Sunday, August 28, 2011

Two new business opps-- Bus Driving and Mrs. V's Vintage

Go ahead and ignore the former.  I don't really plan on making a business of it.  But this was a very exciting weekend! 

So over the summer, I purchased some antiques and some vintage accessories and clothes.  (of course I did.  My mom visited.  What else would we do besides make homemade ice cream in a 1950's ice cream maker?)  I also shopped a bit in my grandmother's closet.  There are some awesome 1970's finds in there!  So with the profit that  I made off of selling a Charles Eames sofa circa 1950's/60's  (blog on that to come).... Otto opened a bank account up for me and I planned to start a little online business.  I wasn't sure if I'd sell on ebay or etsy or what, but I had my new account since late July.  Finally, yesterday I did some research and decided to open an etsy.com shop for my stuff. 

I had an etsy account previously just for purchasing.  (Have I blogged about my vintage letter "V" from etsy.com? Don't think so.. more to come on that)  Well, my account name was lame-- mverhulst716. I didn't know that that name couldn't be edited.  In fact I didn't care because I had not planned on being a seller.  But just as soon as I decided to be a seller, I find out that you need to have a catchy shop name and mverhulst716 was not going to cut it and it couldn't be changed.  So, I simply opened a new shop.  I didn't give the name much thought.  I was anxious to list my items quickly, thus Mrs. V's Vintage it was!  Afterall, how can you beat a little alliteration?  Last night I got a whole 5 items (all handbags so far) listed on etsy.  Crossing fingers for some sales.  PLEASE visit and "LIKE" it on Facebook!!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/MrsVsVintage?ref=pr_shop_more

As for the bus driving.  Well, I drove the bus this morning at 7am.  It was my second time driving, but my first time driving on an actual road... not to mentioin an INTERSTATE!  It was quite scary. I felt very... WIDE on the road.  And that puppy would NOT get up and go! I asked my trainer.. "Are you positive this thing goes over 15 mph?".  She said yes and by 9am, I had driven 50mph!  Overall, I felt pretty comfortable and confident.  I successfully parallel parked a 36' vehicle, and also successfully, well... ran a red light immediately after doing a great job at a railroad crossing.   I have a few more days of practice driving and will be taking my CDL driving test in Sept.  Pray for me!  All I know is that if Otto mentions me hauling 18-wheeler loads as a summer job $$$ one more time, I might... well...throw him under the bus!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

FINALLY! NEW OFFICE- PART 2

Wow, it's been a looong time since I blogged.  I feel not-so-good about it.  I was so in to it when I first started this beaut, but then.... I got too busy.  I was busy traveling.  Even with so much good content to blog about, I didn't have time to stop an actually do it.  Well, here  I am, back in action.  I make no guarantees about how often I'll blog now since a) I'm back at school and starting to act psycho again b) I'm busy preparing to get my CDL license finally c) My evenings need to be spent working out since I have a large chunk of weight to lose.   All that besides the point, that I'd now like to tell you about our new office and how you, TOO could have a much cooler office if you look for retro/used furniture and cutesy accessories!

So this all started when Otto and I decided we needed to switch the office room with the spare bedroom room.  See blog New Guest bedroom new office part 1.   The bedroom was done first since we had all the furniture for that room.  The office was more of a challenge.  So, after looking at some new office furniture from places like Staples, Office Depot, Crate and Barrel, etc... we realized that new furniture is often
C-R-A-P!!  So my smart mom recommended that I go hunting in used office furniture stores etc.  So that's what I did.  I decided I wanted something that was going to be like early 70's-ish.  You know, something that looks like it belongs in an office on a 70's detective TV show or something.  And I became obsessed!

After going to WAY too many stores that had nothing appealing (or old enough-- mostly ealry 90's UGLY stuff) I turned to the internet and found "Secondhand Sam".  This dude is awesome!  He has a warehouse of all used furniture in Irving.  Otto and I drove to check out this desk we saw on his website.   Oh Sam!  What a character! He had this packed little warehouse with this AWESOME but LARGE 70's Jofco walnut desk.  When we saw it, it had a few flaws, but I loved the heavy duty style and the peg legs and brass drawer pulls.  Sam gave us a little discount on the price, threw in a free retro chair that matched my style, and helped us load that big boy up.  Getting it into the house was quite the ordeal, but we managed.  Below is a picture of the desk when it was still at Secondhand Sams.  How COOL and retro is it?!!?!?!?

