The Brass Armadillo Antique Mall

Back when we were in Arizona, I stopped by The Brass Armadillo for a little shopping. It's this huge antique mall in Phoenix with row and rows of booths with the coolest vintage and antique finds. I found a ton of stuff that I probably would have bought if this place was back in Seattle. But, since we were on vacay, I had to limit my spending to items that would fit in our suitcase (insert pouty face here). The prices were pretty reasonable too! So, I thought I'd share some of the stuff I found with you today!

My favorite purchase was the vintage Atlantic Ocean map (above). I have it in our bedroom now, but I figure it might be cute in the nursery with the hot air balloons? Plus, the colors are awesome.

I loved this cute little turquoise rocker.

These chalkboard pennants were fun!

This horsey would look super cute in a bright fun color in a nursery.

I loved this hammered brass lamp. I think it was only about $25 - if only I had room in my suitcase!

Such a cool old worn leather ottoman. The cognac color was fantastic.

Also loved these small shell lamps. I can see them as bedside lamps sitting on a pile of vintage books.

I've been looking for a shudder like this forever! It was about $30 I think and I would have bought it if I had room. My friend, Mykell, had a shudder like this and used it to display all her colorful scarves and I have wanted to do the same!

I liked the shape of this upholstered lady. She even has a little tufting. In a bold new fabric, she would be pretty amazing.

Brass bar cart. Do I need to say more?

Loved all these mix and match gold frames. They would look so amazing in a cluster on the wall in a nursery with some vintage prints.

I just love letters as decor. Graphic. Colorful. Awesome.

Loved this turquoise frame! Complete with gold detailing!

These vintage prints would be sweet in the kitchen.

There were quite a few antique strollers too!

I ended up getting these three vintage circus cards. I thought I could frame them together for the nursery to go with the "hot air balloon" theme (kind of a circus theme too?). I think they were $1.25 each.

They had quite a few reasonably priced bird cages that would be fun spray painted in bright colors (without the faux bird of course).

Such a sweet vintage quilt.

This miniature secretary desk and chair would be perfect for Little BK's big girl's room! Especially in a fun color with some new knobs!

Almost bought this "vintage" (I think it was actually from the 80s... is that considered vintage yet?) animal crackers tin for the nursery. I probably would have if I had more of a circus theme, but it didn't feel as girly for me. Maybe for a boy's nursery though?

Vintage glasses! Love!

This velvet chair was fantastic. Would be even better in a velvet-y navy.

This was just a crazy wood chair. And it was huge! Definitely not my style, but amazing craftsmanship.

I almost bought this Lincoln bust, but then I realized it was actually a perfume bottle by Avon. Not exactly vintage... but still looked pretty cool. I just couldn't figure out what kind of perfume would be in a Lincoln head? So I googled it. Apparently not perfume, but after shave! That's more manly at least...

This vintage suitcase would be so cute in a little boy's nursery with a travel/globe theme.

I also almost bought this little mint elephant. Again, would be cute with a more circus theme for the nursery.

Can you tell I like turquoise/aqua?! These frames were so cute, again with the gold detail.

And here's what the place looked like from the upstairs! So huge!

If you are ever in Arizona, definitely check out the Brass Armadillo!

Weekend in Instagrams & Happy Birthday Mama!

How was your weekend? We had a lot of fun this weekend with our families, first on Friday night we hung out with Zachary's family. His grandma came all the way from Napa, CA to visit for the week. We had a great time at Z'Tejas for dinner - a southwestern/mexican restaurant with yummy cornbread!

Saturday morning we went over to my parents house in Centralia for my mom's birthday. While the boys watched football, my mom and I went to downtown Centralia to hit up the antique shops (Centralia is quickly becoming one of my favorite places for great vintage and antique finds!).

First we went to Chehalis to this AMAZING fabric/quilt shop. Tons and tons of color coordinated fabrics line the walls. I love it so much, but at the same time, it's kind of overwhelming because there are so many choices! I've been trying to find some fabric for Zach's mom to make me a quilt and finally settled on getting a jelly roll in some colorful vintage patterns. I want to do a herringbone style quilt and can't wait to see the result (I'll keep you posted).

From there we went to the main street downtown to hit up some of our favorites (this is the third time we've wandered down there this summer). The first stop we went into I found this vintage Coca Cola crate for $9! I was so excited because 1) I'd seen a very similar one the first time we went antiquing - I didn't get it and had been dreaming thinking about it ever since. 2) Other crates like this I'd seen were upwards of $25-30, so I thought it was kind of a steal.

The second store we went into I found the globe for $15! Seriously, it was my lucky day (of course, when I am on the spending diet... oops! This was my "cheat day" I guess...). I snatched it up just in time for us to hit the next shop where I found an equally awesome globe for only $10. That was the lowest price I'd seen on a globe recently, so naturally I had to buy it. :)

Also, at the first store they had a ton of old Schwinn bicycles out on the street. I was seriously thinking about getting one. The one I wanted was a blue one, with a basket of course, and it was $120. Maybe they'll still be there next time we go...

