Antique Furniture Cart Rant

A couple of years back, I saw a photo of this old cart which was used in an upholstery shop and thought it would make a beautiful coffee table. If my memory serves me correctly, it was constructed out of stainless steel and cast iron. So, after our house fire last year (and the subsequent destruction of my coffee table that I designed and built fourth year) I thought, "How great would it be to have one of those carts!?"


(Pre house fire coffee table.)

It took me months and months of constantly researching online, but alas! I found one! Well, it wasn't like the metal one I had seen but it did have the cast iron wheels and instead was constructed of wood. I found it at Wood Stock Supply, Inc. out of South Dakota, where I had seen an advertisement for their excess inventory, to included their antique lumber carts. I didn't waste any time. I immediately ordered two! One of which we are using as a coffee table, and the other of which I plan to hang on the wall above the stairwell.


(Not the greatest photo in the world, but you get the idea.)

Interestingly, just last month I received a catalog from Pottery Barn with this shitteous interpretation of a "salvaged dolly". The resemblance is almost offensive, but hey, I guess you have to get your inspiration from somewhere!


(Wheel Coffee Table by Pottery Barn, $699.00.)

More disturbing than the similarities is how this table sells for seven hundred dollars! Seriously? I bought two antique carts and had them shipped from South Dakota for under three hundred!

So if that wasn't bad enough, last week I received an e-mail from a friend of mine who lives in Kansas City inquiring about my coffee table. As I was responding to her, letting her know who to contact if she wanted one, my "new mail notification" pops up with an e-mail from her with the following link: Furniture Factory Cart. I checked it out and I noticed two things right away.

One - this cart is EXACTLY like the one in my living room.
Two - this cart has a price tag of $910!!!



The amazing thing about this is that Restoration Hardware is selling ANTIQUE carts that have been "restored by a Northern California craftsman". Oh! Now I understand why I would pay 9 times it's value! Don't get me wrong...by no means do I think I'm the first person in history to want to use a lumber cart as an occasional table, but I just find it funny that after a good hundred years, all of the sudden this style is being perceived as "trendy".

Well, it's getting late, so I'll wrap things up. Hats off to Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn for raking their customers over the coals. In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the carts I bought from Wood Stock Supply, Inc. and hope that interested parties will look to them for their purchase as a means of saving money and supporting ma and pa shops!

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future

I met a couple of friends at Kaldi's Coffeehouse this past Saturday morning before heading over to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum to check out their current exhibit of Eero Saarinen. At Kaldi's I ordered a soy mocha no whip - pretty standard; pretty tasty, and Brian ordered a quiche, hoping it would be a small serving but ending up with a plate full of potatoes, quiche and salad!

After consuming an adequate amount of caffeine, we left the coffee house and made our way over to Wash. U. I had not yet been to "The Milly" (which was designed by Fumihiko Maki, for all you design-heads out there) so the purpose of my trip was twofold.

The building itself was..................nice.
Actually, I quite liked it.

Even against the rain laden sky, the stark exterior felt somehow inviting. I'm a take-it or leave-it kind of modernist but for some reason, with this particular structure, I was on-board. I'm sure many architects and designers would disagree with me, but I kinda liked the innocent nakedness of the museum against the collegiate Gothic structures of the background.

As for the actual exhibit itself which we were there to see, it could have been designed a lot better. Oh well, who cares; the content more than made up for the poorly arranged, arbitrary layout of the space.

Eero was a total stud. Period.



The exhibit, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future had letters written to and from Eero, paintings of Eero as a little boy, sketches on trace, furniture that he had designed and tons of photographs.

I am such a visual person...I look at the captions written about the different pieces, but get bored after reading about 6 words. On the contrary, I could stare at a chair or a floor plan for hours.

Unfortunately the small gallery showcasing Eero's drawings for the St. Louis Arch was closed for maintenance. And still a bigger disappointment was how we were about 2 weeks too late to see "On the Riverfront: St. Louis and the Gateway Arch" at Steinberg Hall (just across from The Milly). I had really wanted to see this show, as my great great uncle, Louis La Beaume, had been a juror for the competition entries of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. He had also submitted a proposal, and I was hoping to see what his thoughts were for the "arch" grounds.

Anywho, Saarinen's work was quite inspirational to me as a student and it felt good to be in the presence of his masterpieces. I sometimes forget how passionate I am about design, and I often wish that I had more opportunities and/or time to really sit down and put the pencil to the trace. My mind is chock-full of ideas that I am keeping locked-up in captivity and I think it's about time to unleash the beast, dang-it!

NAM

Not VietNAM...North American Martyrs. My grade school and my family's parish.

Facebook can be a funny thing. For instance, yesterday I received two new friend requests; one was from a valid friend, the other...well, I'm not gonna go there. But I think it's nice to reconnect with old friends and Facebook does make it convenient to keep up with everything that's going on now.

Last night, something told me to look up North American Marytrs on Facebook. I don't know why, but boy am I glad I did! Within seconds I had found a NAM group with discussion boards and photos and was pummeled with memories!

I instantly recognized the names of many alumni, and literally went into hysterics when I saw this picture in the photo album:



Yeah, that's a storm drain. And I spent the better half of my childhood in, on and around it! It looks exactly as I remember it, with the exception of the statue of the Virgin Mary which used to sit proudly on the back of it.

Fun times. Haha!

Four and a Half Years of Hixey Romance

I was just perusing through old folders on my laptop when I came across some funny pictures of Josh and I from when we first met. I thought about how different we were then and of how far we've come.

This photo was taken on one of our first dates to Seamus McDaniels. We had each been long-time believers of their burgers and felt it would be a great place to start off our relationship. Oddly enough we ended up moving to Dogtown about a year later.


October 23, 2004

This photo was taken a couple of months ago at my office's Christmas Party. We've been married for a year and half now and have grown significantly not only as a couple, but as individuals. We're definitely still as silly, but I'd say we have a much more profound outlook on life.


December 7, 2008

To me it look like a leprechaun to me...

"Who else seen the leprechaun say 'yeah'..."
Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig!!!

As it Stands Today

Our yard is a hot mess! Between the fire, torrential rains, trucks driving on the lawn and the jack-hammering and repouring of our porch, walk and driveway our yard looks like a historic marker along the Oregon Trail.

Today we started work on the front yard. There was still a lot of construction debris and broken glass along the front of our house, but we raked out as much as we could and threw it in the trash. We also cleaned up the two flower beds (a bit) and raked up 7 lawn-bags of dead grass and leaves. Our yard still needs a LOT of attention, but it's a start.

Pre Saint Paddy's Day Parade

Josh and I met up with his parents this morning and drove downtown for the 40th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Louis. We parked in my building and walked two blocks South to Kiener Plaza. We had a pretty good spot from which to watch the parade, but the parade was spaced out more than usual and didn't seem as exciting as in past years. Regardless, we had a great time and even saw Josh's friend Paul (who rode his bike downtown from south city).



We spotted a few guys that we recognized in the parade. Warren, a firefighter friend of Josh and Paul; as well as some kids from Josh's Gaelic Football team, who represented the St. Louis Hurling Club.

Once the parade was nearing the end, we decided to beat the crowd and hit the road. We tried to hit up Crown Candy Kitchen for lunch but they were packed as usual. Instead, we went over to Chuck-A-Burger on the Rock Road. This was Carol and Darrel's first visit to the landmark, so we treated them to lunch for their anniversary (which is this Monday, the 16th).