stores and consignment stores along 8th Ave, all clumped together. Very convenient, thank you. 

So my plan was this: Take out $100 in cash and spend no more. Sometimes I go a little crazy at antique stores. And I was celebrating my first paycheck... I don't normally drop a Benjamin whenever I please.

I'll share a few of the things I saw that I thought were cool:

This is the biggest one that I went to, and was most organized. I heart it.

I found strange things like this:

'Cause who doesn't need a larger than life Bruce Lee?

But there were also a ton of amazing pieces, too.

Like this wooden folding chair bench. I take it that it was once a pew because it had the little rack on the back on the left chairback for the communion cups. It was $250, which was about what I expected. Lovely though.

I also thought this enormous copper thing had endless potential. It is a corn husk... something. You could have it just as decoration and store stuff in it. You could utilize it as a central piece in a room and but something tall like branches of some sort. I mean really, possibilities are endless.

I apologize for the quality. The flash on my phone just wouldn't co-operate. But it is an old tool caddy like this one from Secret Garden Cottage's blog:

Except it was really long and had 5 compartments. Can you say coffee table centerpiece? Craft storage? Future dining room table centerpiece? I can see it. And it was only $40 (a good price for those things) I was THIS close to getting it, but found something I liked better.

I'd seen this on Pinterest and put it on my radar for the space above my fireplace:

So when I saw this ladder, that's the first thing I thought about. 

I fell in love. I have future when-we-have-a-house plans for it too. The more I though about it, the less I liked the idea of wrapping it in chicken wire (plus its kinda heavy to hang). It is so beautiful in its own right. I am now planning to prop it up in a corner of the living room behind the chair where there is some empty space. I'm still going to do something to spruce it up. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Since it couldn't fit in my little Civic, Josh will have to go Monday to pick it up. I'm so pumped and it was less than $30!

Look at this awesome ladder utilization from The DIY Showoff!

Like the ladders in libraries! Love it!

And what antique girl doesn't love old trunks? I always have to stop and look. This one was something like $30 and I was a little beat up but still had a very nice weathered look. And a little bit of red paint.

It was hard to walk away, but I have no where to put it! I actually thought of my mother-in-law. We looked at lots of old trunks together in past antiquing days.

Speaking of in-laws, I found my father-in-law something special too. What do you think? Should I get it for Christmas? *wink* You can't see it, but it is marked down from $500 to $325. What a deal! (I think my mother-in-law would disown me if I did buy this for their house though)

Oh and this surprised me! I saw this out of the corner of my eye and couldn't believe it. These are those pantry storage racks! We had been looking for some that would hang over the door (not have to be screwed in). These probably could be hung but they were reallllly long so I decided to measure my door before I bought them.

So I went to another antique mall and found some other great items.

Old LIFE magazines (which are much larger than their current brothers) for only $3 each. This one caught my eye: "The Incredible Year: '68" This would be a cool display on a wall in an office or a boys room. All sorts of Life mags in frames. When I told Josh about it, he decided he wants to go back and get a few. (He likes the history stuff)

So then I found what I am going to used for the chicken wire piece:

No, not the King Tut poster. The 40x30 wooden frame. It is very light and a great size for the wall above the fireplace! I stopped by Lowes and got the chicken wire and "Vanilla" and "Butter" spray paint (yum) {They are a cream and a soft yellow} But I think a soft blue might be better. Everything in the living room so far is in the tan/white/gold family.

I thought this book was adorable! The Fascinating Story of Dolls

I ended up getting the large frame, this doily-esque pillow, and beautifully weathered copper pan:

While at Lowes I checked out the lamp shade. I got a "small" and a "medium" ivory drum shade to see which looks best.

This is medium. It's a bit oversized but that kinda makes it look retro. The downside: you can't see the little rosette on top.

This is the small. It fits, and you can see the rosette on top, but I think it just makes it look even smaller. (They are already pretty small). And I don't really like that you can see the plain metal part of the "neck." Its hard to tell in the pictures, but does anyone have an opinion?
I wish they had a size in between. Anyone know of any Smediums?

 Also, does anyone have any suggestions for how we can spruce up the ladder (Hang something from the rungs?)

After Josh got home from a weekend gig in Birmingham, I showed him this beautiful scenic road, which of course led to a random playground, so that adventure will hopefully be posted in the next few days.

Stay tuned,

Haley