About a month ago, on a drive home from a Saturday morning shopping trip to Rutherford, I noticed a new 'opening soon' store in Neath (a tiny 'town' on the road from Maitland to Cessnock).
The name rang bells for me 'Vintage In The Valley', I LOVELOVELOVE vintage, when we were house hunting 3 years ago, Mr Mel was convinced he wanted a new build, and somehow we ended up with a Federation beauty built in 1908 (very happy Mel) :).
I've always loved vintage, when I moved out of home all I wanted was some of my Nan's overrun of pots & pans, instead of the brand new set of shiny pots my family bought me.
Don't get me wrong, I was very grateful for the generosity, but the 1 saucepan I took with me from Nan, her 'gravy pot', was and is, some 20 years later, my pride & joy. It's dented and old looking, but I use it almost daily for cooking.
When I wanted some canisters for the pantry, I went to the Salvo's and found some anodised gems, my Mum & Aunt were horrified that I liked 'all that old stuff'. And every time I moved (which was fairly often, 18 moves in first 16 years out of home!), they'd ask me I had got rid of 'all that old rubbish'. To which I would always reply, I don't own any rubbish thank you :)
So anyway, back to the point of my post!
On Friday, driving home from our 31 week ultrasound (all good, yay), I noticed that the 'coming soon' sign had changed to 'now open'.
Mr Mel didn't really understand my excited squeal, but agreed to come for a look on the weekend.
So on Sunday morning as soon as Mr Mel had finished his work, I excitedly said 'C'mon let's go hunting', he rolled his eyes and headed to the car.
On the way he said 'you know these places are never cheap', to which I replied 'oh bah humbug, let's just see what they've got, you never know, we're not in Sydney'.
We walked in and sitting on a table near the entrance was this beauty.
For me it was love at first sight, I have had it in my mind since we bought our home in mid 2009 that I would love to have a pendant light hanging over the dining table, to help separate it from the open living/dining area.
Mr Mel's reaction to my delight and sqeal of 'look look', was 'I don't see it'. I must have looked at him like he was speaking martian, as he laughed and said it again 'I don't see it'.
I replied 'how can you not see it, it's gorgeous, it's perfect for over the dining table, gimme your mobile'.
I took the photo, thinking that I'd have a think about it, and imagine it over the dining table, work on Mr Mel for the next week, then go back and get it.
On the way out I realised I didn't know the price, I asked the lady as I couldn't see a tag. She found the tag and said 'Oh it's $35', I had to bite my tongue, $35, holy moley.
Mr Mel & I went for a quick bite for lunch, down the road a bit, and I said '$35 is a steal, even if we get it home and hate it I think I could get $50+ for it on Ebay (
my recent Ebay exploits!).
That seemed to tip Mr Mel to my way of thinking, we drove back to Vintage In The Valley, and I picked up the piece of gorgeousness, handing over $35.
Next weekend I'm going to head to a local renovation store and see what sort of roses they have to use on the ceiling (we have fancy ceilings and cornices), and change the white cord to something more suitable, plus get a lightbulb for it.
I'm not sure what she's made of yet, it's very light weight, shall do some investigating, it has a pattern of the inside of pearl shell, but not sure, yet!
The next dilemma is how/where we hang it, directly over the dining table is a steel beam covered in plaster board (from a renovation to extend the living area, before we bought). But I'll let Mr Mel worry about that, I'm happy to look at my precious green lovely anywhere she sits.
I shall post more pics once she finds her new home :)
Till next time,
