Showing posts with label De Kringwinkel. Show all posts

Friday, January 27, 2012

More Stuffs

Alrighty, so I did a post last week about Trogs. Since I have a bit of an addiction with them, I did some hunting online to get some sort of inspiration in terms of decorating with them aside from using them as a fruit bowl, or a dog toy bowl, or even a dog bed. Sure enough, I was scrolling around Pottery Barn and saw a good idea in terms of candles:

So, I attempted to copy cat it without spending gobs of money on high end candles. Plus, I also happened to have a "mirror" style ornament to put in the trog (like the one in the PB picture). The only costly part was finding a "filler" to actually hold the candles up. Between debating on rocks, sand, seeds and everything else under the sun, I settled on coffee beans. Yes, coffee beans. After all was said and done, I used about seven pounds of beans...and here's how it turned out.

All in all, I think it turned out pretty well. Not to mention, my foyer now smells like a coffee bar :)

In other news, I completely forgot about this awesome chair my Dad bought while he was visiting us back in 2010. Man, time flies! Anyway, he ventured over to the De Kringwinkel with Eric in search of a fairly reasonably priced desk since he didn't wanna use the one that was in my office. Makes sense, right? lol. Well, when they came back, they dropped off this killer chair:

I'm absolutely in love with the carvings it! Plus, the cushions are leather and extremely comfortable. I totally see why my Dad snagged this thing! Apparently this was the only chair they had, but it was supposed to be sold with a matching couch. Obviously, we weren't in the market for a couch...nor were we willing to drag it up the narrow spiral staircase to where my Dad was staying, so, my he had to haggle in order for them to just sell the chair. As you can see, he got his way:

I meant to blog about it forever, but I kept forgetting even though it's a really pretty chair. Honestly, I've been hunting for another one like it, but none of the ones I've come across have the carvings on the front and sides, which give it a lil extra "niiiiice" factor. Then again, it's probably for the best that I don't get another because this thing is HEAVY! Along the lines of..hmmm...50lbs? Yeah. Momma's gotta do some serious spring cleaning to make sure we don't go over our weight limit when the time comes to move!

Phoning in this post..

Well well well, it's been a smidge since I've done a post. Lots of stuff has been going on which has taken most of my attention. Our house is pretty much the "walking wounded" right now because Eric messed up his back (some how) and I blew out my knee. Not only is my knee screwed, but I've been dealing with some serious abdominal pains (yes, I have a doctors appointment to get checked out). Between dealing with my stuff AND Eric's, I haven't been too froggy to go raise hell like I usually do.

Random, but I was actually up and coherent for sunrise! The weather here as of late has been pretty shitty...lots over overcast, rain, wind..blah blah blah. Any, the sunrise looked so pretty that I couldn't pass up taking a pic of it!

In other news..

Last week I went to the Turkish market with a friend of mine and we popped into the Kringwinkel (it's like Belgiums version of Goodwill). After snooping around for a lil bit, I ended up finding a really cool side table I really couldn't live without. Then again, I tend to think I can't live without a whole lot of things!

Here's the goody:

After cleaning it up a lil bit and adding some decorations, here's how it looks in the house:

Not too long before that, I haunted my FAVORITE antique warehouse with the thought of "I really want an old vintage phone"...ya know, the rotary kind. I'm hunting for vintage looking things like old old alarm clocks (the type with the two bells and a mini hammer on top), a Yashica TLR camera, smaller old film reels, and a phone. As I'm looking around...I'll be damned, cause look what I found:

It's from the 50's, a very hard plastic, and VERY heavy! Ever watched a movie and there's a fight scene where someone grabs an old phone and hits someone with it? The person who gets hit ends up being knocked out? Yeah, I totally believe that's possible because this thing weighs at least 5lbs! After a lil cleaning, it shined up and looked good as new! When I bought it home, Eric rolled his eyes , but, at least he understands there's a REASON why I'm collecting this stuff and not just a random purchase.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on aside from taking care of myself and Eric! I've been focusing on eating better and have lost 8lbs since the beginning of the year, working out as much as I can despite the bum knee, currently in the process of planning another girls trip to Poland for some pottery, and doing some personal assessments regarding various friendships.

Busy busy, but nothing new, right?

THE Chair

We're a "gamer" family. It's not much of a secret if you know us..we have an Xbox upstairs as well as downstairs, although the upstairs is the official "man cave". So, whenever I wanna actually play some sort of game, I gotta bust out my folding chair since the rest of the seats are wayyyy in the back of the living room.

One of the main "perks" about my folding chair is that there's a little pop up "side table" I can use for drinks...

...but I rarely get to utilize it since Piper REALLLLY likes being near me. So instead of sitting on my lap, she gets a premo spot on the tray while bundled up in a nice blankey. Hard life, right?

Anyway, as "comfy" as the chair is for her, it's not all that comfortable for me because it's not really supportive and not exactly designed for gaming. Which means, I can't sit and play Fable III for more than an hour at a time because it screws my back up. Sure, it could be seen as a "sign" for me not to sit on my ass and play games for that long, but sometimes I need that "stress reliever" to just blow stuff up for the sake of some satisfaction.

SO..

There's a store just down the road from me called "De Kringwinkel" which is kinda like a Belgian version of Goodwill. Whenever you wanna get rid of something, you can just drop it off there and they resell it to the public...and if you're wanting to get something for fairly cheap, that's the place you go to. I've haunted that store pretty frequently since being here considering I've scored some super killer deals, like a set of dining room chairs for only 20 euros ($26.50), a really bitchin' chair my Dad picked up for 15 euros ($21.75), in addition to random wine goblets and beer mugs (usually $.50 a piece) rather than paying 20 euro a pop through the beer stores.

I popped in there the other day to see if I could find a fairly decent chair (kinda like the one my Dad found) without having to fork out a ton of money.

I ended up snagging this plushy chair. It's actually made really well and VERY comfortable, despite it being a burnt orange color..totally screams that it's from the late 70's or early 80's, lol. I'm actually debating on getting it professionally reupholstered, most likely whenever we get back to the States since I *know* I won't do a very good job with doing it myself. The frame is in fantastic shape and I just need to sand down the wood and restain it a walnut color so it matches the rest of our stuff. Not bad for 15 euro ($20):