Good to remember. For life, and for days when it should be spring but doesn’t really feel like it.
Image via Society6.
Invincible Summer
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Record (Store) Day
I visited some friends back in Indiana on Saturday and made a quick stop at Goodwill on my way out of town. While there are plenty of favorite thrifting locations around Chicago, there’s nothing like a good ol’ Indiana thrift store for some treasures. So while I didn’t get to celebrate Record Store Day at an actual record store, I’d say this was a close second.
Well Loved
Much Loved is a collection of photographs by Mark Nixon that perfectly captures the saying, “Love is blind.” Capturing the tattered and deformed shapes of well-loved stuffed animals, you can’t help but think think how terrifying these creatures would be out of context. But thinking back on the years of love that brought them to this state, it’s actually really touching.
For my own part, I’m fairly certain that the bear above is the same one as my own Teddy, who’s been in my possession for close to 30 years. My brother and I got identical bears on year when when the local grocery store had a promo and sold them in a towering endcap display for months. My brother never got very attached to his but we still have it somewhere and that pristine bear has always been a sort of bizarro world contrast to my now flat and balding Teddy. I bought Henry a special stuffed dog for his birthday and wonder if it’ll someday end up well loved like these creatures.
Via Flavorwire.
Scout Mob Sale
Flea Market Warrior
This felt like it was the first officially nice weekend of 2013 and to mark the occasion we spent Sunday morning at Wolff’s Flea Market in Rosemont. The market is held in the parking lots around Allstate Arena and we’d stopped once last year on the way home from Ikea. That visit wasn’t very eventful– it was the height of summer and super hot, plus it was getting on in the afternoon and vendors were packing up so we vowed to come back once the weather got nice again. This time around we vowed to get up early and head out first thing (as parents of a toddler that’s not nearly as daunting as it used to be).
The whole event is a mix of flea market in the way that I always knew them– lots of antique and vintage items mixed in with a fair amount of “junk” to dig through– as well as the version of flea market that I’d only seen when I moved to the city– tables piled high with packages of socks, gently used power tools, woven friendship bracelets and soccer jerseys. I enjoy how strange a combination this can be– you can stumble upon a great vintage light fixture and also try your luck with some recently expired Zyrtec if you happen to be having a allergy attack (like I was).
Allstate Arena is right next to O’Hare so standing in the parking lot feels a bit like you’re on the runway (or in that scene in Wayne’s World). The planes come in super low and loud and each time I have to keep talking myself down– “It’s okay, it’s not actually as low as it seems, it’s not going to land on your head.”
Ben’s new favorite show is Market Warriors, an Antiques Roadshow spin-off where professional buyers go to a flea market and try to flip purchases at auction for a profit. My main takeaway from the show is that it’s super hard to make money buying and selling like that, but it’s also been interesting to witness the negotiating dance that goes on between buyers and sellers. Haggling isn’t something that I’m very comfortable with, it’s just not a practice that I grew up around and for me it feels rude– I’ve had people try to negotiate prices with me when I’ve sold at craft fairs and I find it a little insulting, actually. But I get that in some environments it’s part of the deal– prices are purposely inflated so that if you get lucky, you make a bit more off a newbie, but won’t take offense when a more seasoned shopper asks for you to work with them on the price. So, armed with our best negotiating phrases gleaned from PBS (“What’s your best price on this?”, “Can you work with me on the price?” etc) we went about our visit determined to save a few dollar that we would’ve otherwise paid.
And it ended up working out pretty well– I got to practice being a bit more assertive, get out of my comfort zone a bit and came home saving probably close to 30%. We weren’t in the market for anything big ticket, so that translates to $10 or so, but still, that’s $10 I would’ve paid before and now get to keep!
Here are our finds:
The aluminum folding chair was the big purchase of the day– We don’t have any outdoor furniture so that was the only thing I was actively looking for, and I’m really happy that we stumbled on this. The orang folding coat rack and folk art salt and pepper shakers were the first purchase of the day (another tip gleaned– buy more than one item and you can usually get a better deal) and the Empire State Building pennant, my final purchase of the day was a steal at $3 and in great condition.
All in all, an excellent way to spend a Sunday morning. Got some exercise, some Vitamin D and the opportunity to channel my inner wheeler-dealer. Can’t beat that!
Soviet Vintage
I find it so intriguing to look at vintage Soviet objects (Etsy has a great selection). They seem so familiar and typical, but with this slight edge of something totally different. We bought Henry a trio of vintage Soviet postcards that are framed in his nursery and those, along with vintage Olympic memorabilia (the USSR stuff was some of the best) I wrote about last summer, have me hooked. Here are some choice picks from Russia of yesteryear–
Celebrating Year One
We celebrated Henry’s first birthday this weekend– cake, Chicago style hot dogs and (his favorite) lots of wrapping paper. Still hard to believe it’s been a whole twelve months since the little man made his appearance. He’s pretty much the coolest kid ever, even when he won’t go to bed til 10pm and insists on knocking over the dog’s water bowl every chance he gets. Besides that, parenthood’s been pretty much a breeze ; )
Pictured (clockwise): Baseball birthday button assortment, Henry and his smash cake, Lamb cake gifted by our 96 year old neighbor, me + Hen, Celebration on Henry’s actual birthday, Shipping box that Henry’s custom-made Cotton Monster stuffed dog came in.
As part of Henry’s party invitation, I created an infographic retrospective of the first year. Since the invitations had to go out a month or so ago, we weren’t sure of the milestones that would be met in the final month and a half of Year One (hence the “First tooth” and “First steps”) but the kid ended up coming through with both, just in the nick of time.
Click here to see the full size version.
Looking forward to all the new adventures that year two has in store for us.
