My New Secondhand Display Cabinet
Hello friends,
Recently we've been giving my craft room a makeover, and also moving my office into the craft room as well (blog post to come soon), and as part of that process I needed to find a cabinet for storing things, as well as displaying the Botanical Garden Lego kit I got for Christmas. Our cats Rosie and Missy are very fond of biting Lego, so the only way I could display it was behind the safety of glass.
After trying, and failing to find a secondhand cabinet on Facebook Marketplace, I tried looking on Trade Me, and soon came across a vintage display cabinet, with a wonderful stained glass door up for sale locally. With hubby and I both being happy with the cabinet, and the buy now price, and we bought it, and then impatiently waited for a chance to pick it up. Luckily, it fit inside our Nissan Leaf, and we picked it up and very carefully took it home with us.
The cabinet is in pretty good condition, apart from a small crack in one of the glass panels, and also the loss of some varnish on top of the cabinet. That didn't bother us much, as the plan was to purchase a super cozy cat bed on top for Missy and Rosie to nap on in the sun. The cat bed is now on order, and will hopefully arrive soon.
After giving the cabinet a thorough cleaning, it still smelled a bit musty, so I put a bowl of baking soda and dried lavender inside, and then left it in place for a week.
When we removed the baking soda and lavender, the cabinet now had a pleasant lavender smell, and was ready to store stuff inside. The top shelf is for storing my Lego Ahsoka from Star Wars, and also my Lego Botanical Garden, and the middle and bottom shelves are for storing paper work for my small business Hearth & Oak, and also my weaving and dyeing study notes.
I'm really happy with how this cabinet has turned out, and Rosie cat approves too, and hopefully even more once her cat bed arrives.
More and more I'm trying where possible to source anything we need for the house secondhand, there are such lovely vintage furniture pieces out there.
Have a wonderful day.
Julie-Ann
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Another Thrift Store Find - A French Style Tureen and Soup Set
Hello friends,
I was in the Mosgiel shopping area two weeks ago to go vote in the NZ general election, and walked past one of the local op shops, the same one that I found my pumpkin ceramic casserole dish back in February this year. There in the window was the most amazing 9 piece white ceramic soup tureen set with lion faces embedded into each of the pieces.
I walked inside, saw that the whole set was in pristine condition, and that it was for sale for an amazing price of $45. I whipped my bank card out so fast, and within five minutes it was all bundled up in wrapping paper inside a ginormous cardboard box, and on its way back to our car. Hubby, who happened to be in the local post office while all this was going on, took one look at me, and said, "what did you buy this time"...
And here is the set in it's entire glory. I'm so happy with this purchase, and not only because I'm totally a crazy cat lady, and wanted this lion's head set in our home. I was very soon on the internet looking up the bounty I had just found, and saw that what I bought is an antique style French Lions Head White Ironstone tureen and 8 piece bowl set which is worth at least $350 if I were to buy it new, and I definitely never would've justified buying it new.
For now I'm very happy to have it safely sitting inside our buffet hutch, but I soon plan to make some french onion soup to make inside it...
Have you ever found an absolute gem of an op shop find? I'm curious to know what you've found.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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A Secondhand Treasure
Hello friends,
I've wanted a Le Creuset pumpkin casserole dish for a couple of years.
They are completely adorable, and are totally in line with my Cottagecore aesthetic, but I could never justify paying that much one for one, let alone the many I dreamed of having, just so I could decorate our dining room in autumn. So for the longest time my wish to own one has been in vain...
Until yesterday...when I was out shopping for my mother's birthday present, and I spotted something in a nearby secondhand hospice shop. Sitting all alone on the bottom shelf of the kitchen section, was a ceramic ware pumpkin.
I picked it up straight away, terrified that someone else would spot this treasure, and take it away from me. It was love at first sight. And before you could even blink, I was up at the counter paying a grand total of NZ$6 for the joy of taking my pumpkin home.
It didn't matter that there was a slight crack in the bottom, it was perfect just the way it was. When I arrived home and proudly showed hubby my prize, he just shook his head, probably very happy I no longer have a Le Creuset pumpkin casserole dish in my sights.
For now it sits pride of place on our dining table, and it makes me smile every time I walk past it.
Have a wonderful day.
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon.
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