  

When we got this big dog into our office-- it looked HUGE! I mean, you can't tell from the picture, but it is a HUGE desk.  But they're not made like this anymore, and I grew to love it in all it's size. 

After getting the desk, I was on the hunt for a matching credenza for against the wall behind the desk.  I (again) became obsessed with finding a matching (or just coordinating) one.  Whilst looking for a credenza, I managed to buy the funky strange art using a Groupon which Otto purchased for me on art.com.  Here are the two pieces I bought.  The colors and style would look awesome with the desk!


A Deer Wearing Gym Socks Art PrintTweet

The problem came when I received these cuties and realized that they would require custom framing.  More to come on that later.  So...I continued to look for a Jofco brand credenza or at least something that looked like it would coordinate with my desk.  I searched mid-centurty modern sites/stores, and then came upon a man that sent me to his showroom's warehouse.  It's where all the used merchandise arrives before being cleaned up, priced and sent it into the showroom.  It was in a somewhat freaky part of town and an Eastern European named Zoran!! worked there.  He showed me around and I found no credenza to my liking.  What I DID find was strange, striped, futon-looking couch thing sitting up on it's side.  It caught my eye just because it looked like it didn't belong there and I couldn't tell what it was.  It had a low price on it.  It appeared to be old. I bent down to see if there was any marking on it (mama taught me that!)  Indeed-- I found a sticker that said "Designed by Charles Eames for Herman Miller".  WHOA -- I knew those names.  I knew I had likely found a gem.  I asked Zoran to hold it for me, got in my car and had my mom look it up.  It was worth a lot of money.  It was likely manufactured in 1960s.  And after a lot of internet research and talking to experts,  I found out that the upholstery which I thought was God awful, was a design by Alexander Girard, head textile designer known for bright fabrics in the 50's &60's.  His stuff is highly sought after, especially in good condition and original on the furniture.  Long story short... I sold that thing for a nice profit in mid-July.  I felt like a smart entrepreneur!

While in California, I received a call from a used office furniture salesman  at Pearce Office Furniture whom I had told I was looking for a credenza-- preferably walnut, Jofco, with peg legs.  He had saved my number and called to let me know he got a matching credenza in!  I asked him to send me pictures immediately and he did.  I purchased it over the phone.  It was a perfect match to my desk and I was ecstatic!  Here's the credenza.


photo.JPG

We purchased the credenza for a great price and my mom and I picked it up when I returned from Cali.  It was too good to be true. 

The other thing mom and I did, was --- LOTS of antiquing.  While going to antique stores, mom had the great idea of looking for frames for my artwork.  She said we should find a cool frame for which we could ditch the art inside and use the frame for my deer picture. The deer print was going to cost $300+ to custom frame.  Mom found a frame for about $13. Perfect size, perfect color.  Then, we went and purchased a piece of mat board for $15, took it to a frame shop and got it cut for $4  Insane.  We custom framed it for $32.  We were able to frame Tweet (bird print) rather inexpensively. 

Mom bought us a really nice end table to function as a TV stand in the office, as an anniversary gift.  The styling coordinates nicely with the office decor.

Otto and I bought an orange mail sorter from The Container Store. I'm still looking for some little accessories, including a desk lamp.  I also purchased a large wall decal in the shape of the United States.  I'm going to eventually frame it in some unique way.  The colors match great with the office.  Anyway... TADA! Here's the semi-completed office.  Do ya like it??

Here's the full view.........


Here's the awesome art! Look at that frame job on the deer!

 


Front of Desk... love the off-set pulls and the peg legs which are hard to see here.


Matching credenza... can you believe it?!!?



The small table purchased by my mom (need a retro desk lamp.. this one ain't cuttin' it).  And the United States art which will eventually go up on the large empty wall and possibly be surrounded with travel photos, the FREE chair from Secondand Sam, and the orange mail sorter from The Container Store.   I've removed the matching orange desk bell which was on the desk and Otto misused it to call in his "Secretary".  Hmmmm.... needless to say-- he LOVES this office.  I've barely sat in there because it's never vacant!