I heart estate sales. Have I ever mentioned that before? (only a few times I'm sure). Seriously, though it borders on unhealthy. Do most normal people spend their spring/summer mornings getting up as early as they do on week days just to dig through other people's junk? I blame my parents. I dragged myself a few towns away on Saturday morning because I was craving a treasure hunting fix and the ad looked promising. This estate sale did NOT disappoint. Even though they only had 3 rooms with stuff for sale (it's so much more fun when you have a house of treasures to explore), but those 3 rooms were chock full of piles and piles and piles of art, both framed and unframed, and vintage books. Lucky for me, art is one of the few things I can collect without Hubby rolling his eyes. For some reason he's not too keen on the rescued furniture piles I've started hoarding in the basement...
Like I already mentioned, I didn't leave disappointed. Quite the opposite actually. I left this sale with 2 pieces of art that I've been coveting for almost a year.
Flash back to almost a year ago and Nichole from Parlour Home Blog posted a picture of her shop. The particular picture that made me swoon featured 2 vintage botanical prints.
I immediately e-mailed her to see if she did online sales or shipped, but the answer was no. sadface. After a bit of research, I discovered that these were vintage reproductions from a catalog of flowers, Twelve Months of Flowers by Robert Furber originally printed in 1730. and. I. wanted. them. They have new reproductions available on allposters.com and similar sites, but where's the fun in new?
Guess what I found at the estate sale?
$20 bucks a pop. They had a lot of them at the estate sale, a few duplicates, but not all the months. They're obviously reproductions, but I'd be shocked if they weren't at least 30 years old. I must have poked through them for a good 20 minutes deciding which ones I needed (yes, needed). I settled on only 2 since our house is small and there's only so many florals I can push on Hubby. I ended up with April and October since they had the most vibrant colors and let's face it- April IS the best month of the year. The weather gets nicer, it's warmer, the days are longer, and it all leads up to my birthday on the 30th. It's not that I'm fixated on birthdays, but April just gives me the warm and fuzzies.
So do these prints:
I plan on getting bright new mats and painting the frames a pop color to modernize them (Hubby calls them "old lady" but appreciates that I like them.)
I also bought an unframed print of Brugge ($5!) for the Hubs to soften the floral blow.
I adore the colors, but the swan is by far my favorite element.
Now I just have to find a place for all my new art!