Having a fairytale vintage life

Sometimes, reading blogs is a frustrating hobby. All those wonderful houses, fabulous pictures and marvelous vintage collectors items for a bargain are just a bit too good to be true. Here in Holland, people are quite aware of the value of their leftovers, and websites like marktplaats.nl (similar to the American Craigslist) are filled with to-die-for vintage pieces that are priced at a level I can't afford. Let alone the thrift store. We are growing to a level here where all the good things in thrift stores are pre-selected and sold via the previous mentioned internet marketplace. A good bargain is hard to find here, and while reading all those fantastic blogs about fairytale moments of finding Eames sideshells on their sidewalks (is it raining George Nelson bubble lamps over there in the US?), we Dutchies are sighing of frustration because another dream item gets a permanent place on our Dream On List.

But, wait, what happened just the other day? Could this be true?

I read an add on our Dutch marketplace the other day just offering two lamps. No information, except for their dimensions and the fact that the smaller one had some damage. Although I learned quickly that this lamp, originally designed by Claus Bonderup and Thorsten Thorup for Fog & Morup in the late '60's, is widely copied, but I decided to go for it and send an email offering just enough to outbid another interested buyer. Luckily, my offer of 21 euro for the both was accepted and yesterday I took off to collect my new lamps.

I think I am now officially a very proud member of the fairytale world of bloggers. The smaller one is quite damaged and originally purchased at a Swedish warehouse best known for its blue and yellow stores selling furniture and meatballs, but the bigger one is, unless I am very much mistaken, the real deal. A Fog and Morup Semi in white, with a diameter of 60 cm. Unfortunately it is not marked, but all the features seem to tick the boxes.

Next week I will be a very busy girl installing both the original and fake lamp. Because I need to have quite a bit of fairytale moments more to create our dream house.

About teapots and thrift stores

Today I was lucky. I walked into a thrift store, basically to bring some stuff back into circulation. And of course I took advantage of the situation to stroll around for a bit. And, I was lucky. Before showing todays find, I am going to show my whole collection of tea- and coffee pots, to place my find in the right perspective.

 First here is my Columbia pot by Bodum. Not vintage, but very dear to me. It was a graduation present of my university rowing team and it has been engraved. I got it in 2006 and still use it everyday as a teapot (although it is actually a coffee pot). I love the shape and the way it is so easy to use. And it reminds me of the good times I had at my rowing club. This one is quite hard to photograph, so in the reflection you see a bit of me. Hello, everyone!

Next one is the Eva Solo tea maker. I have been totally in love with this one for quite some time. One day I was rewarded with a bonus at work, and because I wanted to remember this special moment, I bought this teapot with the bonus. I love it because of the clever and simple design.

The Peacock vacuum bottle is a thrift store find. Unfortunately, the logo is not on the bottle any more, but I still like it because of the nice shape. It was in very bad state when I found it, but some cleaning did miracles for this beauty!

This Regout Maastricht teapot is another thrift store find. I think this company is one of the nicest Dutch ceramics companies, and these teapots with their nice pastels are gorgeous. A purist would disagree with my teapot, since originally the lid and the pot should have the same colour. So this combination is not original. But I am kind of fond of both the blue and mint colour in one teapot.

Another Dutch brand is Daalderop. This teapot is the one I use at the office.  It has a double wall, which is good if I get distracted because of a call or other important working life things. And I adore the vintage office look it has. And, hello reflection again, this teapot reveals a little bit more of my camera and me!

And, last but not least, todays find. I already had this Melitta coffeepot. I love it. I think it is one of my favourite vintage finds. It is not an Eames chair in mint condition, or an Arne Jacobsen egg chair for a bargain, but love isn’t necessarily about big items (and, both an Eames and an Arne Jacobsen are just a teeny tiny bit out of reach at this moment… They kind of never go away for a bargain).  Todays find is the matching creamer. Yeah, that little jug right in front of it. I found it stowed away at the back of a drawer. And although I am still on the watch now for a matching sugar jar, I am very happy about this find!  

I really hope you like my little collection. Of course, over time I hope to expand it with some more nice items. I am always on the look for ceramics of brands like Arabia Finland, Iittala and as soon as I spot an affordable Picot ware tea set, I will certainly get it.