Vintage stuffs...I think

So I ran some errands with my mom yesterday and we scored big. After visiting the craft store for the umpteen-millionth time this week (for me, anyway), we decided to visit the new bakery in Cohoes and grab some of their delicious bread. I've been planning tonight's dinner, a fisherman's stew, for a few days now and wanted some nice crusty bread to serve with it...Mike, I can see you cringing now.

Unfortunately for us, the bakery was closed so we ventured back up the hill toward my mom's house. On the way we noticed a ton of old furniture propped up outside of what we thought was an abandoned garage. Apparently someone occupies it now, and that someone happens to buy and repair/rebuild antiques. My mom fell in love with a rocking chair from the late 19th century (no pictures of it, sorry) for a whopping $75, and I fell in love with a table for the shop. The rocking chair is amazing with a nifty little side pocket for magazines, or in my mom's case, lots and lots of yarn.



The table, well, it's perfect for the shop, although I still don't know just how antique this "antique" table really is. Are any of you good at identifying furniture? I'd love a hand with this. It's badly in need of some aesthetic TLC. I think I might paint it black and do a crackle finish with a layer of antique white over that. Or I might just leave it this pumpkiny orange color and crackle a high gloss black over that. What do you think?

The man who owns the store/garage was so pleased with our purchases that he offered to throw in a giant sack of vintage hats and purses for free. I'm kicking myself in the ass royally today because I know a lot of you collect and re-purpose vintage items and I would have gladly done a giveaway here. I'm sorry about that. Instead I was thinking about me, me, me, and being stuck with a bunch of stuff I'd never use and eventually have to get rid of. So I took my two favorites, a hat (for the brooch) and a sweet green purse and left. Maybe if I go back the offer will still stand.

Anyway, I scored this adorable little green evening bag for me:


And this crunchy old hat, which is a little gross:


but check out this brooch:

I'm not quite sure what to do with the brooch. Anyone have any suggestions? Johanna, this piece reminded me of you for some reason. Do you know if you could use it? I'm willing to part with it if you think you can make something of it. It needs a good cleaning pretty badly, I'm afraid, but it has all of its pieces and it's quite sturdy.

And yes, lesson learned:

The next time you're working with an antiques dealer and he offers you a free anything, much less a BAG of free things, you take it. Got it.

It's snowing here today. We're expecting another 2-4 inches between today and tomorrow. Eek. After reading this blog post about the flowers she has in her garden already I find myself tremendously jealous. Please send Spring this way!