trash to treasure day.

Published on by Quandie

Last year I shared a post about a local Trash to Treasure Day.  The City of White Bear Lake organizes a Saturday where its residents can put unwanted items at the curb for free.  And crazy people like myself can drive around and just take stuff.

Here’s what I nabbed last year.

the freebies

Here’s how the pair of chairs looked with a new paint job and fresh seat covers.

chairs

Here’s what happened with the radio cabinet shell after Ken added new legs, and I painted it.

Radio cabinet painted in Annie Sloan Duck Egg

I just cleaned up the suitcases with some soap and water and sold them at my Carriage House sale.

vintage yellow luggage

And finally, the sewing machine table with a paint job.

grey table in photo cottage

grey table inside

I debated whether or not to head to White Bear Lake again this year.  Even though I ended up with some fun stuff last year, it’s a lot of driving around randomly.  There are no signs on the street corners letting you know if there are items to be found on that street, so you really have to just cruise every neighborhood.  On the plus side, it’s not far from home for me.  So when the weather forecast called for a dry day (finally!  we’ve had a lot of rain recently), and when my sister said sure, she’d tag along, I decided why not?

Here’s what Debbie and I came home with this year.

trash to treasure

The chairs were our first find, we had driven around for a bit before we came upon them.  I had already passed on an antique dresser that was missing all of its drawers.  I debated taking it and turning it into a bookcase.  I’ve seen that done on pinterest.  But one side was really damaged as well, so in the end I decided not to grab that.

Debbie spotted that fab Cariboo box ahead of me and called dibs on it.

cariboo box

The wooden bucket is her find as well.  If it were mine, I would paint it with some chippy MMS milk paint and put a stencil on it.  She’s going to use it on her balcony as a planter, but I’m not sure if she plans to paint it or anything first.

I’m giving the ‘find of the day’ honors to the vintage typewriter.

wb find of the day

I hardly needed another vintage typewriter, but it was right there free for the taking.  How could I pass it up?

I have no idea what I’m doing with a trio of mid-century typewriters!

typewriter trio

I think there is a good chance you’ll find one or more of these at my fall Carriage House sale!

My trash to treasure day was capped off with the Pink Martini concert at Orchestra Hall on Saturday night.

pink martini

If you’ve always wanted to see people dancing in their seats and not just one, but two conga lines at Orchestra Hall, this was your chance.  It was an awesome show.  If you’ve never heard of Pink Martini, they are very hard to describe.  They are an international group of musicians, and Saturday they sang a couple of songs in French, one in German, one in Japanese, one in Arabic, one in Croatian, one in Spanish and quite a few in English.

Their lead singer told a great story.  She said they’d decided to make a pilgrimage to Paisley Park while they were in town so they hired an Uber car to take them out there.  They were chatting with the driver on the journey and mentioned that they were from Portland and the driver said “oh, I’m going to see a band from Portland tonight, Pink Martini.  Have you heard of them?”

Imagine his surprise when he realized they were in his car!  He was in the audience and gave them a wave.

Yesterday was my sister’s birthday, so we had brunch in the morning followed by a trip up to the Franconia Sculpture Garden.  I’ll be sharing that sometime soon, so stay tuned!

22 thoughts on “trash to treasure day.”

  1. What a great weekend! I love all the treasures you found. Your concert and sister’s birthday celebration sound so fun. I spent one day this week with my sister, too. I’ll be sure and watch to see if Pink Martini comes to Dallas.

    Like

    Reply

  3. My town does the same thing. It’s called big trash day. It’s great, people set out things they don’t want and others pick them up and reuse them. It’s the perfect recycle plan as far as I’m concerned. My daughter picked up an old mirror with a filthy white frame around it that somebody had spray painted a red border on. This thing was ugly. We cleaned it up and painted it with a sort of galvanized metal finish and it’s hanging in her dining room. Not a scratch on the mirror itself. Those typewriters are so cool. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble selling those.

    Like

    Reply

  4. So you also have a typewriter collection. I always find it interesting why certain things appeal to each of us. I so get the box cameras we both collect they remind me of my dad and family vacations. The typewriters what do think pulls you toward those? Just curious not that they aren’t cool.
    Big fan of that style chair you snagged think those are Jacobean. Look forward to seeing their redo. Love the bucket Deb found I’m with you paint it and add a stencil.
    Fun story about the singing group and the Uber driver. Will have to relate that to my son who Uber drives in Charleston.

    Like

    Reply

    1. I really can’t explain the typewriter thing. I mainly enjoy having them to use as props in photos. But I do currently have 3 on display in my home. One is the older black Smith Corona that sits on the dresser near my door. The blue typewriter is in the living room, and currently the cream colored typewriter is on my Kitchen Scale buffet. Somehow I am just drawn to them!

      Like

      Reply

      1. So I went back to look at the faux card catalog piece where you used the Smith Corona to style it. That is over the top awesome as an accessory.
        Even though I have seen you use them to style before the thought to use them as an accessory never even entered my mind. I know duh???
        So the idea of typing in a note or sentence to celebrate the season or a
        birthday, anniversary, etc. would be so fun and clever. I obviously live in a box.

        Like

  5. I have such FOMO when I see trash to treasure days. Love your finds! That Cariboo box! I think the unknown factor is exciting…that’s why I enjoy the hunt for treasures, you never know what will pop up around the next bend.

    Like

    Reply

  6. Trash to Treasure describes what you do perfectly. Some good finds for sure! My favorite is the crate…good eye Deb. The concert was fabulous…once they told you the backstory, it didn’t make much difference what language they were singing it in..the vibe was there. Plus dinner at The Brit in Mpls…nice to get to the big city once every few years!!! Lol

    Like

    Reply

  8. I am drooling over that typewriter!
    Bless you for saving it! It makes me so sad to think about the things that get thrown away………….

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.