Posts in Thrifting
Pre-Baby House Tour

A lot of friends have been asking me whether we're planning to move now that we've got a little one coming. Like most Londoners, we're in a one bedroom 'flat' (apartment) with little budgetary room to wiggle our way into something bigger that's not an hour or two away from work or would bankrupt us within six months. So the answer is no. We're not moving. 

As I imagine it will be interesting to see how we'll manage to squeeze in the babe in between the lack of storage space and came-with-the-flat bolted down IKEA stuff, I thought I'd give you all a 'before' tour of the house now, and come back in a few months from now when we've set up our baby gear. 

Living Room

The living room is by far the largest space in the house. It has large bay sash windows and holds a lot of our second hand and up cycled treasures. It's also where my studio nook is. It's tiny, but it's more than most people have and Jochem is often jealous of my miniature desk (an original Gispen), even if I end up accidentally knocking off my notebook, watercolors, water, tea, etc. while working.  

Bedroom

The bedroom came fully furnished (as did most of the house, originally), and most of the furniture here wasn't bought by us, with the exception of the bed. We decided to splurge on the bed when we moved in and it's been the best decision ever. Memory foam FTW. The bedroom has a large sash window overlooking the garden. 

Kitchen

Most of the kitchen is kind of a mess, but it's large enough and has a breakfast bar (my favorite) and a door leading to the shared garden (Jochem's favorite). It's airy and bright and I love sitting here in the morning with a cup of (now decaf) coffee. Not pictured: the dirty dishes. It's my blog, I can pretend I'm a good person here. 

Also not pictured in this post is our bathroom. We have a bath, but honestly, that whole space just depresses me. It needs a paint job and then some, so perhaps in the future I'll do a before & after on the bathroom. 

Hope you enjoyed that little tour!

The Toadstool

Last Saturday, between the science museum, dinner, and the sauna, we got in a good 15 minutes of thrifting. We rediscovered this little old store on the Oude Gracht (the main canal here in Utrecht) where they sell everything from old furniture and pictures of people long gone, to creepy old toys and dolls, and books. I was after the latter, as I was looking for a pretty book to take apart turn into a journal.

Unfortunately, we got in a bit late, and before I could even get  to the book section of the store (the picture frame section was very distracting), the shop owner politely asked us to get out, stat. Disobedient creature that I am, I ran to the book section on the other end of the basement, grabbed a little linen bound book on mushrooms, paid and left. After all, there goes nothing above a last minute impulse purchase.

© Anna Denise Floor

And once again, I've managed to prove myself an excellent last minute impulse purchase maker, as this little book is a gem. It's an old mushroom guide, from somewhere between 1922 and 1945 (couldn't find this exact copy online, but based on the spelling, I think it's closer to 1945) complete with 128 colored prints of watercolor images of mushrooms (plus a description of whether you should eat it, classified as waardeloos (worthless), (waarschijnlijk) niet giftig (probably) not poisonous), eetbaar (edible), eetbaar en smakelijk (edible and tasty), twijfelachtig (dubious), ongenietbaar (unenjoyable), (zeer) giftig (very) poisonous), etc. 

Also - for you Dutchies out there, the first line of the introduction is pure gold. 

© Anna Denise Floor

Unfortunately this also means I'll have to go back for a different old book to turn into a journal. So sad.