My favorite find of the day was this amazing pinky mauve tufted wing back chair. It was love at first sight, but I was good and waited on it. By the time I got home, I couldn't stop thinking about it and decided to see if the store was open the next day. It was quarter past five and they closed at six so (with permission from the hubby) we raced back down to the store. The CLOSED sign was up on the door, but I decided to try it anyways since it was only 5:30, and thankfully it was still unlocked! I went in and asked the girl at the counter if we could look at the chair again and she said yes. We went back to look and it was just as I had remembered. Check out those wide curved wings and the tufts. I die. It was $58, which I thought was a good deal for the condition and the uniqueness of it. I decided to try to get them down on price and it worked! I saved $3! Haha. Gotta start somewhere, right? :)

Long, long story blog post short, I got it and it's wonderful and I can't wait to make it my next project!

We also made some homemade peach pie (recipe coming soon) and went out to birthday brunch at Judy's Country Kitchen. I love my family and we have a lot of fun. :) And the pups were happy to see their Uncle Aaron and get spoiled by the grandparents. Happy Birthday Mama!

Wow. That was kind of a lot. I don't blame you if you skipped all the words. I hope you all had a great weekend! 

Happy Weekend! (Didn't We Just Do This?)

It seems like we just had a weekend! I'm not complaining - I love me a short week - but this week has flown by. I'm looking forward to date night tonight (Z is planning out where we are going) and then hanging out with my dear friend and her mister at Golden Gardens (I've never been!) on Saturday. Z is also on call all weekend... so hopefully no emergencies come up...

I'm also looking forward to doing some shopping looking with maybe a little buying (out of my allowance, of course - I haven't already forgotten, don't worry!). If you have any suggestions of places to find awesome vintage/antique goodies, please drop me a comment! I love checking out new places. I saw a sign for an antique mall in Puyallup on the way home last weekend, so I might see what I can find there.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Summer is almost gone, but it's still hanging on, so do enjoy it!

Photo found here.

PS I've always wanted to go on a hot air balloon... Have you ever been?

Pacific Galleries Antique Mall

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I had so much fun this weekend hanging out with friends (and watching an unhealthy amount of Downton Abbey Season 2). Saturday Kim and I went to the Pacific Galleries Antique Mall in Sodo after a delicious lunch at Cafe Macrina. We split the Buttermilk Waffle with peaches and a brown sugar whipped cream. It was yummy.

From there we went down the street to the antique mall. It was so much fun! Such a cool place filled with rows and rows of antiques and curated vintage finds. I loved it! We must have spent 3 hours in there just browsing every row and every booth. Some of the stuff was a little tacky, but most of the booths were great. 

The only bad thing is that some of the items were a little pricey. Some understandably so, but some we were surprised at the price tag. Here's some of the items we found...

We saw a ton of these old rusty utility baskets. These were the cheapest ones we saw for $26 each. Whey would be so cute in one of those IKEA square shelving units.

I loved these vintage botanical prints - for $325 each(!).

This cool old soap dispenser came in a set of ten and went for a few hundred.

There were two of these lovelies for around $800. I loved the aqua with the red piping!

I loved this dainty little chandelier. I think you could only put candles or tea lights in there, which wouldn't be very practical, but I loved the shape of it.

I loved this cool industrial table lamp.

And then there was this guy...

These huge vintage light bulbs were $20 each (the bulb fit in the palm of my hand for size reference), but I thought they would be awesome in a cluster as a chandelier.

I was eyeing these antlers for $35. They were pretty small, which I liked, but I just couldn't pull the trigger for the 35 bones.

They had a huge showroom area with a bunch of furniture. The styling was amazing! Kind of Anthropologie-esque. I was in love with those aqua chairs!

This collection of bottles went for $300!

This mirrored window reminds me of my chalkboard window, just on a much larger scale. Loved it (and the antlers). 

I'm a sucker for vintage books - this collection had such great detail.

I wanted this set of drawers so bad! Only $725... but perfect for more craft storage!

We hadn't seen anything like these lavender bottles. So pretty and dainty. They would look so cute in a cluster in a little girls room.

You know I love my German beer! If only we had a man cave.

There were tons of different vintage glass sets. We both loved this one with the gold stripes for display on top of a cute bar cart.

I really wanted to find shudder like this one - but not for $75.

This quilt was so pretty. I haven't seen one like this before with only two main colors (aqua and white). I loved the aqua color (of course).

And then there were the letters. Tons and tons of letters of all shapes and sizes. I wanted them all, but decided that I shouldn't since I already have our yarn letters, $1 art, and a couple other items. No more letters for me... unless I had found one that was sublime, but there was a shorter supply of Ks. 

 

And last, but not least - what we got! There was a flea market outside in the parking lot that day and Kim scored this awesome head version of the Statue of David. It was $20 and she wants to spray paint it a fun color like white or yellow. Since she just got back from her Italian honeymoon, it was an extra special find!

I bought the little bottle on the right for $12.50. I loved the two colors and the text on the bottle. 

Afterwards, we were on a antique-high and went over to Fremont (crazy with all the traffic) to hit up some of our favorite spots - one being Deluxe Junk. We found out when we got there that it was out of business! Apparently they were evicted! Unfortunate since they had some pretty good stuff. 

Instead we wandered to a few other places and wound up at Sweet and Savory Pie, which is a little pie shop that sells well, sweet and savory pies! We each got a little pie (I got the mac and cheese and Kim got the chicken pot pie) and split them. They were delicious! We had to refrain from going back for the sweet pies!

Such a fun day. Even though I didn't get much, it was so much fun to get inspiration and see what's out there (and of course to spend some QT with one of my besties, Kim!). I can't wait to go back!