abeachcottage

Postcards from Beach Cottage Treasure Hunting ~ Vintage Things ~

 

G'day girlies?  How ya cooking?  Ready for the weekend?  You betchya.

As I loaded these photos up for this post, I have to say I had a little second thought.  Do you really want to see pictures of a 50 yr old typewriter in a scruffy old cottage on the beaches?  And do I really want to add any further ammunition to the suggestion that I may be slightly off my rocker? 

 

Without much more thought I came to the conclusion that firstly you gals already know pretty much that I am erring on the side of nutcase and secondly I don't really care too much about the other. 

And so with that, here is Tilly, she resides somewhere near Fran ( no I haven't been drinking again). 

 

I have literally no other use for her than to show you, to sit her on the side as a quirky piece of vintage decor and to type the odd word or two when I'm feeling like every modern thing around me and the pace of life is all getting a bit too much... though for sure she more than paid for herself with the brief history lesson she provided for the BC Kiddos, who thought this was absolutely hilarious, especially the little one...he kept bashing the keys, stopping, peering in and then looking up at me in wonder. 

I have been reliably informed that this little Swiss Made beauty was the typewriter to have in those days when Miss Moneypenny & Co clipped along the streets to work with one of these tucked under their arm...none other than the Hermes Baby, complete with carry handle, compact case and supplied by Office Equipment Pty Ltd. Sydney.

 

 

I have no clue what she is worth, nor do I want to know, probably not much I assume, not old enough to be sought after and totally redundant as I sit here, typing, deleting, saving and amending on my laptop. 

What I do know is that at long last I can type abeachcottage in ink via a ribbon, on clunky old keys in a real old typeface.  

There are worse things that they call therapy in life. 

 

 

Enjoy the weekend, I'm hoping to call in here tomorrow, I'm going looking for treasure in the morning (I've actually found a new-to-me Flea Market, but not sure if I can get there), I am creeping around Mr BC to get some things put up and oh yes dinner at lg's...

Don't forget this is the last chance to win a scoop of goodies from Australian Country Style including a whole year long subscription of Aussie eye candy, comment to enter...

So long kiddos..

you can find other nice vintage things here, blogged for Cindy's Show & Tell & Frugal Friday

Info on ABeachCottage Advertising here (offer ends soon)

 
 

The Vintage Pie Safe - Dressed Up Beach Cottage Style + GIVEAWAY TIME

G'day girls, sorry I didn't get to make it here at the weekend, life was just simply too busy. 

We headed to the beach on Sunday morning for some R & R but sadly never made it on the sand as here in Australia there was a tsunami warning in light of the awful disaster in Chile...sometimes I wonder what is going on with the world lately. 

Anyway, being at home on Sunday arvo, a couple of roast chickens in the oven, doing some gardening and Sunday things, I took the opportunity to get those Beach Cottage males to shift the old pie safe around.  And around.  And around.  From room to room.  Trying to find a place that she could comfortably stay in peace. 

Ending up in the Sitting Room after trying the Dining Room, the Family Room, the Breakfast Room (in place of the old pink scruffy dresser) and we even tried the deck.  

 

So this magically moving Pie Safe, for now resides here, but it's so packed in here that this baby is needing a new cottage to go live in...

As I distressed her, with a big old sandpaper attack, and later as I was dressing her up to show you, I thought just how much I love the *whole process of this little hobby of mine (and go see A Soft Place for more DIY endeavours). 

 

I have to say, this blew my mind... I think it turned out beautifully but acknowledged just how easily it could have ended up on the scrap heap.  And I wonder how we got to that mentality where things like this are often discarded, piled out on the street for Council Clean Up and new cheap, throw-away furniture bought in it's place.  

I think there are words in DIY that automatically make people think re-inventing a piece of furniture is not for them.  Primer, multiple coats, removing hardware are some such words that once conjured up for me not only some kinda DIY fear but more, I couldn't be bothered with such ridiculous make-do-and-mend unknown things from another time.  I think there was this underlying worry that these steps would be boring..

spending time priming?  boring 

 removing hardware?  boring 

 lots of coats for a nice smooth finish...borrr-rring.   

 

This little baby played her part to the hilt...and behaved herself all the way along...sure her doors have just a bit of a stick to them, there is an ever-so-slight wobble and the shelves have that grittiness under the new layers of Beach Cottage White paint that shows she had a busy former life..

There was a time in this vintage furniture journey that I still wanted the instant modern gratification of the throw-away world we've come to live in today.  But through trial and error I've come to the conclusion that it is fairly time consuming to re-invent a piece of furniture but certainly not difficult and a wonderfully mind-numbing way to fluff around in the garage. 

Now it seems, I embrace those proper steps of furniture re-invention...I have to hold my hands up and say in the early days of doing this I was much more slapdash, much more eager for the quick-fix..

These days I enjoy the process every step of the way, I love the thrill of the vintage furniture chase, the awakening of the clean up, the preparation of the primer, the soothing strokes of the new colour, the dress-up partay at the end ;-) 

 

But that all just kinda adds to the charm 

Here's the lowdown on the process I took her through to get her here ;-)...(you can see the WIP here)

removal of hardware

one disinfectant clean

two coats of primer 

three coats of oil-based enamel (hand-mixed BC White) 

one serious heavy-grit sandpaper attack 

one smooothing all over fine sandpaper rub-down

one big-girl Beach Cottage Dress Up Session

 

Righto, I am off painting again, (yep really, remember that shelf I started?  I didn't like the Beach White on it, so I tried a new very coooool white and I'm half way through and it's looking hot!) 

Oh and just before I go as I mentioned on Friday, it's Beach Cottage Giveaway Time again this week..(those lovely sponsors up there on my sidebar mean there's gonna be more giveaways round here)...

and this week we have got a ROCKING offer for Beach Cottage readers courtesy of Australian Country Style, a fabulous Aussie country magazine that knocks my socks off just about every month

...there's more than one prize, full giveaway details in the next post, but you can start commenting, tweeting or Facebook mentioning from now ;-)) 

 

So long lovelies, I'd love to hear your views on Polly Pie Safe 

 

 

you can read more about the Pie Safe including before pics here

blogged for Make Your Monday