Saturday, June 9, 2012

An Odd Day in L.A.

I was able to convince Dear Handyman to get up really, really early today so that we could go into Los Angeles for an interesting sale. The drive up was uneventful and although we were there early, we were still number 30 & 31 on the sign up sheet.

We did find some absolutely amazing things. I found several favorite items but this child's chair has to be the best. The seat is wood, the legs are thick and the color is a chippy blue. Love it!
My other favorite find is this vintage 1960s era Color Wheel to light up aluminum Christmas trees. I've always been in search of one of these and this one works perfectly and came with the box.



The third favorite find was this all metal and glass bird cage. I love the look of old bird cages.
We found another scale that looks cool.
Lots of chandelier crystals.
A metal key organizer.
Several Christmas items.

Silver spoons with really pretty patterns.
An odd lot of buttons.
And a vintage plastic piggy bank with advertising for an eye doctor. I know this is vintage because the phone number begins with a word instead of an area code {anyone else remember those old phone numbers?}
Because this sale was up in the hills {Los Angeles has a lot of hills} we had to walk downhill for a few blocks back to our car. The streets were very narrow and the houses were probably from the 1940s. This was a neighborhood straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel. But there were a couple of interesting sights along the way.

Where else could you see a California poppy growing in the cracks along a street?
And across the street from where we parked we noticed these stairs linking two streets.
And now for the truly odd part of the day. We decided to have breakfast at one of my favorite restaurants in the Pasadena/San Marino/Alhambra area. This meant that we needed to take the Pasadena Freeway {they now call it a Parkway}. I grew up near here and learned to drive on this freeway. It is the oldest freeway in Los Angeles and was built when cars did not travel very fast so the freeway is very narrow and windy.

Because I know this freeway I knew that it can have many hazards at every turn. Cars enter from a dead stop so you can come around a turn and find a car entering the lane at about 30mph. Or exits might have a speed limit of 15 mph because there is a sudden 90 degree turn and a stop sign several feet after you exit.

So we were on the interchange to get on the Pasadena Freeway and noticed several cars pulled off  and a woman standing on the side talking to people on the other side of the interchange. That was odd but this was the Pasadena Freeway after all.

Then about a quarter of a mile further we saw cars slowing down. Again, this isn't that odd for this freeway. But when we got a little further we saw that there was a motorcycle crashed in the fast lane but there was no rider anywhere. Now THAT seemed odd. This freeway is only three lanes wide so perhaps the rider ran to the side of the freeway but we didn't see anyone there. There was no one laying on the road {thank goodness}. We have no idea if the people further back had anything to do with the motorcycle crash or where the rider might have gone. Just another Raymond Chandler L.A. mystery I guess.

After all of this we finally got to Twohey's in Pasadena/San Marino/Alhambra {not quite sure which city it is in but it is next to all of these.} I've been going to Twohey's {pronounced Two "E"s} for thirty-plus years. It is the best place to eat after a day at the Rosebowl Swapmeet or even a trip into L.A.
So I hope everyone had a great day thrifting. I plan on getting more items in my Stuff to Treasure store. Please be sure and follow my Facebook store page to be notified when new items are listed for sale. Oh so many things to do!

This is linked to:
Apron Thrift Girl, Coastal CharmHer Library Adventures, House of Grace, It's a Very Cherry WorldMod Vintage Life and Very Merry Vintage Style

12 comments:

  1. Fabulous Finds, the little chair is so adorable! Sounds like it was a great sale.

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  2. Lovely finds, and a great story to go along with them! I LOVE vintage x-mas anything! But this key organizer is my favorite I think!
    LA sounds great! :)
    Erica

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  3. Love your finds - especially the chair.
    Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

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  4. Very, VERY beautiful finds this time, Lynda... Love it all! (Especially the squared mercury glass garlands... Very unique!)

    I went to a fleamarket today too. If you go to my blog you can see what I found (It was all "hidden" in the same old suitcase):
    http://lisbetll.blogspot.dk/2012/06/den-gamle-kuffert.html

    Greetings from Denmark...!

    //Lisbet :-)

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  5. The silver spoon designs are just gorgeous. And what an amazing score with all those buttons. x

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  6. I was born in 61 when freeways were something talked about at the dinner table. I remember my first time on one and all us kids had to help my mom MERGE! I still don't like to drive on them myself them and the one you described sounds skeery!

    Yay for the color wheel! I used to think that silver trees and colors wheels were soooo tacky but now I want them! Ha-ha! No one (including myself) can ever figure out my tastes!

    Have a great day! ♥

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  7. You trip definitely paid off.

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  8. You found some fabulous things! I love the bird cage and also remember my mother getting an aluminum tree one year -- I don't think we had the color wheel though! That highway sounds like it would have me in the backseat with a blanket over my head!!

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  9. Oh, you did find a lot of great things! I love the chair and the cage the most! And also , that little poppy!
    Blessings,
    Susie

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  10. I'm in So. Cal. - the Pasadena Freeway gives me the heebie jeebies, so scary! Thanks for the recommendation of Twohey's, we'll look forward to trying it. Hey, that steep walkway looks like Silverlake, love the Poppy growing out of the crack.

    What a lot of great finds! How fun to find one of those color wheel lights - I can remember my best friend having a silver tree when I was little, can't remember if they had the light or not???

    Happy Rednesday!

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  11. Awesome finds. Love the chair and that scale is to die for! Found you from a blog hop and am now a new follower!

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  12. Great finds! They were worth the drive and all the mystery!

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