Finds

Our office Valentine's Day party is this Friday. Am working with Jessie to do an installation. She'll be leaving us on the 21st for a new job in Austin, and I'll miss having her help in all things event-related here at Unboundary. [She and I were quite the creative duo for last year's Feast.]

For the 2014 Valentine party, I'm going a bit kitschy.

And what says Valentine's Day better than a naked baby holding silk flowers?

(I can't even pass him off for a cherub; no wings on this little dude.)

Found him recently and could not pass him up.

This next treasure has an interesting story. Was at Simple Finds this past Sunday (the antique mall where I have a booth), and one of the booth vendors, Candy, was talking about two houses down the street heading for demolition within the week. She was given carte blanche to go into both and take whatever she wanted. She encouraged me to drop by. I've never done this sort of thing before; was definitely intrigued, and so I hopped in the car and headed over, not knowing what to expect.

The first house I went into had been used as a halfway house. A modest brick rancher pretty beaten up and trashed. Random furniture throughout, but none worth taking. There were some sweet wooden shutters in both bathrooms, but I have tons of shutters at home and wasn't up for grabbing my tools and disassembling them.

The second house, while in equal disarray, had a grandmotherly charm. Lots of vintage wallpapers and heavily silk-draped windows. Candy and her husband, and a handful of day laborers were finishing up a second truckload worth of goodies when I arrived. While I didn't see the first load they had taken, what was left to be loaded was a worthy stash. French doors with glass doorknobs. A crystal chandelier. Ceiling lamp fixtures with painted shades. Old wooden doors from a shed out back. Furniture. A ton of great items that would have been razed, but would now find good homes.

While I did find it all heart-racingly exciting (sorta like chancing on a yard sale selling everything you love), there was a sadness to it. Lots of memorabilia left behind. Family pictures, swim team ribbons, letters and paperwork. We moved through the house with reverence and purpose; items were carried out as if they were bodies of loved ones, gently removed from the rubble of war. What came home with me seemed to have a soul. 

I wish I'd had the right tools with me: the wooden mantles and scalloped trim in the kitchen were priceless. But I hadn't' the time, and so I took what would fit into the back of the SUV. Two mirrors, one of the distressed and chippy shed doors, and this folding door from a small hall closet. I nestled it behind my server in the living room. The bottom part of the door, solid unlike the spindle-top, does a nice job of hiding electrical cords.