Some things from around my home

Although its not a great photo of the table, this pic captures my beautiful cat "Mittens" sitting on a chair (she is keeping watch for her big brother from a position of relative saftey under the kitchen table). It has a grey formica top and extends from a square into a rectangle and great for sewing.   The edges are wooden and due to all the scrubbing, have almost no varnish left.  I bought this table from the Princes St Salvation Family Store in about 1999 for $10 ( I think).  At the time, I was flatting and it was transported from the store to my flat upside down on the roof of a yellow 1976 Honda Civic.  The chairs - there are three - are not the original ones which match the table, but were also from the Princes St store, my memory is a little fuzzy, but I think they were about $5 each, or less.  I bought them about 7 years ago, and I got the curtains from the very same store about 4 years ago.

This style of furniture is completely the opposite of what I grew up with: Scandinavian style wooden dining table and chairs which my parents bought in the 1970s.  My mother, in particular reviles the "1950s look".  Bah humbug is what I say.  I just realised that one of the aprons that my beloved Mother in law gave me is on the back of the chair!

I love this lamp - I sit beside it most evenings, reading, knitting or just watching tv.  It is a wooden turned base and still has the original lamp shade.  I bought it from the Barking Fish in Port Chalmers about 10 years ago for about $30.  I was prepared to pay more for it because it is such a cool shape.  On the left of the lamp you might be able to see a ceramic hexagonal pot which my dear friend Cindy gave to me.  It has a lovely picture of a deer on it and Cindy knows how much I love deer and bambi.  Cindy found it at ReStore, and we think it is a saki bottle  - I need to take a better photo of it as it has a golden bird over a little hole as well as a spout.

I found this wooden souvenir of Dunedin plate at the Hospice Butterflies shop.  My eye was immediately drawn to the cool flowers and the bright colours.  Judging by the cars I would say that the photo in middle is from the 1960s.  I did not need to buy this plate but it was so cool and I think it goes with some of the other quirky stuff in my house.  

I do not recall having a jewellry box when I was a little girl, my sister had one with a ballerina.  This one came from Trademe, and I immediately fell in love with the bright happy orange colour.  A really naughty part of me knows that this is the sort of thing my mother would call "tat", and for that reason I love it all the more, for representing the kind of thing I did not have when I was a child.  I do have some things from my childhood which I can show you, but that is another post.

So readers have you inherited your love of vintage from your parents or family?  Or are you like me and seem to be inexplicably drawn to retro, thrift, and vintage because it is the opposite of what you grew up with?